Shane Parrish

That's the trade-off at the heart of every company that succeeds.

You can stay small and preserve the culture, or you can grow and change the world.

And it's really hard to do.

And Phil Knight chose growth, and he spent the rest of his career mourning what it cost.

Decades later, after the customs war, the labor controversies, and the endless expansion into every corner of sports, the story circles back to where it all started.

In 2005, LeBron James asked for a private word with Phil Knight.

Nike had signed LeBron as a teenager before he had played a single professional game.

Millions of dollars on an unproven kid from Akron, Ohio.

And LeBron handed Phil Knight a gift.

It was a Rolex from 1972, the year Nike was founded.

And engraved on the back, it said, with thanks for taking a chance on me.

Phil Knight stood there holding that watch and the whole journey collapsed into a single frame.

His father took a chance on him when the crazy idea made no sense.

Bowerman took a chance over hamburgers at the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Bob Woodall's parents handed over their entire life savings.

With no interest, Nishu paid off his debts when the FBI was circling, and now LeBron was thanking Phil Knight for doing the same thing all the people had done for him.

The crazy idea only worked because people trusted the man crazy enough to pursue it.

And Phil Knight spent his entire career trying to be worthy of that trust.

Not always perfectly, not always gracefully, but relentlessly.

That's the lesson of Phil Knight.