A War cry
Blue Ribbon was going under fast.
Despite sales having doubled every year since they started selling shoes every bit of profit was being ploughed back into the business. Blue Ribbon had no capital. Banks refused to lend them more cash.
The factory in Japan that made the shoes they were selling had them cornered and wanted to buy the company. The owner of Blue Ribbon had no interest in selling and so the factory stopped sending their shoes. They were at a tipping point, and the employees needed to be inspired.
Having explained the desperate situation to his employees who were all worried, the owner of Blue Ribbon, Phil Knight, cleared his throat and said "In other words, what I'm trying to say is, we've got them (the factory in Japan) right where we want them."
"This is the moment we've been waiting for. Our moment. No more selling someone else's brand. They have been holding us down for years. If we are going to succeed, or fail, we should do so on our terms, with our ideas, with our own brand.
I won't lie to you, we are going to war. However, I feel in my heart that this is a war we can win. And if we win, when we win, I see great things for us on the other side of victory."
And so, NIKE was born and the rest is history.
What Phil Knight did that day was inspire his employees into action, on a day that could have gone either way.
Going to war on your day is the only way to achieve consistent success. Today I am going to raise finance on a great property deal. I am going to war.
How are you going to war on your day?