Who are they - people who have achieved tremendous success in life, whose portraits are printed by the most expensive magazines, who are interviewed by journalists in an attempt to find out the history of such a take-off? One such person is Philip Hammond Knight, co-founder of Nike.
Not only is he successful in his business - in 2015, he was not the last in the TOP-20 of the richest people on the planet. In the home state of Oregon, he has long been in first place in wealth.
Biography
Phil Knight was born in Portland in 1938. His parents were very different people: a powerful father and a silent mother. Lota Hatfield, who married William Knight, a young lawyer, was very beautiful - she showed dresses in the store. After the wedding, they had a son, Philip, and two daughters.
Phil was a good student at school, but he was expelled from the baseball team. Then mother advised him to go running.
And when, after school, he entered the University of Oregon to receive the education of a journalist, he became part of the student athletics team. And what is the irony of fate - it was on it that the coach tested new shoes for athletes, endlessly upgrading it. It was here that Phil learned the first lesson of success, which sounded something like this: forget about the limit of your possibilities.
After university, the young journalist went to the army for 12 months, and then again became a student - he entered the Stanford Business School. Here he received his second lesson in success: if you really want something, then you will succeed.
At one of the seminars, students were given the task to come up with a business - small but profitable. Then Phil remembered about testing sports shoes in the athletics team and decided to devote his project to sneakers. During the development of the business plan, he realized that he really wanted to do this business.
After business school, Knight decided to put his project into practice, since he believed in its viability. He had to overcome a lot of difficulties, but the will to win, which he cultivated in himself as a runner, defeated all fears, doubts and negative opinions of others.
Yes, everyone said that he had a crazy idea, but he was used to overcoming obstacles and understood that without the growth of life does not exist. This was his next lesson, and not the last.
And then Phil went around the world to see how people live in other countries and what kind of sneakers they have. During the trip, he made a profitable deal with one of the Japanese companies, almost a hoax.
Shoe salesman career
Then he and his former trainer start a joint business, organizing the company Blue Ribbon Sports. They sell sneakers twice as expensive as they buy in Japan, and business is on the rise. It is noteworthy that Phil made his first sales out of the trunk of a car.
Then the business grew stronger, the Japanese learned about it, and decided to buy out the company. It was a difficult period, but at the same time it made it possible to start its production. So the company Nike, named after the goddess Niki, appeared. And the logo of the famous sneakers is its stylized wing.
After that, the company had ups and downs, but Nike overcame everything only because those who worked there loved their job.
In 2004, Knight resigned as executive director, and in 2016 left the company - went on a well-deserved rest.
