1: In 2014, Nike announced it would release the “P-ROD 8,” American skateboarder Paul Rodriguez‘s eighth signature shoe.
P-Rod became only the fourth athlete ever to release eight unique signature shoes. The other three athletes? Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.
“Having a signature shoe with Nike is an extremely rare feat,” Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy write in 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less.
“To have a Nike shoe that carries your own name or nickname on it” is a rare occurrence, Dan and Ben note.
Exhibit one: Bo Jackson‘s Nike shoe was not called “The Bo.” Instead, it was named the Air Trainer SC.
“Back in 2005, Nike was making its second attempt to succeed in the skateboarding market and subculture,” Dan and Ben write.
“The 21-year-old P-Rod was one of the world’s top skateboarders at the time,” they note, “and Nike made P-Rod an amazing offer to join the Nike team. Despite being an incredible opportunity, P-Rod had long dreamed of having his own signature skate-shoe, and Nike did not make him that offer.”
Reflecting back in 2022, P-Rod said, “My dream when I started skateboarding was to have a signature board and a signature shoe. To me, that’s wholly completing the pro skater dream. So, if I didn’t get a shoe, I feel like my dream would be incomplete.”
And that’s not what Nike was offering. His manager told P-Rod, “They’re not planning to do signature shoes.”
His response? “I was literally like, ‘Nope! I’m perfectly happy where I’m at.’ I wasn’t planning on leaving eS, [his previous shoe sponsor]. I was just young and stubborn and stuck to my guns.”
Looking back now, he says: “I literally think about that story and can’t believe it. What if they had just come back and said, ‘Okay, nope.’ What would have happened? I’m just grateful they came back and believed in me that much. And there we went, 10 signature shoes later.”
2: P-Rod has achieved 10x results as one of the greatest skateboarders ever.
“He’s unique and technical,” Dan and Ben write. “His style precise and powerful. He’s innovated and transformed what ‘stakeboarding’ means to hundreds of thousands of skaters.”
He’s “had an extremely long career for a skateboarder,” they write. “He’s never plateaued or gotten stuck but has continually evolved and innovated himself, his focus, and his craft.
“At age 14, after just a few years of skating, P-Rod submitted his first ‘Sponsor Me’ video to Andy Netkin, the manager of a local skateboard shop named One Eighteen in Los Angeles. Andy immediately saw P-Rod as a future superstar.
“At age 16, P-Rod got sponsored as an amateur by the skateboard company City Stars, and two years later, premiered in their long-awaited skate video Street Cinema. He even got the closing part of the video, which is usually reserved for one of the most esteemed pros on the team.
“At 19, P-Rod was featured in the prestigious Transworld Skateboarding 2002 video In Bloom. In the beginning montage of his video part, there is commentary from skateboarding legend Eric Koston, who describes P-Rod: ‘His whole deal is natural, like it’s hard for him to fall. He’s just manufacturing tricks out like a conveyer belt. Cause it comes way too easy for him. He’s got something going on that’s pretty good. That’s for sure. Cause it works. He learns so fast. Whatever it is he does, it looks like he was meant to anyways. Beware of the flare. Just watch out.”
3: What’s the secret to R-Rod’s success? He operates within what Dan Sullivan calls his “Unique Ability.”
“Our Unique Ability is the purest and most honest expression of ourselves,” the authors write. “It’s the center of who we are. . . Our Unique Ability is how we create value and wealth that is unique and specialized. It’s our radically unique way of doing what we do, such that no one else can compete with us even if they wanted to. Our Unique Ability is also our unique vision and purpose—our ‘why’ for what we’re doing.”
More tomorrow when we will do a deep dive into Unique Ability.
_____________________
Reflection: Have I ever articulated my “Unique Ability,” my radically unique way of doing what I do?
Action: Journal about what I believe my Unique Ability might be.