Whether it be deliberate self-deprecation, Knight’s weaknesses are open, clear and common throughout the story. There is openness, and then there is a Knight level of almost self-flagellation. I wonder how many of us are more driven by the fear of failure as opposed to the drive for success.
Knight pragmatically recalls, ‘I wanted to leave a mark on the world. Knight’s ambition for what becomes Nike seems driven not by what we nowadays expect through a grand vision but more from his love of tweaking better running shoes and, more intriguingly, a ‘now I’ve started, I better finish this’ attitude.
Competitiveness having serious weaknesses and cashflow. Refreshingly, Knight’s extreme personal openness reveals several intriguing and rarely mentioned business themes in today’s politically (small ‘p’) sensitive market. This frames his genuine passion for athletic shoes. A very good although not exceptional runner. Sadly, fate had made me good, not great.’ Knight was indeed a runner. But the ultimate dream was always to be a great athlete. And the weak died along the way – that leaves us.’ But then Knight quickly brings us back to basics, a level at which the books remains ‘At different times I’d fantasised about becoming a great novelist, a great journalist, a great statesman. Knight kicks us off with an inspirational quote from one of his professors talking about the discovery of his home state and location of the ultimate Nike HQ, Oregon, USA. It’s about how important the core ingredients are, those of being obsessed with one’s product and market, having the resilience to just keep going, listening to others and being hungry enough to go that extra mile. ‘Shoe Dog’ is not about how to grow a company, it’s more fundamental than that. For me, it ranks up there with ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz () in the ‘tell it from the heart’ business book category. If you’re looking for strategic and analytical insights into how Nike became the greatest ever sport apparel company, read no further. But ‘Shoe Dog’ not only sounds better, it is the first, subtle indication that this is not the book you’re expecting. It should really be called ‘The Founding of Nike’ or something grandiose like that.
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