A friend of mine who also enjoys self-improvement books recommended Shoe Dog, the memoir of Phil Knight, the founder of NIKE. A few days ago I finally finished it.

Phil Knight gives his account of accomplishing his entrepreneurial dream. His journey is full of important life lessons. Many young adults nowadays can identify with the need to do something meaningful, to not be part of the system working at a traditional office job. Knight shows us that the path is not easy, it’s full of challenges. With every chapter I was expecting things to get easier, but on the contrary, the problems kept getting bigger and bigger. The path of the entrepreneur seems like an endless journey of one challenge after another.

I finally realised that the road to success never gets easier. It’s us who need to adapt if we want to succeed. That is my biggest takeaway from this book. I very much enjoyed reading this and I highly recommend this book.

To close off, I have some quotes from the book:

The hell’s a swoosh?
The answer flew out of me: It’s the sound of someone going past you.

I hear someone behind us whisper, “Hey, look, Buffett and Gates—who’s that other guy?”
I smile. As it should be.
In my head I can’t help doing some quick math. At the moment I’m worth $10 billion, and each of these men is worth five or six times more. Lead me from the unreal to the real.

I said simply: “How did you do it?”
I thought I saw the corners of his mouth flicker. A smile? Maybe?
He thought. And thought. “I was,” he said, “a professor of the jungle.”

Mr. Hayami nodded. “See those bamboo trees up there?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Next year . . . when you come . . . they will be one foot higher.”
I stared. I understood.

Rating 5/5

Shoe Dog on Goodreads

Shoe Dog on Amazon