“In all honesty, I wouldn’t say that the business end of it came with any kind of ease,” says McFarlane. “It was more Darwinian. You have to learn business if you’re going to be self-employed and survive. If you’re a bad businessperson and you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to be out of business.” Drawing had always been his passion, but not once did McFarlane consider it a career choice. That is, until an injury forced him to reexamine his life. How did this young man with nothing but a dream in mind and a doodle in hand become the success he is today?
Diversification: Early on in his career, McFarlane made the mistake of only focusing on his comic book, on relentlessly improving every aspect of his drawings until it was perfected. But, what he learned in the years to come was that in order to attain the kind of success that he wanted, with “50 billion people” seeing his artwork, he would have to diversify. And so, he branched out and created the two highly successful companies, McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment.
Stubbornness: When McFarlane thinks of an idea, he pursues it until it has been realized. He does not care if his colleagues object to it, nor does he care what their opinions on it may be. What McFarlane says goes, and that is what he sees as the beauty of having his own company.
Vision: “I didn’t become a successful businessman because I wanted to be rich and famous,” says McFarlane. “I wanted to become successful enough to deliver the art to the consumer.” McFarlane may own his own toy company, but that does not mean that with each film he produces he exploits it to its fullest potential. McFarlane aims to create the best product possible, whatever that may be, and he refuses to sell out and sacrifice his work for a buck.
Current: McFarlane was quick to realize the mistake that many of his competitors were making: they were releasing similar products to those they released years ago, not realizing that their key fans and target demographic had grown up. Where the likes of Batman failed, McFarlane wanted to succeed. For instance, where the Spawn sequel was concerned, he made sure that the film was updated to suit the tastes of his now older and more mature viewers.
Uniqueness: McFarlane’s comic creations always stood out for one simple reason: his story lines and characters were simple and ordinary, save the main character. It was by making his characters unique in a sea of plainness that they became so popular. So too did McFarlane focus the rest of his company on creating unique content, refusing to ever settle for good enough.
“At the end of all that, I’ve got a company and an empire, and we make money,” says McFarlane. “But I will tell you that there has never been one day along that process when I’ve thought, ‘I just want to build up a company, go public and have stocks!’ No. There’s a reason why, after all these years, my company is still private. I want to be big enough to have the freedom creatively, and small enough to retain it. That’s the niche that I want.”
A Doodle And A Dream: How McFarlane Turned Spawn Into A Success
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