Shoe Dog
Phil Knight, 386 pages
Enjoyed this memoir more than I thought I would. Super easy read, and I now have a new appreciation for Nike’s story. The pages clicked by without a lot of outsized drama, although Knight built an undercurrent of tension with an onslaught of challenges that continuously threatened the livelihood of the business. I have a difficult choice whether to slot this in my non-fiction/autobio category or as a business book. It was definitely both. However, the business lessons were essentially: keep grinding, keep growing, be honest. The only knock on the book is that Knight took you through the history step-by-step up until Nike went public in 1980, then he jumped to 2007, skipping what would have been fascinating milestones: the rise of Jordan, Air Jordans, Kobe, Tiger, the Just Do It campaign, etc. He merely referenced these events in broad strokes as the book quickly came to a close. A curious move and one I wish he hadn’t made.

