Assignment 13A

Reflection on Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

1a. The thing that surprised me the most about this book was that Phil Knight’s company, Nike, had many struggles along the way to becoming the renowned empire that it is today. For many years, Knight struggled immensely with financing his company. 

1b. What I admire most about Knight is his perseverance. No matter how difficult the challenges that he faced, he seemed to always believe in himself and his company. This allowed him to surpass great challenges that seemed impossible to defeat.

1c. I least admired how Knight treated his family. Although he did seem to love them, at times he ignored important family matters when obsessing over his company.

2. A few competencies that Phil Knight had were his knowledge of running, his connection to his track coach at Oregon, and his perseverance. Each of these greatly benefitted him when starting Nike and allowed him to break from Onitsuka Tiger, the company he was originally partnering with. 

3. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the relationships that Knight had with managers working for Onituska Tiger. These managers sometimes helped Knight out, and then they betrayed him. Knight did not make this clear why this happened, so this made the story a bit confusing.

4. I would ask him how he was able to believe in himself despite the overwhelming challenges that he faced. I would also ask him what he would pursue today if he was my age. I would ask him these questions because I feel like the answers would help me in my own life. 

5. I think Knight's definition of hard work was relentlessly pursuing opportunities in the face of hardship. I would agree with this definition because it seems to encapsulate what hard work really seems like to me: doing the stuff that you don’t want to do and doing it without stopping.