Reading Reflection No. 3

by Josh Korthuis

Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

What surprised you the most? 

What surprised me how is fast the sales grew for Nike because not once in its start up did they sales ever drop or did Phil Knight ever face adversity in selling his shoes. There sales seemed to double each year which is uncommon when starting a business. 

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

What I admired is that Phil Knight was so confident in his product that out of college he journeyed to Japan to meet with manufacturers to sell his shoes even though he had no money and no work professional work experience. 

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I did not admire how Phil Knight agreed to a 51-49 split with his track coach when staring the company. I think Phil put in way more effort then his coach so he should have at-least taken a 60-40 approach to the companies ownership and Im sure his coach would have been fine with that. 

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

The adversity Phil faced was  when he wanted exclusive rights to the shoes he was selling so he lied to the Japanese manufacturers saying he had a store on the east coast so he could get 3 years of rights. This meant he had to ship shoes to a store he didn't have and open it quickly. He managed to do it, but it was a very risky move by Phil. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Phil never wanted to slow down and be okay with where his company was at. He showed great courage in always taking out more loans to grow his company to the powerhouse it is today and that is what made him successful. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

It was confusing to me how he had agreed to pay $50 for a shoe sample to be sent to the USA but somehow he  wasn't worried when the shoes didn't show up for a whole year. I personally would be worried if it took a month because it doesn't make sense for it to take that long. I don't understand how he could trust them even once he received the shoes because what if he wants a hug shipment and it takes another year to get it. 

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

How did you find the courage to believe in your product even enough to go to japan even when you didn't have a prototype?

How did you know when it was time to fully commit to Nike and stop working as a teacher?

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I believe Phil was all about hard work and he even said Luck might be better then hard work, but you will experience better luck the harder you work. This shows he thinks working hard is the root to all success even for those who come across success in a lucky way.