LEGO is the biggest toymaker in the world.
It makes billions of bricks each year and is worth over $40 billion.
And it all started with a carpenter who was left to care for his four
sons after his wife passed away.
To make ends meet, he used his workshop to make wooden toys — until
it burnt down for the third time.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
In 1891, Ole Kirk Christiansen was born in a village called Filskov in Denmark.
While he was one of 13 children and his family was poor, he
managed to get a basic education.
Later, he became an apprentice to his older brother, Kristian,
and learned carpentry.
He was immediately hooked on the craft and worked as a carpenter for several years.
Eventually, he saved enough money to open his own workshop in Billund.
Soon after, he met the love of his life: Kirstine Sorensen.
After getting married, life was off to a blissful start.
They welcomed three sons over the next few years and were
looking to expand their business.
But before they could try, the opportunity was snatched away.
One day, Ole’s sons accidentally set a pile of wood chips on fire.
The workshop and the family’s home blew up into flames.
Fortunately, the family survived.
They rebuilt the workshop and later welcomed a fourth son.
But years later, tragedy struck again.
The Great Depression hit, and Ole lost his business.
That same year, Kristine passed away.
Widowed and unemployed, Ole struggled to raise his four sons alone.
It wasn’t until he decided to make use of his leftover wood that his luck changed.
But first, he would have to risk losing everything.
A New Risky Business
One day, Ole used his leftover wood to build new toys for his sons.
After seeing how happy it made them, he was struck with a new business idea.
With many struggling from the Great Depression, inexpensive
toys were in-demand.
Immediately, Ole and one of his sons, Godtfred, got to work.
They made wooden trinkets, cars, and animals.
While Ole discovered a newfound passion and his toys were popular, it wasn’t
enough to keep the business afloat.
It even slid into bankruptcy.
Ole’s siblings could not bear to sit back and watch.
So they offered to help under one condition: stop making
toys and get a real job.
Ole turned down their offer.
Instead, he forged ahead with building his new business.
He refused to cut corners and stood by his personal motto: Only the best is worthy.
Eventually, word spread that his workshop made wooden toys of the finest quality.
One day, a man from out of town decided to see for himself.
He was a wholesaler from Fredericia, who was impressed with Ole's toys.
Before leaving, he placed a big order to sell them within
many stores for the holidays.
“It's going to be a good Christmas this year,” Ole thought to himself.
To complete the order, Ole rehired all the workers that he was forced to
lay off during the Great Depression.
They worked day and night to ensure the toys could be stocked in time.
But suddenly, they were instructed to stop.
“We’re in big trouble,” Ole told Godtfred.
In a mailed letter, the wholesaler informed Ole that he filed
for bankruptcy and could no longer buy the toys he ordered.
“What are you going to do?
What about Christmas?
We can't even afford food,” Godtfred asked.
“I’ll do it myself,” Ole insisted.
“I'll drive around selling the toys.”
Ole wasn’t a natural salesman.
But he did manage to sell all of the toys and buy plenty of food for Christmas.
While Ole’s new business was off to a rough start, each challenge proved
when there’s a will, there’s a way.
Never-Ending Highs and Lows
Two years into Ole’s toy-making business, sales had yet to pick up.
So Ole decided to come up with a catchy name to attract new customers: LEGO.
It was inspired by the Danish phrase leg godt, which meant “play well.” He later
discovered LEGO was similar to a Latin phrase that meant, “I put together.”
Ole’s idea worked and helped the business expand to making 42 different toys.
But a few years later, tragedy struck again.
Germany invaded Denmark and led to many struggling financially.
Even worse, history repeated itself.
Ole’s own financial difficulties were followed by a fire that
burnt his workshop to the ground.
All of his drawings and models were destroyed.
Ole started to lose hope.
Everything he had worked for was gone overnight.
But being responsible for his children and workers inspired him to start over.
From then on, he kept an eye on new and exciting opportunities.
One day, Ole travelled to Copenhagen to attend a tradeshow.
There, he discovered a plastic molding machine.
It was a new invention spurred by manufacturers looking to make cheap
alternatives during World War II.
Ole was intrigued and decided to buy one.
It was a huge risk since toy sellers believed kids would never want to play
with something cheap-looking like plastic.
Still, Ole was inspired by a plastic toy he had seen before.
It was called the Kiddicraft Self Locking Building Bricks.
Ole believed that plastic toys had potential and decided to make his own.
They were initially called Automatic Binding Bricks and were
later renamed to LEGO Bricks.
Unfortunately, the toy sellers were right.
Kids weren't interested and found the bricks hard to play with.
They didn’t snap to each other very well or stick together.
But something told Ole to keep trying.
Meanwhile, Godtfredt was in England attending a toy exhibit.
There, he met a man named Troels Petersen, who was the head of a big shopping center.
As they talked about the toy industry, Troels shared his disappointments.
“There’s no system in anything,” he told Godtfred.
Godtfred didn’t argue with him.
Instead, he listened and started to think about how LEGO
could take on the challenge.
“We need to put system into play,” Godtfred thought to himself.
“Children have only been offered ready-made solutions.
They need something different that will strengthen their
imagination and creativity.”
Over the next several months, LEGO launched the System in Play.
It contained 28 different sets and eight toy vehicles.
They were designed on the principle that all blocks should
interlock and be interrelated.
A few years later, Ole and Godtfred made progress with
improving the bricks’ design.
They patented a stud and tube design that allowed kids to snap the bricks
together without them coming apart.
Kids were hooked, and sales picked up.
But at the same time, Ole’s health went downhill.
Only one month after the new design was introduced, Ole had
a heart attack and passed away.
He was only 66-years-old.
Godtfred was now responsible for the company and carrying his father’s legacy.
But first, he would have to endure the same trials.
The Fatal Sign
Two years after Godtfred took over LEGO, history repeated itself.
The company’s wooden toy warehouse was struck by lightning and caught on fire.
Godtfred had to make a choice: ditch the wood for good or move ahead with plastic.
He chose the latter.
It wasn’t an easy decision.
Godtfred and his brothers got into many disagreements.
He later bought them out and became the sole owner of LEGO.
That year, Godtfred decided to take the business to new heights.
He purchased land just north of Billund and built an airport.
The goal was to make it easier to take LEGO global and
business partners to visit.
Only one year later, LEGO’s toys were imported to the U.S.
Afterwards, Godtfred proved he was more than capable of carrying his father’s
legacy by opening a theme park and launching instruction manuals and figures.
By the early 1990s, LEGO controlled nearly 80% of the market.
Sales increased at a double-digit rate while the industry hovered around 4%.
Towards the end of the 90s, they made their first billion in sales and
began to license their toys — first to Star Wars and later Winnie-the-Pooh.
Today, LEGO is the biggest toy company in the world and its brand is
more famous than Hasbro and Barbie.
Many credit the company’s success towards Ole and Godtfred’s strength to rebuild
over and over again with persistence.
“Life is a gift, but it’s more than just that.
Life is a challenge,” Ole would say.
This is the story of how a carpenter and his son survived bankruptcy and
three fires and turned a tiny workshop into a $40-billion dollar company.
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