In 1932 Ole Christiansen was a talented carpenter. As times became rough, he had to close down his shop and lay off his employees. Shortly after his wife passed away and he was left with 4 sons to take care of.
Out of the stress, and anxiety he had to move fast and come up with an idea to bring home food for his kids. Because he still had plenty of good lumber saved he decided to start making handmade wooden toys. It was a brilliant idea since not a lot of people were in the same business. He was able to open a shop and rehire his past employees.
While he was excited about his new venture, he woke up one morning to having his shop on fire. Everything was gone, he was left with nothing. He needed to decide: do I give up, or continue to prevail?
The look on his kids’ faces gave him the urge to put himself together and push forward.
Although the wooden toy industry wasn’t picking up as he wished, he continued to look for new ideas. All this time one of his sons was right there next to him helping him out with the business.
When Ole was at a trade show someone gave him a small plastic brick. He took it and off he went with his imagination. He started experimenting with the bricks but the bricks were tiny in size and didn’t hold up well as they were played with.
Ole passed away in 1958 and his son took over.
Shortly after the warehouse will all the designs were burned in a fire and just like his dad, he had to make a decision: to move forward or give up?
He remembered his dad and followed in his footsteps, because what’s the worst that can happen? The warehouse is already burnt and he needed to start all over, anyway.
He continued to improve the plastic brick that his dad originally brought in. Now we see the revolutionary Lego design sold all over the world. They have multiple Lego resorts all over the world and continue to thrive.
Lego is now worth $14.6 BILLION.
The moral of the story is, what is your stress key factor that will propel you to stand up and start creating? Remember, your reasons to push forward even during times of fire and rough roads should be larger than your doubts.
It’s completely normal to go through trials, but you need to get up and either adjust your ideas or push further until you start reaching your goals.
If you want to start a business, do not wait for something magical to occur. There’s no better time than now.
