13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

Book I read: Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

1) Phil Knight- Entrepreneur
What surprised you the most?
   -That Phil Knight started selling his first shoes at track meets from the trunk of his car.
What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
   -His determination and drive to succeed. He identified a problem within his own life and put relentless effort into making it a success in society for running shoes.
What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
   -The way he managed his company, by telling people what to do without any instruction so they would have to figure it all out themselves. He stated that he liked to be surprised by the results from his workers.
Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
   -He encountered adversity with the company he started working at which was Onitsuka a Japanese shoe company. There were issues with distribution rights and how fast the shipments were coming through. These issues resulted in him leaving Onitsuka and leading to the creation of Nike.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
   -The competencies I noticed that Knight exhibited was early success with his shoe brand. Right out of the gates, his shoe brand became a major hit which led him into expanding further. Within his first year he started with sales of $8000. The next year profits were more than double which shows the significant growth in the company. This comes from the reputation of quality shoes and a unique brand.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
  -There was one part of the reading that was confusing to me and it was when legal issues were talked about with Nike. The book stated that there was a $25 million dollar fine on Nike from US Customs resulted from rival shoe companies. I was confused with the real reason why as it did not really make much sense to me when reading the book. I would get it if they violated copyrights or trademarks with their shoes but the book did not really explain why the fine was issued in the best way.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
   -How hard of a decision was it deciding to leave Onitsuka with just  the hopes of creating a successful brand?
   -If you could go back and start over knowing what you know today, would you change anything?
I would ask these questions because it would create a response to starting up a business or the beginning challenges that come with it. Since Nike has had so much success, I would be interested to see if he would change anything if he could start over. He had a steady job and took a leap of faith with Nike so that would be interesting to ask about as well.

5) What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
   -I think Knight's opinion of hard work consists of the ability to work hard with a lot of determination. Even if it is a long shot, I believe that Knight stands by if you want it enough and work hard there will be success. With Nike, he put a tremendous amount of hard work in due to his determination to succeed and create something he believes in. I do not necessarily share the same opinion, I think it is true but the product you are selling needs to be better than just determination. There are a lot of entrepreneurs that have determination but no success due to their brand or product just not being goof enough.