Nike's 10 Rules For Relentless Growth

Buried in an old internal memo is a rough, typewritten list titled Nike’s ‘rules’. No fancy branding, no PowerPoint polish—just 10 sentences that built a billion‑dollar growth engine. Treat this page like an operating manual for your own business, because every line is basically a direct order to move faster, ship bolder, and ignore the corporate fluff.

Nike’s 10 Rules For Relentless Growth

1) Our business is change. 2) We’re on offense. All the time. 3) Perfect results count—not a perfect process. Break the rules; fight the law. 4) This is as much about battle as about business. 5) Assume nothing. Make sure people keep their promises. Push yourselves, push others. Stretch the possible. 6) Live off the land. 7) Your job isn’t done until the job is done. 8) Dangers: bureaucracy, personal ambition, energy takers vs. energy givers, knowing our weaknesses, too many things on the platter. 9) It won’t be pretty. 10) If we do the right things we’ll make money damn near automatic.

How To Actually Use These Rules

Treat change as your core product: run experiments weekly, not yearly.
Reward shipped results, not perfect decks, forms, or meetings.
Aggressively cut bureaucracy, energy vampires, and side projects that dilute focus.
Normalize ugly work in progress—beauty comes after traction.
Make “the job isn’t done” your team mantra for follow‑through and accountability.

Brands Putting These Rules To Work

Nike famously turned this scrappy one‑page memo into a culture filter for hiring, product launches, and even partnerships.

Shopify channels the same ‘offense all the time’ mindset by shipping hundreds of small improvements instead of chasing one perfect release.

Creative Variations