卡尔顿·卡尔文：剃刀。一个移动玩具帝国的狂野崛起、崩溃与重塑。

Wondery Plus订阅用户现在就可以提前收听《我是如何打造这一切》的无广告版本。立即在Wondery应用或Apple播客中订阅Wondery Plus。等等。所以2000年6月，你们每月能卖出一百万台？是的。

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to how I built this early and ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Wait. So in June 2000, you were selling a million a month. Yes.

而到了2001年1月，你们一台都卖不出去了？销售完全停滞了？是的。这说不通啊。完全不合逻辑。

And January 2001, you couldn't sell one that's the sales stopped? Yes. It doesn't make sense. It makes no sense.

除非你理解热潮现象，否则确实说不通。这种事我经历过太多次了。无论零售商们经历多少次，无论我自己经历多少次，每个人心里都在想：这次不一样。是啊，就像这次会连续三年每月卖出一百万台似的。

It doesn't make sense unless you understand crazes. It happened to me so many times. And no matter how many times the retailers go through this, no matter how many times I went through this, everybody's thinking to themselves, this time is different. Yeah. Like, this time, it's gonna sell a million a month for the next three years.

他们甚至算不清根本没那么多人会买。

And they can't even just do simple math that there's not that many people.

欢迎收听《我是如何打造这一切》，一档关于创新者、企业家、理想主义者及其所构建运动背后故事的节目。我是盖伊·拉兹，今天节目讲述卡尔顿·卡尔文如何将热潮转化为经典玩具，并围绕滑板车、平衡车和RZR自行车建立庞大商业帝国的故事。2000年，全美青少年对一种产品痴迷不已——不是你们记忆中的笨重滑板车，而是由航空级铝材打造、配有聚氨酯滑轮能高速滑行的轻便折叠滑板车。

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, how Carlton Calvin helped turn a craze into a classic toy and built a massive company around scooters, hoverboards, and bikes, RZR. In the 2000, kids all across The US couldn't get enough of one thing, scooters, but not the clunky ones you might remember. These were sleek, made from aircraft grade aluminum. They had polyurethane wheels that glided far and fast, and the scooter was compact enough to fold up and carry anywhere.

它们被称为Razor滑板车，数月内需求就失控了。加州塞里托斯的小仓库每月出货量达百万台。而这一切的核心人物正是卡尔顿·卡尔文。卡尔顿并非滑板车发明者，这个荣誉属于台湾的蔡国智及其合伙人罗伯特·陈。

They were called razor scooters, and within months, demand was out of control. A million scooters a month were rolling out of a small warehouse in Cerritos, California. And at the center of it all was a man named Carlton Calvin. Carlton didn't invent the scooter. That credit goes to Gino Tsai in Taiwan along with his partner Robert Chen.

但卡尔顿成功将Razor引入美国市场，深谙如何制造热潮——毕竟他追逐玩具热潮多年。他尝试过悠悠球，卖过手指滑板，经营过POGS拍拍牌游戏。卡尔顿掌握了一个近乎直觉的重要商业法则。

But Carlton helped launch the razor in The US, and he knew how to make it a craze because he'd been chasing toy crazes for years. He tried yo yos. He sold fingerboards. He was in the pogs and slammers business. Carlton understood something important and it was almost intuitive.

孩子们对玩具的忠诚度转瞬即逝，这一刻还爱不释手，下一刻就弃如敝屣。而他的生意全在于把握时机——发现热潮、高价炒作、在热潮消退前迅速抽身。但RZR与众不同，它比他经手过的任何产品都更庞大、更迅捷、更炙手可热。

Kids are loyal to a toy one minute and then abandon it the next. And his business was all about timing. Spot the craze, write it high, and then scramble before it fizzles out. But RZR was different. It was bigger, faster, and hotter than anything he had ever touched.

然而其崛起有多迅猛，崩塌就有多突然。销量几乎一夜之间枯竭。但卡尔顿坚持了下来，逐步将RZR重塑为更强大的品牌。随着时间的推移，RZR不再只是昙花一现的潮流，它成长为行业巨头。

But just as quickly as it rose, it collapsed. Sales dried up almost overnight. But Carlton hung on and slowly rebuilt RZR into a bigger brand. And over time, RZR became more than a craze. It grew into a powerhouse.

从手动滑板车、电动滑板车、自行车、悬浮滑板，到那种能扭动转弯的Ripstick滑板。但在这一切之前，卡尔顿成长于六七十年代的明尼苏达州圣保罗市。母亲是学校教师，父亲是从直邮业务起家的企业家。卡尔顿进了法学院却深恶痛绝，于是在三十出头时决定追寻另一个志向——自己创业。

Manual scooters, electric scooters, bikes, hoverboards, even a skateboard that twisted and swerved called the Ripstick. But before all of that happened, Carlton grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the sixties and seventies. His mom was a school teacher, and his dad was an entrepreneur who started out in direct mail. Carlton went to law school, but he hated it. So in his early thirties, he decided to pursue another interest, becoming an entrepreneur himself.

信不信由你，我一直想当个艺术家。我向妻子提出了这个想法，但也觉得需要赚点钱。于是我想和插画师合作做儿童书，构思了名为'杰作童话'的项目——用印象派大师的画风来重述经典童话。

You know, I've always wanted to be an artist, believe it or not. Okay. And I made that pitch to my wife, but I also felt, you know, like I needed to earn some money. And so I thought, I'll work with illustrators and do children's books. So I thought of this idea called masterpiece fairy tales, where I would tell the classic fairy tales, but I would take the paintings of the great, like, impressionists and retell the story in their style.

比如让梵高来讲述《穿靴子的猫》的故事。

So it might be Van Gogh told the story of Puss in Boots. You

明白吗？然后你要找位画家来...没错...来作画。

know? And you'd find an artist to kind of That's right. To to to paint.

我找到了真正出色的艺术家，他们能模仿这些著名画家的风格作画。

I found really great artists who could paint in the style of these famous painters.

现在你可以在ChatGPT上完成所有这些。

Now you could do all that on ChatGPT.

哦，太糟糕了。太糟糕了。

Oh, it's terrible. It's terrible.

你只需要说，给我画一幅梵高风格的穿靴子的猫。是的，它就能做到。

You just say, paint me Puss in Boots in Van Gogh style. Yeah. It would do it.

肯定有穿靴子的猫。没错，正是这样。

Had Puss in Boots for sure. Yeah. Exactly.

是的。好吧。所以你要开始行动了，这很棒，因为这些故事都不是——我是说，它们属于公共领域。所以你可以编一本童话书，雇一些艺术家，然后就能得到一本儿童读物。好的。

Yeah. Alright. So you so you're gonna come up and that's great because all these stories are not I mean, they're in the public domain. So you could have a fairy tale book and hire some artists, and and you get a children's book. Okay.

你有没有把这个想法推销给任何人？

That's in did you pitch this idea to anybody?

我当时的问题是，我完全不懂商业。但我确实在纽约参加了很多会议，非常有趣。你知道，我去了那些漂亮的大出版社。现在我知道了，当你有一个理想的想法时，你应该先印好书，去书展，开始向书店推销，然后建立一个小公司，最终让它壮大起来。

I so that the problem was I didn't understand business at that point at all. But I did get I got a lot of meetings out in New York. It was very fun. I ran you know, went to the big beautiful publishing houses. And I now I know that what you do when you have an ideal dad dad is you print up the books, and you go to the bookshows, and you start selling them to the bookstores, and you build a teeny little company that eventually gets big.

当时并不理解。但在创作过程中，我与插画师们合作，其中一些人正沉迷于一种叫pogs和slammers的潮流。正是这让我对pogs和slammers产生了兴趣。

Did not understand that at that time. But while I was doing it, I was working with illustrators, and some of the illustrators were involved in this craze called pogs and slammers. And that's what got me interested in pogs and slammers.

好的，我们先回溯一下。你当时是在推销一本童话书的创意

Okay. So let's wind back for a sec. You you are pitching a a fairy tale book idea

是的。

Yes.

然后你对pogs和slammers产生了兴趣——我们稍后会解释这些是什么。

And you get interested in pogs and slammers, which we will explain what those are in just a second.

好的。

Okay.

在此之前，我想弄清楚推销一本采用图卢兹-劳特累克风格插画的《穿靴子的猫》书籍与pogs和slammers之间的关联。

Before we do that, I know I'm trying to understand the connection between pitching a book, a puss in boots with Toulouse Lautrec style artwork and pogs and slammers.

关联在于，当时与我合作的插画师们正在为pogs做插画设计工作。

So the the connection is the illustrators that I was working with were getting work as illustrators for the pogs.

我明白了。而且

I see. And

他们说过，这东西要疯了。

they've said, this thing is going crazy.

好的。我们暂停一下，解释一下这些是什么。这些就像是扑克筹码，像薄片状的，类似硬纸板做的薄片扑克筹码。

Okay. Let's let's pause and explain what these are. Okay. These are they're like like poker chips, like wafer sort of like like cardboard wafer poker chips.

完全正确。它们

Exactly right. They

你会用它们做什么？

That you would do what with?

就像玩弹珠游戏那样。

It's like the game of marbles.

所以好吧。

So Okay.

POG代表菠萝橙番石榴，起源于夏威夷，他们用这些瓶盖来保持卫生。所以它们是圆片，就像弹珠一样。一个孩子带五个POG，另一个孩子也带五个。他们把POG叠成一摞，然后有一个重物，叫做slammer，是单独的一个物品。

The POG stands for pineapple orange guava that started in Hawaii, and they would put this these are the caps that would go on a bottle and to keep it sanitary. So they're discs. And it's just like marbles. One kid comes with five pogs, and another kid comes with another five. They stack them in a stack, and then there's something heavy, which is a separate item called a slammer.

它长什么样子？

What does it look like?

基本上就是一个更大更重的圆片。你把它扔向那摞POG。

It basically is a bigger, heavier disc. You throw it at the stack

然后好的。

and Okay.

让圆片翻转。那些朝你方向翻转的，你可以叫它们正面或反面，然后你就可以收集所有翻转的POG。

Cause the discs to flip over. And the ones that flipped over in your direction, you'd call one or heads or tails, and you'd then collect all the pogs that were made.

你会看到一些东西。这是一种赌博的形式。我记得这是在九十年代。

You would see something. It's a version of gambling. And I I remember, this is in the nineties.

是的。

Yes.

我是说，当时我已经高中毕业准备进入社会，但我记得看到孩子们在玩这些东西。我弟弟确实会这样，所以这简直疯了。

Just I mean, I was already in you know, leaving high school and getting into it, but I remember seeing kids playing with these. My little brother actually would so this just went wild.

是的，爆炸性流行。那时候，许多席卷全国的潮流都是从洛杉矶开始的。所以我很幸运能在那里。

Yes. Explosive. But Yeah. At this time, so many of the crazes that were sweeping across the country would start in Los Angeles. So very fortunate to where I was.

好吧。所以你和艺术家们交谈时，他们会说，是啊，我们就是在为这些叫pogs的东西创作艺术。你会觉得，哦，这很有趣。那你具体做了什么？

Alright. So you see you're talking to artists, and they're like, yeah. We're just we're making art for these things called pogs, and you're thinking, oh, this is interesting. So what what did you do?

下一步是我想让他们为我制作pogs。我打算请他们设计图案，然后我来印刷并销售。但在这过程中——我妻子也是律师——我们开车穿过亚利桑那州去处理一个案子，我只是随行。你知道，在休息站会看到那些塑料封存真蝎子的镇纸。

The next step was I wanted them to make pogs for me. So I was going to have them illustrate, and I was going to print the pogs, and I was going to sell them. But while I was doing that, my wife is also a lawyer, and we were driving through Arizona to go on a case, and I was help you know, just going along for the ride. And, you know, you stop at the rest stops, and they sell these paper weights with real scorpions embedded in plastic. You know?

它们像圆顶一样。我看着它，突然有了个主意。

And they're like domes. And I looked at it, and my I got an idea.

什么主意？

Which was?

可以制作一种叫slammer的大圆片。我打赌能把蝎子封在透明塑料里，孩子们就能用它砸那些小圆片。所以就叫蝎子slammer。没错，真蝎子slammer。

You could make a slammer, one of these bigger discs. I bet I could embed a scorpion in clear plastic, and kids could throw it at these discs. So the scorpion slammer. Yeah. The real scorpion slammer.

就在那个蝎子镇纸旁边。

By the scorpion paperweight.

没错，品牌名叫'毒刺'。'毒刺'是我的品牌名称。

That's right. Called Stinger. Stinger was my brand name.

好吧。所以你在这次公路旅行中突然灵光一现。但现在你得先找到能提供蝎子的人，然后研究如何把它们封装进塑料里，最后还得找人代工生产。让我们一步步来分析这个问题。

Okay. So you're this so is like a light bulb moment that goes into moment on this road trip. And okay. But now you've gotta find somebody who is going to first of all, you gotta get the scorpions, and then you gotta figure out how to embed them in plastic, then you gotta find somebody to make it for you. So let's let's break this down a little bit.

你当时做了什么？我把那个PaperMate镇纸翻过来，看到

What did you then do? So I turned the Papermate weight over, and I saw

他们把公司商标印在背面。就一个简单的名字——Mac。三十年过去了我还记得。我当时想，干脆打电话请他们帮我生产这些圆盘。

they put their brand their their company on the back. Just just the name, Mac. I still remember it. This is, you know, thirty years later. And I thought, I'll call them up and ask them to make these discs for me.

对吧？结果当然被拒绝了。他们说绝不可能代工，但愿意卖些蝎子让我自己尝试。于是我订购了——收到个装满酒精的小罐子，里面泡着100只蝎子。

Right? It'll be no I called them up. They said, we're not there's no way we're going to make these discs for you, but we can sell you some scorpions if you want to try to figure out how to do it yourself. So I ordered. I got a 100 scorpions in a little jar of alcohol.

通过邮政或UPS寄来的。我那时租住在帕萨迪纳一栋老式工匠风格房子里，刚好带车库，就钻进车库里捣鼓起来。

Came in the mail or UPS. And I went into my garage. I was renting a house in Pasadena. Went into the you know, from old Craftsman house. Happened to have a garage.

经典的车库创业故事。我在车库里待了六个月，妻子觉得我疯了。当时正绞尽脑汁解决一个不简单的问题——如何把蝎子封装进小塑料圆盘里。

Classic. Started my business in the garage story. Went in there for six months. My wife thought I was crazy. Trying to figure out, it's not trivial, how to get a scorpion inside a little plastic disc.

那你在车库里具体做什么？是把塑料熔化后倒进模具里吗？

And so what would you do in your garage? Were you, like, melting plastic and pouring it into molds?

哦，这过程特别酷。首先我查阅了所有能找到的资料，还去了洛杉矶自然历史博物馆——他们确实有塑料封装标本的技术，我和工作人员交流过。甚至从自然图书馆借了本关于塑料标本封装的书。但实际操作面临几个难题：一是我的产品必须防碎，而市面上那些球形封装品都不防碎。

Oh, it's so it's so cool. First of all, I did all the reading I could, and I went down to the Natural History Museum in LA where they actually embed specimens in plastic, and I talked to them. And I checked out a book from the natural library on embedding specimens in plastic. But, of course, they're not making there's a there's a couple problems. One is I wanted mine to be shatterproof, and, like, the globes and other things are not shatterproof.

于是我研究了各种材料。实际上我打电话咨询了洛杉矶的工业化学品公司，最终选定聚氨酯这种不易碎裂的塑料。但正如你能想象的，各种问题接踵而至。第一个难题是：如果不把蝎子彻底干燥——我花了好久才明白这点——它们会变白，就看不见蝎子形态了。后来我去Goodwill二手店买了五六个旧烤箱。

So I did research on materials. I called actually industrial chemical companies in LA and arrived at polyurethane as the kind of plastic that wouldn't break. But all kinds of problems, just like you might imagine. The first problem was, you know, scorpions, if you don't dry them out, took me a long time to figure this out, they turn white, and you can't see the scorpion. So then I took I went to Goodwill, and I bought, like, five or six old ovens.

我在烤箱里装上灯泡加热，用来烘干蝎子

And I then put light bulbs in them to heat them, and then I would desiccate the scorpions inside

就是把它们彻底脱水

Just dry them out.

对，彻底脱水

Dry them out.

在低温条件下。

Under low temperatures.

在低温条件下。灯泡的温度，然后我会把剩下的塑料倒在上面，这样就能得到一个圆盘。

Under low temperatures. Light bulb temperatures, and then I'd pour the rest of the plastic on top, and that's how you got a disc.

所以，好吧。那么最终，我猜你弄明白了如何制作这个东西。

So so alright. So eventually, I'm assuming you figure out how to how how to make this.

是的。

Yes.

好的。六个月。所以你成功研究出如何将蝎子嵌入聚氨酯制成POG游戏的拍牌。然后呢？

Okay. Six months. So you you successfully figure out how to embed a scorpion and polyurethane as a slammer for pogs. And then what?

这时我开始表现得像个正经商人。渐渐地，我学会了做生意。我去了波莫纳玩具展，要知道在以前，小玩具店很多。为了进货，玩具店会参加这些展会。波莫纳展会是西海岸最重要的展会之一。

This is when I started to behave like a regular business person. Somehow, gradually, I learned about business. I went to a toy show, the Pomona Toy Show, which, you know, back in the olden days, there used to be small toy stores. And in order to buy toys, toy toy stores would go to these toy shows. There was one in Pomona, major one in the West for the West Coast.

我租了展位的一个角落，大概十分之一的位置。我放了个水族箱，里面摆着总共六只蝎子——这是我当时唯一会做的。我向路人介绍产品时，有个做POG拍牌生意的人正好经过。

And I rented a corner of a booth. Well, I mean, like, a tenth of a booth. And I had one aquarium with this all total of six scorpions that I made that I'd ever figured out how to make in this in a little aquarium. And I was, you know, talking to people. People were walking by, and a guy walked by who was a he happened to be in the pog and the slammer business.

他是一名玩具经销商，他说，如果你今天不离开这个玩具展（要知道这是三天的第一天），如果你今天不走并与我签订独家合同，我会以每件3美元的价格订购20万件。

He was a toy distributor, and he said, if you don't leave this toy show today you know, it's the first of three days. If you don't leave today and you sign an exclusive contract with me, I'll buy 200,000 of these at $3 apiece.

什么？这人是谁？

What? Who was this guy?

米奇。他在商业区有个仓库。是个很大的玩具经销商。那时候你知道，从中国进口无品牌玩具是个完整的产业链，比如会说话的鹦鹉之类的各种商品，他就做这个。那就是他的工作。

Mickey. He had a he had a warehouse in commerce. Big, big toy distributor. Most of toys you know, there was a whole there's a whole business back then of importing toys from China that were kind of unbranded and, like, talking parrots and all kinds of stuff, he'd and he would do that. That that was his job.

但Pog和Slammer的生意，再次说明，是个开放系统，所有人都想分一杯羹，他也参与其中。

But, you know, the the the Pog and Slammer business was, again, an open system, and everybody was getting into it, and he was in it in it too.

所以他说他特别喜欢这些，他说我想要独家协议。我要以什么价格订20万美元的货？

So he said he he loved these so much. He was like, I want an exclusive deal. I'll order $200,000 of these at what price?

单价3美元。所以我的第一笔订单就是60万美元。哇。

At $3 a piece. So $600,000 was my first sale Wow.

从商以来的第一单。那...他打算自己生产这些吗？

Ever in business. And and he was gonna manufacture them?

不。我说的是嘿嘿

Nope. I said He he

需要你自己想明白。

needed you to figure that out.

是啊。他我得我得搞清楚他，而我当时一分钱都没有。所以他就我说

Yeah. He I gotta I gotta figure him out, and I didn't have any money. So he I said

但你当时知道吗，比如，知道你能制作它们吗？我是说

But did you even know that that, like, that you could make them? I mean

完全不知道。

Absolutely not.

你根本不知道要花多少钱。可能得花可能得花一百万美元。你完全没概念。

You know you know how much it was gonna cost. It might have got it might have cost you a million dollars. You had no idea.

我我以前从没买过蝎子。我对塑料的成本略知一二。对吧？但我想，你知道，但但那就是全部了。那是我唯一知道的成本。

I I had never bought a scorpion before. I I knew a little bit about how much the plastic costs. Right? But I figured, you know, but but that was it. That was my only cost that I knew.

但即便在那个年纪，我也很难记起自己当时有多天真，我甚至不明白什么是利润空间，或者制造某样东西需要多少成本。所以那时候我就这么莽撞地开始了，但我其实身无分文。信不信由你，这世界有时真奇妙。那天他当场给我开了一张7.5万美元的支票。

But I wouldn't even even at that age, it's just so hard to remember how naive I was, and I didn't even understand what margin was or how much you need to manufacture something. And so I I just went ahead at that point, but I didn't have any money. So believe it or not, the world is a great place. He wrote me a check for $75,000 that day.

当场就给了。

On the spot.

当场。直接甩在我脸上。

On the spot. On my face.

作为定金。

As a deposit.

作为定金让我能开个工厂，想办法研究怎么生产这些东西。

As a deposit so that I could open up a factory, try to figure out how to make them.

好吧。所以你拿到了这笔交易

So alright. So you get this deal

对。

for Yeah.

太神奇了。一只嵌在聚氨酯里的蝎子竟然能...我是说，这些弹片当时风靡一时，孩子们疯狂购买这些纸板圆片和弹片。

It's amazing. It's amazing that a scorpion embedded in polyurethane could put yeah. I mean, these slammers were going they were crazy. Kids were buying these cardboard pogs and and the slammers.

我知道10岁男孩喜欢什么才是关键。这东西就是让人无法抗拒。

I know what 10 year old boys like is really the answer. It's just, like, irresistible.

你是怎么培养出这种天赋的？

How did you develop that that talent?

我觉得这是与生俱来的。秘诀在于我没有偏离真实的自己——本质上我就是个十岁男孩。最典型的故事是，我当法律助理时曾半夜溜进法官办公室，就因为他有台能玩电子游戏的高性能电脑。你看，我的思维模式长久以来都像个小男孩。

I think that's inborn. And that that is, like, the secret is that I didn't stray too far from what I am. Like, I am a ten ten year old boy. My favorite story is I got into trouble while I was a law clerk because I snuck into my judge's chambers in the middle of the night because his he had the most powerful computer to do video gaming on. You know, I just have a 10 year old boy's mind for the longest time.

所以我对那些调皮捣蛋的东西特别有感觉，比如男孩们喜欢的蝎子这类玩意儿。

And so I have a sensibility about, you know, naughty, things or in like like scorpions that that boys like.

好吧。现在你拿着7.5万美元支票到了洛杉矶。你打算怎么生产这些东西？

Okay. So you so now you've got a $75,000 check. You're in LA. Yes. How are you gonna make these?

怎么生产20万件这种东西？

How are gonna make 200,000 of these things?

我是说，我原本不知道。于是我开始在南帕萨迪纳家附近寻找可以设立工厂的仓库。但更大的问题是，我立刻打电话给麦克说，需要20万只蝎子。他们却说，不行。绝对不行。

I mean, I didn't know. So but I began to go look for a warehouse near my house in South Pasadena where I could set up a factory. But the bigger problem was I immediately called Mac and said, need 200,000 scorpions. And they said, no. No.

你完全误解了我们生意的规模。我们晚上带着孩子去沙漠，用黑光灯抓蝎子。

You completely misunderstand the scale of our business. Like, we go out with our kids at night in the desert with black lights.

徒手捉蝎子。

Pick up scorpions.

没错。翻开石头，哇，然后抓住蝎子。也许我最终能...

Yes. And turn over rocks Wow. And grab scorpions. Like, I could maybe eventually

给你安排个高危工作。

get you a hazardous job.

这确实是高危工作。有趣但危险。是啊。天哪。所以...

It is a hazardous job. Fun, but hazardous. Yeah. God. So

他们对你说，听着。我们没法给你20万只蝎子。这不可能。那你...我是说，那时候大概是1992或1991年...

they're saying to you, hey. We can't give you a 200,000 scorpions. It's impossible. So what what do you I mean, this is what this is, like, 1992, 1991,

大概是1995年吧，我想。

or 1995, I think.

'95年。1995年。好吧。所以，我是说

'95. 1995. Alright. So so, I mean

'95年。

'95.

那时候互联网还没普及。我是说，虽然互联网已经存在，但还远没有

Kinda pre pre Internet. I mean, the Internet's around, but not not

对我来说那绝对是前互联网时代。那时候我完全不知道互联网或电子邮件是什么。

It was definitely pre Internet for me. Like, I had no notion of Internet or email at that time.

那你打算怎么办？你得赶紧弄到20万只蝎子。

So what are you gonna do? You gotta get 200,000 scorpions quick.

所以我有个中国朋友，他们说在中国我们会吃蝎子，或者说在中国人们吃蝎子。我想既然中国人口那么多，如果他们都在吃蝎子，

So I had a Chinese friend, and they said we eat scorpions in China, or they eat scorpions in China. And I figured if they're gonna there's a lot of people in China. If they're eating scorpions,

至少很多

at least a lot

蝎子。我只是觉得那里肯定有很多。所以我亲自去了洛杉矶市区的香港贸易委员会，和他们谈了谈。

of scorpions. I'm just thinking there's gotta be there's gotta be a lot there. So I I went down. And at that time, there was something called the Hong Kong Trade Council in Downtown Los Angeles. And I went physically down there and talked to them.

他们给了我一份名单，那时候中国刚开始转向市场经济。名单上是从中国进口产品的人，他们用点阵打印机打印了一份中国进口商的名单给我。我打了电话，名单上有20个，我全打了。

And they gave me a and again, this was at the early days of China turning into a market. And you know, they had people who were importing products from China on a list, and they gave me a hand you know, a printout, you know, of a with a dot matrix printer of a list of Chinese importers. I called. I had 20 of them. I called them all.

嘿，我只找到一个能给我弄到蝎子的，但他确实做到了。

Yo. I only found one that could find me scorpions, but he did.

哇。显然，这些是要寄过来的死蝎子。

Wow. And and, obviously, these are dead scorpions that are gonna be sent.

是的。

Yes.

只是出于好奇，这会带来什么问题或挑战吗？比如，进口20万只蝎子到美国难不难？

And it but just out of just out of curiosity, what was that gonna cause a a a problem or challenge? Like, is it hard import a 200,000 You know, that's The US?

复杂程度？我压根没考虑过。比如，我甚至没搞明白。比如，哦，他们会因为蝎子进入美国而恼火吗？你懂吗？

Level of sophistication? I didn't even think about it. Like, I didn't even understand. Like, oh, well, are they gonna be be annoyed that there's scorpions coming into The United States? You know?

他们把蝎子放进装满酒精的汽油罐里保存，我想这样在中国食用时也能保证食品安全。他们就是这么运输的。对。对。不。

And they put them in, like, gasoline jugs filled with alcohol to preserve them, and I suppose it makes them food safe too for how they eat them in China. That's how they transport them. Yeah. Yeah. No.

我我我海关那边从来没出过任何问题

I I I did nothing ever happened with customs with the

好吧。

Okay.

据我所记得的。

That I remember.

所以你找到了愿意促成这事的人。那你还记得每只蝎子多少钱吗？

So you found somebody who was going to enable this. And and do you remember how much it was per scorpion?

记得。当然，有点意思。我记得最初大概是每只7美分。但随着需求增加我想订更多时，价格就迅速上涨了。

Yes. And, of course, the a little bit interesting. I think they started at, like, 7¢ a scorpion. But as I got more popular and I wanted to order more, the price rapidly increased.

哇。好吧。是的。最初是以7美分的价格订购20万只蝎子。但问题是，谁来提供蝎子，又由谁来制作这些光盘呢？

Wow. So Okay. Yeah. So it started at 7¢ for 200,000 scorpions. And then and then who was gonna you get the scorpions, but who was gonna manufacture the discs?

于是我就请我的中国朋友帮忙找员工，她确实找到了。我雇她来监督这些人，然后在南加州的某个地方开了这家中国蝎子工厂。

So then I asked my Chinese friend to help me find, you know, employees, and she did. And I hired her to sort of supervise them, and I opened up this Chinese scorpion factory in Wait. In in Southern California in

在仓库里？你租了个仓库，里面放了什么？

in warehouse? You a warehouse, and you put what in there?

比如桌子？

Like Tables?

你们打算手工制作20万只

You were you were gonna hand make 200,000

这些东西？我们在美国手工制作了20万只。

of these things? We handmade 200,000 in America.

这怎么可能？你们手工浇注聚氨酯然后

How is that possible? Like, you hand poured the polyurethane and

没错。

That's right.

我刚雇了多少人来做这五个蝎子排列器

I How many you you just hired a bunch

然后我用面包架改装成临时烤箱，外面裹着绝缘材料，里面装上灯泡，再把装满蝎子的面包盘塞进去。简直疯狂，你懂吗？

of people to get this five scorpion arrangers, and then I took bakery racks and converted them into makeshift ovens with light bulbs with, like, insulation on the outside of a bakery rack, and I would stick bakery trays in there of scorpions. It was wild. You know?

好吧。那你制作20万张碟片花了多久？还记得吗？

Alright. So you how long did it take you to make 200,000 discs? Do you remember?

大概花了三个月。

It probably took three months.

三个月完成这个订单，然后你把它交给那个人。

Three months to fulfill this order, and you deliver it to this guy.

是的。分批交货，你知道的，一点一点来，随着它们从架子上下来。

Yes. Piece, you know, a bit at a time, yes, as they came off the rack.

那他在哪里卖这些呢？

And where is he selling them?

全国各地的环球商店都有。

Globe all all around the country.

每个玩具

Every to toy

店。是的。而且很多人都知道。嗯，到处都有玩具店，杂志店。我是说，那是一种狂热。

stores. Yes. And everybody a lot of people knew. Well, toy stores everywhere, magazine shops. I mean, it was a it was a craze.

所以他们在报摊和几乎任何地方都有这些，你知道的，pogs和slammers。

So they had these, you know, pogs and slammers almost at newsstands and any anywhere.

那么，我猜这些slammers卖得很好吧。

And how and I'm assuming these these slammers did well.

它们卖得非常棒。大家都知道蝎子slammer，侧面还写着‘毒刺’。我把它刻在模具上了，所以真的很可爱。

They did great. Everybody knew about the scorpion slammer, and it said stinger on the side. I I had it engraved into the mold, so it was really cute.

那是你公司的名字吗，你的企业？你有没有申请过，比如有限责任公司？

And was that the name of your company, your business? Did you file, like, an LLC?

不是。是Small Minds Press。

No. Was Small Minds Press.

哦，所以它还是最初想法的一部分。

So oh, that so it was still part of the original idea.

我有个有限责任公司，原本是准备做儿童书籍的。

I had an LLC that was all set to make children's books.

书籍。对。好的。Small Minds Press在做这些。所以现在你有点体会到拥有酷炫东西的感觉了，那他有没有订更多？

Books. Yeah. Okay. Small Minds Press was making these. So now you have you're you're like you get a taste of what it's like to have cool and and did he order more?

我是说，就这些吗？只有20万？

I mean, was that it? Just 200,000?

然后...就在我交付《最后的蝎子》那天，pog热潮突然崩溃了。他们说，没人再买bogs和slammers了。

And and So this is and then the day I delivered The Last Scorpion, the pog craze collapsed. They're like, nobody nobody was buying bogs and slammers in.

不，它就这么停了。

Not It just stopped.

它停了。整个行业瞬间停摆，仿佛就在几小时内发生的。

It stopped. The whole industry shut down immediately, like, in a matter of hours, it seemed like.

太疯狂了。它曾是，那个最热门的东西。

It's wild. It's it it was, like, the hottest thing.

是的。

Yes.

而你大概，你知道的，赚了不少。利润率应该相当可观。

And you probably, you know, cleared. Your margins were probably pretty good.

没错。你大概

Yes. You probably

你大概净赚了，差不多3400美元到100美元那样。

you probably cleared, like, $3,400 $100 on that.

也许吧。是的。大概20万美元。对。

Maybe. Yeah. Maybe $200,000. Yes.

好的。

Okay.

是的。

Yes.

但仅此而已。

But that was it.

是啊。但当然，我当时太天真了。我以为，哦，这种好日子会一直持续下去。这是我第一次遇到疯狂的情况，懂吗？所以我当时每月能卖出7万5千只蝎子玩具。

Yeah. But, of course, I was naive. And I thought, oh, this goes on forever. This is my first crazy you know? So I I'm say I'm selling, you know, 75,000 scorpions slammers a month.

我还得再订购几十万只蝎子备货，结果蝎子涨价了。所以我所有的利润都压在了第二批订单上，你

I need to order, like, a few 100,000 more scorpions to be ready to and that and the price of the scorpions went up. So all my profits were tied up in, you know, my second order of, you

懂的，蝎子玩具。明白了。所以你基本上是把现金又拿去订更多货了，按常规操作。是的。但你没...你没能把那些卖出去？

know, scorpions. I see. So you basically took the cash and ordered more as you as you would. Yes. But you didn't you you could not sell those?

没有。零销量。零。

No. Zero sales. Zero.

所以你是剩下了多余的蝎子还是弹珠，还是两者都有？

So were you left with a surplus of scorpions or or slammers or both?

是啊。我有蝎子。很多很多的蝎子，还有很多很多的员工，我感到非常难过，不想让他们离开。

Yeah. So I had scorpions. Lots and lots of scorpions and lots and lots of employees that I was very sad and didn't wanna let go.

有多少蝎子

How many scorpions

你有？至少几十万只吧。

did you have? Like, a couple 100,000 at least.

你怎么处理它们的？

What did you do with them?

说实话，我真的不知道该怎么处理它们。而且，又一次在我妻子面前丢脸了。你知道吗？这就像是，天啊。你所有的利润都没了。

So my I I did not know what to do with them, honestly. And, again, humiliated in front of my wife. You know? This is like, oh my god. You all of your profits.

比如，那个管钱的人在哪？然后我就拿着它们，开始做钥匙链。你知道，就像我又回到了那个市场，看到马克斯的镇纸。我在亚利桑那州卖蝎子钥匙链，明白吗？

Like, where's the money guy? And and so I I took them and, started to just, like, make, keychains. And, you know, for, like I was back in, you know, back in the market where I saw Max paperweights. I was in, you know, Arizona selling Scorpion keychains. You know?

是的，成百上千个，那真是我职业生涯中一个悲伤的时刻。但在我制作这些蝎子钥匙链和其他我能想到的任何带蝎子的东西时，我在帕萨迪纳走进了一家店，一家随机的店在卖悠悠球。我当时就想，哇。

Yep. By the hundreds, you know, was a really sad moment for my career. But while I was in the process of making these scorpion keychains and anything else I could think of with Scorpion in it. I was in Pasadena, and I walked into a shop, and it like, a random shop was selling yo yos. And I'm like, wow.

这有点奇怪。

That's kinda weird.

奇怪是因为悠悠球像是五十年代的东西还是？

Weird because yo yos were, like, a fifties thing or

对，或者就像那不是玩具店。你知道，那对热潮来说是个好兆头。就像，是的，我没解释清楚。是的。

Yeah. Or just like it's not a toy shop. You know, that that's a good sign for a craze. Like, yeah, I didn't explain that. Yeah.

那是个随机的店，我甚至不知道那是什么店，但他们有一些悠悠球。他们有一个100美元的铝制悠悠球，你知道，就觉得，哇，真有意思。然后我就想到，我可以把蝎子放进悠悠球里。

It was like a random I don't even know what kind of shop it was at this point, but they had some yoyos. And they had, like, a 100 aluminum yoyo, and, you know, it just, like, seemed like, wow. That's interesting. And then I got the idea. I could put a scorpion in a yoyo.

放进悠悠球里。是的，是的。那时候，是的，那时候我只是不明白那是个热潮，但我明白那就像钥匙链一样。

In a yoyo. Yes. Yes. Now at that was Yes. At that point, it was just I didn't understand it was a craze, but I understood that it would just be like keychains.

比如，这本来可以成为我处理掉那20万只蝎子的另一种方式。于是我就这么做了。当时我没有制作悠悠球的方法，所以开始在中国生产悠悠球本身，但最后我还是把它们放在南帕萨迪纳的工厂里完成了组装。

Like, it would be another thing that I could be doing to get rid of my 200,000 scorpion. And so I did. And I didn't have a way to make the yo yo, so I started to make the yo yo itself in China, but I still embedded them in my factory in South Pasadena.

我明白了。所以你在中国制造悠悠球，然后你会把聚氨酯圆盘，也就是所谓的‘ slammer’，装进去。是的。

I see. So you get the yo yos made in China, and then you would you would sort of put the polyurethane disc, basically, the slammer Yes.

实际上是悠悠球本身？差不多吧。是的。我是说，我直接把聚氨酯倒进悠悠球里，然后放一只蝎子进去，再烘烤整个悠悠球。结果我们发现，那时我们恰好赶上了悠悠球历史上最疯狂的热潮。

Actually the yo yo? Essentially. Yes. I mean, I pour actually pour the the the polyurethane into the yo yo and then put a scorpion in there, bake the yo yo, the whole thing. And it turns out that we were on the cusp at that time of the greatest yo yo craze in the history of yo yos.

等等。为什么？发生了什么？

Wait. Why? What happened?

有个人发明了一种叫‘大脑’的东西，那是一种高科技悠悠球，可以自动‘睡眠’，也就是不需要任何技巧就能在绳子末端自转。这是悠悠球玩法的核心动作。传统悠悠球需要学习如何让它睡眠，但这个能自动睡眠，因此引发了巨大的兴趣爆发，因为人人都能看起来像个高手。

There was a guy who invented something called the brain, which was a yo yo that, was a high-tech yo yo that could sleep, which means spin at the end of the string automatically without any talent. That is the essential move of yo yo dom. If you're an old school yo yo, you would need to learn how to make it sleep, but this would sleep automatically and caused a huge explosion of interest because everybody could look like a pro.

突然间，每个孩子都想要一个悠悠球。

All of a sudden, every kid wanted a yo yo.

没错。正是这样。

Yes. And and there was that's exactly right.

但你当时做的并不是睡眠悠悠球，只是普通的悠悠球。

But you were not making the sleeper yo yo. You were just making a regular yo

没错。但但话说回来，我虽然没参与最初产品的制作，却赶上了一股席卷文化的热潮——十岁男孩们又流行玩这个了。当时我去过商场里一家公共电视台旗下的科学商店，蝎子款悠悠球对他们来说简直是完美选择。那是我第一次直接向大客户销售产品。

yo. But but, again, I wasn't making the original pod, but I was involved in a major craze that's sweeping through the culture. 10 year old again, 10 year old boys. And I went to, like, the there was a science store from public television, that was in the malls at that time, and a scorpion yo yo was perfect for them. And so that was my first time I ever sold directly to a major account.

那你是怎么...我是说，之前 Pog 拍拍牌和金属 slammer 有分销商采购，现在悠悠球业务，想必你在行业里已有些人脉能找到愿意采购分销的人？还是说...

So how did you have I mean, with the pogs and the slammers, you had a guy who bought, you know, who bought them from you and then distributed them, but now you had the yo yo. So I'm assuming you had some connections in the industry at this point where you could find somebody willing to buy buy them and distribute them? Or did

这个嘛...当时我还在学习经商之道。所以那会儿是我亲自联系科学商店的采购员。后来有人告诉我不能全靠自己做销售，懂吗？如果只想着直接联系大商店采购方，生意是做不大的。

you was it was it was you know, I just was learning how to be in business. So at this point, I personally contacted the buyer at the science store. And then somebody told me that you can't do all these sales yourself. You know? You can't expect to do well if you're just gonna call the buyers at the major stores.

你需要建立组织架构，本质上需要销售团队。我雇了位销售经理，这才让生意有了转机。

You need a you need an organization, and you need you need sales reps, essentially. And I hired a sales manager, and that's what transformed my business.

明白了。所以你雇销售经理就是为了直接对接这些零售商。

Yeah. So you hired a sales manager to basically go directly to these retailers.

正是如此。实际上他组建了覆盖全国零售商的销售团队，一夜之间就帮我搭建起全国销售网络。销售代表们本来就认识全国各地的人。结果发现蝎子悠悠球不只可以卖给科学商店——

That's right. And actually hire a group of reps that would go to all the retailers in the country. He put a nationwide sales network together for me overnight. Basically, sales reps know people all over the country. And so I Scorpion, you know, it turns out you don't just have to sell them to science stores.

它们在玩具反斗城也卖得特别好。所以我开始迎来我的第一批大客户，我的蝎子悠悠球在全球卖出了数百万个。

They also sell extremely well in Toys R Us. So I started to get my big my first big customers, and I sold millions of Scorpion YoYos globally.

哇。这

Wow. It

太疯狂了。

was crazy.

而玩具反斗城在90年代末的'19年，即便不是最大的分销渠道，也绝对是最大的之一。

And Toys R Us still in '19 in the late nineties was was probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest distribution channel.

没错。我认为很长一段时间里，他们甚至是我Raid滑板车系列的最大客户。

Absolutely. I think for a long time, they were my biggest customer even for the Raid Scooters

诸如此类的产品。我小时候在八十年代被带去玩具反斗城的记忆犹新，那里就像魔法世界。穿梭在货架间看着琳琅满目的玩具，那种体验和麦当劳的开心乐园餐一样珍贵——虽然不常得到，但每次都是无与伦比的奇妙感受。

and stuff like that. I I remember as a kid in the eighties being taken to Toys R Us, you know, and it was like magic. It's You know, it was just a magical store wandering through those aisles and looking at all of the toys, and it was like one of the that and a Happy Meal at McDonald's, like, were two and I didn't get them very often. It was just amazing. Amazing.

是啊。如今全国范围内再也没有专业玩具店了，这真是令人遗憾。

Yes. And it's a great sadness that that we don't have a specialty toy store nationwide anymore.

好吧。所以你拿到了这些悠悠球，这些蝎子悠悠球，然后呢？突然间，你基本上，对这些蝎子的赌注就得到了回报。

Alright. So you get these yo yos, these Scorpion yo yos, and and what? Like, all of a sudden, you're basically, your gamble on all these scorpions pays off.

而且我还得订购更多。绝对是的。我得订购更多。有数百万只蝎子，而蝎子的价格一直在上涨。我还有这么多员工。

And I have to order more. Absolutely. I have to order many more. There were millions of scorpions, and the price keeps going up with the scorpions. And I have these all these employees.

而且

And

还在仓库里制作它们

Still making them in a warehouse

在洛杉矶。我找不到其他人来制作它们。一直都没弄明白。你知道吗？所以我就是的。

in LA. That I could never get anybody else to make them. Never could figure that out. You know? So I was yes.

我在南帕萨迪纳，卖出了数百万只蝎子，但那时我已经知道需要小心了。

I was in South Pasadena and selling millions and millions of scorpions, but knowing it by this time that I needed to be careful.

因为你知道这股热潮

Because you knew that the craze

会结束。是的。基本上，这些热潮最终，我的理论是每个人都会拥有。你无法向同一群人无限销售悠悠球，本质上就是这样。

would end. Yes. That that essentially, with these crazes, eventually, my theory is everyone gets it. You don't you can't sell, you know, infinite number of yo yos to the same people, essentially.

所以那时候，那些悠悠球已经流行并且销量很好？

So already, once those those yo yos went and they sell they sold well?

非常火爆。订单不断追加。重复下单。重复下单。没错。

Extremely well. Order reorder. Reorder. Reorder. Yep.

所以你当时已经赚得相当不错了。

So you were, like, making pretty decent money already.

是的。那时从账面上看，我赚了很多钱。比当律师多得多。真的。我非常感激我妻子的耐心。

Yes. At that point, I was, on paper, making lots of money. More than I way more than I would be as a lawyer. Right. And I'm very grateful to my wife for her patience.

因为她当时是律师，这意味着我可以将所有资金再投资以维持业务增长。所以我实际上没能领取高额薪水，或者说任何薪水。

Because she was a lawyer, that meant I could reinvest all the capital to keep the business growing. So I didn't really wasn't really able to take out a big salary or any salary, really.

好吧。所以你清楚这不会持久。这是否意味着你已经开始留意寻找下一个机会了？

Alright. So you are you know that this is not gonna last. And and does that mean you're already starting to keep your eyes peeled for what the next

绝对如此。

thing Absolutely.

然后然后然后你在做什么？你只是在阅读、观察，像是，随便看看，我也不知道。

And and and what were you doing? Were you just reading, looking, like, going I don't know.

说实话，我也不知道自己为何会这样。这似乎是我性格的一部分。虽然说不清具体原因，但唯一能描述的方式就是保持目光开放，与每个人交谈，观察发生的一切。后来我遇到的人介绍了一位卖手指滑板的人给我。

What I don't know I do. Honestly, I don't know why this is part of my personality. Like, I don't know exactly why, but I'm just just keeping the only way you can describe it is keeping your eyes open and talking to everybody and seeing what's happening. And somebody I met introduced me to somebody who was selling something called fingerboards.

哦，是的。

Oh, yes.

现在人们称它们为Tech Deck。

And people know them today as Tech Deck.

对。它们就像迷你滑板，塑料做的小滑板。

Yeah. They're like little skate they're like little skateboards. They're plastic skateboards.

微型滑板，没错。

Miniature skateboards. That's right.

你会用手指，就像，你知道的，摆弄它们。我记得我的侄子们以前常玩这个。

And you'd you'd use your fingers to, like, you know, play with them. I remember my nephews used to play with them.

是的，完全正确。他们现在还在玩。但这最初是南加州一个非常自发的运动。起初，你知道，孩子们只是用纸板剪的滑板模型来玩。

Yes. Exactly right. And they still do. It's still a but but this was a very again, Southern California, very organic movement. First, you know, it was just kids doing it with cardboard cutouts of skateboards.

后来我遇到的那个人想到了给它们打上品牌。他与所有滑板公司达成协议，将滑板的品牌印在手指滑板上，它们被称为手指滑板。但发明者没有接触到像玩具反斗城、沃尔玛这样的大公司。

Then the person that I met had the idea to brand them. He had arrangements with all the skateboard companies to put the branding of the skateboard in the fingerboard, and they were called fingerboards. But the person that invented it didn't have access to major companies like Toys R Us and Walmart and all that kind of stuff.

对。

Right.

而我做到了。所以我们达成了协议，由我来生产它们。

And I did. So we struck a deal, and I manufactured them.

这些就是手指滑板吗？

And these are just finger skateboards?

最初是手指滑板。这曾风靡一时。当然，到那时我已经学会了产品差异化。所以我制作了各种街道景观配件，比如桶、55加仑的鼓、小桶和路锥，让孩子们能幻想用手指滑板玩耍。后来我还扩展到了BMX自行车、冲浪板，几乎涵盖了所有极限运动项目。

Finger skateboards at first. This was a major craze. And, of course, you know, by this time, I learned about product differentiation. So I made all kinds of, like, parts of the street landscape, like barrels, 55 gallon drums, and little barrels, and street cones so that kids could fantasize playing with their fingerboards. And then I also branched out into things like BMX bikes and surfboards and pretty much any other extreme sport.

我会去找个知名品牌贴牌，然后，你知道的，把它卖出去。

I would go and get a famous brand and put it on it and, you know, sell it.

那这些产品是在哪里制造的？

And where were you manufacturing these?

中国。那个制作溜溜球的家伙，没错，就是我的联系人，他开始为我生产这些东西。再次强调，这些产品卖得飞快。当然，我拥有原始品牌名，叫Fingerboard。

China. The guy who made the yo yos Yep. Was my connection, and he started to make all this stuff for me. It was again, they were flying off the shelves. And I had, of course, the original brand name, which was Fingerboard.

Tectic作为竞争对手出现，当时他们的产品看起来比我的更逼真。明白吗？我的是原始的老派风格，而他们的产品看起来更接近真实滑板。

Tectic came out as a competitor, and they were more authentic looking than mine at that time. You know? I had the original old school one, and they had a sort of more authentic looking piece.

这家公司叫Tech Deck？

This is the company's called Tech Deck?

对，当时叫Tech Deck。现在它被Spin Master收购了，他们和我是好朋友。

Yeah. It was called Tech Deck. Now it's owned by Spin Master, who are good friends of mine.

所以他们基本上是模仿了这个创意？

And they basically kinda copied the idea?

基本上，他们确实这么做了。是的。

Basically, they did. Yes.

绝对是这样。那么后来发生了什么？我是说，你拥有这些产品。他们是否某种程度上抢占了你的市场份额？

Absolutely. And so and and so what happened? I mean, you had this prod these products. Did they kind of take your market share?

他们确实抢占了。是的。我原本有个小众市场，但他们在玩具行业的经验和技术远比我丰富，与所有零售商的合作关系也更深厚。当时他们还发函声称我侵犯了他们的知识产权，尽管事实恰恰相反。在我看来，这种做法真的很不光彩。

They did. Yes. I had a niche, but they were far more experienced and advanced in the toy business than I was and had deeper relationships with all these retailers. And at the time, they sent around a letter saying that I was infringing their intellectual property, even though the exact opposite was true. And, you know, it was really so it was really dirty, actually, in my my understanding of the world.

好吧。所以你的业务就这样被挤出了市场。

Alright. So your your push kinda pushed out of this business.

有点吧。但我也明白，无论情况如何，这种热潮都不会持续太久，因为它实在太疯狂了。

A little bit. But I also knew that whatever the situation is, it's not gonna last forever because it's such an amazing craze.

卡尔顿，让我问你个问题。是的。当时你有没有想过，必须找到更持久、更具生命力的玩具产品？没有。

Carlton, let me ask you a question. Yes. Did you ever get like, already at this point, were you thinking in your mind, I have got to find something that is more long lasting, like a more enduring toy? No.

没有。我是说，我...我那时认为玩具行业就是这样，仅此而已。这是我唯一的小众市场，我就像在以百万英里的时速狂奔。每年或每隔一年半就要经历整个业务崩溃，情感上真的很耗人。所以我总觉得这一切随时会戛然而止。

No. Be I mean, I I just couldn't this is how I thought toys were, period. This is I mean, this is my only niche, and I was just moving a millions miles an hour. And it was emotionally draining to have your whole business collapse every year or year and a half. So at any moment, I thought this whole thing is gonna just stop.

你知道吗？整个生意？

You know? The whole business?

是的，完全没错。那太可怕了。

Yes. Absolutely. It was terrifying.

稍后回来时，卡尔顿将经历又一次繁荣与萧条。这次是关于RZR滑板车的故事。请继续收听。我是盖伊·拉兹，您正在收听《我是如何打造这一切的》。嘿。

When we come back in just a moment, Carlton goes through yet another boom and yet another bust. This time, with the RZR scooter. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This. Hey.

欢迎回到《我是如何打造这一切》。我是盖伊·拉兹。时间来到1999年，卡尔顿已失去对指尖滑板热潮的控制，他正在寻找一个可能同样受欢迎的创意。

Welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's 1999, and Carlton has lost his grip on the fingerboard craze. And he's looking for an idea that could be just as popular.

当时我正在读《洛杉矶时报》的一篇文章，讲的是日本东京的成年人骑一种叫Razor的滑板车。我立刻想到，自己就是做潮流生意的，也生产迷你极限运动装备。这将成为我的杀手锏，科技领域的突破。我要成为那个获得RZR滑板车授权生产迷你款的人。

So I'm reading an article in the LA Times, and there's an article about adults in Japan, in Tokyo, riding scooters called the Razor scooter. And I thought to my immediately thought to myself, well, I'm in the craze business, and I also make miniature extreme sports items. This is gonna be my ticket to kill, you know, tech tech. You know? I'm gonna be the guy that gets the RZR scooter license to make miniature RZR scooters.

事情进展顺利，因为我预感到这股风潮会席卷美国并大获成功。于是我设法找到了生产这些滑板车的公司——JD滑板车公司的电话号码，就是发明这种滑板车的那家公司。

It went because I I just know this is gonna I sense this is gonna come to The United States and be huge. And so somehow, I got the telephone number of the company, JD, you know, JD Scooter Company, you know, that was making these scooters, invented the scooters.

这些滑板车是在中国生产的吗？

And these were making they were making them in China?

中国。

China.

它们当时就已经叫Razor滑板车了吗？

And they were called Razor scooters already?

各种名字都有。但最初时，他们给自己直接供货的产品贴上了品牌。那是一家中国工厂，所以它们会以不同品牌在日本生产。那时他们已经接到其他客户的订单了。要知道，在日本火爆的东西必然有人意识到会进入美国市场，我绝不是唯一看出这点的人。

Called everything. But they're the when they started, they put a name on the ones that were coming directly from them. But they were a Chinese factory, so they would make under they were made under many different brands for in Japan already. And already, they were getting orders from other people. You know, I'm not the only guy for sure that once something is super hot in Japan that figures this is coming to The United States.

没错。

Yeah.

好的。但明确一点，你的初衷并不是进口这些骑行滑板车对吧？你是想让制造商生产迷你版本，就像迷你Razor那样。

Yeah. Okay. But to be clear, your your vision was was not to import these these these ride on scooters. Right? It was to have the company that makes them make miniature versions, like min like a miniature razor.

完全正确。

Exactly right.

但后来你肯定想过：等等，我关注错重点了。为什么不直接卖正常尺寸的滑板车呢？

But then I guess there must have been a point where you're where you're thinking, wait a minute. I'm I'm focusing on the wrong thing here. Like, why don't I why don't I just sell the actual scooter, like, the life-sized version?

绝对如此。这是我人生中第一次，我不再是某个热潮的参与者，而是萌生了自己可以引领热潮的念头。你懂吗？是的。

Absolutely. For the first time in my life, I was not going to be somebody participating in a craze. I had the notion that I could be the craze. You know? Yeah.

就是这样。我当时想，为什么我要做一款本质上只是Razor滑板车的仿制品呢？我知道'仿制品'这个词不太好听。就像我的蝎子悠悠球并非真正的悠悠球仿品，它们有创新元素等等，但终究还是在参与热潮而非主导热潮。

And that was it. I had this, like like, I why should I make a a knockoff, essentially, of a Razor scooter? I know, knockoff is a not a very nice word. Like, my scorpion yo yos weren't really knockoffs of yoyos. They're they're innovative, blah blah blah, but they were still just participating in a craze, not owning a craze.

对，对。好的。所以你决定在美国销售真正的滑板车。据我所知，为了启动这个项目，你联系了两位后来成为你商业伙伴的人，首先是洛杉矶的一位先生。

Right. Right. Okay. So you you decide to sell the actual scooter in The US. And from from what I gather, like, to get the ball rolling on this, you connect with with two guys who will soon eventually become your business partners starting with there's a guy in LA.

他叫Robert Chen。那么Robert究竟是谁？

It's a guy named Robert Chen. And who so who who exactly was Robert?

他是位发明家，当时正在研发自己设计的折叠自行车。他在塞里托斯有个仓库——那里现在是我们总部所在地——同时也对帮助Gino开展滑板车业务产生了兴趣，因为当时这玩意儿在日本已经火得不行了。

So he was an inventor, and he was doing folding bikes that he invented. So he had a warehouse in Cerritos, which is where our headquarters is now, and also was getting interested in, you know, helping Gino with the razor scooter business because it was just going crazy in Japan already.

Gino Tsai。

Gino Tsai.

抱歉，应该是Gino Tsai。请允许我介绍他：一位天才，了不起的人物，同时也是Razor滑板车的发明者、创造者和最初的推动者。

It'd be I'm sorry. Gino Tsai. Sorry. To introduce him. A genius, amazing human being, wonderful human being too, who was the inventor and the creator and the original Razor scooter guy.

没错。吉诺那时已经是个企业家了，他和罗伯特都比我年长，创业时间也更久。他没有浪费时间读医学院——我是说法学院。所以他们懂生意。那时他可能已经有十多家不同的公司了。

Right. Gino had been an entrepreneur for he he he and Robert are older than me, and they had been entrepreneurs for longer. He didn't waste time going to medical I mean, law school. And, you know, so they knew business. He had maybe 10 different companies at that time.

他那时已经是个有钱人了。

He was he was a wealthy man already.

所以我是说，既然你显然已经通过悠悠球、波波牌和手指滑板积累了些经验，你是怎么说服他们给你授权的？

So what I mean, why would I mean, you already had some experience clearly with the yo yos and the pogs and the and the the the the the fingerboards. How did you convince them to give you the license?

不。这问题问得好。这简直是整个故事最精彩的部分。说到底，这建立在信任基础上。罗伯特他——我很难用语言形容他有多善良诚实。

No. This is a great question. I mean, this is this is, like, an amazing part of, like, how this happens. I mean, basically, it was based on trust. And Robert is like, I want it I it's hard to express how good a person and honest Robert is.

吉诺也是，我们所有人都——我也自认为是这样的人。我和罗伯特一见如故。要知道，当时很多不靠谱的人都找过他。那些人既没有...也没有宏大的愿景。而我们的宏大愿景是让他们停下现有业务（这对他们风险很大），转而拥有一个品牌。

And Gino too, and we all and I like to think of myself that way too. And we got and Robert and I had an immediate connection. And, you know, a lot of untrustworthy people were approaching him. You know, not with the and, also, they didn't have this grand vision. You know, the grand vision is stop what you're doing, which is a big risk on their part, and own a brand.

品牌就是一切。我和玩具反斗城、沃尔玛、亚马逊——不对亚马逊。是塔吉特，所有大零售商都有合作关系，我能把产品带进这些商店。

And and brand is everything. I I mean, I clearly, like, in any number of people, I had my relationships with Toys R Us and Walmart and Amazon. I mean, not Amazon. Yeah. Target, you know, all the players, and I could bring them to the stores.

但他们原本不是直接卖给商店，而是通过分销商。所以我打算帮他们拿到批发价，省去中间商转手给玩具反斗城或沃尔玛的环节。这样他们能获得更多利润，但核心理念是品牌建设，是为未来打造一家公司。

But but, of course, they were not selling to the stores. They were selling to distributors. And so I was gonna get them wholesale prices instead of them selling it through a middleman who then sold it to Toys R Us or Walmart. So there was a big opportunity to capture more profit for them, but the big concept was branding, you know, and and building a company for the future.

所以不仅仅是贴牌生产。你知道的，这款滑板车，我们打算叫它Razor。

So instead of just being a white labeled Yes. You know, scooter, we're gonna call it Razor.

那是

That's

对的。你本来打算取得北美地区的授权？

right. And you were gonna get the license for North America?

全球范围。

Globally.

全球范围？

Globally?

我们而且那不是授权。我我我与JD建立了合作伙伴关系

We and it wasn't a license. I I I went into partnership with JD

好的。

Okay.

是的。那是个合伙关系。

Yeah. It was a partnership.

所以你成为了合伙人。你需要出资购买股份吗？

So you become a partner. Did you have did you have to buy into it?

不需要，没人需要投入任何资金。我的生意通常不需要大量资本，但你也明白，商界人士都懂。像我们组建的这种规模的企业通常需要大量资金，但我们当时处于非常特殊的时期，而且仅限于热潮产品。像玩具反斗城和沃尔玛这样的公司都是货到付款向我购买滑板车的。

For not nobody had to put any capital in. My businesses tend not to be capital intensive, but, you know, you'll appreciate this. You know, business people appreciate this. A business of this size that we formed would ordinarily require a lot of capital, but we were in very unique times, and it's exclusive to crazes. But these Toys R Us and Walmart were paying COD for scooters to me.

哇。

Wow.

我知道。

I know.

你是货到收款，而不是九十天后才收到货款？

You would get paid to on delivery not ninety days later?

不是九十天后。甚至不是五天后。

Not ninety days later. Not five days later.

怎么？怎么？

How? How?

他们需要这些。他们想要这些，而我始终难以置信，但这就是我为公司融资的方式。

They needed them. They wanted them, and and that's I never could believe it, but I that's how I financed the company.

但这是在你...我是说，当他们同意与你合作时，你仍需向玩具反斗城推销。那么？当时玩具反斗城的总部在哪里？

But this is before you when you I mean, when you got the when they agreed to work with you, you still had to pitch it to Toys R Us. So what? Did you go where was Toys R Us headquarters at the time?

新泽西。

New Jersey.

所以你带着其中一个产品飞去新泽西了？绝对是的。

So did you fly to New Jersey with one of these things? Absolutely.

是的。

Yes.

然后他们立刻表示，我们加入？

And right away, they were like, we're in?

没错。不，这才是最疯狂的热潮。可能山寨货甚至比Razor公司更快打入美国市场，它们已经在卖了。说不定洛杉矶的便利店就有售，就像当年的Pogs游戏盘那样。

Yeah. No. This is the biggest craze. Like and maybe they were already being sold by knockoffs even faster than razor could get into the market in The US. They might have been be being sold in, like, convenience stores in LA, you know, just like the Pogs.

随着热潮发展，后来你甚至能去披萨店买到Makrov滑板车。

Like, they're in and and certainly, as it progressed, it got to the point where you could go to a pizza shop, and they'd be selling Makrov scooters.

哇。

Wow.

不是Razor牌的滑板车。对吧。

Not razor scooters. Right.

所以你对玩具反斗城的推销策略是：我们要快速大规模铺货。

So your pitch to Toys R is we get these in fast at scale.

正是如此。

That's right.

我们拥有足够的产能。

We've got the manufacturing capacity.

从原版来的。你再也不用处理这些山寨货了。

From the original. You don't have to deal with these knockoffs anymore.

没错。

Right.

是的。

Yes.

然后玩具反斗城说，好吧。我们要订购这些。我们准备下订单，希望所有门店都能铺货？当然。从你们获得批准到实际交货需要多久？

And Toys R Us says, alright. We're gonna order these. We we're we're gonna put in an order, and we want them in all of our stores? Absolutely. How long between the time that that that you get, you know, the green light until the time they're actually delivered?

快吗？大概，

Was it quick? Was it, like,

他们表示不行。大概要一个月。

a they were, like no. Like, a month.

哇。确实。他们在中国那边开足马力生产。

Wow. Yes. They were just cranking them out in China.

是的，是的，早有预料。他们关闭了其他所有客户的生产线，这样就不用为那些客户生产产品，也不必贴上各种奇怪的品牌标签。他们可以直接全部印上'Razor'商标，然后发货给我。

Yes. Yes. In anticipation. And they shut down all these other, you know, customers, so they didn't have to make them and slap all these other weird brands on them. They could just put razor on all of them and ship them to me.

哇。然后我会把这些货发给玩具反斗城和其他零售商。

Wow. And I would ship them to Toys R Us and the other retailers.

在美国实现这个目标需要雇佣很多员工吗？

Did you need a lot of employees in The US to make this happen?

我立刻从经营指板生意的三名员工扩张成正规公司，组建了完整团队。比如我有总裁、销售副总裁、市场副总裁等基本架构，还有客服等各种职位——说实话我当时根本不知道公司应该是什么样子。我完全不懂需要设置市场副总裁、财务副总裁或销售副总裁这些职位。

I immediately scaled up to a real company from three I had three employees selling fingerboards, and I put together a whole team. Like, I had a, you know, president. I had vice, you know, vice president of sales, marketing, just the skeleton, but, you know, customer service, every kind of and I didn't even know. Honestly, I had no idea what a company looked like. Like, I didn't know that you needed a marketing VP or a finance VP or a sales VP.

我完全没概念。原以为所有事都能亲力亲为，但根本不是这样。不可能。

I had no idea. I just thought, oh, you just do it all yourself. But that's not it. Nope.

而你从事这类工作已经八年了。

And you're eight years into doing this kind of work.

不，真正认真做这个大概...从制作儿童读物到真正开始做POGs花了很长时间。然后从POGs开始可能只有三年。

No. I'm only, like, been doing, like, serious you know, it took me a long time to get from, you know, making children's books to actually doing the POGs. Right. You know, that was a and then from the POGs, it was probably just three years.

那么现在这个阶段，你们是把公司改名为Razor吗？是的。所以你创建了一个全新的实体，正确。叫做Razor Razor USA？是的。

So now at this point, do you rename the company Razor? Yep. You so you create a completely new entity Correct. Called Razor Razor USA? Yes.

是的。

Yep.

好的。

Okay.

有真正有经验的人，你知道的，在真正的职位上，还有我。

With real, like, experienced people, you know, in real jobs and me.

好的。那么，每辆滑板车的售价是多少？

Okay. And how and and and how much were were was each scooter gonna gonna sell for?