Serendipity and Learning

I am sure, you, like me, are a member of a few ecommerce sites. Most of whom have all your personal data (but you don't know it yet). Be that as it may, for the present, they have your mail id and phone number. And if you are still among the hapless people who use the same email for registering with the ecomm sites and your work/regular email - your mailbox will be under sever duress by now. Ditto with SMS. Almost all of human communication has moved away from SMS - leaving the SMS to the bots. And what do we get in these SMSs and mails? Sale. Sale. Sale. Everyday there is a sale. Either there is sale of specs (the last time I bought a specs it was when my doctor recommended a change for me, not when there is a sale). Or there is a sale of donuts (yes, make statins miles free with them please, that may tempt me a few decades later). Or there is a half price sale of lingerie. Or apparel. Or electronics. Either it is Diwali. Or a Zillion Zollar Zale. Or the last 3 days...

There is something about this book - a quality that I am unable to put a word to. When you read this book, the story of Nike - and unlike other much heard about stories in the tech world, this is a story that I had never heard - there is a lot of reality in it. And thats what stands out - that it is real. Very very real. Real emotions. Candid. There is grit. There is struggle. There is tenacity. There are stories of breaking down. Going down. Not giving up. The one thing that endures is 'not giving up'. Ever. The story is of someone - Phil Knight (and his band of co-founders and the core team) and how he and his team get to where to got to. And to a large extent about Phil holds it all together. And the journey with its ups and downs and how they continued to stay there despite numerous obstacles professional and personal. About how each of them sweated it out to make it. As I read the book, I was unable to put it down. Shoes? Yes, a story of shoes - unputdownable. The n...