Whilst Philip and Katharine were both taking an afternoon nap, Philip got up and said that he wanted to go and lie down in another room. A few moments later, Katharine heard an ear-splitting bang. Scurrying to find where it came from, and upon opening the door, she found her husband Philip lying there after he had committed suicide by shotgun.

Katharine Graham is one of eight remarkable CEOs discussed in the legendary book on capital allocation—The Outsiders.

So, why have I chosen to open with such a personal and heartbreaking story?

Before his death, her husband Philip was CEO of The Washington Post Company, after her father Eugene Meyer, who was a major figure in American finance and public service, had chosen Philip over Katharine to succeed him in taking over the Post. In fact, Katharine was never even considered by her father, and similarly the thought of him choosing her never even crossed her mind—simply because women didn’t belong in boardrooms.

At the time of Philip’s suicide, Katharine Graham was 46 years old, a mother of 4, and without a regular job in over 20 years. She had zero business experience—let alone had she expressed any leadership qualities. Yet, she would go on to be one of the most successful CEOs of all time, generating a staggering 22.3% compound annual return. $1 invested in The Washington Post when it IPO’d under her stewardship in 1971 would have been worth $89 when she stepped down in 1993.

How did she do this when troves of CEOs with MBAs have sent companies into the abyss?

Today’s members-only post walks you through examples of how the CEOs in this book, often to the befuddlement of Wall Street, became some of the best capital allocators of all time. They pioneered new investor metrics, focused almost exclusively on deploying company cash, and knew the ins and outs of all options available to them at any given moment, so that when they did bet—they bet big, and with unwavering conviction. If you haven’t read the first essay where I introduce the 5 capital allocation strategies at a CEO’s disposal, you can read it here:

How to Eat The Investing “Playbook” for Breakfast

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It’s a rare bargain in a world where the price of success is often far steeper than the price of the advice that creates it.

The key isn't mastering every field, but grasping fundamental ideas across disciplines. For entrepreneurs and professionals, this broadens your perspective in solving problems, making decisions, and seizing opportunities.

In this week’s subscriber-only post, I share my 5 key takeaways from reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles:

1. Living by Principles: The Foundation of Great Decisions

2. Radical Open-Mindedness and Self-Awareness

3. Balancing Painful Truths with Growth

4. Designing and Managing Your Life Machine

5. Mastering Decision-Making Through Smart Risk and Reward

Read time: 12 minutes

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1. Those who have their sh*t together &

2. Those who don’t…

Or so it may seem.

It's frustrating to see others fulfil their potential while we feel lost and stuck. E…

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“I would rather be a failed entrepreneur than someone who never tried.”

- Naval Ravikant

The best-selling book ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ by Eric Jorgenson is a modern-day masterpiece and a go-to…

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It’s time to build that product that’s been whirling around in your he…

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If you’re considering starting a business, you need to read what Peter Thiel, author…

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"You can feel whatever you want about Elon's behaviour," Gates said, "but there is no one in our time who has done more to push the bounds of science and innovation than he has."

- Bill Gates

Elon Mus…

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“There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.”

- Charles T. Munger

I suspect that this book has done so already and will continue to produce such answers in the future. One thing…

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Unless we are most ungrateful, all of those men, glorious fashioners of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other mens labours we are lead to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, narrow limits of human weakness, there is great stretch of time of which we may roam. Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?

(Excerpt from Letter XIV in Seneca’s - On the Shortness of Life)

There are probably not many books that you can not buy with £20. For such a small fee you can take a seat at the author’s theatre.

On show, their lives work.

Reading Julius Caesar you can time travel back to the Roman Empire, The Stoics beforehand. You can pick up Orwell’s 1984 and get a little creeped out by just how right he was about Big Brother when he wrote this futuristic book back in the late forties.

You can immerse yourself in complete fiction and read some of the best stories people have ever imagined. You can pick up a book about how to tell better stories yourself.

Reading offers you exclusivity with the author. It’s just you, them and their work.

Reading offers us the opportunity to poke and prod, to ask them why and how. For roughly £20 you can ask Einstein questions about the laws of physics. You can ask Musk how he’s set up 4, Billion dollar companies. You can ask Steve Jobs how he came up with the vision for the iPod and if he ever imagined Apple would become such a huge part of people’s lives. Could he have imagined it?

There are books on schools of philosophy with some of the greatest ever thinkers no more than a fingertip away. Books on how to get rich, books on how to be happy. Books on just about anything and everything you could ever imagine and more just sitting there, waiting patiently for you to grab them. To immerse yourself in and learn.

To grow.

That’s what books do. When consumed properly and actioned they help people grow.

I Picked up Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations for £7. It’s the diary of the most powerful man in the world at the time and here I was peering into his written thoughts. His pain, his courage, candidness and humour. I got to ask him questions about courage and virtue. His words were there for me to read and no one else. The book can not tell you what to do, it can only show you, and guide you. The rest is up to you.

But wait, you don’t have to listen to him to Aurelius. You can fast-forward millennia to Franklin or Roosevelt. Churchill or Mandela. You can choose to be guided and taught by whomever you want.

For innovation Gates. For Philosophy Seneca. For human history Harari.

There are no limits to who your teachers can be.

But reading Gates alone won’t conjure up the next Microsoft and reading Seneca alone won’t help you conquer all of life’s trials and tribulations.

You have to act.

And just like the philosopher has to use his philosophy, the reader too has to use what they have read. Having courage or wisdom is something that’s lived not read. Knowing how to do the right thing and doing the right thing are two completely different things. Reading, just like words is meaningless without action.

Without movement.

So go and pick your teachers. There are many to choose from but pick not those who confirm what you think you already know, but choose those who challenge you. Who ask different questions of you. Those that will change your perceptions and challenge every atom in your body.

Those that make you think but more importantly, those that make you DO.

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*Photo by Karolina Grabowska

A beautiful essay, I highly recommend reading it. It’s ostensibly written for…

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I’ve read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations but found this book wholly more enjoyable. Although Meditations is no doubt a classic. A peak behind an Emperor’s curtain, never meant for the eyes of anybody else I did find it often hard to get into. It’s full of wisdom but often they are anecdotes and soundbites, other times just pure rambling. Therefore I found it hard to read more than a few pages at a time. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but there was just too much to think about so it’s not really a book I read but rather a book I dipped in and out of.

Letters From a Stoic on the other hand was different. The letters range from a couple of pages to upwards of 15 and the running theme is that they are all to his friend Lucilius. The topics covered in the collection of letters include all the traditional Stoic virtues such as wisdom, temperance, justice and courage but also include how one should eat, bathe and walk. How we should act in illness. His opinion on liberal arts. Cold baths. Exercise. Perhaps because it’s meant to be for a reader I got more out of this book, but Seneca goes into great detail, oftentimes with great wit how he believes man (anybody) should live. I often found myself in awe at the beauty of his writing and envious of his mind

The book serves as a guide to navigating the complexities of human existence with grace and wisdom. Seneca's letters offer profound insights into the human condition, making "Letters From a Stoic" a timeless and influential work in the realm of philosophical literature.

I highlighted 10 letters as my favourites and picked out some of my favourite passages. Below are highlights from those 10 letters with some personal commentary.

Letter II

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company. To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

In this letter, Seneca is praising Lucilius telling him he shows ‘great promise’ because he does not ‘tear from place to place.’

It’s interesting and sad to see that men and women from around Seneca’s time were having the same problems as men and women some 2 thousand years later. I only feel, as I’m sure Seneca did back then, that it’s amplified even more now. I have friends who can’t stand being in their own company. If you can’t be a best friend to yourself, who will? Some of the best advice I got from anybody was from a friend after a breakup. He said, “You need to spend some time being in your own company until you are comfortable doing so”. Interestingly, he was reading Stoicism before I was and passed on Seneca’s ‘On the Shortness of Life’.

‘A cheerful poverty’, he says ‘is an honourable state’. But if it is cheerful it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.

This is a common theme throughout the book with Seneca. What is enough? We live in an age where there are nearly 25 million, millionaires in America alone. Just over 7% of the population, yet depression rates, (18%) are the highest since records began. The internet is full of ‘bros’ ‘hustling’ and ‘grinding’ yet the arrow of unhappy people seems to be travelling in the wrong direction. Seneca has an answer for this:

You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.

On the surface level this can seem as if it’s a rather socialist way of thinking and I for one don’t begrudge Capitalism. It’s what is allowing me to write this newsletter. Your enough may be a comfortable salary, it may be a few million a year. The lesson is in the word, enough. Spend some time thinking about that word.

Letter III

After friendship is formed you must trust, but before that, you must judge.

Facebook. Friend requests. People you have never met or heard of just slide into your inbox. The idea is it makes us more social. More connected. I don’t need to go down the social media rabbit hole, that’s a separate article in itself. Maybe a series. But for all that social media can provide it’s safe to say that it brings out the worst in people. Hooked on doom scrolling and dopamine injections we hide behind these fabricated facades. Some people set up accounts without anybody knowing who or what they are just to troll people.

How different these interactions online are than with real people. How easy it is for your message to be misconstrued when people don’t have the luxury of falling back on thousands of years of studying body language, tone and facial expressions. How easy it is to say something wrong and lose a career. Yet these people follow you. They’re supposed to be your friends. With real friends, you can say anything and they’ll tell you if you are right or wrong. Unless you’ve hidden away from them the fact that you’re a massive homophobe or racist they’ll still be your friend no matter what you say. Arguments and disagreements and all.

Seneca knew back then that friendships are something to be earned not just given away.

Letter V

Philosophy calls for simple living, not for doing penance, and the simple way of life need not be a crude one.

There are philosophers and some philosophies that call for a standard of living that even when they were advocating for it, thousands of years ago was sub-standard. Seneca’s approach is somewhat different, perhaps because he was high up in the Roman Empire, did he feel he needed to preach something different in case he came across as hypocritical? Perhaps it’s to make it more acceptable and approachable to more people? Letter V is his first letter where he speaks about philosophy. How people should act and dress. What they should eat with. Seneca’s idea is to sit right in the middle of the high and mighty and that of the mob, having no inclination to one side or the other.

Seneca rounds the letter off with some advice from Hecato about fear, hope and being present.

Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope and you will cease to fear’. Wildly different though they are, the two of them march in unison like a prisoner and the escort he is handcuffed to. Fear keeps pace with hope. A number of our blessings do us harm, for memory brings back the agony of fear while foresight brings it on prematurely. No one confines his unhappiness to the present.

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Letter XII

How nice it is to have outworn one’s desires and left them behind.

We all dread growing old. Moving through the different phases of life, life gets much harder with each passing one. Going from a kid to a teenager is exciting. A teenager who is old enough to go out with his friends is like winning the lottery. I’m sure there aren’t many elderly people who loved going from their 20’s & 30’s to their 60’s & 70’s. Yet Seneca thinks that people should rid themselves of this misconception that growing old is bad.

After all, one can not predict when you are to die.

The order in which we each receive our summons is not determined by our precedence in the register.

They say there are two guarantees in life. You die and you pay taxes. Only one of them is true, however. Living under this constraint need not shackle us. By thinking about death, about the death of a loved one, one can begin to appreciate life a little more. It’s uncomfortable but none more so than being on your deathbed wishing you had lived just a little bit more.

To live under constraint is a misfortune, but there is no constraint to live under constraint.

Letter XV

The life of folly is empty of gratitude, full of anxiety: it is focused wholly on the future.

In this letter, Seneca starts by speaking about exercise, both for the body and for the mind but the letter moves on to more philosophical questioning. Our wants and desires. We constantly compare ourselves to other people and we constantly compare what we have to other people as well. This is amplified millions of times in today’s digitally connected world but if you compare yourself to one or to many is it not the same?

Seneca urges us to be independent of fortune. To accept our lot.

When you look at all the people out in front of you, think of all the ones behind you. Set yourself a limit which you couldn’t even exceed if you wanted to, and say goodbye at last to those deceptive prizes more precious to those who hope for them than to those who have won them.

Letter XVI

Natural desires are limited; those which spring from false opinions nowhere to stop. For falsity has no point of termination.

In this letter, Seneca begins by talking about the pursuit of wisdom. He explains that to live a happy or even bearable life one must seek wisdom. The letter talks about self-scrutiny and natural vs artificial desires. Seneca states that nature provides us with all that is needed to live a good life but acknowledges things that people want can have no endpoint.

The same can be said for the opinions of people. If you seek approval from anyone and everyone there’s an endless sea of approval. Seneca quotes Epicurus, beautifully;

If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich.

Letter XXVI

Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate beyond the reach of, all political powers. What are prisons, warders, bars to him? He has an open door. There is but one chain holding us in fetters, and that is our love of life. There is no need to cast this love out altogether, but it does need to be lessened somewhat, so that, in the event of circumstances ever demanding this, nothing may stand in the way of being prepared to do at once what we must do at some time or other.

The Stoics are renowned for talking about death. They say we shouldn’t attach value to anything that can be taken away from us. That we should feel indifferent about such things. Wisdom, courage and temperance, however, are things that we can hone and things that can never be taken away from us, but life, whether our own or others can be snatched away from us in an instant.

At first, this can seem rather depressing and depending on which Stoic you read you’ll get the impression that this is all a bit cold-hearted and unpractical. To say that I shouldn’t get upset if my wife or dog dies because they are not mine doesn’t sit well we me. But I think the more you read what they say about it and how they say it you can begin to understand where they’re coming from. It’s because the Stoics rehearse death and meditate on losing your life or that of somebody you love that it can be used for the better. How many times a day do you stop to think about, deeply, the people most important to you in your life? I think of my wife throughout the day when I’m not with her but a lot of the time it’s routine. I’ll call to ask what we should make for tea. I’ll text to let her know I’m going gym after work. That sort of thing. If I sit there and think about what my life would be without her. How my days would be, it’s awful. It’s enough to make me well up. This is the point the Stoics make. It brings back into focus the things that are important to you instead of just going through the motions.

Think of yourself dying on your deathbed. It’ll conjure up thoughts on things you wished you would have done and things you wish you would have said. How sad and unfulfilled you might feel, but the beautiful thing about doing this every now and again is you’re not on your deathbed. You still have a chance to do and say those things. What you need is courage. Action.

This isn’t some depressing routine the Stoics preach to make themselves indestructible and cold-hearted. Stoicism is everywhere nowadays and a lot of it is misinterpreted and misguided. A lot of it is picked up by men with no direction and it’s used as a tool to shut yourself out and down and to turn yourself into some sort of mythical warrior who can run through walls. Physical and emotional ones. If you want to learn about Stoicism and some of its practices read the classics, not some Twitter bro.

Letter XXXIII

This is why I look on people like this as a spiritless lot - the people who are forever acting as interpreters and never as creators, always lurking in someone else’s shadows. They never venture to do for themselves the things that they have spent such a long time learning. They exercise their memories on things that are not their own. It is one thing, however, to remember, another to know. To remember is to safeguard something entrusted to your memory, whereas to know, by contrast, is actually to make each item your own, and not to be dependent on some original and be constantly looking to see what the master said. Besides, a man who follows someone else not only does not find anything, he is not even looking.

The Stoics believed in mentorship and understood the importance of it and up until a generation ago the net that anybody could turn to for mentorship was rather small. Where people once turned to close relatives, friends, teachers, books, and TV stars for people to look up to, there is now an unlimited amount. Never have we been so connected. If that’s what you can call it. The digital age has given anybody with an opinion a platform to share it. The good and the ugly. Finding a mentor has never been so easy. Finding the right one, never so hard.

I see this with books as well. At my fingertips is almost every book that is available in the world ready to be bought and delivered the next day or downloaded instantly to my digital devices. There is literally, an infinite amount of books that would take a biblical amount of time to read. The problem with this, and Seneca saw this with philosophy, is it’s much easier to sit on the sidelines as an observer than to act. We all love to sit on our phones and watch YouTube or other social media apps of people DOING. For some bizarre reason, it motivates us, until it doesn’t. But, guess what? I’ll just go back online and find some more stuff.

Reading a book a week is pointless if you’re not doing anything with the knowledge you’re digesting. How can you be when you’re right into another one, taking on new principles, and new ideas? It’s better to read a book you enjoyed 3 times than to read 3 average books. But it’s even better to act on things you find valuable whether from a book, a mentor or philosophy.

Letter XC

He has taught us not just to recognize but to obey the gods, and to accept all that happens exactly as if it were an order from above. He has told us not to listen to false opinions and has weighed and valued everything against standards which are true. He has condemned pleasures an inseparable element of which is subsequent regret, has condemned the good thing which will always satisfy, and for all to see has made the man who has no need of luck the luckiest man of all, and the man who is master of himself the master of all.

In this passage, Seneca asks the philosopher what has he investigated and this is possibly my favourite letter from the book, this letter speaks in great detail about acquiring philosophy. The letters towards the end of the book get more theoretical in their wording and questioning and encourage the reader to ask questions of themselves.

Letter CVIII

But enough, or before I know where I am I shall be slipping into the scholar’s or commentator’s shoes myself. My advice is really this: what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life. We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching, and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application - not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech - and learn them so well that words become works. Let me indicate here how men can prove that their words are their own: let them put their preaching into practice.

The world is full of anecdotes and soundbites. This isn’t lost on me. This article is based on bitesize quotes that are as easy to forget as there are to remember. As mentioned above when you acquire knowledge you need to put it to use otherwise you are but a mere talking memory box of other people’s opinions. Have mentors, have quotes, have knowledge, but make it your own. Practice. Do.

It seems that there are the same two types of people in this world today as there were 2 thousand years ago. Those who say, and those who do.

Buy Me a Coffee

It all began in 1962 with a research paper about shoes. Phil Knight had seen in a magazine that the Japanese had cut into the camera market dominated by the Germans and thought, as you naturally would, that the Japanese might be able to do the same with shoes. The idea continued to infatuate him even after his classmates and friends shunned the idea. He considered going to Japan, finding a factory that made shoes and pitching his crazy idea, how they’d devour it. So obvious, so simple he said. He also had the idea that if he wanted to live this crazy idea he needed to understand the world. Different cultures, language, food, drink, ideas! So, with his tail between his legs, he pitched his crazy idea to his dad for approval, but mainly for his money. “Okay Buck, Okay”.

The year is 1962 and 90% of Americans had never been on a plane. In fact, most had travelled less than 100 miles away from where they lived and here was a man with an idea who at 24 had never smoked a cigarette, taken a drug, been with a girl or done anything rebellious was about to jump on a plane to fly to the other side of the world, to a place that only 20 years ago was locked in a brutal war with his home country.

He was joined by his old Stanford classmate Carter who instantly agreed with Bucks' detailed itinerary. The first stop was a one-way ticket to Hawaii. They instantly fell in love, ditched the plan and got jobs. Selling encyclopedias. Buck was awful so he leaned on his education and went into selling mutual funds. He thought it was ok but the day came when he knew the time was right to continue the plan. The only problem was Carter was in love and didn’t want to leave. Stick or twist.

There are moments in life when you look back and realise that it could have all been different. When you look back at such moments you pray that you think you made the right decision. I remember being given my start date to begin Royal Marines Commando training but I’d also taken out some insurance on myself. I’d had an interview at the company my best mate was working for. I thought I’d blown it but days before I was supposed to travel down to Lympstone to begin training, I’d had a call from his boss offering me a job. I can’t remember if it was an easy decision or not but I couldn’t help but draw parallels with that pivotal decision I had to make with what I was reading here. Two best friends, the potential to see it out together, fun, familiar, comfortable or to throw the dice. To walk into the unknown, the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable. Twist.

Phil found himself in Tokyo and after a bleak first night bunkering down in a post-war battered industrial estate, his dad had arranged for him to meet some friends who hooked him up with some former American GIs who were running a magazine called Import. After he told them his idea and after they’d clued him up on Japanese negotiation do’s and don’ts he ran back to the hotel, packed up everything he had and headed to Kobe. Onitsuka, the maker of Tiger shoes his destination.

Phil suddenly found himself in a factory board room surrounded by Japanese men all wanting to hear what company he was from. Of course, there was no company. None whatsoever. After a couple of deep breaths and racing thoughts the words ‘Blue Ribbon’ blurted from his mouth after a wall in his bedroom that he unashamedly put all his track achievements on. This. This was what Nike would become.

Before heading home Phil globe trotted around the world. He went to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Vietnam, Manilla, Calcutta, Kathmandu, Bombay, Kenya, Cairo, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Paris, London, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, and Greece. It is here that he stood at the Temple of Athena Nike. The goddess of Victory. At home, months passed and the promised shoes from Onitsuka had still not arrived so Buck decided he needed a job. He became an accountant and was as miserable as ever. “Dear Carter, Did you ever leave Shangri-La? I’m an accountant now and giving some thought to blowing my brains out”.

In early 1964 they arrived and it was instant love. They were his Blue Ribbons he’d dreamed of. He sent two pairs to his old Coach Bill Bowerman. The only man more obsessed about what people ran in than Phil Knight. It’s clear from Phil’s own words in the book how much he loved Bowerman. He wanted to impress him. He respected him and wanted him to respect him too. A man who rigged his mailbox with a bomb to ward off a driver who kept screeching past his quiet, idyllic, mountaintop home and knocking over his mailbox. Your truck only gets blown up by a mailbox bomb once though for you to get the message.

Bowerman was impressed with the Tiger shoes and after the two went for a hamburger Bowerman said he wanted in on the deal. 50/50. Some time after that it changed to 49/51 in favour of Buck after contemplation from Bowerman.

Just as life was going all rosy Blue Ribbon’s first bombshell had landed. After being promised by the Onitsuka team in Japan that Blue Ribbon had exclusive rights to sell their shoes in America it became known to Buck that a man on the East Coast was also selling shoes and had also been given exclusive rights. A potential legal battle was neigh. And this guy was also a bit of a celebrity being an original Marlboro man model and high school wrestling coach. Great.

Back in those days, there weren’t mobile phones and email and after sending a letter without a response the next logical thing, at least to Phil Knight was to go back to Japan for a showdown. Buck called the Onitsuka headquarters and demanded a meeting which was refused but countered with tea at his hotel. He was invited back the next day to the headquarters where the main man himself Mr Onitsuka would be and decide Blue Ribbon’s fate. After some deliberation, Onitsuka drew comparisons between his younger self and this Western man sitting in front of him. Blue Ribbon would be granted 13 western states exclusivity for one year. It was time to celebrate. It was time to climb Mount Fuji.

On the ascent up Mount Fuji Buck met a girl and after spending two days with her it was time for them to go their separate ways. Phil left a lofty note saying that if she was ever in his neck of the woods she should stop by and say hello. A few weeks later she was sitting in his parents’ house. Surprise! They were infatuated with each other but then came the bombshell that Sarah’s parents didn’t approve of Phil. The romance cooled off and eventually the love letters too. Phil phoned Sarah to confirm what he already knew. It was over. With a final dagger, ‘You’re just not sophisticated enough for me’. Ha! Imagine.

In 65 Phil needed to get a job as Blue Ribbon was effectively negative cash flow. He would buy shoes with what he had, sell those shoes and buy more shoes each time more than the last but only as much as the bank would lend him. Using his accountancy skills this is where he got into the knucks and crannies of what made companies work or not. How they survived or didn’t. All signs were pointing to disaster for Blue Ribbon.

1966 saw Blue Ribbon’s first shop opening in Santa Monica, headed by Johnson, a man he knew from old track days. A man he loved and hated at the same time. A man he relied on but wished he didn’t have to in those early years. As the year was drawing a close one of Johnson’s many letters to Phil informed him that the Marlboro man was back selling shoes and advertising them in newspapers. Johnson told Phil that this time he had to crush the Marlboro man once and for all. Phil headed out to Japan to see his old ally from Onitsuka, Morimoto, but when he arrived he wasn’t there. He’d moved on. This time it was a new kid on the block called Kitami who would decide Blue Ribbon’s fate. After an impassioned plea from Buck to Kitami, begging, ordering him to grant Blue Ribbon exclusive U.S rights once and for all Kitami was concerned that they needed someone bigger than Blue Ribbon, more established. After all, Blue Ribbon didn’t even have offices on the East Coast yet. Or did they? Just like the first visit to Japan when Phil invented a company on the spot this time it was time to invent an East Coast office and just like that, Blue Ribbon had 3 years exclusive rights. To think what you could get away with back in the days before smartphones and the internet.

By 1967 Blue Ribbon had 4 full-time employees, a West Coast store in Santa Monica, an East Coast ‘store’ in Boston and a new office space back home. Life was good. By 68 the time had come for another job change. Bye, Bye accountancy and hello teaching. Phil had decided to teach accountancy at Portland State. It is here that a timid woman named Penelope ‘Penny’ Parks would enter into Buck’s life forever. Penny was a whizz kid and after accepting a job from Phil to help out with his ‘little shoe company’ the two quickly became fond of each other and fell in love. A marriage proposal soon ensued. Phil had to go back to Japan to negotiate once again but this time it all seemed rather easy. Kitami was more self-assured of himself and more warm of Phil. He was even invited to Onitsuka’s annual picnic. It was here that Phil would meet Fujimoto, a man who would have a life-altering partnership with.

In 69 Phil decided it was time to quit his teaching job and go full time at Blue Ribbon. Fearing Kitami wasn’t who he appeared to be Phil devised a plan that would later turn out to be a monumental moment in the history of Blue Ribbon. Phil Knight hired Fujimoto as a spy! Not only did he hire an insider to pass over information about Onitsuka’s moves and motives he also informed the whole of his Blue Ribbon staff during a memo he was doing it and why he was doing it.

By 1970 Buck and Penny had brought a child into the world named Matthew. Another trip to Japan had also secured 3-year exclusive rights to sell Onitsuka shoes in the U.S. A huge victory for Blue Ribbon. But, just like years before when it’s all going so well you often don’t see what’s coming and this time the nightmares were coming from his bank manager. His bank manager, Wallace, practically hated Phil from the first minute he met him. An old dog with a dogmatic view of accountancy that cash was king and growth was to be avoided. Begrudgingly he time and again gave Blue Ribbon what they wanted and time and again, year in and year out Blue Ribbon would double its revenue but when Phil went and asked for $1.2 million, the first time he’d hit the million mark that was the straw that broke the camels back. No, thank you said Wallace. You either put cash in the bank or you’re not getting a penny. This is the first time that Phil considered making Blue Ribbon public. After sending out some feelers to investors they were left humiliated with practically nobody interested and withdrew the offering. I can only imagine the pain those people felt in the years to come!

By the end of 1970 and fed up with his bank manager making him feel like a bum, Phil had seen an article in a magazine about Japanese Trading companies that were booming. Ironically, one was right across the road from his old bank. Nissho Iwai. After a brief introduction, they immediately offered what Blue Ribbon was asking for. A massive win and moment for the company. Good news seems to always follow bad news in the early years of Blue Ribbon however and once again Phil had heard that Onitsuka were breaking their promise of exclusive rights. However this time, his spy Fujimoto confirmed it was worse than that. They were looking to sever ties with Blue Ribbon for good just 3 months after granting them an exclusive 3-year deal.

In 71, fearing being cut off from his distributor Blue Ribbon went on the charm offensive and invited Kitami over to the U.S for a visit where they would wine and dine him and treat him like royalty. By the time he’d be leaving, he’d have no doubt in his mind who he wanted to sell his shoes in America. The trip started well but went quickly downhill when Kitami went on a rant to the bank manager demanding to know why he wouldn’t give Blue Ribbon more cash. Shook, they next moved to Blue Ribbons offices where Phil was trying to re-compose himself to talk through with Kitami about what had just happened however it was Kitami who went on another rant. This time at Phil. At Blue Ribbon. Sales were disappointing (doubling every year) but Kitami wanted more. Some people wanted more. He would not elaborate but when he asked to go to the toilets the briefcase he’d been carrying around and opening and closing, shoving papers in Phil’s face when cursing the sales of Blue Ribbon was left alone on the table. The temptation was too much and Phil decided to take the papers from inside the briefcase. Not his proudest moment. Kitami excused himself back to his hotel and when he left Phil and Woodell went through the papers. Onitsuka was looking at 18 potential new distributors. An absolute slap in the face. After sliding the documents back into the briefcase the next day Kitami had another move up his sleeve. He offered to buy Blue Ribbon’s controlling stake. If the first bit of betrayal hit like a slap in the face this hit like a train. Unsure what to say Kitami reminded Phil that if he said no, he would have no choice but to move to superior distributors.

Just as the dust was settling from the Kitami storm their bank and bank manager, Wallace had had enough. They were cutting ties with them with immediate effect. Ending the year with sales of $1.3 million the bank was severing ties with their cash cow and Blue Ribbon was on the brink of going out of business. After another flirt with Nissho, Blue Ribbon needed to secure another factory for when it inevitably went south with Onitsuka. He headed to Mexico and agreed to distribute a football boot. Not entirely a breach of contract with Onitsuka. The new boot needed a new company with a new company logo and it was Carolyn Davidson who for $35 would create one of the most iconic brands in the world. Ever. And as the story goes Johnson had a revelation in a dream he’d had when they were all trying to figure out the new company name. There were mumbles in the office, some weren’t sure, and some liked it. As the clock ticked down time was running out. The Mexican factory needed a name to finish the order and send out the boots. It’s at this moment, hurried and unsure that Phil Knight decided on Nike. The goddess of victory. The rest is history.

The Mexican factory wasn’t quite up to scratch and Phil needed more factories to hedge his bets so his bank, Nissho set him up with a contact to go touring Japanese factories. Upon entering Nippon Rubber, a gigantic shoe factory Phil liked what he saw and ordered some samples. They were pretty good and unlike when he was struggling to choose a name for his new company he had no problem naming his new shoes. The Boston, The Wimbledon, The Marathon, The Finland, The Cortez. Iconic Nike shoes that are still adorned and collected today.

It was dark when I walked out of the office building, into the crowded Tokyo street. A feeling came over me, unlike anything I’d ever experienced. I felt spent, but proud. I felt drained, but exhilarated. I felt everything I ever hoped to feel after a day’s work. I felt like an artist, a creator.

After a shoe convention in Chicago where the world first saw Nike shoes news travelled fast to Japan and Kitami. He immediately hijacked Phil one day, bursting into his office and demanded for him to explain this betrayal. Rehearsed, Phil casually said that he was hedging his bets in case Onitsuka did what they threatened to do and throw Blue Ribbon into the trash. And they did. After they found out they were selling Nikes in their California store Kitami severed the umbilical cord.

The end of 72 saw the Munich Olympics where masked gunmen took hostage and killed 11 people including Israeli athletes. Soon after this Bowerman would quit coaching for good after being reprimanded for his decision to call the Marines in for help after a fleeing athlete hammered on his door begging for help.

In 1973 Kitami and Onitsuka filed a lawsuit against Blue Ribbon in Japan for their perceived breach of contract. Blue Ribbon abruptly counter-sued in an American court. Between the prep for the legal battle, the shoe industry was practically grinding to a halt. Towards the end of the year, with a legal battle that could send them into oblivion and the supply and demand constraints of the shoe industry Penny and Phil brought another little boy into the world named, Travis.

April 14th 1974 was the day the Battle Royal with Onitsuka began and in the book, it reads as exciting as the classic court case film ‘A Few Good Men’. Buck didn’t exactly do himself proud when on the stand and Bowerman had decided to ‘wing it’ out of contempt for the whole debacle. Ultimately though, the judge had one thing and one thing only to go off. As he described, this is a case of he said, he said so ultimately all I have to go off is who do I believe. The fact that Phil had said he had hired a spy and had deliberately stolen documents from Kitami would prove decisive. To the whole of Blue Ribbons’ exasperation when on the stand Kitami had said he needed to use a translator. Not only could he speak perfect English but he, on more than one occasion corrected the translator in perfect English. He also lied about the 18 distributors he had lined up and it was his personal assistant Iwano who would tell the courtroom Onitsuka’s true ambition. Lying in court is bad enough but lying in a courthouse to a judge who goes by ‘James the Just’ was never going to go down well. The court ruled in Blue Ribbons’ favour.

The truth, who’d have known it?

By 1975, and after being laughed at by shoe factories around North America they decided to rent out a run-down old factory in Exeter, New Hampshire. Blue Ribbon had always lived ‘on the float’ but in spring 75 they were staring into the abyss. They owed Nissho a million bucks. A million bucks they didn’t exactly have. They were short $75,000. After some contemplation, they decided to drain all of their bank accounts and pay Nissho. And so they did. Not long after this, the factory workers’ cheques bounced and they barged into Johnsons’ office like an angry mob. Hoping help was on the other side of the telephone he got nothing but more confusion. To pay the factory workers their wage, which Blue Ribbon now didn’t have they lent $5,000 from a local company that made the boxes for their shoes and just like a Mafia Don adorned by local followers they handed out crisp $100 bills to the workers.

With the dust settling on that debacle Phil found himself in a conference room at Bank of California who, like Wallace before told him that they were severing ties with them. Worse, they were freezing their accounts as well. Now Nissho wouldn’t be getting their payment either. Nobody would be getting anything. Like a naughty schoolboy, Phil sat in the Nissho conference room and explained the situation to Tadayuki ‘ice man’ Ito and his friend Sumeragi. He explained that the bank had cut them off and frozen their assets and that they wouldn’t be getting anything. Phil never got on friendly terms with Ito but after lighting a cigarette he calmly took a puff, looked into Phils’ eyes and said ‘They should not have done that’. But before he was going to help he wanted to see Blue Ribbons books.

Ito and Sumeragi arrived at Blue Ribbon’s conference room and started to go through their books. The mood was sombre and there was a moment that Phil had been dreading. The moment was the realisation from Ito that he had been a sucker. The factory in Exeter was financed directly and secretly using Nissho’s money. When the penny dropped and Ito found out what Phil had done Phil feared it was over. “Really”? Ito said.

It was past midnight when they left and 9 am sharp when they arrived back the next day. Sumeragi asked Phil for a word outside and said that this may be worse than you think. Unsure how it possibly could be, Sumeragi told Phil that he sometimes held onto invoices because he believed he was helping Blue Ribbon by delaying them. Mortified, Phil and Sumeragi went and told Ito who was appalled. Sumeragi let out a passionate plea about how he loved Blue Ribbon and its people but Ito was cold and dumbfounded. Slowly, Ito came around.

By 77 Nikes were everywhere. They were worn by NBA players, football players, tennis players, Olympians and even Hollywood stars. They were turning over tens of millions of dollars leading up to 1980 but as ever at Blue Ribbon/Nike, trouble was never far away. Converse, Keds and some other shoe companies had gotten fed up with Nike’s success and resorted to underhand tactics to try to nullify their growth. The American Selling Price law said that the import fee on nylon shoes was 20% of the manufacturing cost unless there is a ‘similar’ shoe in the United States in which case, the fee would be 20% of that shoe. You can see how easy this law is to manipulate. Make a shoe in the U.S. that looks like a Nike and price it ridiculously high. This is exactly what they did and on that rainy day Phil opened the letter, customs were after Nike for $25 million! At first, he thought it was a mistake but the realisation that this wasn’t going away bulldozed all the previous problems Blue Ribbon/Nike had faced and instead built a skyscraper of a problem. Nike was going toe to toe not with Japan, an old foe but with the United States of America and they weren’t for being pushed around.

Nike tried everything. They tried lobbying Washington, sent troops to customs to try and win them over and even wrote a volume about the ASP and how unfair it was. The man behind all of this, the man who would decide Nikes’ fate was a feeble ‘Bereau-Kraken’ as Phil would describe him. He almost seemed to take it personally, like it was Nike who owed him the money. They did have one card left to play. A meeting with Oregon Senator Mark O. Hatfield. Blue Ribbon and Nike had been built by men from Oregon. They looked after their own and the Senator cut straight to the point after some small talk and asked how he could help. There had been many times Blue Ribbon and Nike had gone to war, gone to negotiate, gone to beg but they were unprepared for someone willing to help them. “We’ll have to get back to you,” they said. Imagine the confusion from the Senator!! Nike decided to go on the offensive and take their fate into their own hands. They produced a shoe, the One Line for dirt cheap and priced it just as cheap. This was now to be the new customs fee. This was the jab. Then they threw a left hook. A TV commercial about a little Oregon company who just wanted to sell shoes. Speaking of patriotism and justice! Then the haymaker, a $25 million antitrust suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Immediately they wanted settlement talks.

By 1980 Nike was trying to break China. They had a man named Chang who would help them. They also realised that they needed to fix their cash flow problem once and for all and it was in this year that an enlightened moment happened. Chuck, an advisor proposed going public but with a Class A share as well as a Class B share. That way they could turbocharge their growth and Phil could still retain control of the company. At the year’s first Buttface, they put it to a vote. It was unanimous. They were going public but first, they needed to settle with the government.

$9 million was the figure. An unfair sum but the government couldn’t walk away without saving face and this was the price to pay. Phil signed the cheque.

An eventful trip to China would culminate in the signing with two factories. The first American shoe company to do business with China in over 25 years.

The public offering of Nike was on the horizon and the whole team was touring the United States for investors. There were to be 50 million shares, 30 million left in reserves and 2 million class B’s. Phil would retain 46% and insider ownership would be 56%. The only thing to settle on now was the price. Negotiations ensued and the haggling commenced. $20? No, retorted Phil, $22 is our number. The next day, $21.50? Again, they were not going to budge from $22 and if Wall Street didn’t come to their senses Phil was ready to walk away. They hung up the phone and waited. And waited! Have they gone too far? What’s 50 cents a share? It’s the toil, blood, sweat and tears of the previous 18 years and this wasn’t a negotiation Phil was going to back down from. The phone rang,

Hello?

Gentlemen, we have a deal.

And just like that Phil Knight went from barely being able to scrape 2 cents together to being worth $178 million.

In the decades since its IPO, Nike has grown into a behemoth of a company. It’s a sporting legend, worn by legends, in every sport, from every country around the world. It’s front and centre at any Olympic games, at any final, on every street corner. To think what Nike has become, to think of all it overcame to get there is staggering. It’s even more staggering when you reduce it to its inception. One man, reading a magazine about cameras allowed himself to think big, to dream. I wonder if he ever knew how big that dream would turn out. I think he did.

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