Shoe Dog

by Phil Knight

“The cowards never started,” he’d tell me, “and the weak died along the way—that leaves us.”

Reality is nonlinear, Zen says. No future, no past. All is now.

Expect nothing, seek nothing, grasp nothing—

There were many ways down Mount Fuji, according to my guidebook, but only one way up.

Sure, it would have been the cautious, conservative, prudent thing. But the roadside was littered with cautious, conservative, prudent entrepreneurs. I wanted to keep my foot pressed hard on the gas pedal.

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.

Don’t go to sleep one night. What you most want will come to you then.

“Somebody may beat me—but they’re going to have to bleed to do it.”

Lead me from the unreal to the real.

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.

“You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.”