Be Authentic. Don’t Bullshit!

Shoe Dog, Nike creator Phil Knight’s memoir, is an excellent read and highly recommended. This excerpt, from the early days when the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports, jumped off the page for me:

“We’ve been doing business with you Blue Ribbon guys for years, and we know that you guys tell the truth. Everyone else bullshits, you guys always shoot straight. So if you say this new shoe, this Nike, is worth a shot, we believe.”

What’s so profound about this paragraph? The power of relationships and reputation.

In one short paragraph, Phil Knight captured the power of authenticity in business (and personal) relationships, and that example happened to occur at an extremely critical time in the history of Nike.

It seems there is less and less of what we can control or even influence in our lives and in business. However, there is and always will be at least one variable that is in our power to control, and that’s how we conduct ourselves personally and within/on behalf of the organization that employs us.

• People remember how they’re treated, or mistreated.
• If what they’ve been told is legitimate or bullshit.
• They know the straight-shooters they can rely on and the bullshitters to be wary of.
• The same goes for company image and reputation.

Yes, there are hiccups. People and companies are not perfect, yet hopefully judgments are made with the benefit of a fuller, longer view and assessment (insert sigh for rapid social media extremism!)

Bottom line: bullshitting is dangerous. It’s a slippery slope. Especially when it crosses into deception, misrepresentation and outright lying. I like to think it catches up to those master practitioners and some cosmic power eventually holds them accountable. Maybe sometimes, maybe not. There’s always hope.

For more on the pitfalls of bullshitting in business (and in life), and how authenticity can work to your advantage, check out the chapter in my book titled “I Don’t Know is Better Than a Bullshit Answer.”

(The featured image in this post was generated by Microsoft Designer Image Creator AI)