Author: Phil Knight
If you are curious about the title, let me get that out of the way. Shoe god refers to a person who "devotes himself completely to the making, selling, buying and designing of shoes.” From the start of the book it is clear that Phil Knight is a self-professed shoe dog. What was revealing to me was how difficult it was to start his business back in the sixties. The first few chapters describe the life of a “man with a start-up company living on a shoestring budget”. I had no idea that starting a company and running it could have been so different back then.
For example, Phil describes the many times his bankers gave him grief that he was growing too fast. This notion seems completely foreign in comparison to today’s startups where, often-times, the only thing that matters is how fast your user-base is growing. It doesn’t matter if you are bringing in revenue or are profitable. All that counts is that you have a user base that is growing exponentially. Unfortunately, the world in which Nike was establishing itself was completely different than the one we inhabit today.
Early on in the book it is clear that Phil is passionate about shoes. His whole life revolves around his business and the people he works with. There are many a lesson for folks who want to start their own company. There is no substitute for passion and it is important to hire people who are like-minded and have the same passion as you. If there is one thing that is guaranteed with a startup is that there will be twists and turns. Nike has its fair share of them and Phil does an amazing job with the narrative so you are constantly turning the pages to figure out what comes next.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and there are valuable lessons to be learned as well.
Author: Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini is the expert when it comes to the psychology of influence. He has spent his entire career researching and understanding the many different ways in which we wield influence over one another and his book “Influence” has sold millions of copies all over the world and worked its way into Fortune Magazine's list of “75 Smartest Business Books”. So pretty much all of the business world has been waiting with bated breath for what he has to share in this field after almost 3 decades since his first book. I too lost no time in picking this up and devoured it from cover to cover.
Whenever I read a book I spend a few minutes looking at the title and trying to imagine the thought process behind how the author came up with it and what he/she was trying to convey with the same. With this one, there is no question that Prof. Cialdini has nailed the title and potentially introduced a new word into our vocabulary. “Pre-suasion” conveys the importance of setting the stage, before you attempt to persuade someone on your thought, idea or product. Before you make your pitch to someone else, it is important that they are in the right frame of mind to receive it. Prof. Cialdini explains how our mind works in associating things together and exploits that association to get the listener in a more accepting frame of mind.
He has plenty of examples that make the book easy to consume and I found it to be a pleasant read. I wouldn’t say there was something revolutionary or earth-shattering, so walk, don’t run to your nearest bookstore to pick up a copy of this.
Author: Emelyn Rude
The numbers are staggering. Across the globe a total of 27 billion chickens are eaten every year with Americans consuming an average of 90 pounds of chicken a year. Without a doubt, for most of our lifetime chicken has been the de facto meat on the table. However, it didn’t always use to be this way. A couple of centuries ago, most Americans didn’t eat much chicken because it was too expensive. It wasn’t until the advent of incubators and large scale chicken farms that the bird became so affordable. Chicken farming has become so effective that it takes only 12 pounds of food to turn into 6 pounds of edible chicken with the whole process taking a little over 7 weeks.
This book takes you through the history of mankind and its intersection with chickens. For several thousand years it was just a niche item on the menu. It is only in the recent past that it is overtaken other livestock in becoming our principle protein. In 1985 chicken became more popular than pork and it is as recent as 1992, a mere 25 years ago, that it has overtaken beef in consumption.
Learn all about this and many more chicken tales in this book.
