It’s grotesque, almost abominous to compare two enterpreneurs, leave aside their literary work which can only be as pure as their efforts.
In the movie Pearl Harbour, Alec Baldwin addresses his flyers and says that nothing can be purer than the heart of a volunteer, I say add enterpreneur to that quote for enterpreneur is an extension of a volunteer in many ways.
I had the opportunity to cream 2 memoires in last couple of weeks, one leading to another. Pour your heart into it by Howard Schultz (Founder current day Starbucks) and Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (Founder current day Nike).
Both the books are amazingly compiled, one can’t just let go of them – they are real thrillers! Come to think of it, what they created with so scarce of everything available to them is unimaginable. The current day rate of innovation and start ups with so much available around – capital, human resources, knowledge and research resources is far lesser than what they could do back then!
Coming back to the heart of it, both the books start heart warming stories of Howard and Phil growing up days. While Howard had a terrible childhood, struggling to make ends and starting pretty early, Phil had the advantage to being born into a grounded family with solid value system and a support system to experiment with flambouyance and fall back on family in hour of crisis. This frame of mind, this approach has run across the breadth of the book. While Howard starts the venture to ‘not lose’ at any cost; hanging by the skin of his teeth, to not be ever poor again come what may. Phil starts with more of a passion and see where it took him, he was always at the edge, flirting with existential crisis all the time – no capital reserves, untrustworthy suppliers – an entire train of unstable dominos and they did topple over a few times. This approach also stems from the fact that Howard never had a mentor, a fallback guy – a fact that he laments though the book while Phil could always fall back on his dad for contacts, for advice and his legendary coach Bowerman who was also in fact partner. His Stanford contacts helped a lot as well.
Howard’s book is a melting pot of all the assimilated learnings put as conclusions to the stories that he narrates – the man takes himself quite seriously and that’s how the book has turned out to be – serious, full of lessons, pride, and best practices. Phil makes his book a ‘Joy Read’. They are just stories good, bad, ugly, laughable, passionate, thrilling – you take away what you want to – no best practices, no writing on the wall – pure passion, emotion, chaos- tonnes of it.
Howard is all about being the best, the first, the Gold standard, the ultimate retail experience. Phil on the other hand is all about brotherhood, camaraderie, 6 mile runs to vent anger, express joys, and myriad such expressions.
Though both the books will swirl in my head for long time to come what stood out for me was the diametrically opposite attitude to life that these great enterpreneurs have. Howard is about having arrived as the quintessential first bencher of the class, making a statement!
Phil on the other hand is all about having arrived quietly, humbly, right under the radar. An event by Phil in closing chapters of the book aptly describes his attitude. Phil and his wife meet Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at a theatre; someone passing by sees them and tells his companion – That’s Buffett and Gates, who is the third guy 😊That’s sneaking right under the radar. A perfect team man, right from the runners pack – It’s the team which sails, it’s the team that drowns.
Both these books are must read, they are real refreshers, thirst quenchers. A way out probably 😉
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