Nike Creator Phil Knight Discusses His New Book 'Shoe Dog'

Phil Knight, Nike's founder and board chairman, comes to "GMA" to share insights from his new book
5:30 | 04/26/16


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Transcript for Nike Creator Phil Knight Discusses His New Book 'Shoe Dog'
We're back with the man who revolutionized fashion, sports, the shoes you may be wearing right now. Phil knight of Nike, his new memoir, "Shoe dog" about the creator of Nike and tells his story of his rise to the top and always great to be in your presence, Phil. Thank you very much. My agent said which morning show do you want to be on. I said do you mean other than robin Roberts. Bless your heart. Bless your heart. I appreciate that. Thanks for having me back. I'm telling you, I read it from start to finish. It's like Reading a novel. It's absolutely beautifully written and I love how you really take us back. Other people have written books about Nike. This is your first time. Right. Take us back. You're out of school. You got this crazy idea. That's what you kept saying. This crazy idea. How did that happen? Well, basically it was generated from two place, basically the running track at Oregon where we were always filling the shoes and Stanford business school where I wrote about the track view industry and how to break into it and so the two ideas kept growing and then finally I went to my father and said, I need to pursue this a bit. And you just knew that you wanted -- you didn't know exactly what it was that you wanted. I appreciate that because there are many young people you know you want something but you're not quite sure what it is and get all trapped in your head and you just said go for it. Yeah, I feel that way very strongly. I feel sorry for the people that know exactly what they'll do from the time they're sophomores in high school. I think the process really needs to go through a time period before you really find what it is. Yeah. But I will say a lot of people did think it was a crazy idea. I know that people around Portland, Oregon, Phil knight has an mba from Stanford and selling Japanese track shoes. But you said you wanted to have fun. That's one thing that you knew you wanted to do. Right. Well, I not unlike yourself, you know, wanted to be a professional athlete but I was not that good so I wanted to find a way to stay involved in sports. This was the way of doing it. And you were just relentless in how you went about it. Was there ever a time that you thought this isn't -- I mean when you read the book, even though I know the outcome there are types I'm Reading it and saying he's not going to make it. Oh, absolutely. We were right on the edge a couple of times that I know I say was there ever a time, yeah, there were some types. The most scary when we got kicked out of the bank for the second time and they told me that they'd turned me into the FBI and I thought, well, these are a little tough types that they can't take the house but -- No. But I did say if we failed I was going to try it again because I was enjoying it so much. You were having fun and had this group of how you label them misfits. Yeah. They can read the book and find out the other code name. A precise name. I was telling you this, I looked at that shoe. You didn't tell me and I said 1983, the pegasus because I was a senior in college and everybody wanted a pair of Nikes. You blew me away with that. You named it right away. I'm not sure I would have. Why did you bring this particular shoe. Well, they asked me what my favorite shoe was and that's the one basically the shoe has been in the line for 43 years and that's what I wear to run in today. Much/er. Well, I say the older I get the better I was. That's for sure. Hey, we have a question. Zach Johnson on Twitter asks what was your best business decision from your career? I think there's no question it was when bill said I want to be your partner and I shook his hand and said deal in your old coach. It all came from there. Where would we have been without that. You're very good about sharing that you are the co-founder. That it was your crazy idea but you had all these people and just some kind of way it fit. It all fit together. No, I think it's a true as far as business lesson that there's really never even just one person or even two people. That it takes a group of people to build something and we had our unique group. They were eccentric. I've often said I don't know if they were geniuses or near geniuses but brought all the emotional baggage of geniuses. We've had a lot of people starting their businesses and a lot of people who watch and they have a passion. They want to have fun. What do you say to a young or any entrepreneur. I think there's a couple things that if you're going to be an entrepreneur you better be prepared for long hours and a lot of dark moments and I guess that's one thing that is shown in the book and I think you really have to have a passion about it and have a reason to succeed. It isn't to be just something you want to be. That you have to have a niche and a passion. You need those two things. And you also are one of the most generous people, $1 billion the last time you were there ohsu knight cancer institute. How is that going. Fably. They just got a new executive director to come in and run the new program and he's -- he fits right in with Brian. He is a genius himself and the program is going to produce a lot of results. I love how you say you want to give it away. You made a lot of money and you want to give it away and make life better for others. It's a blessing I'm able to do it. A blessing to have you here. I love the shoes you have on. What are you running now Theiss days. Still running the pegasus but I wore the air max -- these are my dress shoes. The new CEO of -- Yeah, mark. Exactly. He designed that shoe. That's right. Yeah, so what happened to him? He's there. I love how -- you got to read the book. Reading about the swoosh and you didn't even want it and all that, it's a great read. Thank you, Phil. Thanks very much. Glad to be here. "Shoe dog." I love that name. "Shoe dog" hits book stores this


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