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原来耐克背后有这么惊天地泣鬼神的故事(内含福利)

刘彦 刘彦的英语天地TheRealDeal 2021-02-10

早就想写一篇Shoe Dog的读后感,结果一拖再拖。这回真的不是因为懒,而是太喜欢这本书了,不知道从哪里说起。



Phil Knight是Nike的创始人,全世界最富有的人之一。


↑↑Phil年轻的时候经常戴帽子给自己的品牌宣传,现在基本不戴了,因为Nike早已家喻户晓


他的成功来之不易,几度在倾家荡产甚至坐牢的边缘挣扎,所以书里当然有可以预见的鸡汤:


So that morning in 1962, I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy... just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.


I'd been unable to sell encyclopedias, and I'd despised it to boot. I'd been slightly better at selling mutual funds, but I'd felt dead inside. So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn't selling. I believed in running. I believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and I believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves.


The art of competing, I'd learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past. You must forget that internal voice screaming, begging, "Not one more step!" And when it's not possible to forget it, you must negotiate with it.


I wanted to be present, always. I wanted to focus constantly on the one task that really mattered. If my life was to be all work and no play, I wanted my work to be play. I wanted to quit Price Waterhouse. Not that I hated it; it just wasn't me. I wanted what everyone wants. To be me, full-time.


No matter the sport--no matter the human endeavor, really--total effort will win people's hearts.


Pre was most famous for saying, "Somebody may beat me--but they're going to have to bleed to do it." Watching him run that final weekend of May 1975, I'd never felt more admiration for him, or identified with him more closely. Somebody may beat me, I told myself, some banker or creditor or competitor may stop me, but by God they're going to have to bleed to do it.


I refined winning, expanded it beyond my original definition of not losing, of merely staying alive. That was no longer enough to sustain me, or my company. We wanted, as all great businesses do, to create, to contribute, and we dared to say so aloud. When you make something, when you improve something, when you deliver 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. More than simply alive, you're helping others to live more fully, and if that's business, all right, call me a businessman.



但最吸引我的是Phil的真性情。我读过很多传记,他是最敢于使用“爱”这个词的人。


比如在讲到他当年的跑步教练、Nike的合伙创始人Bill Bowerman时,他的原话是:


It's possible that everything I did in those days was motivated by some deep yearning to impress, to please Bowerman. Besides my father, there was no man whose approval I craved more, and besides my father, there was no man who gave it less often.


Those ice-blue eyes, which missed nothing, gave nothing. Everyone talked about Bowerman's dashing good looks, his retro crew cut, his ramrod posture and planed jawline, but what always got me was that gaze of pure violet blue.


It got me on Day One. From the moment I arrived at the Unviersity of Oregon, in August 1955, I loved Bowerman. I never stopped loving the man.


几乎脸红心跳有没有?我知道这几段读起来基情四射,但Phil对Bowerman的爱就像儿子对父亲的爱,没有理由,就是爱,就是渴望得到对方的认可。很单纯,很美好。


当初我在美国读书的时候,也遇到过一位超爱的教授。其实我现在都不记得他给我上的啥课了,就记得他看起来特精神、干练,肚子里的墨水特丰富,性格也随和,整个人散发着无穷无尽的正能量。我当时的感觉像极了Phil上面的几段描述。我做出了相当不可思议的举动——下课后特地跑去跟这位教授说:I just want to let you know that you have such dashing good looks! You could have told me you are in your 20s and I would have believed you! And of course, you are so good at what you do. I enjoyed your lecture tremendously. I think it's one of the best I've ever had.


我真的是连珠炮似的一气儿说完的。那位教授瞬间脸红,结结巴巴地谢了我,然后忙不迭地说自己哪有那么好。那一幕我至今想起来都会笑,因为我的行为很美国化,而他的反应很中国化。


当然,Phil还有很多类似的表达:


What I remember vividly is that Hayes grew red in the face, righteously indignant on my behalf, even though I was clearly in the wrong, and resigned his membership in the City Club. Such loyalty, such unreasonable and unwarranted fealty--that might have been the moment I fell in love with Hayes. 


The forgiveness Johnson showed me, the overall good nature he demonstrated, filled me with gratitude, and a new fondness for the man. And perhaps a deeper loyalty. I regretted my treatment of him. All those unanswered letters. There are team players, I thought, and then there are team players, and then there's Johnson.


如今这个年头,只要一个男人把love、like、fondness这样的词用在另一个男人身上,就会被定性为“搞基”。That's why I found Phil's candor so refreshing. He's just staying true to his feelings, and not worried about rumor mills at all. And for the record, Phil is straight. He's happily married with kids.


当然,真性情不只是“爱”,也有“恨”。比如:


Shoes, sports--plus an abiding distaste for Kitami. When I mentioned Kitami's name, Sole scoffed. "The man's an ass." 


We're going to be fast friends, I thought.


敌人的敌人就是朋友,就是这个理儿!太有共鸣了,嘻嘻。


I heard someone behind me say, "Jeez, Nike is really kicking Adidas's ass." It might have been the highlight of the weekend, of the year, followed closely by the Puma sales rep I spotted moments later, leaning against a tree and looking suicidal.


I no longer simply made Nikes; Nikes were making me. If I saw an athlete choose another shoe, if I saw anyone choose another shoe, it wasn't just a rejection of the brand alone, but of me. I told myself to be reasonable, not everyone in the world was going to wear Nike. And I won't say that I became upset every time I saw someone walking down the street in a running shoe that wasn't mine. But it definitely registered. And I didn't care for it.


After forty years, I've stepped down as Nike CEO, leaving the company in good hands, I think, and good shape, I trust. Sales last year, 2006, were $16 billion. (Adidas was $10 billion, but who's counting?)


我骨子里也是那种很爱较劲、很不服输的人,所以一边看一边笑。


而说到笑,整本书里让我哈哈大笑的地方太多了。Phil说他自己是典型的introvert,我在想是不是内向的人反而比外向的人更适合讲笑话。比如他描述Nike第一批核心团队成员的那一段:


I'd look around the table and feel overcome by emotion. Camaraderie, loyalty, gratitude. Even love. Surely love. But I also remember feeling shocked that these were the men I'd assembled. These were the founding fathers of a multimillion-dollar company that sold athletic shoes? A paralyzed guy, two morbidly obese guys, a chain-smoking guy?


从煽情到搞笑无缝衔接,我服!


有笑当然也有泪。Phil起起落落的人生足以让人感动落泪,但到全书临近结尾的地方,有一个非常惊人的情节,我可不是简单的落泪而已,是泪崩。考虑再三,还是不剧透了。如果你也想亲自坐一趟过山车,直接看书!


这本书还有不少可能只对我有效的共鸣点:


I ate it all, while reading the paperbacks I'd stuffed into my backpack. The Catcher in the Rye and Naked Lunch. I identified with Holden Caulfield, the teenage introvert seeking his place in the world, but Burroughs went right over my head.


看到说喜欢《麦田里的守望者》的人就好感爆棚!


I went to bed early, slept fitfully. Dreams of car chases, prison, duels--the same dreams that always plagued me the night before a big meet, or date, or exam.


心有戚戚焉。我也经常做可怕的梦,打打杀杀的相对少一些,但经常梦到考试作弊被抓,然后——惊醒!!!


I remembered that the best way to reinforce your knowledge of a subject is to share it, so we both benefited from my transferring everything I knew to Gorman's brain.


深有同感。我之所以能坚持着更新这个公众号(尤其是在零宣传、粉丝基数并不大的情况下),正是因为通过分享,某些知识点我会记得更清楚,自己也从中受益。


Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people's victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete, and in that convergence, in that transference, is the oneness that the mystics talk about.


我虽然没有太多的体育细胞,但一直很爱看比赛,尤其是网球。这段话完完全全说出了我的感受。


Nearly sixty years later, it gives me chills to recall his words, his tone. No one could get your blood going like Bowerman, though he never raised his voice. He knew how to speak in subliminal italics, to slyly insert exclamation marks, like hot keys against the flesh.


别人讲话他都能想着哪里斜体字了,哪里加叹号了,一定跟我是一国的!


"N-I-K-E," Woodell said.

I wrote it on a yellow legal pad.

The Greek goddess of victory. 


Sumeragi assured me the man was a genuine, head-to-toe shoe dog. I'd heard this phrase a few times. Shoe dogs were people who devoted themselves wholly to the making, selling, buying, or designing of shoes.


Our shoes and clothes are in five thousand stores worldwide, and we have ten thousand employees. Our Chinese operation in Shanghai alone has seven hundred. (And China, our second-largest market, is now our largest producer of shoes.)


I think of the countless Nike offices around the world. At each one, no matter the country, the phone number ends in 6453, which spells out Nike on the keypad. But, by pure chance, from right to left, it also spells out Pre's best time in the mile, to the tenth of a second: 3:54.6.


最喜欢这种冷知识了,都是聊天八卦的谈资啊,噢耶!



总之,这本书真的是全方位地满足了我想从一本自传里得到的所有东西:精彩的故事、生动的文字、动人的情绪、有价值的知识和教训。(当然,槽点也是有的,比如书里出现过很多次China and Taiwan这样的描述,用country来形容Taiwan的情形也一抓一大把。不过,这显然是西方意识形态的问题,跟书的内容好坏没什么直接关系。)


特别感谢贝贝提供书源!然后,*duang duang duang*


贝贝和我合作的新项目正式揭晓!我们都爱看书,也都希望能号召更多的人加入看原版书的行列,所以忙着照顾娃、看书时间捉急的贝贝会不定期提供书源,由我来看!我看完后在这里跟大家分享自己的感受。要是你看了我的分享后有强烈的兴趣,可以留言告诉我。我手头的这一本送给你(书费不收,但快递费麻烦还是要你出哈)!


如果有不少人索取,那我们会抽取一位最有诚意的读者,把书送给你。没被抽中的各位可以去贝贝的微店购买,肯定是良心价哦!(友情提醒:Shoe Dog相当贵,连京东上都要卖258元。如果在哪里看到很便宜的版本,一定是盗版的。千万小心哦!)只要关注“贝贝书屋”,就可以顺着主菜单进入她的微店啦↓↓



免费得到书的朋友,希望你读完后(或在读的过程中)也做些心得分享。Start a conversation, raise more awareness, and spread the joy of reading. That's all we want.


想要Shoe Dog实体书的筒子们,赶紧行动吧!就像Nike的那句名言——Just do it!


额外福利:点击“阅读原文”可下载本书的电子版(azw3格式,适用Kindle)


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