Phil Knight's memoir of building Nike from a $50 loan and a trunk full of Japanese running shoes into the most iconic brand in sports. A brutally honest account of near-bankruptcy, lawsuits, broken partnerships, and the decade of chaos before the swoosh meant anything. The best business memoir ever written because Knight doesn't pretend he had a plan — he just refused to stop.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.