Why Did Phil Knight Ignore His Father's Advice?

David Senra says Phil Knight ignored his father's advice to stop selling shoes, and Senra calls that one of the most important decisions Knight ever made. The father loved him and still tried, many times in the early days of what became Nike, to get him to stop jackassing around with shoes and do something more respectable.

Knight's father worshipped respectability. He liked having things, and he liked his friends and neighbors knowing he had them. He liked being admired and staying in the mainstream. Knight did not come from an entrepreneurial family, and running was not mainstream. People would drive by runners and throw things at them because they thought running was a weird habit. His father believed that pursuing the idea would make Knight less respectable. Senra's point is that entrepreneurs cannot think that way.

Knight had two father figures, his dad and Bill Bowerman, his coach and later co-founder of Nike. The two could not be any more different.