The Eye of the Turtle -Richie's Story

BarbaraCarey's Journal

The Eye of the Turtle -Richie's Story
Feb 1, 2007 at 4:09 PM
By
- BarbaraCarey
Comments (2) Total Views (121) Everyone can see this journal post.

Add Shortcut

Prev Next

We were looking at each other eye to eye, with not more than five inches separating us in the clear underwater caves of Maui. At first I was frightened, but awe soon took over. It was a giant sea turtle, a magnificent and beautiful creature. My dad had to see this! I motioned to him frantically to come and look. Although he was only fifteen feet away and I was gesturing wildly, I could not get his attention. I was ten years old. By the time I was fourteen, I had lived through a life-changing experience which began that day, and with that turtle, in 1995.

On the way home from our vacation in Hawaii, I began drawing a diagram hoping to make some sort of make-shift device to talk under water. When I got home, I made a prototype of my design. My parents really liked it and suggested I call the toy buyer for Toys R Us in New Jersey. Me? Little inarticulate Richie? No way! But Mom said that if I wanted it done, I’d have to do it myself. Quaking in my tennis shoes, I explained over the phone my concept for an underwater talking device to Mr. Chuck Miller, the head buyer for Toys R Us. To my utter astonishment he asked me when I could fly to New Jersey and present my product to his company. Knowing opportunity when I saw it, I responded, “Any school day!” Two days later (on a Thursday - yes!) I was in a brand new suit, shiny black shoes, black belt, and my father’s tie, presenting my idea. Toys R Us gave me a purchase order for fifty thousand units! They intended to, and did, put “Water Talkies” in all the Toys R Us stores throughout the United States.

CNN picked up the story on the 5 o’clock news, and soon I was bombarded with hundreds of media requests. This formerly inarticulate ten-year-old ended up on 46 radio and TV talk shows, culminating with a flight to New York to be on the David Letterman Show. By age fourteen I had received the Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. I had also received the Winners’ League Foundation “Entrepreneur of the Year” award at the Inventors’ Hall of Fame ceremony, where I was the keynote speaker with an audience of over a thousand people. (Today I am honored to hold a Student Board of Directors position with that organization.) By that time, I had invented three more water toys that were being sold in Toys R Us, Target, K-Mart, and other stores throughout the world. And soon after that, I sold my company to Wild Planet in San Francisco, where I continued in a consulting capacity for one year.

That was a lot to happen to a kid in four years, and the varied experiences changed me in profound ways. It is said that the mind is formed by the time a child is seven. Perhaps the foundation is formed early, but it’s the build-up of what you put on top of that foundation that can be so life changing. The things I learned from what I call my “Water Talkie” experience have influenced me in all my choices in life.

The very first and most valuable thing I learned was how important the support of family and friends is in order to achieve personal success. The friends I had when I was ten years old are still among my very best friends, and we are friends for life.

My family and my friends were always there for me during times when, without them, I would have become overwhelmed. They only wanted the best for me, and their involvement taught me that there is nothing more important in life than having true, sincere and caring relationships.

During those four years, I had much to juggle. There was the business. (What the heck was a profit and loss statement?) There was school, homework, and term papers. Sports have always been extremely important to me, and during those four years, I played soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, surfed at Santa Cruz, wrestled, snowboarded, competed on a swim team, and started the main sport of my life, football. Sports were a great opportunity for competition, personal challenge, and a chance to be with my friends. But the need to make tough decisions still seemed to be consistantly coming at me from all directions. When I was thirteen I was asked to be on the Jay Leno show, but it was during my basketball championships. Big decision. I decided to turn down the Leno show. That was a choice I have never regretted; I chose commitment to my teammates over the novel experience of appearing on the show, and I could tell by how I felt inside that it was the right thing to do. I learned that commitment comes first, right up there with friendship. It helped quite a bit, too, when Mr. Leno announced that I had made the “right” decision.

This last incident brings up another crucial thing I learned from that four-year experience. I learned that life is all about choices, and that these choices pop up on a day-to-day basis. There are little ones and big ones, but they all matter, and in the end the choices you make are the sum total of your life. I had to learn to prioritize during those busy years. I realized I couldn’t do it all, so I had to decide which things mattered and to what degree; and the only way I could do that was to place each demand into the broader picture and then make the choice. I have mentioned the demands of those four years, but I don’t want to forget to mention that I also had a lot of fun during those years. I learned that I must keep a balance in life between work and play. What my “Water Talkie” experience taught me was that I had to take control of my daily schedule, or it would control me and I would be buried. And I mustn’t be so busy that I neglect to be involved in the needs of my family and friends, something I care about very deeply. I try to start each day putting each demand in its proper slot. I have at least learned to stop, think, and go through the process of prioritization.

Another lesson I learned during my “Water Talkie” experience was about failure. I can summarize what I learned in one sentence -- failure is not a defeat, it is an opportunity for change. I have learned that failure is only a dead-end when one doesn’t examine it and then go forward in a better way. I have tried to compare myself not with others, but only to the person I was yesterday. I will never forget one of the memories from my young inventing days. I was working on my fourth underwater device and had named it (yes, really) “the Bumper-Jumper-Paddle Pumper”. I envisioned gleefully riding high on this thing in the water while squirting water at friends doing likewise. The trouble was that I made fifty different prototypes over a period of six months, and none of them worked. They sank, or they didn’t squirt, or they leaked, or they were too cumbersome, or they were too expensive to tool (cost was always crucial in the mass market). I encountered months of devastating and increasing frustration. I seriously considered giving up fifty times, but at the same time I absolutely loved the concept of this product. Again, it was my family and friends who backed me up by encouraging me to not give up on my dream. And on the fifty-first try, it worked! I have rarely felt such elation! I learned that failure had become my greatest ally. Each failure showed me what didn’t work so that I could eventually figure out what did work. I learned from this experience that if what you’re doing is worthwhile to you, then you must continue the struggle despite all obstacles. Failure showed itself to be my tool for success, and the Bumper-Jumper-Paddle-Pumper turned out to be one of my best selling products.

By fourteen, the person I was at age ten had learned a lot about character and personal integrity. I was surprised and shocked in those early teens to witness people in supposedly reputable businesses doing unscrupulous things, such as trying to copy and steal my products. It seemed that there were some people who would do anything to reach their goals, which mainly consisted of making as much money as possible by whatever means necessary. I appreciated all my family and friends who were trust-worthy and loyal and who were people I could respect. I made a decision during those years that wherever my life might lead me, or wherever I might lead it, my life would be conducted with integrity in all things. I have learned that my relationships must always be a top priority when making choices. I have learned that who you are is the person you face every day upon awakening, and you’d better make sure you can respect that person because you’re stuck with him for life. All this I learned because one day, in 1995, I looked into the eye of a turtle.

Add A Comment