LEGO: how hard times help you focus.

A daily reminder.

I am a huge LEGO fan. As a kid I played with the bricks and minifigures for hours. Thirty years later, LEGO is a daily reminder to keep things simple: I have framed copies of the patents for the LEGO brick and the LEGO minifigure in my office.

LEGO is also full of stories. This one is about hard times, setbacks and finally putting an idea into practice.

No system of any kind.

In 1954 Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, son of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen, visited a toy fair in Britain. There he met Troels Petersen, the new toy buyer for Magasin du Nord in Copenhagen, who said:

What an industry this is. No system of any kind whatsoever!

Godtfred’s mind started racing. What if he could build that system? Not single toys, but elements that work together and open up a whole world of play. He set out six principles for the LEGO System in Play:

1. Compact in size, without limiting free imagination.
2. Reasonably priced.
3. Simple and durable, yet unlimited in variety.
4. Suitable for children of all ages, boys and girls.
5. A classic among toys, needing no renewal.
6. Easy to distribute.

But, as things go, he postponed it. The company was doing well, days were busy, and there were plenty of reasons not to focus on the system yet.

The fire.

Then, on the night of 4 to 5 February 1960, fire hit Billund. For the fourth time, the Kirk Kristiansen family saw part of their business go up in flames. The wooden toy workshop was badly damaged. Rebuild it for wooden toys, or use the space for a development department for the System in Play?

The fire convinced Godtfred it was time to focus. Not everyone agreed, but the decision was made. On 1 March 1960, a letter went out to retailers, closing the wooden toy department that had existed for many years:

It has not been an easy decision to make, but we are convinced that it is the right one, as it enables us to concentrate on the unlimited possibilities of the LEGO System in Play.

I wrote this as the coronavirus arrived. Where Godtfred had his fourth fire, we had the virus. Focus, and rework the ideas that have been lingering in your mind.

LEGO Group history; letter to retailers of 1 March 1960 (excerpt). First published on 4 February 2020. Wooden block made with Midjourney.