Shoe Dog- Phil Knight
1) The thing that surprised me the most was that Phil's father actually gave him his blessing and some cash for him to travel the world at the age of 24. At this time, the United States was not on good terms with Japan and this was one of the places that Phil wanted to visit on his trip. I thought that his father would have highly disapproved this trip so far away from home to a place that could be extremely dangerous to Phil. Also, aside from his father, the majority of individuals in his inner circle highly disapproved of Phil going on this worldwide adventure. His father mentioned that he wished he had traveled more when he was younger, so it seems that he wanted his son to experience something that he did not get a chance to experience. I can imagine that this was a very tough decision for his father to make, however, he decided to allow his son to do what he thought was best for him and allowed him to have experiences of his own. The thing that I most admired about Mr. Knight was that he referred to his idea as a "crazy idea" and he knew that everyone else thought his idea was crazy and unattainable but this didn't stop him from pursuing it. He used all of the rejection that he experienced throughout his life as fuel to create something extraordinary. He knew that he didn't want to take the simple and easy path that everyone else took, he wanted to have an impact on the world and do something remarkable. He wanted to be someone different, someone who would leave their mark on the world. I truly admired this about Mr. Knight. I did not admire Mr. Knight negotiation skills. However, I do understand that this is one set of traits that can be extremely difficult to become proficient in. Negotiation skills is definitely a skill set that I need to improve and work on. Mr. Knight did encounter much adversity and failure throughout his life. One stretch of adversity that he endured was his sense of loneliness throughout his trip. He was far, far away from home and did not have many people to call friends or family. Being isolated for a significant amount of time can take a toll on your mental health. This was something that very difficult for Mr. Knight to deal with during the early stages of his journey.
2) One competency that Mr. Knight exhibited was the ability to think outside of the box. Every time someone brought him an idea or he thought of an idea, he wanted to it be something that no one else has thought of. He wanted his ideas to be significantly different than others. He wanted his ideas to be able to impact the entire world. Another competency that Mr. Knight exhibited was resiliency. His journey came with many failures, but he still found a way to overcome those failures and keep pushing. The majority of people laughed in his face when he described his idea to them. He didn't have many supporters when he decided to venture around the world. He didn't have anyone right next to him when times started getting hard. He still managed to persevere and find a way to push through.
3) One part of the reading that was one confusing to me was that when Mr. Knight began his journey, his friend Carter embarked on the journey with him. However, I am not sure what happened to Carter after this. I would think that he stayed on the journey with Mr. Knight, but I am not sure.
4) Question 1: What are the primary traits which made you different from everyone else? What skills ultimately guided your journey and success? - I would ask this question because I would want to know what traits does Mr. Knight value the most and which influenced his success.
Question 2: What advice would you give to those who want to achieve goals that seem unachievable? I would ask this question because sometimes your dreams may seem like such a reach that you don't ever go after them, however anything is possible.
5) I think Mr. Knight's opinion of hard work would be believing in yourself and finding a way even when no one else believes in you. Yes, I do share same this same thought process. I think self-confidence is an extremely important tool to have for anything you do in life. You have to believe in yourself before anyone else will believe in you.
Being able to think outside the box is certainly a wonderful competency to have. As you stated, Mr. Knight continuously exhibited this ability. When you think outside the box and propose ideas that are revolutionary to others, you are certain to face failure time and time again.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason, it is equally important to possess the quality of resiliency. Mr. Knight's resiliency paid off and he eventually achieved success. Large-scale success rarely comes without failure. That is why its so important to learn from failure.
Good Work!
Prince,
ReplyDeletePhil Knight is a very interesting figure to read about in the entrepreneurial world. I find it interesting that his father believed in him when he wanted to travel the world to start his business. Phil Knight even found his own idea "crazy" when proposing it to others, but I think that's an important mentality when you are aiming to achieve the amount of success that he has had.