Book 193 - A Year of Magical Learning (2 of 2)

Reflection Title: Become A Professor of the Jungle!

Book – Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (Part 2 of 2)

Book Description: Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.

Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.

Reflection:

Passage from Shoe Dog –

The year was 1997. Still haunted by the Vietnam War, Knight had vowed that someday Nike would have a factory in or near Saigon. By 1997, he had four. He was in Saigon. The company was to be honored and celebrated by the Vietnamese government as one of the nation’s top five generators of foreign currency. At one point, his hosts graciously asked what they could do for him, what would make the trip special and memorable.

“I’d like to meet the 86-year-old General Võ Nguyen Giáp, the man who singlehandedly defeated the Japanese, the French, the Americans and the Chinese", Knight replied.

General Giáp joined the group the next day and waited for Knight to ask a question.

It was simple: “How did you do it?” The corners of Giáp’s mouth flickered. A smile? Maybe?, Knight recalled. Giáp thought and thought. “I was,” he said, “a professor of the jungle.”

Become a Professor of the Jungle!

It is hard to say so much in so few words, but that is in essence what life is all about. We all should strive to become professors of whatever jungle we inhabit. If you aren’t, what the hell else are you doing with your time?

The jungle is infinitely complex and if you enter it without a purpose and or understanding of the ecosystem than you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of pain, struggle, and unfulfillment.

However, if you enter the jungle with clarity of who you are, what you want to do in the jungle, and a respect / humility for the infinite complexity of all the other inhabits…you just might have a chance to add to the magic and do something special with your time in this world.

How do we do this? Phil Knight said it best, Study and Work!

Use what we learned from The Biggest Bluff and live life with the mindset of less certainty, more inquiry in all you do. Take a page from Charles Darwin and shut up and listen to the world around you, you will be amazed at what you discover.

Study all the other creatures, people, animals, plants, and all things seen and unseen that make up this world. See how they interact, what universal laws govern us all. We don’t exist in this world by ourselves, you will have to find a way to co-exist in harmony with all of God’s creations.

Most importantly, study yourself.

Before you can become a professor of the jungle, you must first become a professor of yourself. If you have any hopes of surviving in the complex jungle that is this world, you can’t enter it without knowing exactly who you are, what is important to you, and what purpose you hope to bring the rest of the jungle.

Once you have all of that, it is time to get to work. Walk your purpose straight into that jungle with humility and have patience to see what happens next!

Learn, Act, Reflect, Share, Grow…Repeat! This is how we survive in the jungle of life and what makes life so damn fun.

Question: What steps are you taking to become a professor of whatever jungle you inhabit?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator of Nike by Phil Knight