On Celebration

 

I love that wedding song classic Celebrate, by OJ and the Sunshine boys, or Kool and the Gang or someone like that. I was looking at our grand opening party photos from last summer when we moved into our new office. It was, in the words of at least one attendee, "a grand opening to end all grand openings."  It was terrific, amazing, and lots of fun. It was a great celebration of our wonderful new office, our success with TMX Elmo and many other products, our great team, friends, family, life and the joy of creating toys.

 

          

We should look for moments in life to celebrate. Sadly, I should practice more what I preach.

            

In our business, there are many steps to take before finally licensing a product, and each step along the way is a small cause to celebrate. We don’t, of course, but we should.

          

Our traditional reaction when we show a product, and a client likes it enough to ask us to send it to in for review, is not to celebrate that little victory because we know from experince that it will, in all likelihood, be returned to us in the future. But it is cause to celebrate that someone appreciates our work, and the thinking behind this new invention.

          

 

 

When the client wants to option a product, that is an event to celebrate, but we don’t because we realize that they may still pass on it after further study and review. Now, when a client tells us they want to license a product from us, pay us an advance and royalty based on future sales, that is surely a great occasion to celebrate, don’t you think?

 

But do we? No. Instead we are cautious with our hope and joy because we know that the product may not make it to toyfair, or may not be well received by the buyers, so we don’t celebrate that milestone either.

          

 

 

And when the product makes it through toyfair and is at last on the shelf, that is a great reason to celebrate, especially in light of the hundreds of other products that we have created that did not make it this far.

          

And then do we celebrate? Cue the song . . .

 

 

 

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