Before NIKE became a $100B empire…

Phil Knight was selling shoes from his car trunk.

He straight-up lied to get his first deal.
Mortgaged his house multiple times.

Almost went bankrupt... repeatedly.

Here's how a shy accountant willed NIKE into existence: 🧵 Fresh MBA grad with zero products, zero team.

Knight flies to Japan and straight-up lies to Onitsuka Tiger executives:
"I represent Blue Ribbon Sports in America."

That company? Fictional.
But they gave him the deal anyway.

Sometimes the audacity to act creates the reality you need.

You know the movie.

But the real Chris Gardner story is even more brutal.

He was broke. A single dad.
Sleeping in subway bathrooms with his toddler.

Still cold-calling Fortune 500 CEOs like his life depended on it—Because it did.

The mindset every salesman needs. 🧵
1981. San Francisco. Gardner was 27 years old. Homeless, interning at Dean Witter (unpaid).

By night: shelters or sidewalks.
By day: suit up, show up, dial the phone.

He had 6 months to out-close 20 Ivy Leaguers for 1 job.  Zero backup plan.

What do the top 1% do differently?

This man made nearly nothing for 4 years, then he stopped pushing products and started studying the human brain.

The result was a $33 million sales empire across 4 industries.

Here’s how he did it (and how you can too): 🧵 Jeremy Miner's first 4 years in sales were average.

But, he didn’t get rich by calling more people or working more hours. He studied the one thing most reps ignore - human behavior.

Improve the quality of conversation instead of just working harder.

Sales is a game of skills.

No one thought people would buy wine online.

One liquor store proved them all wrong - with nothing but a website, email replies, Google search, and videos.

The results? They went from $3M/yr to $60M/yr in ~10 years.

This is how one company changed the entire wine industry: 🧵 In 1998, Gary Vaynerchuk launched - one of the first e-commerce wine stores in America.

Social media didn’t exist back then, so it was just early SEO, email and search.

He used early content marketing to go from 3M/yr to 40M/yr even before YouTube existed.WineLibrary.com

Sam Ovens dropped out of college, quit his job at Vodafone, and moved back into his parents’ garage.

He had $0 and 2 failed startups.

6 years later, Forbes listed his net worth at $65 million.

Here’s what happened in between and what you can learn from it today: 🧵 In 2011, Sam was living in a garage in New Zealand with no degree and no job.

He was almost $30K in debt, after his two startups PromoteYourself and ToTheDesk failed.

Everyone told him to get a job. These were dark times - he could hardly get out of bed.

Depression hit him hard.

At 17, Tony Robbins was a broke janitor making $40/week.

He spent $35—almost everything he had—on ONE seminar.

That single decision built a $6 billion empire.

The psychology behind this decision will blow your mind: 🧵 Picture this: 1970s America.

Robbins is 6'7", 280 pounds, living in a one-bedroom apartment. His stepfather beats him. His mother is struggling. He's cleaning buildings at night.

But then his landlord drops ONE name:

Jim Rohn. "Kid, if you want to change your life, go see this guy speak."