This post contains spoilers about the book. If you plan to read it (the book), DO NOT CONTINUE reading (this post). :)
I just read the book Never Stand Up, Nike's birth story told by co-founder Phil Knight. To start with, the translation can be improved. Especially the title. The original is called Shoe Dog, which better reflects the spirit of the book. It is difficult for me to understand how they have arrived at such a free and unfocused translation. Someone enlightened in some marketing department who probably hasn't read it to you.
Never stop is the story of Nike novel by one of its founders: Phil Knight. The story covers everything from the crazy idea of a 20-year-old to the IPO in December 1980. My feeling is that I needed to tell, share, explain the most intense experience of his life that is the creation of Nike. It is not a book of management in use, but from which many lessons can be learned from the process of creating and managing companies: My reflections after reading:
Creating a business is a high-risk activity, but it makes sense for a lifetime.
It's an emotional roller coaster ride. Knight recounts the many vicissitudes he had to go through during the creation stage of Nike: economic problems, unfair employees, distribution contracts that are not respected, supply problems that prevent satisfying demand, dirty play by competitors, problems with the American government, etc. A race full of obstacles that never end. It seems impossible to have three months of peace of mind in a row. It's anything but easy. So if you are going to start the adventure of creating your own company, keep in mind that it is exhausting, exhausting but very rewarding.
Every day there were fifty new problems, fifty difficult decisions that had to be made right there, and we were always well aware that a false step, a bad determination, could mean the end.
It's not for everyone, even if now it seems that if you're not an entrepreneur, you're not a successful person.
What about those who encourage entrepreneurs never to give up? Charlatans. Sometimes you have to give up. Sometimes you have to know when to do it and try something else, that's genius. Giving up doesn't mean stopping. Never stop."
Personal and professional balance when trying to create a company like Nike is simply not possible
Knight comments on some aspects of his personal life but without going into detail as he does with his company. Personal life in this book is a collateral for understanding context. Creating a company is absorbing from all points of view, mainly mental and time. In Knight's case he had to travel constantly to Japan where he started manufacturing and then to the rest of the USA and the world. So it is impossible that personal life and the relationship of a couple do not suffer. Today technology helps us "stretch time" and allows us to be in two places at once, but mentally you're still focused on growing your "baby. It is a choice with many pros and cons.
Passion for the product
Knight and his partner Bill Bowerman were obsessed with sports and especially athletics. Bowerman was one of the greatest track and field coaches of all time. A legend with many Olympic medallist pupils. For Bowerman, sports equipment was critical to the success of his athletes. And slippers the key element. He was always experimenting to improve the shoes available on the market. I was devising solutions to improve the grip on the ground, make them lighter, whatever it took to get a tenth of a second off the clock. It was what is now called a hacker. He wore slippers and tested them with his runners. And not always successfully. He invented the groft-shaped sole. An innovation that is still valid and improved the grip on the new material with which the athletics tracks began to be manufactured (rubber and rubber) at the end of the sixties. A real revolution.
