Larry Miller, one of the leaders of Nike, said that in 1965 he shot a man on the streets of American Philadelphia. At that time he himself was 16 years old.
According to Miller, in his early years he was not only a member of a gangster group, but also felt like an “outright bandit.”
The death of a friend who died in a skirmish with another gang made him go to the murder.
Miller decided to take revenge: he took a pistol and together with three friends, having drunk thoroughly, went in search of enemies. Retaliation did not work out – instead, the teenager shot at the first young man who came across on the street. As a result of a chest wound, 18-year-old Edward White died.
Miller served time in prison for murder and, according to him, never hid this page of the past from employers. At the same time, he never extended on this topic and it “ate him from the inside”.
To tell the truth to friends and relatives Miller decided on the eve of the release of his autobiographical book “The Leap: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom”, in which, in addition to a detailed description of this incident, there are many more revelations.
At Nike, where Miller has been working since 1997 and has achieved more than serious career advancement, they said they are proud of their employee and are convinced of the correctness of their policy, allowing many former prisoners to return to normal life.
“A man’s mistake, or even the worst mistake he’s made, should not affect what happens to the rest of his life,” Miller told a BBC journalist.
