Review Buku Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.
A Memoir by the Creator of Nike.

Judul : Shoe Dog

Penulis : Phil Knight

Jenis Buku : Autobiography

Penerbit : Simon and Schuster Ltd

Tahun Terbit : 2018

Jumlah Halaman :  400 halaman

Dimensi Buku : 19,70 x 13 x 2,50 cm

Harga : Rp. 239.000 *harga sewaktu-waktu dapat berubah

ISBN : 9781471146725

Paperback

Edisi Bahasa Inggris

Available at PERIPLUS BANDUNG Bookstore (ig @Periplusbandung, @Periplus_husein1 , @Periplus_husein2)

Sekelumit Tentang Isi

Pada tahun 1962 Phil Knight baru saja lulus kuliah bisnis di Standford. Dalam satu momen lari paginya yang penuh kontemplasi, Phil menyadari hidupnya yang tidak bersemangat dan miskin tujuan. Ia lalu menggali ulang sebuah impian terpendam, mendasarkan teorinya pada kecintaannya pada olahraga lari. Phil lalu meminjam $50 dari ayahnya dan membangun sebuah perusahaan dengan misi sederhana: import berkualitas tinggi, sepatu atletik murah dari Jepang. Phil Knight meraup $8000 di tahun pertama, dan saat ini, penjualan tahunan Nike di atas $ 30 miliar. Brand Nike mendunia dan menjadi icon terdepan. Di Shoe Dog, Phil membagikan cerita di balik perjuangannya membesarkan Nike. Ada ketakutan, resiko besar, penolakan, bahkan ide gila yang melampaui batas logika orang kebanyakan, tapi Phil Knight tidak pernah berhenti, persis seperti apa yang dinasihatkannya pada diri sendiri,

"Let everyone else call your idea crazy...just keep going. Don't stop. Don't even think about stopping until you get there and don't give much thought to where "there" is. Whatever comes, just don't stop."

Seputar Fisik Buku dan Disainnya

Cerdas sekali ide sampulnya karena ilustrasi gambar garis meliuk itu sudah pasti mengingatkan kita pada brand yang dimiliki oleh si penulisnya. Artinya, meskipun pembaca ga familiar dengan nama Phil Knight, namun dengan melihat gambar itu ada semacam rasa familiar yang berujung penasaran.

Yang menarik dan atau disuka dari Buku ini

Buku ini mendapatkan vote tertinggi di event Review by Request April 2022. Terimakasih buat teman-teman yang sudah berpartisipasi ya :*

Shoe Dog merupakan salah satu buku memoir yang narasinya paling mengalir dan alurnya sistematis, membacanya tak ubah menyimak sebuah kisah fantastis yang menggugah dan menginspirasi, sekaligus menghibur.

Di buku ini Phil Knight menceritakan dari awal tercetusnya ide dalam benaknya untuk menjadi pengimpor sepatu Jepang (*waktu lari lagi) hingga masa dimana perusahaan Nike yang dia bangun sudah go public dan mendunia. Di sini tidak melulu diceritakan soal bisnis dan lika-likunya (dikhianati partner bisnis, ancaman investigasi FBI, konfrontasi di persidangan, ditagih kreditor, pengiriman barang yang telat, produksi barang tidak sesuai, dll), tapi juga kisah cinta yang gagal maupun yang berlanjut ke pernikahan yang langgeng. Ada pula cerita tentang persahabatan dan keluarga.

It was one of my final classes, a seminar on entrepreneurship. I'd written a research paper about shoes, and the paper had evolved from a run-of-the-mill assignment to an all-out obsession. Being a runner, I knew something about running shoes. Being a business buff, I knew that Japanese cameras had made deep cuts into the camera market, which had once been dominated by Germans. Thus, I argued in my paper that Japanese running shoes might do the same thing. The idea interested me, then inspired me, then captivated me. It seemed so obvious, so simple, so potentially huge.

Page 9

Kisah Phil Knight keliling dunia buat saya menarik untuk disimak karena perjalanannya yang punya muatan filosofi yang dia yakini. Mindset melihat dunia itu penting untuk memperluas wawasan dan mendapatkan kebijaksanaan juga luar biasa, apalagi di sini ternyata Phil Knight juga sampai berpikir tentang ketuhanan seiring perjalanannya membawanya ke kuil, geraja, dan wihara. Dari kisah keliling dunianya Phil Knight saya juga merasakan semangat Phil Knight muda.

Before I died, became too old or consumed with everyday minute, I wanted to visit the planet's most beautiful and wondrous places.

And its most sacred. Of course I wanted to taste other foods, hear other languages, dive into other cultures, but what I really craved was connection with a capital C. I wanted to experience what the Chinese call Tao, the Greek call Logos, the Hindus call Jnana, the Buddhists call Dharma. What the Christians call Spirit. Before setting out on my own personal life voyage, I thought, let me first understand the greater voyage of humankind. Let me explore the grandest temples and churches and shrines, the holiest rivers and moutaintops. Let me feel the presence of ... God?

Yes, I told myself, yes. For want of a better word, God.

Page 10

Banyak pembaca memberikan testimoni untuk buku ini. Beragam pujian diberikan, tapi ada satu yang paling mengena dengan opini saya pribadi. Phil Knight memang pencerita yang hebat. Membaca Shoe Dog itu seperti membaca buku novel epic, padahal ini kisah memoar. Orang-orang yang diceritakan Phil juga dideskripsikan dengan baik, disertai dialog dan narasi yang baik sehingga nyaman sekali dibaca, misalnya waktu dia menceritakan Carter, sahabatnya semasa kuliah di Stanford. Carter digambarkan sebagai pria berkacamata tebal yang doyan baca buku, enak diajak ngobrol dan enak juga diajak diem-dieman, seorang teman perjalanan yang sempurna menurut Phil Knight.

Long before approaching my father, I'd decided it would be good to have a companion on my trip, and that companion should be my Stanford classmate Carter. Though he'd been a hoops star at William Jewell College, Carter wasn't your typical jock. He wore thick glasses and read books. Good books. He was easy to talk to, and easy not to talk to - equally important qualities in a friend. Essential in a travel companion.

But Carter laughed in my face. When I laid out the list of places I wanted to see - Hawaii, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay, Saigon, Kathmandu, Cairo, Istanbul, Athens, Jordan, Jerusalem, Nairobi, Rome, Paris, Vienna, West Berlin, East Berlin, Munich - London - he rocked back on his heels and guffawed. Mortified, I looked down and began to make apologies. Then Carter, still laughing, said: "What a swell idea, Buck!"

I looked up. He wasn't laughing at me. He was laughing with joy, with glee. He was impressed.

Page 15

Cerita Phil yang pertama kali membuat saya berpendapat buku ini sangat movieable adalah ketika pada tanggal 7 September 1962 Phil dan Carter tiba di Oahu Airport. Saat itu mereka melihat ke langit dan tersadar bahwa meski langit terlihat sama namun langit yang sedang mereka lihat adalah bukan langit kampung halaman mereka. Lalu sekelompok gadis cantik melintas melewati mereka. Phil dan Carter serentak bertukar senyum dan cengiran. Sampe sini saya bahkan sudah langsung bisa membayangkan adegannya versi film :)

September 7, 1962. Carter and I piled into his battered old Chevy and drove at warp speed down 1-5, through the Willamette Valley, out the wooded bottom of Oregon, which felt like plunging through the roots of a tree. We sped into the piney tip of California, up and over tall green mountain passes, then down, down, until long after midnight we swept into fog-cloaked San Francisco. For several days we stayed with some friends, sleeping on their floor, and then we swung by Stanford and fetched a few of Carter's things out of storage. Finally we stopped at a liquor store and bought two discounted tickets on Standard Airlines to Honolulu. One-way, eighty bucks.

It felt like only minutes later that Carter and I were stepping onto the sandy tarmac of Oahu Airport. We wheeled and looked at the sky and thought: That is not the sky back home.

A line of beautiful girls came toward us. Soft-eyes, olive-skinned, barefoot, they had double-jointed hips, with which they twitched and swished their grass skirts in our faces. Carter and I looked at each other and slowly grinned.

We took a cab to Waikiki Beach and checked into a motel directly across the street from the sea. In one motion we dropped our bags and pulled on our swim trunks. Race you to the water!

As my feet hit the sand I whooped and laughed and kicked off my sneakers, the sprinted directly into the waves. I didnt stop until I was up to my neck in the foam. I dove to the bottom, all the way.

Page

Phil menulis dengan humor dan penuh perasaan, misalnya waktu membicarakan coach Bowerman yang sering bereksperimen menciptakan sepatu lari yang aneh-aneh plus meramu resep minuman untuk anak didiknya. Di bukunya Phil menulis dengan nada serius 'oh ternyata si coach sedang menciptakan Gatorade" atau "oh ternyata si coach sedang menciptakan polyurethane', yang buat saya malah memancing tawa justru karena gaya tulisannya yang serius tapi terasa sisi humornya.

A little success always went to Bowerman's head, in the best way. Around this time he was also testing sports elixirs, magic potions and powders to give his runners more energy and stamina. When I was on this team, he'd talked about the importance of replacing an athlete's salt and electrolytes. He'd forced me and others to choke down a potion he'd invented, a vile goo of mushed bananas, lemonade, tea, honey, and several unnamed ingredients. Now, while tinkering with shoes, he was also monkeying with his sports drink recipe, making it taste worse and work better. It wasn't until years later that I realized Boweman was trying to invent Gatorade.

Page 87

In his "free time," he liked to noodle with the surface at Hayward Field. Hayward was hallowed ground, steeped in tradition, but Bowerman didn't believe in letting tradition slow you down. Whenever rain fell, which it did all the time in Eugene, Hayward's cinder lanes turned to Venetian Canals. Bowerman thought something rubbery would be easier to dry, sweep, and clean. He also thought something rubbery might be more forgiving on his runner's feet. So he bought a cement mixer, filled it with old shredded tires and assorted chemicals, and spent hours searching for just the right consistency and texture. More that once he made himself violently sick from inhaling the fumes of this witches' brew. Blinding headaches, a pronounced limp, loss of vision - these were a few of the lasting cost of his perfectionism.

Again, it was years before I realized what Bowerman was actually up to. He was trying to invent polyurethane.

Page 88

Kadang ada sedih, tegang, juga amarah. Ada syukur, bahagia, cinta, dan damai. Bagian paling tegang beradrenalin buat saya selalu berkaitan dengan kerjasama Phil Knight dengan Onitsuka. Perusahaan Jepang yang ini memang bikin greget, apalagi waktu antagonis Kitami mulai arogan dan main belakang *jadi kesel 😑. Shoe Dog adalah sebuah memoir yang bikin saya larut dalam beragam emosi. Buku ini di luar ekspektasi saya *in a good way.

Mengingat filosofi hidupnya yang full of spirit dan menjiwai perusahaannya dengan prinsip "bukan sekadar bisnis", Shoe Dog merefleksikan karakter Phil Knight apa adanya.

Jadi, insight kehidupan apa aja ya yang bisa diambil dari Shoe Dog (?). Personally, banyak sih.

Di mata saya Phil Knight itu orang yang berani dan punya tekad. Bahkan menurut saya dia agak nekad 😅. Fortunately, dia cerdas, jadi dia menyiapkan diri untuk menghadapi resiko dan menanggung konsekuensinya.

Dari awal dia memang sudah nekad karena lari di jaman itu bukan olahraga populer, bahkan lari bukan salah satu macam olahraga, tapi Phil malah memilih untuk fokus di bisnis sepatu lari.

In his heart of hearts Johnson believed that runners are God's chosen, that running, done right, in the correct spirit and with the proper form, is a mystical exercise, no less than meditation or prayer, and this he felt called to help runners reach their nirvana. I'd been around runners much of my life, but this kind of dewy romanticism was something I'd never encountered. Not even the Yahweh of running, Bowerman, was a pious about the sport as Blue Ribbon's Part-time Employee Number Two.

In fact, in 1965, running wasn't even a sport. It wasn't popular, it wasn't unpopular - it just was. To go out for a three-mile run was something weirdos did, presumably to burn off manic energy. Running for pleasure, running for exercise, running for endorphins, running to live better and longer - these things were unheard of.

Page 75

Kenekatannya juga kembali terasa waktu dia memutuskan pindah dari apartemen dan membeli rumah yang bagus padahal waktu itu dia baru saja mulai menggaji dirinya sendiri dari bisnis yang dia punya. Saya suka waktu di bagian ini Phil berkata pada dirinya sendiri bahwa hidup itu ya bertumbuh, kita tumbuh atau kita mati.

Our cozy apartment was now completely inapproriate. We'd have to buy a house, of course. But could we afford a house? I'd just started to pay myself a salary. And in which part of town should we buy? Where were the best schools? And how was I supposed to research real estate prices and schools, plus all the other things that go into buying a house, while running a start-up company? Was it even feasible to run a start-up company while starting a  family? Should I go back to accounting, or teaching, or something more stable?

Leaning back in my recliner each night, staring at the ceiling, I tried to settle myself. I told myself: Life is growth. You grow or you die.

Page 145

Phil Knight juga menginspirasi saya untuk mengontrol berat badan dan menjaga kesehatan dengan rutin olahraga lari 😌 *ayo kita lari pagi. Dari kisahnya saya mendapatkan poin-poin menarik seperti: uang modal usaha pertama itu baiknya dari keluarga atau dari teman dekat, prinsip hidup itu fail fast lalu belajar dari kegagalan, penting banget dikelilingi oleh orang-orang yang sevisi misi dan tulus peduli, ketika masalah menghadang jangan lari tapi cari solusi sekreatif mungkin, pilih bisnis yang produknya bukan cuma kita pahami tapi juga kita sukai, dedikasikan waktu dan modal untuk mengembangkan bisnis rintisan, lalu fokus, berbisnislah bukan semata-mata untuk mencari profit saja, bangunlah perusahaan yang punya budaya positif, dan masih banyak lagi.

Tahun 1968 adalah salah satu tahun berat buat Phil yang sedang merintis bisnis karena waktunya benar-benar habis untuk mengurus hal tersebut sampai-sampai dia ga punya kehidupan sosial, ga ada teman, dan ga sempat berolahraga. Hidupnya ga seimbang, tapi dia ga peduli karena dia sedang mendedikasikan tiap menit dalam hidupnya untuk membesarkan Blue Ribbon. Untungnya akhirnya dia tersadar bahwa hal itu ga baik, dan memutuskan untuk lebih berkompromi, menyediakan waktu untuk menekuni passion.

I was putting in six days a week at Price Waterhouse, spending early mornings and late nights and all weekends and vacations at Blue Ribbon. No friends, no exercise, no social life - and wholly content. My life was out of balance, sure, but I didn't care. In fact, I wanted even more imbalance. Or a different kind of imbalance.

I wanted to dedicated every minute of every day to Blue Ribbon. I'd never been a multitasker, and I didn't see any reason to start now. I wanted to be present, always. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered. If my life was to be all work and no play, I wanted my work to be play. I wanted to quit Price Waterhouse. Not that I hated it; it just wasn't me.

I wanted what everyone wants. To be me, full-time.

But it wasn't possible. Blue Ribbon simple couldn't support me. Though the company was on track to double sales for a fifth straight year, it still couldn't justify a salary for its cofounder. So I decided to compromise, find a different day job, one that would pay my bills but require fewer hours, leaving me more time for my passion.

Page 117

Baca buku ini bikin saya tau bahwa ternyata  shoe dog itu ada artinya. Show Dog adalah orang-orang yang mengabdikan diri sepenuhnya untuk membuat, menjual, membeli, atau mendesain sepatu.

I'd heard this phrase a few times. Shoe dogs were people who devoted themselves wholly to the making, selling, buying, or designing of shoes. Lifers used the phrase cheerfully to describe other lifers, men and women who had toiled so long and hard in the shoe trade, they thought and talked about nothing else. It was an all-consuming mania, a recognizable psychological disorder, to care so much about insoles and outsoles, linings and welts, rivets and vamps. But I understood. The average person takes seventy-five hundred steps a day, 274 million steps over the shoe dogs, it seemed to me, simply wanted to be part of that journey. Shoes were their way of connecting with humanity. What better way of connecting, shoe dogs thought, than by refining the hinge that joins each person to the world s surface?

Page 186

Bagian berkesan dari terciptanya sebuat merek juga ada di buku ini. Asbabun nuzul dari mana nama Nike itu tercipta. Detailnya bisa teman-teman baca sendiri di bukunya. 

A lot of things were rolling around in my head, consciously, unconsciously. First, Johnson had pointed out that seemingly all iconic brands - Clorox, Kleenex, Xerox - have short names. Two syllables or less. And they always have a strong sound in the name, a letter like "K" or "X" that sticks in the mind. That all made sense. And that all described Nike.
Also, I liked that Nike was the goddess of victory. What's more important, I thought, than victory?

...

"What'd  you decide? Woodell asked me at the end of the day. "Nike," I mumbled. "Hm," he said. "Yeah I know," I said. "Maybe it'll grow on us,"he said.

Maybe

Saya suka Shoe Dog, namun ada satu yang saya sesali, yakni ketiadaan halaman-halaman dokumentasi. Saya berharap menemukan foto Phil Knight dan istrinya, atau Coach Bowerman dan Johnsonn, atau akan lebih menarik lagi kalo ada foto Onitsuka dan Kitami yang menyebalkan 😅. Namun sayang sekali, harapan tinggallah harapan. Saya berarti harus browsing untuk memuaskan rasa keingintahuan.

Happy to find out this book is worth reading, and it is definitely my cup of tea.

Give it a try, would you? 😊

Siapa Phil Knight

Philip Hampson Knight (lahir 24 Februari 1938) adalah seorang pengusaha asal Amerika Serikat. Dia adalah salah satu pendiri Nike, Inc., dan sebelumnya adalah CEO perusahaan tersebut. Pada 23 Juli 2020, Knight dinobatkan sebagai orang terkaya ke-24 di dunia oleh Forbes, dengan perkiraan kekayaan bersih US$54,5 miliar. Dia juga pemilik perusahaan produksi film stop motion Laika. Knight adalah lulusan University of Oregon dan Stanford Graduate School of Business. Pada Juni 2015, Knight dan Nike mengumumkan bahwa dia akan mengundurkan diri sebagai CEO perusahaan, dengan presiden dan CEO Mark Parker untuk menggantikannya.

Rekomendasi

Buku ini saya rekomendasikan buat para pembaca yang mencari memoar pendiri brand Nike. Bukunya sangat enak dibaca, mengalir, menghibur, dan menginspirasi. Banyak pelajaran kehidupan yang bisa kita dapatkan dengan menyimak kisah hidup Phil Knight. Hidup Phil sendiri epic, ditambah gaya berceritanya yang hidup, membuat buku ini movieable banget.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dipidiff.com adalah sebuah media edukasi yang menginspirasi melalui beragam topik pengembangan diri, rekomendasi buku-buku, dan gaya hidup yang bervibrasi positif.

Dipi adalah seorang pembaca buku sejak usia 5 tahun. Ia membaca buku-buku fiksi maupun non fiksi. Dipi host di dua program di nbsradio.id (radio di Bandung yang beraliansi resmi dengan VOA). Podcast Dipi bisa diakses di Spotify DipidiffTalks. Dipi menulis di blognya dipidiff.com , dan tulisan-tulisan review bukunya menjadi entry di halaman pertama mesin pencari Google. Saat ini dipi adalah ambassador untuk Periplus Bandung dan berafiliasi dengan Periplus Indonesia di beberapa event literasi. Dipi bisa dijumpai juga di instagram @dipidiffofficial. Dipi diundang oleh berbagai komunitas dan lembaga pendidikan untuk berbagi topik membaca, menulis, mereview buku, public speaking, dan pengembangan diri, misalnya di Universitas Negeri Semarang, LP3i, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, English Star Bandung, The Lady Book Club, Buku Berjalan.id, SMAN 24 Bandung, SMAN 22 Bandung, dan lain-lain. Passionnya yang lain terkait dengan bidang pendidikan dan memanggang kue-kue. Dia mengembangkan bisnis kecilnya, bernama Dipidiff Official Store, sambil tetap sibuk menjadi ibu satu anak dan meng-coaching-mentoring beberapa remaja dan dewasa muda di Growth Tracker Program, ini adalah program pribadi, yang membantu (terutama) remaja dan dewasa muda untuk menemukan passion dan mengeluarkan potensi mereka. Dipidiff adalah Personal Brand-nya.

Let's encourage each other to shape a better future through education and book recommendation

Contact Dipidiff at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..