A lego brick.

But have you ever wondered how it all started?

And why it's called lego?

Actually the name is much older than this plastic brick.

Are you curious?

Let me tell you how it all began.

Many years ago, there was a skilled and hard-working carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen.

Ole was a respected carpenter with his own company.

But times were hard.

So he didn't have much money,

and had to dismiss his last worker.

Come on in.

I've closed down the workshop,

and packed my things.

Thank you.

I suppose that

better I give your pay check.

Take care.

Well, that was the last one.

I just didn't imagine that it would come to this.

I know.

it's hard to understand.

But at least now, it can't get much worse.

But it did get worse.

Shortly after Ole lost his wife.

But Ole was a special person.

He wasn't the type that gave up.

In with the responsibility of his four sons, he had to think of something.

Ole had gotten an idea and for him it never took long to put in idea into action.

Ole's little invention made his boys so happy that

he thought maybe he should start making toys.

Ole decided to give it a try.

Luckily, he had saved up a lot of wood from the carpentry production.

He'd get nail, used it to make toys.

Time passed by

and even though Ole was a skilled carpenter,

and had a good eye for quality and detail,

c_e_o_'s were very slow

Luckily, one of his son's Godtfred started helping out his dad after school.

Together, they just barely managed to keep up the production.

Eventually,

word began to spread that wooden toys of the finest quality where have been made in the little workshop in Billund.

One day, a man drove into town.

A man who would change Ole's future.

He was a wholesaler from Federation.

I'm Freddy Joe, making some very nice wooden toys.

Well, one does his best.

He wholesaler was very impressed with all the wooden toys and placed up big order before he left.

Now, there's finally someone who can see the opportunities and what we are doing.

Look at this.

The wholesaler wants to put a lot of our toys into a store for the holidays.

It's goona be a good Christmas this year.

But, we'll be busy.

Now, there was a lot to do with the little workshop and Ole could rehire his former workers.

Ole only used the highest quality wood

which was hand-picked and very carefully prepared.

The worked day and night to get the order finished, so the wholesaler could get the toys out in stores before Christmas.

Is your something wrong dad?

I'm afraid that we are

in big trouble.

In the middle of their work

Ole received a letter

saying at the wholesaler

had filed for bankruptcy,

and couldn't buy the toys that he had ordered.

But, what are we gonna do?

What about Christmas?

Now, we can't even afford food.

I'll do it

What are you gonna do, dad?

I'll do it myself.

I'll drive around selling the toys.

There was no time to loose. Ole packed the car with all the toys and drove off.

Ole was a very good toy maker,

but was not a very good salesman.

He didn't like praising himself for talking about how carefully the toys had been made.

But he had to keep trying, if he is going to sell anything.

This is going to be a blast.

Is there anything you were interested in?

It looks exciting, but I don't have a lot of money right now.

Maybe we could trade and call it even.

Well, I would prefer money

But...

In the end, he succeeded in selling all the toys.

He didn't receive as much money as he had hoped,

but the family managed and they had plenty of food for Christmas.

Time passed by...

but the toys didn't sell as quickly as they had expected

Ole thought perhaps the company needed a good name.

What should it be?

It has to be a short word.

I want to convey 'Playing well'.

Indianish 'Playing well' is called the 'Leg Godt'

What should it be?

What should it be?

If only I could get some sort of a sign.

Le-Go!

As you can see Ole himself ended up finding a very suitable name.

But what he didn't know was that in Latin the word Lego means I put together.

The name Lego was well-received and the company slowly started to move forward.

We have made 3,000 Crowns this year,

and we have more as than usual.

Did you say 3,000 Crowns?

Then, you need to see what I've been looking at.

Even though Godtfred wasn't comfortable spending money on a million machine,

he could see that it was useful and that the quality of the toys improved.

Could you finish the last badge and get it ready for shipping?

I will.

Dad! Dad,I saved a lot of money for the company, today.

Really?

How?

I feverally get save money in the locker, sway only the core docks twice instead of three times.

What?

Unfortunately,

Godtfred's idea didn't go over well with all day

Ole made Godtfred unpack all the docks himself give them the last layer of locker

and bring them back to the train station.

Ole believed in high quality

and not cheating his customers.

When Godtfred return,

Ole explained that wasn't the way to create a good brand.

This little lesson opened Godtfred's is our eyes to the fact that every detail matters.

and only the best is good enough.

In the late 1930's Lego was making a profit.

Even, when The Second World War broke out, they tried to make the best out of a difficult time.

It seemed nothing could go wrong,

but a stormy night in 1942

changed their luck.

There's a fire.

The workshop is on fire.

But when the fireman arrived,

they were unable to save the workshop.

It burned to the ground and all the drawings and models were destroyed.

Ole was beginning to lose hope.

All that he had worked for was gone.

And he almost lost his company.

But being responsible for his children and workers inspired him to rebuild Lego.

A new factory was constructed.

Soon, the production of wooden toys started again.

The little company fought it way back into the market.

Gradually, The Lego Factory began to run smoothly and Ole started looking for new challanges.

One day he went to Copenhagen to look at a new machine that had just arrived in Denmark.

It was a plastic moulding machine and Ole was very excited about it.

Should we buy it?

It sure is a good bargain and will give us a lot of opportunities.

Well, it does sound interesting, but it is a lot of money.

I'll take that is yes.

When the plastic moulding machine finally arrived, Ole started making little plastic teddy bears.

But he still had the plastic bricks that he had received at the fair.

There was something about him that he couldn't stop thinking about,

and even though no one else could see the potential of them.

Ole decided to redesign and put them into production.

But it was when Lego first launch the great ____ tractor

that the plastic toys became a success.

Unfortunately, the sellers were dropping during this summer.

and the company had too many toys in stock.

That can't be right.

Of course our products can be sold a whole year, not only for Christmas.

Godtfred decided that he would go out and sell the toys himself.

Godtfred brought his wife aide as company and moral support.

If you can get cash, then, we need butter and eggs.

Well, it wasn't that bad, Godtfred was a success in his trip around the country.

which help Lego to get out of financial crisis,

They reached home just in time for Ole's birthday party. Ole turned 60,

and the whole family was gathered to celebrate with him.

Well, I guess it was a long trip around the country.

Heyy, I got an idea.

Listen! Listen'What about a picture with the three generations?

Everyone thought that was a good idea,

and we were placed on the sofa...

with all of the presidents and flowers around us.

On a business trip to England,

Godtfred met the head of the big shopping center on his way home.

They discussed the toy industry,

and the conversation would be very important

to the future of Lego.

Damn this industry!

I just think that toys are no good nowadays.

What do you mean?

I think they're working very well.

They work fine, sure, but there's no system in anything.

System?

System?

There isn't any system.

What in the world are you doing Godtfred?

There isn't any system, the toys need an idea and a system built around it.

I wanna put system in the play

children have only been offered a ready-made solutions,

they need something different that will strengthen their imagination and creativity.

So, you're trying to put Lego into system?

Interesting.

That same year Lego started producing the first Lego system of play.

Children could now build houses from the Lego bricks.

The town plan gave play a realistic town setting and

with this children learned about traffic safety.

My sisters and I could play with the new Lego system for hours.

Some people said we were the luckiest children in the world.

because we grew up in the toy factory.

It was a huge breakthrough,

and Godtfred decided to try selling it outside of Denmark.

the system of play was so popular that they managed to sell it to many countries.

Look what I just built!

that is really nice Cal.

Even though Lego was meant for only building houses,

there was still a lot of opportunities there was just one problem

I can't lift it up.

It keeps falling apart.

That made Godtfred wonder.

He wanted to find a way to make the Lego bricks stick together.

But that was easier said than done.

Godtfred noticed that the Lego bricks got a better clutch power with tubes inside.

Now, it was no wonder just bricks but a whole construction system with endless possibilities.

This was ground breaking for the Lego product.

With the child's imagination Lego could be anything in the world over and over again.

The imagination is the limit.

Look dad! Now, I can build everything.

Unfortunately,

Ole never got to see how successful the little brick actually became.

Godtfred was left on his own,

and he had to go through another fire at Lego that destroyed most of the wood production.

Just like his father,

Godtfred knew that he had to try to get the best out of any situation and never give up.

Godtfred took the hard times with his head held high.

As sales group,

the company also got bigger.

He had to think ahead

and he decided not to resume the production of wooden toys,

and to only focus on the Lego system.

It turned out to be a great decision.

Many new models were built,

and Lego got stronger in the toy industry.

Sir, which one of these do you think is the best?

That one.

Even though he had got busier at Lego,

Godtfred still had bigger plans.