NFIB

Playing With Failure
03/ 31/ 2003

If character is built by adversity, then Vicki Esralew says she's full of character. The mother of three children has spent the last 10 years growing a company that makes making educational products children. But making toys hasn't always made her money.

"I've had painful days more times that I can even tell you about," says Esralew, who founded Chicago-based Vickilew (www.vickilew.com) with her husband, Bob Aren, in 1993. "But what's kept me going is the thought that if I didn't produce these products, no one else one would. And in a world where are kids are bombarded with negative messages, these products are really needed."

The idea hit Vicki when she noticed the violence in the toys her 7-year-old son was surrounded with. "I had a son in the middle of Power Ranges and Ninja Turtles. The more violent, the better." At the time, she was working non-stop at an ad agency. Concepts for her first line of Vickilew products were created after putting the kids to bed at night and before Esralew konked out herself.

The first products sold very well. But the company's funding wasn't in as good of shape. Instead of giving up, Esralew forged ahead, driven by the fact that she wanted the kind of toys she was making for her own kids.

"Just at the times when I thought I could no longer see daylight, I would get a call from a buyer, thanking me for producing such products. I'd cry when I'd hang up the phone, but I'd keep going. Failure was not an optional route," says Esralew.

Esralew credits her success over the past few years to a unwavering belief in the core of her company. "If you feel like you're at the end of the line, you have to take a really good look at all the facets of your business. Are you doing it for the right reasons? Is it costing you too much personally? Emotionally?

"You have to find the strength to keep climbing the mountain, because the higher you climb, the better the view."

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This Web extra is supplement to the article "The Great Comeback," which appeared in the April/May 2003 issue of MyBusiness magazine.

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