How a 17-Year-Old From Tehran Turned $750 Into a Toy Empire | Isaac Larian

36:24We went to Akihabara, bought every Sony Walkman. Now I expanded to Yamaha DX7, etc. and brought it here and kept selling it and published the mail order catalog. But you were not, I mean, were you direct to consumer at this point or you were wholesaling? No, I was wholesaling. You were wholesaling. I was wholesaling, but there was at the time, back then, a lot of small electronics chains and stores. At that time, CMC was the biggest, not Best Buy. Yeah, yeah. They were in other business. And they were small and they were all overspregmented. Yes, yes. Isaac, you know, Melissa and you have had a lot of incredible guests on Big Shot.

37:03You're a remarkable storyteller. Thank you. Where did you learn how to be a great storyteller? It's not, you know, life is a real life. It's just, you know, I think it comes naturally when you experience things in your life. Now, there are people who are victims, and those who are victims are never going to make it. They're never going to make it, because always, I could have said, okay, it's my dad's fault. This guy's fault, nothing. I cleaned my head and I fought. And next, next. And the reason I became good at storytelling, because I told and taught my children. I taught my children. And this is like one of the things when my kids were growing up, I have three of them, as I told you.

38:00You know, I told, I always said, never say no. in the house. And fear is an effort. Don't ever have fear or say about fear. So I said, if my kid might ask, really, we can do everything? Yes. Like, I said to them, you can walk on water. So it was somewhere we were sitting next to the pool. And my daughter says, dad, look, look, look, and he starts jumping and walking and sinks in. And then, you know, my son did it. Oh, did I do that? Yes. More. Next time, next one more steps, more steps. So I like to share back to the people. I, you know, Cal State LA, where I went to school, they invite me for these entrepreneurial classes also at UCLA.

39:02And I go and I think people like to listen to stories. So come 200, 220 people. And the first thing I write on the whiteboard is, in order to succeed, you must embrace failure. In order to succeed, you must embrace failure. Because from failure you learn to get up and do it again and do it again and do it again. And relative to your childhood, nothing can actually hurt you because you've had the worst in the world. You can go lower. You got beat up. You watched your father get beat up. You're in Tehran as a Jew. Talk to us. My cousins are wealthy and rich and go. And you're getting beat up. I want to talk about the progression from selling Walkmans to what seems to be your first big break which is really Nintendo.

39:57Tell us that story. So I became known, first of all I named the company ABC International. No more surprise gift back. The reason was at that time there were yellow pages. So your ABC you were the first. Ah, very smart. Yeah, and then I went and registered the name 1-800-ABC-INTL. So... International? No, the 800 number, so people can call and place orders. So I started publishing catalogs and sending it to all these small stores, etc. My business became$70 million a year. How old are you at this point? 24, 25. Incredible. Yeah, it was incredible. And I became the target of many, many Japanese electronic companies, Roland, Yamaha, all of them.

41:02But I am in Japan. The story of Nintendo is that I am in Japan, and I was a distributor for Atari. Atari went bankrupt. So I'm reading Wall Street Journal now, and Nintendo has become a$5 billion business. In Osaka, from Osaka to Kyoto, where Nintendo's headquarters still is, my train is about an hour. So I get on the train. I go to their headquarters. And I go to the front and give my business card, and I said, I need to talk to the export manager. And she picks up the phone and says, there was something in Japanese. I said, he's not here. What's his name? Again she picks up, he's not here. So I said to myself, she's talking to somebody, somebody's here.

42:12I said, okay, I'll wait until he comes. So I sit in the reception at Nintendo, and every female, she looks at me, faces red, and talks to somebody. And if you've been to Japan, they work like a machine. At 12.30 everybody goes to lunch, at 1.30 they come back. So at 12.30 the whole group is out, and there's one tall guy who goes to talk to the receptionist and looks at me and he comes and says, I am, no he didn't say that, he left, they went for lunch, and the receptionist says, lunchtime he said I'm not hungry so poor girl had to sit there because I was sitting and you were not gonna leave until I meet you're gonna meet someone you're in Japan you're gonna do this I'm good all the way down from yeah credit I'm gonna do this so they come back and this tall guy comes over to me and says I am mr.

43:21to Dury I never forget his name and I am the export manager what do you want? I said, I want to buy a Nintendo game and watch and sell it in America, Latin America, because you don't sell it there. And he says, not interested. And I said, wow, can I have your business card? So I gave him mine, and the Japanese are polite, so he gave me his business card, and he says, not interested. I came back to LA. I banked with Mitsui Manufacturers Bank at the time. I went there and opened a million dollar letter of credit, full cable, attention Mr. Tudori, of Nintendo. And two days later I called and I said, Mr.

44:11Tudori, this is Isaac Larian, did you get my letter of credit? Yes, I told you I was not interested. I said, I wanted to show you how serious I am. And Japanese, when they take your money, they don't want to give it back. Yeah. So he says, okay, we will sell it to you only in Japanese packaging. And I said, can you give it to me in bulk? Because I had to repackage it here. No, only in Japanese packaging, and it takes three months. I said, okay. So I had bought some samples and I went and found a packaging company and I changed, I put my company name, Micro Games of America. It was Nintendo of America, Micro Games of America.

45:00Same fonts, same type of things. And repackaged this. Then I hired, at that time Nintendo used to have reps and I hired a rep who was here, Ron Bernard who passed away. And I said I have the rights for a Nintendo game and watch out. So you're serious? So he helped me price it, etc. But to be clear, you didn't have the rights? No. They said yes to the rights? Right. Okay. All right. And it was exclusive? No, they don't do that. So it's a fascinating story here. So first year, I imported and sold$23 million worth of Nintendo game and watch to everybody. Walmart, Target, everybody, everybody. And made 32 % margin.

45:57But in consumer electronics, you're lucky because you have branded names to make 8%. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. How did you make 32 % when everyone else made 8 %? No, you made 8 % of consumer electronics. Yes, but how did you make 32 %? Because Ron Bernard told me that, hey, you need to pay rep 5%. This is how we're going to price it. And Ron was working for Nintendo. You poached him? He was a rep. He was a rep, okay. He was an independent rep, and then he knew all the other Nintendo reps around the country. Were you early? I mean, presumably Nintendo had multiple reps trying to sell into Walmart at the same time.

46:33Well, Nintendo did not sell Game & Watch. These were the first handheld games. This is before Game Boy. Yes. So you just beat everyone to the punch. No, because Nintendo started here with Mr. Yamaguchi, who was son-in-law of the owner, and he started selling Nintendo Game & Watch in America and he failed. He failed. So now I am there. I'm successful. And never mind, I almost went out of business because I didn't know toy business was a fashion business. So I didn't come up with new ones and a company called Tiger Electronics when it got the rights for Batman and made Batman handheld games, made in China instead of Japan and sold it at my cost.

47:28But anyways, so one day I got a call, his name, I'm sorry, his father-in-law's name was Yamaguchi, his name was Mr. Arakawa. I'm Mr. Arakawa of Nintendo, can you come to Seattle? Sure. So he said, you need to tell me how you succeeded to sell Nintendo Game Watch in America and become successful. Because I started Nintendo America selling that and I failed. I said, okay, I got lucky. He said, no, no, no, you got to tell me. I said, I imagine I'm going to succeed. I'm going to sell these and succeed. That's what happened. There was no secret sauce. He was trying to figure out some hack, but there wasn't a hack.

48:23The hack was work ethic. Right, exactly. Well, but I'll challenge that for a sec, because when you were selling tchotchkes, you said I got impatient and I realized I wasn't going to make money. So you manifested that, I'm sure, just as much as this. So why did this work and that didn't? The other one would have worked if I was patient. Nintendo Game & Watch was fast. You could get rewards right away. I mean, when I waited tables, the day I wanted to quit my job was, I worked in the restaurant, there was a restaurant, LAX, on the top. The day I wanted to quit my job was the most dreadful day of my life.

49:05Do you know why waiters and waitresses stick to the same job for many, many years? Because every night they get instant gratification. You get tips to take home. And you don't have to wait. So this is really the reason. But I did get lucky because now they had come with Nintendo family system to replace Atari. And they had succeeded with that. And I was basically running on their coattail. yeah so that's how it became successful so after that meeting nintendo told me they will not sell me any more game and watch you were getting you were doing too well they wanted to do it themselves so they they saw the success of this and mr arkawa i became friends with him later on and he said you showed that this could be successful and that's how we came with gameboy That was, you gave us the inspiration to come with Game Boy.

50:18Incredible. And then of course Game Boy would change the entire company for generations. Many times you're cut out now. Yeah, I'm cut out. So I said, what do you do? So I am cut out and say, what am I going to do? I go get the licenses for Pac-Man, for Star Wars, nobody knew what Star Wars was at the time. a bunch of other licenses, and I go to China to make handheld games to sell, to replace what I lost with Nintendo. That's what I did next. And then I got into licensing, and I found out, you know, my kids were young, 1993, Power Rangers was the biggest thing, and my son Jason and his cousin Jonathan they're all over Power Rangers so shit what the hell is Power Rangers I found out I went to Haim Saban who owned Power Rangers and I I said I want to have the license to sell electronics not only handheld games that walkie-talkie etc I got that license for$40 ,000 Amazing.

51:33And I started making Power Ranger electronic products, including I invented the first walkie-talkie that looked like a Power Ranger and a mask that became a voice changer, which Hasbro still makes. They don't pay me any royalties, but they still make it for Star Wars, et cetera. That was my biggest break with the Power Ranger. Why were you so successful in licensing? Not always successful. I was just inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame. And it's really unfortunate with that, because people like Walt Disney are part of the Hall of Fame. A lot of big people. And I said in my speech, my son actually said it in this speech, She says, my dad always told us for every success there is ten failures.

52:33Nobody talks about the failure. I had so many failures, but I didn't let the failure pull me down. I focused on the successes. And I started, so I was working for Namco, for Pac-Man, for Lucas for Star Wars. And then after three, four years, they would say, okay, no, thank you. Lucas says, now we're going to give the license to somebody else. So I says, I'm going to do my own. I'm not going to work for the Japanese anymore. I'm going to do my own brands. That's how I started making new brands myself. So the reason that I want to talk about Bratz and I want to talk about LOL dolls because I have two girls and in my house you are like the Mick Jagger of my home.

53:30You are iconic and legendary. I will say that I was unclear how the jump happened from Nintendo to Bratz and I guess correct me if I'm wrong Isaac but you wanted to own the IP yourself because it couldn't be taken away. Is that right? Yes. So the first doll I did called, I named it Singing Bouncy Baby. And I've never made a doll before. An inventor came to me and I said, okay, I'm going to try this. And this inventor had gone to Hasbro, Mattel, everybody said no to him. I like this toy. I went to China, went to a factory, makes dolls. He says, you make this doll for me for$6, I buy 200 ,000 pieces.

54:12They came back the next day, they said 625. I said, okay. I said, I don't know how to develop it. You got to do all of it. So that doll, we sold a million pieces. It became family fun toy of the year that year. That's how I got into, now it was mine. It was my own brand. And that's how I got into the doll business. But there was a buyer at, have you ever been to Bentonville, Arkansas? I mean, sorry, yes, I have. Before this, before Shopify, I was a schmonte guy. So I was trying to sell every buyer in every store. So you'd make Aliyah to Bentonville, Arkansas. Exactly. So at that time, to go to Bentonville, Arkansas, you had to fly to Houston, take one propeller and go to Fayetteville and drive 60 miles to get to Bentonville, Arkansas.

55:08and there was nothing. Now it's changed. Well, now Betteville has a massive airport. But everything. And I go there and I meet with this guy, Ron Stoll. I have sold now this singing bouncy baby to Toys R Us, to Target, to Kmart. And you needed at that time to have four big customers to be able to afford to go on TV, go on Nickelodeon and advertise. And Nickelodeon was the place you wanted to go. Yeah, Nickelodeon was the place about that time. So how things have changed.

55:58So they didn't believe a newcomer. I took a risk and shot a TV commercial. without having one sale. So I go to Ron Stover. I show him the TV commercial, show him the product, retail$19.99. He said, I'm not going to buy it. I said, come on, Ron. I came all the way from L.A., and I have three, two at that time, I had two young kids, and give me a break. I need this. He says, can you give me a reason? He said, you're Micro Games of America. Why would I buy a doll from a company called Micro Games of America? He said, oh, so you like the commercial, you like the ad, everything. You just don't like the name.

56:55I'm going to change the name to MGA. That's where MGA comes from. He's on the spot. Yeah, on the spot. He says, you're too fast. Okay, I'll give it a try. So, wow. So that's how I got into the doll business. But then, Ron, I'd come up with the next... So he's a buyer. He's a toy buyer. Yeah, he was a buyer. So I come up with the next one, next doll. He was buying. I said, come on, Ron, you were successful with singing Bouncy Baby, or you got lucky. This again, Ron. Huh? We're going to be like, this again, Ron? Yeah. So he took me to a Walmart store, Walmart number one, which is right across the street from the Red Bull.

57:40And they have 98 feet of Barbie in coffin boxes. They covered them. So he says, Isaac, they own 98 % market share of the doll. I don't have to do anything. They come and do everything. They do the planogram and I make my bonus, et cetera. Why would I risk and put something else in there? He said, Ron, what if I come up with something that's better than that? He says, if you do, I will buy it. He said, give me your card and write in the back. I come back to my office and I said to my team, give me something to go after Barbie, but not a knockoff. I want something very different. Because you knew a knockoff wouldn't do the trick.

58:34Wouldn't it? Other companies had done and failed. So they kept showing me concepts and looked like Barbie. I said, no, no, no. One day, September 1, 2000, my daughter Jasmine, I used to take my kids to work during the summertime. So she's there. She's, I think, 10 years old. And Paula Garcia, who is still with me, comes with Isaac. I think we got something to go after Barbie. OK, let me see it. So this guy walks in, Carter Bryant was his name, with some drawings, et cetera, and a dog that looked like an alien, really looked like an alien. And he says, and he named it Bratz. He said, hmm, that's interesting.

59:33Where do you work? He says, I work in Mattel. And I knew Mattel was litigious. So I said, you're working in Mattel. I don't want this. So he says, no, I made this in Missouri in 1988, and I have proof to show you. So he showed us the proof, etc. I said, okay, let me think about it. And in the meantime, my daughter is kicking me under the... So Carl leaves and says, Dad, this is the coolest thing that I saw. He's not blonde. You need to make a doll like that. Okay, so we called Carl Bryan. We made a deal with him. And we said, okay, he was making$50 ,000 a year in Batal. I said, we give you 55, 10 % more.

1:00:23You come full-time, work on this, I give you 3 % royalty on everything we said. So that is how Bratz started. Wow. You went back to Bedinville. And Ron Stover says, I'm not going to buy it. I said, Ron, come on. I did it. So he said, Ron. I said, here, I did what you asked for. And he says, it's not gonna sell. Only blonde dolls sell. And so this time I went to Lee Scott, who was the CEO. I've known every CEO of Walmart. And it's not enough time for me to tell you that story. How did that happen? I met Sam Walton, up to now a friend with John Furrier. So I go to Lee Scott, I bypassed the DMM, the GMM, etc.

1:01:19I said, Lee, what the hell is going on? Is it my accent? Or is this guy doesn't want to buy anything. So he calls him and says, come on, throw a bone to Isaac. So Ron comes and says, OK, we will buy it, but only Chloe, which is the blonde one. And I named the dolls Chloe, Jade, Sasha, and Jasmine. Jasmine, my daughter, and Sasha was her best friend. So, and it has to be, the price, we're going to sell it at$10, and it has to be$7,$8 cost. I said, Ron, my, he said, your cost should be about$4.00. So I said, wrong. My cost is actually$2.25. But if you want to buy this, the price is$10.50, and you buy all four, I won't sell it to you.

1:02:23And so he bought that, and it became. So Lee Scott had a big, big, big vendor meetings. I didn't know that. He told the story. He says Isaac was persistent for us to get Bratz because he wanted other vendors to come back. So that's how... That's amazing. But did it not sell at first? I thought you had to mortgage your house at one point. No, so this is what happened. So now I have Bratz. I don't know if you know Planogram, but you have 98 feet. So fucking Ron put me in the worst corner. Left side, bottom. Nobody could see it. But Toys R Us was enthusiastic, Target was enthusiastic about it, and we launched Bratz actually in Spain first before anywhere else.

1:03:19And Toys R Us in Spain, the product sold out so fast that they told everybody else in Toys R Us. So Deborah Trello, who was the buyer, says, okay, we want to buy this FOB. Fine. He gave me a$6.5 million order, FOB. And now we are in USA, and the product, she calls me in October. So we're going to cancel that order. We already made the product. We're going to cancel that order because the early shares are not as good as Spain. So I said, I got a make or break. So I went and got a second mortgage on my house. And didn't tell your wife. Didn't tell my wife. How did you know that? No, we didn't. Yeah, I didn't tell my wife.

1:04:13And I put all that money on Nickelodeon,$1.5 million. Bought the ad. No, we were advertising, but instead of 110 GRP, we went to 220. I doubled the GDPR, and the product sold out. So Deborah Traill calls me in November, before Thanksgiving, and says, you know, we're going to take that merchandise after all. I said, Deborah, those goods I sold already. I didn't know where else. But we have some domestic. If you want to buy it domestic. It's expensive. Yeah. So instead of$10.25, they were selling it at$14.99, it's now$14. He says, we can make$0.95. I said, well, you know, then don't buy it because Bratz will bring food traffic to your store.

1:05:13To buy other stuff. To buy other stuff. So he went and talked to his boss, Michael Goldstein, CEO, etc. So finally, I said, okay,$13.75. and I sold it to them and with that profit I paid off the mortgage and Brad's became in 2001 won the toy of the year and by the end of 2004 we had 63 % market share and Barbie had dropped to below 40 and they were in crisis yeah and then shit hit the fan we should build this up a little bit yeah so the shit hit the fan Ron Stover called me and said Isaac you have awakened the giant yeah the sleeping giant so be careful I don't know what the hell he's talking about and he was really referring to Mattel going after you yes referring to Mattel So Mattel, now they had crisis, and all of these is public record.

1:06:18So they do research, they create a document that says house on fire, and the Mattel stocks dropped from$42 to below 10. So... And the claim was about Bryant? It was about the creator? Yes, and before they even go there, so they knocked off Bratz with a product called Mycene. Looked exactly like Bratz. It didn't succeed. Then they came up, they didn't get it, they still don't get it. So they came up with another doll called Flava. And Flava was basically urban. They thought it was all about urban. The Wall Street Journal reporter showed me this and said, what do you think? I said, this is called, and you can look it up, it's online.

1:07:06This is gangster Barbie and the only thing that's missing is the cocaine vile. It's gonna be DOA. She says, what is DOA? It's a dead on arrival. So she wrote this and from what I heard that Bob Eckert who was the CEO of Mattel and And you know, frankly, I shouldn't maybe have said that. But that got him going, his ego. So he goes and hires Queen Emmanuel, the biggest, most litigious law firm in America, frankly. And he says, I want to put this guy out of business. Letigate him to death. That came out at the trial. So they filed this lawsuit, and this was the biggest fight of my life. And we went to two trials.

1:08:11It's a long, long, long, long story, but we lost the first trial,$100 million. We won the next trial, got$330 million verdict, because fucking Mattel, sorry, I'm using it. We found out they were coming to our showroom pretending they are... Fires. No, that they are journalists. And getting our information, they were Mattel employees. They had the instruction manual, 14 pages, about how to steal other people's trade secrets. They had bought a camera, we got the receipt, a spy camera, this size. So they would come to and take, so that's how we won. It's amazing. But this trial went on for 10 years and we did our...

1:09:08Did that not exhaust you? I mean, it must have been like... I mean, I know you like to fight and that's part of... Well, it's awesome. You ended up in the hospital at one point. You were suicidal. I was. What happened, this was, you know, their goal was to literally litigate me to death. And I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong. That, and my childhood came to my eyes. The bullying, the mortals. You remember lifting those weights again when you were a kid, you know, in Iran. Exactly. I said, I'm going to fight. I'm going to fight. So we are fighting. But we had a judge who was Steve Larson.

1:09:53My luck, a devout Catholic with an altar in his house with six daughters. And when he got this case, he told people that, oh, this was divine intervention that came on my desk because he thought Brad's dolls are going to... Inappropriate or something like that. Yeah, yes, exactly. Crazy, crazy. Can you imagine? We're talking about 2004, 2005. Anyways, he was ruling everything against us. And he ordered a settlement. So we go to this settlement meeting. And the mediator and my lawyers, they say, Isaac, you put in a good fight, you're not going to win, you're going to go out of business, you're going to destroy your business, destroy your family.

1:10:49Give them brats. You can create, you're creative, you can create something else. So finally, at the end of the day, I said, okay, I give you brats. So Bob Eckert said, I got to get the board approval. So this is a Monday. And we'll let you know by Friday. I go home, literally, I felt that somebody has raped me. Somebody has raped me. and I had a heart situation and my wife called 911 they take me to Cedars-Sinai so I was there overnight they were money to how old you at this point you must be 50 years old yeah you know I mean yeah so and so I'm sorry and in my wife is He's trying to consult with my family, OK, we can make something else.

1:11:58And I'm crying, but I cannot get this out of my face. So I come back, I go back to work on Wednesday. Friday I get a call from the mediator, and he says, Isaac, we have Bob Eckert here and everybody else, so they have a counter proposal. I said, what kind of proposal? We made a deal. So they want, on top of Bratz, they want$25 million. I said, yes. And the media said, you accept? I said, no. Fuck you, Bob Eckert. Now I'm going to use that$25 million to kick your fucking ass. And I called him. He came from Kraft. So I called him, you cheese face. It's like that sign felt where George thinks that the comeback's in the car, like the jerk store called.

1:12:59Wow. So, you know, one thing that keeps coming up here, I mean, you mentioned this term earlier, manifest. If you sort of look back at your life, Isaac, like, you manifested this. Right, I did. But also, when it came time to a fight, to negotiate, you always were happy to fight. When you knew you were right. When you knew you were in the right. There's also another element which is relationships. You talk about the buyers or the CEOs. I know John also. I'm on the board of NRF. I'm a person with John. So I know John very well. I've known a lot. I know Brian Cornell from Target. Ultimately, these are the largest companies in the world.

1:13:35But it sounds like you also understand that there are just people running them. And how do you work on those, how do you marinate those relationships so well? So with Walmart, what happened, when I first went there, I was selling, not even Nintendo, I was selling walkie-talkies. So I'm sitting in the reception area at that time. Every goddamn chair is different. And it's lunchtime and waiting for the buyer to call me out. And this guy with the red pickup truck with jeans and a brown dog walks in, looks around, comes and sits next to me and says, hey, what's your name, young man? I said, who are you?

1:14:21What's your name? He laughed. He says, I'm Sam Walton. I said, oh, sorry. Must be nice. I didn't know that. I'm Isaac Larian. He said, what do you do? I told him. He said, come back to my office. So he took to my office, to his office, and he says, you know, I like you, that you ask for my name first. Where do you live? I said, in LA. He said, do me a favor. Can you every Friday call me? This is my direct number. Go to Sears, Kmart, all these. That was their competitor. tell me what they're doing right and wrong and call me and let me know. So every Friday I was calling Sam Walton. Wow, that's amazing.

1:15:07So I became friends with Sam Walton. Then he introduced me to David Glass. To Doug. To Doug, et cetera. So Doug, and so did Brian Cornell for my Hall of Fame induction. Phyllis will send you the video. They did a nice tribute. Beautiful, beautiful. But you also had a lawsuit at Walmart as well. One time, yes. Because they had knocked us off. So we had that and then the other thing that happened is when we were selling a Nintendo game and watch, the buyer, you were in the business, they kept some of the money for the future, etc. So I wrote a letter to Sam at that time there was no faxes. I said, if the richest man at that time was the richest man in America, needs my$42 ,000, you can have it.

1:16:07And he told the buyer and they paid me the next thing. You know, Isaac, before you go on, I want to go back to something you said earlier, which is you said that you cry a lot. Yes. You know, you're also clearly a fighter and you don't back down. When we think about fighters, we think toughness. We think, you know, we don't think crying a lot. What have you learnt about that part of you and squaring those two contradictions? I think crying comes from strength. Because you show your emotion. We're all humans, we have certain emotions. Why should I hold it back? It doesn't make me weaker, it makes me stronger.

1:16:43Yeah, it's like vulnerability actually shows real strength. There were a few, when Dave and I were doing our research, there were a few quotes that kept coming up, which some of them make total sense now having talked to you. you know um future favors the bold fish fortune fortune favors the bold makes total sense everything you've said um you were meant to be an entrepreneur right totally makes sense but there's this other one which is that i don't work for money yeah i work because i love it yes that there is so we are also lifelong entrepreneurs for us entrepreneurship changed our lives in incredible ways but your entrepreneurial journey has been there's been a lot of fights there's been a lot of stress it landed you in the hospital hospital at some point as well can you talk about what you love about this stuff i i just you know i love children i love kids and you know my wife i've been married 42 years and she says oh she you know your wives especially in beverly hills they become your analyst so they she says oh you're leaving your inner child maybe some truth to that.

1:17:52You didn't have a childhood. The only toy I had was a kite that I made with a stick and old newspaper. So I get a joy from making toys and see kids happy. I have now five grandchildren. What do they call you? They call me Baba G. I want to just kind of wrap up here. Two things come out here. Given your upbringing and given your life so far, Isaac, if you lost everything now... I can do it again. That's what I was going to ask you. You can do it again. I can pick up and do it again. Does that give you confidence? Yes. Yeah. I think that to us, that is true confidence. And you know that you can do it again if you have to.

1:18:42You don't want to, but if you had to do it, you could do it again. I could do it again. But, you know, I asked you this question earlier, and I just got to ask it again. You said fear is the F word. Right. When did you stop being afraid? I'm not sure if I'm still, I think I'm still afraid. Interesting. So, but I don't let fear drive you. To drive you. That's right. Yeah, yeah. I let fear give you more energy. So you may still have the fear there. Can I ask you this? it's like the crying and the fighting. Do you feel at this stage of your life that you've made it? Do you have enough now? What do you mean enough?

1:19:24If you're talking about money... No, I don't mean money. I mean the entrepreneurial... I still want... Look, in the history of toy business we are the... I'm proud to say we are the only toy company. The only toy company in the history of toy business that has come up with 100 brand new brands from scratch. 100. And 14 of them have gone to do between 100 million to 10 billion dollars. To 10 billion. Incredible. So. And I mean, and you're private. I mean, all your competitors for the most part are publicly traded companies. We have no debt. Yeah. Why did you say private? Because I hate the banks.

1:20:03I don't want to. You don't want to have partners. You don't want to have. And I need to be able to talk. Do you think if I was public, I would be able to sit here, probably have two lawyers sitting there, say, don't do that. You want to have the freedom of that. But Harley's question is even more relevant. With all the success, is it enough? No, I'm not done. You're not done yet? I'm not done. You should see the video for my Hall of Fame speech. Your team headed to us. It's incredible. Three weeks ago. I said, you know, most people who stand here at my age are died. I said, but please, not yet.

1:20:41Not yet. This isn't a funeral. I want to have a few more toys to make. So, you know, part of the reason Big Shot exists is to inspire the next generation of Jewish entrepreneurs. What's your advice to them? Believe in your dream. Do what you love. Not what your parents tell you to do. Do what you love. and if you fall, get up, dust up and do it again. If you have a conviction that something you want to do is real, don't give up. Keep on doing it. Get better and better. It will pay off. Isaac, Harley loves to say we stand on the shoulders of giants. Thank you. Growing up, we both look to incredible entrepreneurs like you for inspiration, which is part of the reason we started this show.

1:21:29Thank you. You guys have done a great job. Thank you very much. You make us proud. We're just getting started too, just like you.