Phil Knight gives readers an inside look into his journey with Nike! He gets vulnerable in his story telling ability and displays what it takes to go from nothing to something! I recommend this book for anyone who feels as if their dream is too big; this book will give you a renewed motivation to shoot for the stars. You will never know how something will turn out if you don’t pursue it.
NOTES
Theme:Keep RunningAt various times, Knight would go for a run. He would run when things were good and bad. This simple act taught me that no matter what is going on good or bad….keep running. Progression is key to life. Knight took readers through his personal development from timid to assertive. He looked at every win and loss as a lesson learned.
FAVORITE HIGHLIGHTS
So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy…just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
The junk merchant doesn’t sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product.
You cannot travel the path until you have become the path yourself.
You are capable. You are confident. You can do this.
Driving back to Portland I’d puzzle over my sudden success at selling. I’d been unable to sell encyclopedias, and I’d despised it to boot. I’d been slightly better at selling mutual funds, but I’d felt dead inside. So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn’t selling. I believed in running. I believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and I believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief is irresistible.
To study the self is to forget the self.
People reflexively assume that competition is always a good thing, that it always brings out the best in people, but that’s only true of people who can forget the competition. The are of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past. You must forget that internal voice screaming, begging, “Not one more step!” And when it’s not possible to forget it, you must negotiate with it.
Life is growth. Business is growth. You grow or die.
Change never comes as fast as we want it.
Sometimes you have to give up. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t stop.
Have faith in yourself, but also have faith in faith. Not faith as others define it. Faith as you define it. Faith as faith defines itself in your heart.
HAIRSTON HUSTLE 