Phil Knight Quotes
102 Phil Knight Quotes
(Philip Knight Quotes) (Nike Quotes)
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The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.
Phil Knight
Play by the rules, but be ferocious.
Phil Knight
I was so mad I ran a personal record.
Phil Knight
If you ask where Nike came from, I would say it came from a kid who had that world-class shock administered at age seventeen by Bill Bowerman.
Phil Knight
There will be no pissing on partners in the shower.
Phil Knight
We had no capital but we grew.
Phil Knight
Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?
Phil Knight
We were always trying to look for people who could help us beyond what we were doing.
Phil Knight
I do not follow conventional wisdom.
Phil Knight
We understand the most important thing we do is market the product…
Phil Knight
Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool.
Phil Knight
We were pretty schizophrenic. We were going to take on the world, but we couldn’t make payroll.
Phil Knight
We used to think that everything started in the lab. Now we realize that everything spins off the consumer.
Phil Knight
In the early days, anybody with a glue pot and a pair of scissors could get into the shoe business…
Phil Knight
There is no shoe school, so where do you recruit people for a company that develops and markets running shoes?
Phil Knight
You have to come up with what the consumer wants, and you need a vehicle to understand it.
Phil Knight
We just sort of factor all that information into the computer between the ears and come up with conclusions.
Phil Knight
It doesn’t matter how many people you offend, as long as you’re getting your message to your consumers. I say to those people who do not want to offend anybody: You are going to have a very, very difficult time having meaningful advertising.
Phil Knight
Everybody was writing about computers and electronics, but all I really knew about was running. It’s what I’ve chosen to do with my life.
Phil Knight
I may be over the top on this, but I just don’t want to like my competitors. I want my people to believe that whenever he and our other competitors succeed, we will be less able to do all the things we want to do.
Phil Knight
[Introducing himself to Sony co-founder Akio Morita] I have six of your TVs in my house.
Phil Knight
Sales were limited by how many shoes we had, shoes were limited by how many dollars we had to order them.
Phil Knight
[On stopping working and focussing 100% on his company Nike] I was still teaching accounting, but the next year, I told Penny [married in 1968] if we sell $300,000 worth of product, I’m going to go full-time. She was pregnant and a little anxious. We hit $290,000. I said, that ‘s close enough.
Phil Knight
[On becoming in 1969 a full-time employee of his five year old company] There were nervous moments. Every time I brought a fresh letter of credit home and it said, ‘Mr. And Mrs. Knight guarantee liabilities to the tune of $300,000,’ Penny’d say, ‘We don’t have $300,000.’ I’d say, ‘I don’t care. Just sign the thing.’
Phil Knight
[On Bill Bowerman] Bill made me pay my dues.
Phil Knight
I couldn’t do anything right.
Phil Knight
He was contradicting everything he’d taught us about not running sick and making it worse. I knew it was just to make me acknowledge that his word was law, no matter how arbitrary. But that didn’t make it any easier to take. I was so mad I ran a personal record.
Phil Knight
When I hung in, he saw character, and that was the end of it. Later, it was funny to watch him hazing other guys the same way – funny after you’d been through the cycle.
Phil Knight
As a freshman, I had to make one hell of an adjustment. I had to go from being a good high school competitor to a locker room with three Olympians in Dellinger, Bailey, and Grelle. Four, if you count Burley coming in my senior year. If you ask where Nike came from, I would say it came from a kid who had that world-class shock administered at age seventeen by Bill Bowerman.
Phil Knight
All a bliss state like California does is spoil you.
Phil Knight
[On a small business class taught at university by Frank Shallenberger] Shallenberger started by defining the type of person who was an entrepreneur, and I realized he was talking to me.
Phil Knight
American running shoes were still made by offshoots of the tire companies, cheap and terrible. They cost five bucks and gave you blood blisters…
Phil Knight
[On American running shoes] They cost five bucks and gave you blood blisters after five miles. Adidas was taking advantage. And at $30 a pair, Adidas was making a killing.
Phil Knight
I was quite taken with Japanese culture and its people.
Phil Knight
[On exporting sports shoes from Japan to the US]The best hope for exports lay with Onitsuka Company. So I made a cold call on them.
Phil Knight
Why don’t I distribute Tiger shoes in the United States?
Phil Knight
Blue Ribbon Sports of Portland, Oregon. Sorry I’m all out of cards. Boy, does your country ever eat up business cards.
Phil Knight
I’m in the shoe business. Look at these things. They’re called Tigers. I faked out the company. I’m the US distributor. Come with me.
Phil Knight
[On the cost to found Nike] Six hundred dollars each. Twelve hundred dollars total investment.
Phil Knight
[On January 30, 1964] With a hearty ichi ban Blue Ribbon Sports got off the ground on Monday with an order for 300 pairs of shoes.
Phil Knight
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