I wanted to experience what the Chinese call Tao, the Greeks call Logos, the Hindus call Jñāna, the Buddhists call Dharma. They greeted my passion and intensity with labored sighs and vacant stares.īut what I really craved was connection with a capital C. Finally, as required, I’d given a formal presentation of the paper to my classmates, who reacted with formal boredom. I’d moved into the library, devoured everything I could find about importing and exporting, about starting a company. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . That might sound a little high-flown, a little crazy. It looked like a person, or some life force that existed long before I did, separate from me, but also part of me. Drenched in sweat, moving as gracefully and effortlessly as I ever had, I saw my Crazy Idea shining up ahead, and it didn’t look all that crazy. Maybe, I thought, just maybe, I need to take one more look at my Crazy Idea. As my young heart began to thump, as my pink lungs expanded like the wings of a bird, as the trees turned to greenish blurs, I saw it all before me, exactly what I wanted my life to be.

“The cowards never started,” he’d tell me, “and the weak died along the way-that leaves us.”Īnd then it happened. The best teacher I ever had, one of the finest men I ever knew, spoke of that trail often. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. This story describes in detail how many times Nike was close to failing, seemingly flying into headwinds for much of its early life. Inspired by popular Japanese shoes, Phil Knight worked with Bill Bowerman to develop a shoe for the American runner. Throughout this memoir, Phil pours his soul out and it’s clear he is at the front of the pack flying as hard as he can. It’s the ones in front that do most of the work, and take on the greatest risk.

When geese fly in formation, the ones in back only need to work at 80% of the effort.

Phil knight book