Shoe Dog
Phil Knight's memoir of building Nike from shoes sold out of a car trunk to a global brand
Nike co-founder Phil Knight's 2016 memoir covers the company's first two decades, from selling Japanese running shoes out of a car at track meets to the 1980 public offering. Knight is candid about how close the business came to collapse, year after year, and about the bankers, partners and lawsuits that nearly ended it. Founders like it because it shows how much of building a company is stamina and nerve rather than strategy.
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Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Warren BuffettRecommends
Investor · Berkshire Hathaway chairman
The best book he read in 2016, according to that year's shareholder letter. In it he describes Phil Knight as a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow. Also a gifted storyteller.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway: 2016 Chairman's Letter
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