DeepSummary
Isaac Larian immigrated to the United States from Iran at age 17 with just a few hundred dollars. Through hard work and perseverance, he built MGA Entertainment into one of the largest toy companies in the world, becoming a billionaire in the process. His biggest success came with the launch of Bratz dolls, edgy fashion dolls that competed directly with Barbie and led to a decade-long legal battle with Mattel.
Despite numerous setbacks and challenges, including a court order forcing him to stop selling Bratz dolls for a period, Larian refused to give up. He remortgaged his house to fund additional advertising for Bratz, leading to a resurgence in sales. Ultimately, after years of litigation, Larian prevailed over Mattel in court.
Now at age 70, Larian remains the CEO of his company, which has also found massive success with LOL Surprise dolls. He attributes his achievements to an unrelenting drive instilled from growing up in poverty in Tehran and a refusal to be bullied or beaten down by challenges.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Perseverance, determination and an unwillingness to be deterred by setbacks were key to Isaac Larian's success in building MGA Entertainment.
- Larian turned rejections and doubts about his business ideas into motivation to prove naysayers wrong.
- The legal battle with Mattel over the Bratz doll line was an immense challenge that nearly broke Larian mentally and financially.
- Creating original and innovative products like Bratz and LOL Surprise was crucial to MGA's ability to compete with toy industry giants.
- Larian credits the opportunities provided in America as enabling his rise from poverty to vast wealth through hard work.
- Childhood experiences of deprivation and hardship in Iran instilled an insatiable drive for success in Larian.
- Larian has managed mental health challenges like depression through therapy and meditation.
- Even after becoming a billionaire, Larian retains the mentality and hunger of an underdog competing against bigger rivals.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I could not have done what I've done in any other country. This country has a lot of issues. But if you work hard and you believe in who you are and you're not afraid of failing, you can become successful. There's no other country like it.“ by Isaac Larian
- “I tell my people the selling starts when the buyer says no.“ by Isaac Larian
- “I don't want people to see that I'm a failure. And there were days that I was so down, but then I would get energized and I said, I'm not doing anything wrong, so I would go back and fight harder.“ by Isaac Larian
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Episode Information
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
3/25/24
Isaac Larian moved from Iran to Los Angeles at age 17 with just a few hundred dollars, and went on to build one of the biggest toy companies in the world. Along the way, he took on Barbie with a wildly successful line of punky dolls called Bratz — a success that touched off an epic legal battle with Mattel. Today, at age 70, Isaac is still the CEO of MGA Entertainment, and says he still has the fighter’s instinct that he learned in the slums of Tehran.
This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.
It was edited by Neva Grant with research assistance and fact-checking from Carla Esteves and Zazil Davis-Vazquez.
Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Robert Rodriguez.
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