Alex Nicita

I read Shoe Dog for the third or fourth time. This episode will make you want to run through walls. My favorite quotes from the new episode: 1. Somebody may beat me, but they’re going to have to bleed to do it. 2. It was us against the world, and we felt damn sorry for the world. 3. The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us. 4. The roadside was littered with cautious, conservative, prudent entrepreneurs. I wanted to keep my foot pressed hard on the gas pedal. 5. I just didn't want to lose. Losing was death. 6. I was no longer making Nikes; Nikes were making me. 7. The problems never stop. 8. Beating the competition is relatively easy. Beating yourself is a never-ending commitment. 9. Our ads didn’t focus on the product, but on the spirit behind the product. 10. Obsessives were the only ones for the job. The only ones for me. 11. It seems wrong to call it “business.” It seems wrong to throw all those hectic days and sleepless nights, all those magnificent triumphs and desperate struggles, under that bland, generic banner: business. What we were doing felt like so much more. 12. We wanted, as all great businesses do, to create, to contribute, and we dared to say so aloud. 13. You are remembered for the rules you break. 14. You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you. 15. Don't settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt. 16. The better you get, the bigger the bull’s-eye. It’s not one man’s opinion; it’s a law of nature. 17. Entrepreneurs have always been outgunned, outnumbered. 18. Front runners always work the hardest, and risk the most. 19. No future, no past. All is now. 20. He always went against the grain. Always. 21. Belief is irresistible. 22. I could not bear the thought of losing. 23. The world is without beauty when you lose. 24. We didn't believe in letting tradition slow you down. 25. Someone somewhere once said that business is war without bullets, and I tended to agree. 26. I was fascinated by leadership under extreme conditions. 27. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. 28. I've never been a multitasker. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered. 29. I flat-out didn’t want to work for someone else. I wanted to build something that was my own, something I could point to and say: I made that. 30. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop. 31. When you make something, when you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer, or better, and when you do it all crisply and efficiently, smartly, the way everything should be done but so seldom is—you’re participating more fully in the whole grand human drama. 32. I honestly wish I could do it all over again.