Phil Knight's inspirational memoir titled, SHOE DOG, shows us that if you believe in your ideas and surround yourself with #passionate believers, stay true to your values, pride yourself with integrity and think outside the box, you can accomplish anything you can #Dream.
Funny story when Phil Knight first traveled to Japan, in the hopes of importing Onisuko's Tiger brand shoes to the US, an idea he came up with at Stanford, Onitsuka's CEO asked him the name of his company. Phil was unprepared and blurted out, "NIKE!"
---No just kidding. He actually said "Blue Ribbon." This was Phil's original shoe company name.
The name Nike actually came later in a dream to the company's first employee Jeff Johnson. Phil loved it because when he was in Greece, he would go to the Temple of Nike, Goddess of #Victory. Ironically, the warrior gifted the king a new pair shoes in the Temple of Nike in Greek playwright Aristophanes' "The Knights."
Onitsuko sent Phil 300 pairs of shoes which took Phil a few months to sell out of the trunk of his car! Phil went on to build one of the most successful companies the world has ever seen. How?
Well he didn't always know what winning meant to him but he always knew he didn't want to loose. So he ran his company by the motto, "GROW OR DIE," always reinvesting #profits back into the company.
Phil brought on team members who were passionate about the company's #vision and he followed General Patton's advise: "Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results." To that effect, the company's held team-building weekend retreats called "Buttfaces", where everyone got to yell at each other before getting drunk.
My business professor once told me, "the fastest way to sucess is to find success in others and duplicate it." Nike attributes attributes their success to steadfast #integrity and staying true to their #values.
Integrity & Values: JUST DO IT! ✔