The Toys That Made Us: A Documentary That Teaches Us About Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Marketing
The Toys That Made Us is a series of American television documentaries broadcast by Netflix since 2017.
The program, which has an excellent work of editing, brings many memories of our childhood and gives the opportunity to know the big companies involved behind these important toys.
It shows from the earliest days of organizations and goes through their growths and obstacles, the intriguing minds of the creators and all the various curiosities involved.
In the end, The Toy That Made Us offers interesting entrepreneurship lessons for all of us.
And that is precisely the subject of our article today!
About the documentary The Toys That Made Us
The first season of The Toys That Made Us began airing on Netflix in 2017 and featured four episodes: Star Wars, Barbie, He-man and Gl.Joe.
The second, which aired in 2018, focused on Star Trek, Transformers, Lego and Hello Kitty.
The third and last was released in 2019 and dealt with the Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, My Little Pony and Wrestling.
Here’s how some of the stories behind these fun toys can inspire us in business.
Check out!
What are the entrepreneurship lessons at The Toys That Made Us?
Among the top entrepreneurship lessons at The Toys That Made Us you will find:
1 — Innovate
You can’t talk about The Toys That Made Us documentary without mentioning the famous Barbie doll, can you?
It all started when Mattel co-founder Rute Handler revolutionized the toy world, once dominated by men’s items, with a real “piss” of several girls.
Inspired by a German doll, Barbie was simply the first to represent the woman in her adulthood.
All this in 1959!
And since then she’s just been successful.
Barbie has gone through a lot of innovations over time, followed fashion and attitude trends and continues to fill the shelves of major toy stores around the world!
What a great lesson for our business, don’t you think?
The tip is: innovate from the start and never, ever stop innovating.
If your product or service leverage, stay tuned to the market, trends and new technologies and make it always attractive.
2 — Be creative
The moment that appears the Gl.Joe doll is one of the highlights of the documentary The Toys That Made Us.
Well, over 50 years ago, brilliant minds would revolutionize the market forever.
Hasbro drew on the Reagan-era cold war to create this true American hero.
And the company not only made millions but made GI Joe one of the most influential toys ever.
Do the same: use and abuse creativity, whether to create a product or service, to structure your business model, to think about service and delivery channels, etc.
Rest assured that these differentials will have a very positive impact on your bottom line!
3 — Overcome failure
Did you know that Star Trek was marked by years of mismanagement and inconsistency in their products?
After several failures, Playmates Toy received the toy license and sparked a resurgence in sales, overcoming a very competitive past in this market.
And you, are you afraid of failure?
Do not stay!
Remember that many successful entrepreneurs failed one, two, or even more times before taking their business to high levels.
And the difference between them and those who have not achieved results is quite simple: they have learned from their mistakes and used their difficulties to evolve.
So never give up on your dream.
If you make a mistake, use the problems as learning and try again.
For many this is precisely the way to success!
As we have seen, The Toy That Made Us is much more than a series for toy lovers.
It’s a great entrepreneurship lesson, as it shows how small, discredited companies have overcome their challenges with creativity, marketing, and resilience.
