Why Did Phil Knight Feel Guilty as a Father?

David Senra says Phil Knight felt the guilt was palpable, because every minute spent on Nike came at the cost of his family.

The boys were still small, in the '70s. Knight would walk in and his two sons would meet him at the door and ask where he had been. He told them Daddy had been with his friends, because he thought of the people at work as brothers and friends. They stared, confused, because their mother had said he was working. One son announced he would never wear Nikes so long as he lived, which was his way of expressing anger about the absences. Their mother tried to make him understand that Daddy was not absent by choice. Daddy was trying to build something so the boys would one day be able to attend college. Knight vowed, again and again, to spend more time with them, kept the promise for a while, then fell back into the old routine. He had promised himself he would give his sons more approval and more attention than his own father had given him. Looking at the time away, and how distant he was at home, he gave himself low marks.

Senra says one of the sons later dies in a drowning accident in his 20s. Knight also carries a regret the other way. He wished he could build the company all over again as an older man, after missing much of both sons' childhood.