Q1: How successful did you think Lego would become? 

 

At first I hoped for enough food to help his family manage through the Christmas. With 5 stomachs to feed, I was fine with just food for my sons. After the first few toys sold, I became more hopeful for the success in the company. I then hoped for money to support my sons wives and children. The day I saw the bricks, I knew that Lego was about to blow up. After a few tweaks to the design, I passed away knowing that Lego would be a success. 

 

Q2: Was there ever a moment where you felt like all hope was lost? 

 

Yes, many times in fact. The first time was when my carpentry business failed with the loss of my wife. She always kept me going but without her, I felt lost. The second time was when my factory burnt down and I lost almost everything. My company had just started to make some money and all was looking good, but unfortunately, the fire caused us to start all over again. 

 

Q3: How did you come up with the idea of Lego?  

 

The idea for making toys was when one day, I made a small wooden duck. My sons played with it for a whole day and loved it so much, so I decided to start a business making toys. It was also quite convenient that I had plenty of left over wood from the carpentry business. Now the actual word "Lego" was made up of two Danish words. "Leg" and "Godt". To start, I wanted the name to be short and to mean play well (or Leg Godt in Danish). Eventually I got the word Lego, what I didn't know was that it also meant "to put together" in Latin.  

 

Q4: What was your motivation to keep going? 

 

I never saw myself as a person who gave up. Every problem I encountered, I saw a an opportunity to solve it and move on with more experience under my belt. Another reason was simply that I couldn't afford to quit. I had four sons to look after and that meant five mouths to feed not including my own. After the fire at my factory, I really did feel like giving up. All that hard work lost and burnt to a crisp, but I knew that I just had to keep going. 

 

Q5: What would you have done if your idea did not succeed? 

 

My idea did not succeed. So I tried again. It once again did not succeed. I tried even harder and look where it has taken me. If I failed the next five times, I still would have tried again. I wouldn't let my carpentry talents go to waste. I wanted to make a difference. I didn't expect what Lego is today but without trying over and over. Toys these days would still be yoyos and bouncy balls.