Alan Arlt

Chamath on where Nike went wrong: "I don't aspire to be a fat person. I aspire to be Michael Jordan." "If I've learned anything in almost 30 years of business, you have to have a very clear North Star and stick to it. When I was growing up, Nike's North Star was very clear to me, which was mastery and excellence embodied through athletics. That was it." "I would see Michael Jordan, and I saw mastery and excellence. I would see Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, you name it, and it was mastery and excellence." "Somewhere along the way, mastery and excellence became too traditional looking. So they went to things that were just nothing to be associated with mastery or excellence. I don't aspire to be a fat person. Never have, never will. I aspire to be Michael Jordan. Always have, always will." "You can recenter around this idea that we're not here to make people feel better about themselves. Our success was when people imbued their desires of getting better through the lenses of these people that were incredible." "There are incredible athletes who give up their entire lives to master something. And I think that Nike should own that, and they should be proud of that. How do you sell it everywhere? Because everybody will want it." "But if you don't get the North Star right, you're going to miss out. And I think the North Star was clear: excellence and mastery."