Hello everyone! I’m Akshobhya, and today I have a wonderful story to tell you. We all know Lego, a brand making bricks for kids to play with. Today, there are over a million Lego sets made by Lego. But Have you ever wondered how lego was started, and why it’s called Lego? Are you curious? Well, you are about to find out in this blog!
Lego was found by a carpenter in Billund by the name of Ole Kirk Christianson. He was very hardworking and was, as mentioned above, a carpenter before finding Lego. Ole had his own company, but times were hard, and he didn’t have much money, so he had to dismiss his last worker, as he couldn’t pay him. The worker walks into Ole’s office.
“I have closed the workshop and packed my things”, he says.
With that he left the room.
Back at home, Ole says to his wife, “ Well, that was the last one. I couldn’t have imagined it would come to this.”
His wife said,” It’s okay, at least it won’t get any worse”. But it did get worse. Shortly afterwards, Ole lost his wife.
But Ole was a special person. He did not give up, since he had to take over the responsibility of his four sons. He got an idea, and for Ole, putting an idea in action didn’t take long. He started making toys. His boys loved a little toy that he made. Luckily, he had saved a lot of wood from his company, and soon he sold them and got a lot of money. But, the sales were going slow, so one of his sons helped Ole after school.
Word began to spread that a little workshop sold wooden toys. One day, a man rode in town and placed a big order, so that Ole could get some more money. He rehired his coworkers and soon they began to work to fulfill the order. Not only the wood was of good quality, but the toys were made very carefully. But Ole received a letter saying that the man who had placed the order,had filed for bankruptcy. So now they were in trouble as they could not afford food. But Ole still did not give up. He rode around town to sell the toys. He managed to sell all the toys, and was able to buy some food.
Time passed by, and Ole thought the company should have a good name. He wanted to make it Leg Godt, which means playing well in Danish. But he cut it short and made it LEGO. But he did not know that in Latin, lego means put together. Soon he got a milling machine, and the quality of the toys improved. But in 1942, their luck changed. It was a stormy night, and a cable line broke, causing a fire to the workshop. The workshop could not be saved.
Ole was beginning to lose hope, but he did not give up. He built a new factory, and soon Lego was working again. Soon, he discovered a plastic molding machine. He brought it, and soon started making little toys, like bears and cats. But then, he couldn’t stop thinking about a plastic brick that he had received during the demonstration. There was something about them. He made some of them, and discovered that they are able to build things out of them. So that is how, Lego first launched a brick house, though it was ready-made. Godfrey, Ole’s son, that helped him, was now married. One day, he and his wife decided to sell the toys, which was a success. Soon, Ole turned sixty, and the whole family celebrated.
Then, when Godfrey was on a business trip, he met a man, and he and Godfrey discussed about Lego. Then the man said, “But what about the system?”. This got Godfrey thinking. Then he finally came to the conclusion that children have been given ready made solutions to everything, and they need something to stimulate their brains and their imagination. So that’s when Lego made it’s first set, where children could build with their own minds. They managed to sell this way of thinking system to many countries. But, these Legos didn’t stick together, and Godfrey wanted to make them stick. Then, he discovered that the bricks could stick by having holes in the bottom. Unfortunately, Ole passed away, and Godfrey had to deal with another fire. But Godfrey held his head up, and soon, Lego grew very big. Soon, a LegoLand was built, which got billions of guest every year.
Now you know how it all started. Lego is a wonderful company that helps children to explore, experience and express their world, an endless world that has no limits. If you like my blog, then please share it to everyone you know. Let them know how it began.
See you soon in yet another interesting blog!!