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I did it. I finally finished Phil Knight's memoir, Shoe Dog, about his experience creating Nike. It's not uncommon for me to take several months (or years for some books, if I'm being honest) to finish a book. I'm often flipping between 5 or so all from pretty different genres. Some I fly through and I take my time with others. Without a deadline, I can savor or devour a book depending on what feels right at the time.
Shoe Dog has been with me for a good part of 2025. Veronica Hernandez and I talked about it way back in Interview #4 when I interviewed her back in April.
I got a particular spark of inspiration almost at the very end when he writes about encouraging young people to "seek a calling" instead of just a job. That hit me both as something that's been sticking out to me as I interview folks for Capitalism for Good as well as personally as I reflect on changes I, myself, have made in the last few years to build a career that better fits my life. It seems to be guiding people to fulfillment. Purpose. Meaning.
I'm often looking for the themes and through lines that separate some of these leaders I'm interviewing from the perception that frustrated s os much that I started this project to prove that there is a different and more beneficially impactful way tot think about how we make and spend our dollars.
When I've been frustrated or opposed to the decisions of my company's leadership or didn't understand the logic behind what I was being asked to do at work, I often heard a similar phrase "it's just a job" or "just do you job." Similarly, if I didn't agree with a way that. company was donating money to a current administration to keep them in good light or if I didn't think they were doing gn enough to combat climate change or plastic waste build up, I'd often here, "that's just business." It's not dissimilar to, "it's not personal,. It's just business." And if I'm being honest, I get it.
I was never really the employee that appreciated team-building efforts or happy hours or forced social time. Often, the events popped up in jobs where I felt a lot of deadline pressure, stress from both above & from clients, and was already driven to work long hours to keep up in the way that I wanted to advance and "succeed." I'd say, "don't take time away from normal work hours to thank me for doing my job. Give me more support, money, or time back in my personal life."
The boundaries between work and perusal life needed to be more clear & firm to be in order to be worthwhile in my brain. I felt that it was important to establish these boundaries so clearly because I needed to separate from the stress that didn't agree with me. Or that I didn't agree with. So, in order to protect my peace & sanity, the boundary needed to be clear and the clash felt big when my work and personal life were competing or conflicting.
In situations like Phil is describing, and the work environment that a lot of our leaders culture, they clash between the internal personal values and the external work values driven by someone whose values may or may not line up with yours in a complimentary way don't feel as different. It's not an earth shatteringly novel idea, but the practice and prioritization of finding a work situation that aligns so well with your values doesn't always come easy. For some, the impact and the trade of...
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