I'm home now after our 5th meeting of NW Next. Each of these meetings is turning out to produce an article. This one was truly amazing. I was honored to help arrange Richard Tait, the Grand Pooh Bah and co-Founder of Cranium Inc., to speak and play Cranium Live with over 40 members and guests of NW Next.
Richard opened with amazing stories of his journey to becoming the #4 TOY COMPANY (WOW!) in the world and being the first company ever to win the Toy of the Year award for 3 years straight. All starting from a frustrating afternoon at Cannon Beach.
Richard and his business partner after retiring from Microsoft were relaxing at Cannon Beach, OR. It was a rainy day so they played games. They played scrabble and the same person won. They played charades, and a different person always won. They played pictionary and a third person always won. Why isn't there a game that celebrates all of our skills and diversity!?!?!?
They went into the lab (their kitchen) and out popped a game called Cranium. This game combines many of these elements and more and turned into a multi-million dollar game (but not without some other twists and turns).
I've heard many Richard Tait Cranium stories and today I challenged him to bring something different, something he doesn't talk about in his other talks. He said he launched Carnium with a brand new customized edition for Spain and he gets into an elevator and lo and behold, who is in the elevator?
BECKHAM!! For those who haven't seen the movie Bend It Like Beckham, Beckham is the world's largest soccer star. They start talking and soon Richard finds out he's a HUGE Craniam fan, a Craniac. Today he shared his "sizzle" reel, a 60 second highlight reel of Cranium moments, including Oprah pumping Cranium and Julia Roberts saying I can't stop playing this game!
To me, Richard is one of the true leaders of the new business era. He continues to folow his passion, follow his heart, do things like have Baby Tuesday where all parents with new babies can bring them in all day on Tuesday, to turn down venture capital unless they match the company values of customer advocacy and lighten and enlighten, to buy 25,000 games before having a distribution channel, to turn the toy industry on its ear by selling through Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
He does it not only because of the money, but because of how it feels to be alive, to be pursuing your dreams, to be playing your game with your 4 1/2 year old twins and having them say, "Dad, you're cool!". While you may think us entrepreneurs are just out for the money, we are really here for the Journey, looking at our quest to have just a few more moments in life where we can smile and say life is beyond good, life is a blast.
Leaders follow their passion , they pursue their dreams, leaders believe in their values, leaders make them happen in as smart a way as they can.
What is your life about? What do you want? What do you have that the world needs? How are you going to have a blast providing that very thing every day? Answer those questions and live it every day and you too will be a leader today and forever...
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