NIKE
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When he first graduated from business school, Phil Knight took a $50 loan from his father and set up a company with one simple purpose: to import high quality running shoes from Japan at a low price.

In 1963, the company's first year of operation, Knight sold the shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant, earning $8,000. Today, the company he founded, Nike, makes $300 billion a year.

In the age of start-up companies in which we live, Knight's Nike is an object of all-embracing adoration, and its trademark is much more than a logo. It is a symbol of beauty and grandeur, and is one of the most recognized logos in the world.

But Knight, the man behind Swatch, had been a mystery for years. Now, in a surprising autobiographical book, modest, without inhibitions, funny, and beautifully written, he finally tells his personal story.

In Shoe Dog, Knight describes the many risks he has taken along the way, the demoralizing failures, the ruthless competitors, the countless skeptics and haters and the hostile bankers - and the thrilling victories and the many times he was saved by the skin of his teeth.

Phil Knight, one of the world's most influential managers, founded Nike, Inc. and served as its CEO from 1964 to 2004. Since then, he has continued to serve as chairman of its board of directors. Knight lives in the state of Oregon with his wife Penny.