Topolino.

by Wayne Naidoo

Part 1.

I was about 6 years old when I lost my first tooth. I freaked out as I was always told that I had nice teeth and this would make me rich one day.  I wasn’t sure how but I rolled with it.  Now with a gaping hole in my face I found myself questioning how I was ever going to get wealthy.  I was literally losing my currency.

That concern was quickly replaced when I woke up the following morning to find five bucks in my slipper in place of where my loose tooth was.  My mom told me that Topolino the mouse had paid for it, as he takes the teeth and gives them to babies who are ready for their first ones.  Made sense.

It just so happened that an additional four teeth fell out over a 3 week period after that and I was in the pound seat now having collected a mini fortune without having done anything other than trading my teeth for cash.  So it was true that my teeth would really make me rich.

I waited patiently for my next tooth to fall out but nothing happened and I was fast depleting my cash reserves on the indulgent luxuries that the corner Bubbie shop had to offer.

Anxiously pondering about what to do next, and as if God sent, I saw a set of candy dentures on display in the treats aisle.  I nearly passed out with elation. I had a plan and this plan was going to bring me greater riches than the whole of Al Capones empire.

As evening approached, I meticulously cut one tooth at a time, out of the dentures. I now had 32 teeth made up of beautiful incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.  That was 32 teeth x R5.  *Faint.

My success rate was through the roof.  The incisors flew off the shelves and the canines were a massive hit but I began to run into trouble when I started peddling the Molars.  Damn molars. 

It all happened one morning when I woke up to a surprise note from Topolino instead of the expected dosh. It was neatly handwritten by what looked like a mouse even though I never knew what a mouse’s handwriting looked like but I figured it was legit.  I took a deep breath and started reading: 

Dearest Wayne,

I am sad to inform you that I can no longer pay you for your teeth.  You caught me by surprise as I have never had a customer firstly, who had more than 32 teeth and secondly one that had all of them fall out over a 4 week period.  As a result I have run out of money and am now officially broke. I wish you all of the best in the future but I have to move on.

Your friend,

Topolino, the tooth mouse.

Rigor Mortis set in almost immediately.  I couldn’t blink, breath or even cry.  I was finished.  No money, no global domination. 

Life Lesson #1 – Nothing in this world worth having comes easy.

Part 2.

Fast forward to forty years later when I first started my Agency, DUKE.  It was a no brainer as the company I was working for at the time, agreed to handover their account to me and as a result they would become my founding client. They even went so far as to sign an 18 month retainer fee and in addition offered to pay me an ongoing consultative fee that in effect paid my salary.  It was a beaut of a deal and one that allowed me to get out of the starting blocks almost immediately and with a kick ass team in place.  One that included my brother Michael and my wife, Nino.

It was 3 months later, on Nino’s birthday, that the fateful and cowardly mail arrived from the CEO to say that they would be terminating our contract due to gobbledygook, expialidocious. My world came crashing down and all that I could see was us losing everything.  This time though, I thought of Topolino and unlike then, this time we did something different.  We didn’t give up.  We regrouped and agreed not to panic.  Instead we wrote the following words boldly down with a black and red marker on our office white board as our new Business Mission:

“GLOBAL DOMINATION”

4 years later and we’re still around with a hoard of awards in our closet, along with big blue chip clients and revenue in the double digit millions.  We were also ranked the third best small creative agency at the Loeries awards, a finalist at the AdFocus awards and DUKE was voted as “The one to watch in 2019” by MarkLives.

We still have a long way to go but we’re making progress every hour of every single day.

New Life Lesson #1.1 – Get to the top through sacrifice, perseverance and hard work.  It’s much more rewarding.

End.