#phil knight

[pookiestheone]

Phil Knight

[edgarmoser]

phil knight by bruce of LA, 2958

[capsulas]

Si alguna vez se trata solo de negocios, significará que es uno muy malo.

Nunca te pares. Página: 412

[silveragelovechild]

“AIR”

Neatly all sports movie tell a story about a team or individual working against impossible odd to succeed. They are almost always an underdog yet are triumphant by the climax. “Air”, starring Matt Damon and directed by Ben Affleck, is that kind of movie.

You might think “Air” is about one of the best athlete in the world but that isn’t entirely correct. In fact, except for some archival footage, you never see Jordan in the movie (but you’ll see a tall figure from behind several times tho).

So what’s the movie actually about? It’s about a couple of middle aged White Guys working against impossible odds to sign Michael Jordan to an endorsement deal at Nike. Let that sink in.

Sure Viola Davis is featured in an important supporting role as Jordan’s mother. Chris Tucker has a supporting role as well. In fact both are pretty good. But the bulk of the film focuses on Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, and Ben Affleck (as Nike founder Phil Knight).

Although the film kept my interests, there’s no suspense to the story telling. And there are time that the screenwriter relied heavily on Wikipedia to flesh out the dialogue (how else would we know that Phil Knight paid someone $35 dollars to design the Nike Logo).

I didn’t realize “Air” will be released on Amazon Prime later, otherwise I would have skipped paying for a ticket.

(The biggest mystery in the films is why Ben Affleck wore such a bad wig playing Phil Knight. What is due to constraints on the movie’s budget? Or a sly commentary about the actual Phil Knight?)

[randomrichards]

CLAYDREAM:

Man with the moustache

Put claymation on the map

Flew too close to sun

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Ben Affleck's "Air" is a movie that trades on the idea that there was a time, believe it or not, when Nike wasn't the totally dominant, world-crushing corporate behemoth we all know today. Once, it was a scrappy, can-do sort of underdog, fighting the good fight for a piece of the market share against the giants of the industry, Converse and Adidas.

Things all changed for the little scrapper in 1984, when, against all odds, they managed to sign a young, up-and-coming rookie named Michael Jordan to an exclusive shoe deal, which ended up becoming possibly the single biggest business decision in the history of retail.

If this sounds like a thin premise for a feature film, you aren't necessarily wrong -- though, for the sneaker-head market, this would be the equivalent of "Ben-Hur." However, this Amazon production, helmed by Ben Affleck and starring his buddy Matt Damon as visionary Sonny Vaccaro, then the head of talent acquisition for Nike's fledgling basketball division, at least seems to understand exactly what it is: an amusing time capsule, steeped in the irony that we all know just how pivotally successful this venture eventually becomes (to this day, the Air Jordan brand, the film claims, is a $4 billion a year business).

[edrake]

Composition Book Chronicles - The Greatest Of All Time

[indeedgoodman]

[symphonyoflovenet]

I had an aching sense that our time is short, shorter than we ever know, short as a morning run, and I wanted mine to be meaningful. And purposeful. And creative. And important. Above all … different. I wanted to leave a mark on the world.

Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

[pookiestheone]

Phil Knight

[mightdeletelater]

the t word ... it's coming sooner than we think

*this was originally posted on my substack, which you can view here

We're heading towards naming the first trillionaire. In the pursuit of a fair democracy, the escalating influence wielded by the ultra-wealthy poses a disaster we probably cannot tolerate.

Most business reports predict the imminent emergence of the world's first trillionaire within the next decade. This isn't surprising, per se. We know that quite a few of the current wealthiest individuals on the planet have doubled their fortunes since 2020.

But I can't even wrap my head around a trillion.

Twelve zeros. 

1, 000, 000, 000, 000

The implications of minting the first and how it differs from the wealth held by past oligarchs raise questions about societal consequences.

I remember the first time I went to the Rockefeller Centre in New York and just being so shocked at the absolute size of it. I spent the next few weeks obsessively reading about the family, specifically John D. Rockefeller and how he cumulated his wealth. He is honestly a great starting point in understanding the evolution of extreme wealth. As the world's first billionaire, he capitalised on the burgeoning demand for gasoline, establishing a monopoly in the oil industry.

But billionaires today are more characterised by wealth derived from knowledge, ideas, and speculative ventures. And their earnings are categorised as "unearned" by tax agencies, denoting income derived from investments. Unlike us ordinary people who pay double-digit tax rates on income and asset profits (if we're so lucky to have any), billionaires can borrow against their growing investments without incurring taxes, enabling them to pay lower tax rates than the average person. 

Present-day moguls revel in their nearly divine authority over the politicians they finance, the platforms they possess, and the industries they have essentially monopolised. We know that rich people are not getting smarter. Policy failures are giving them a helping hand. There is no system to stop individual wealth from becoming something like that guy in the movies who gets first place at the local fair's eating competition – wolfing down massive portions of the economic pie. The arrival of a trillionaire is concerning when you think about the ongoing struggle for economic balance and a robust democracy.

Current billionaires influence various spheres, owning media outlets that shape public opinion and contributing to political campaigns that align with their interests. Quite a few of them have held or sought political office, often supporting conservative positions that protect their wealth. Classic example: Elon Musk on TwiXer arguing that housing is too expensive because of immigration.

The loopholes in our inheritance tax system are so extensive that billion-dollar fortunes can seamlessly transfer across generations, evading taxation altogether. Take the Nike founder, Phil Knight, who successfully moved over $6 billion into a trust for his descendants without incurring estate or gift tax. Or Bernard Arnault, the richest person on Earth. Arnault owns LVMH, the luxury goods company, through holding companies under his control. In 2023, dividends totalling approximately $3 billion were disbursed to the Frenchman's holdings by LVMH. These dividends are subject to minimal taxation since corporate entities technically receive them. So Arnault can effectively utilise these funds as if they were directly deposited into his personal bank account, provided he channels them through other incorporated entities, be it for his two children or acquiring additional companies.

We are regressing amid the global challenges of wars, plagues, and economic crises. And it is so evidenced by the imminent rise of the trillionaire.

So, now that we know they are coming sooner rather than later, the question becomes how do we ward them off? Our governments need a 'radical' approach. Radical is, of course, in quotation marks because I don't actually think legally capping the maximum amount of wealth an individual can possess is really that extreme. But, you know, others would disagree. 

Establishing a tax system that maintains wealth distribution within sensible bounds is entirely feasible. Effective taxation of accumulated wealth, actual income (including unrealised profits), and intergenerational wealth transfers could achieve this. A worldwide initiative urging countries to enact a global 2% tax on billionaires' surplus wealth is being led by economists. 

The aspirations of ordinary individuals worldwide are often sidelined to fund the ambitions of figures like Bezos, Musk, Knight, and Arnault. From space exploration, Martian settlements, and underwater civilisations to Western-style ghost towns, floating cities, and the Metaverse, these are all hobbies pursued solely by oligarchs. They resemble perpetual thirteen-year-old science fiction enthusiasts who never grasped the disparity between utopian ideals and dystopian realities.

Bezos himself admitted it himself. After his inaugural space voyage, he thanked Amazon's employees and customers for footing the bill.

This revelation was remarkable: to imply that people labouring for 12+ hours a day, migrant workers being forced to work under unlawful conditions and delivery drivers urinating in water bottles are all a fair price to pay for Bezos to get to play with his toy rocket. Such is the essence of oligarchy; their jet fuel costs the simple price of everyone else's blood, sweat and tears.

The impending emergence of a trillionaire class will relentlessly extract from the masses, and as we edge closer to unparalleled wealth accumulation, addressing economic inequality necessitates encompassing tax reforms, fortified democratic institutions, and global initiatives for redistributing resources. How can these steps not be imperative for nurturing a fairer, more sustainable future?

[capsulas]

NUNCA TE PARES: LAS LECCIONES DE UN EMPRENDEDOR VISIONARIO

"Nunca te pares" es un libro inspirador que presenta las lecciones clave de la historia del emprendedor Knight.

El libro es una fuente de inspiración y aprendizaje para cualquier emprendedor que quiera seguir sus sueños y crear algo nuevo. Estas son algunas de las lecciones que se pueden extraer de la historia de Knight: No te conformes con lo establecido Knight no quería seguir el camino convencional que la sociedad le imponía, con un trabajo fijo y horarios rígidos. Quería hacer algo diferente, algo…

[diaryofbookquotes]

Sometimes you have to give up. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius.

Giving up doesn't mean stopping. Don't ever stop.

Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

[wwwdotideasnmoredotnet]

Spring into Spring with These Quotes

Creativity can be found in some surprising places. From advertising and computer science to art and statistics. It’s what we do with it that matters. Below are various quotes from different people expressing a feeling or an observation about how creativity has impacted them in some way, directly and indirectly. Enjoy the quotes for March as we spring into Spring. Play by the rules, but be…

[amaised44]