13A- Reading Reflection

13A- Reading Reflection

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?
• What surprised me initially was that this was an autobiography about the creator of Nike. I picked this book because I did not recognize the author’s name and the title is still kind of ambiguous. I began reading and realized it was about Nike and it shocked me because until then I had no idea who Phil Knight was.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I admired that he pressed that, if you are young and you have the time to do something, do it. There is no time like when you are young, and you have the opportunities you might not have when you are older with the gained responsibilities of life.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• I think Knight did not talk about all the hardship that he faced. Yes, it seems like a lot did just fall into place for him but there has to be some more things that made it hard for the company initially or in the later years once it was established. He makes it seem like this movie where everything works out which I think can put the wrong mindset in someone who is reading the book.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
• He did face adversity in getting funding by banks. The banks said that they did not have a enough assets to be secure which annoyed Knight because of course he wasn’t like Ford and other huge companies, he was just starting out and Venture Capital was practically nonexistent. They also struggled with getting their imports in on time, but Knight was not put down by these banks and planned ahead and made secure moves to push the company forward.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

                I believe that Knight was adventurous. The fact that after college he traveled the world is amazing and brave. He was able to visit Japan and that is where he found what inspired him. If he never traveled the world and took that brave step to do something that some people would look down on as “lazy for not starting your career right away” he would never be where he is today because he would never had been able to make the call to the CEO, Mr. Onitsuka.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

                I was a little confused when he talked about the first part of when Nike arose with the international trade and the complexities of getting the product places and the laws, taxes, and exchange rates but I think for the most part I was able to get the jist of what he was saying.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

                The first question I would ask is what events he ran in at the University of Oregon and what his times were. I ran in high school and continue to run now and knowing the competitive atmosphere and the immense talent you have to have to run for UO, he must’ve been pretty good. The second question I would ask would be what the interview process was like for finding your top management team. He said that all of them were ‘shoe dogs’ and extremely passionate about the cause and I would like to hear his reasoning behind why each one was given the position- what made them stand out?

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

                I think he would say that hard work is not hard work if it is something you are passionate about. He seemed to have fun and have a good attitude about what he did which made all of this work worth it and made it easier. I agree with that you should go into something that you find interest and are passionate about because then you are not seeing it as a job and a commitment you are bound to but something that you look forward to doing.