Real-life resilience - Nintendo

Nintendo started as a handmade trading card company in Kyoto, Japan in 1889. It has evolved many times since those early days, shifting from cards, to taxis and even into instant rice. Today, it’s a global force in gaming.

Nintendo is a business of reinvention and resilience. Perhaps the most fascinating example of that resilience is how the company turned a disastrous US launch into a legendary comeback that blasted the business towards skyrocketing success.

In 1980, Nintendo wanted to make a bold push into the US arcade market. They launched a shooting game called Radar Scope, and shipped thousands of arcade machines from Japan to the US.

But it flopped. The American audience wasn’t into it, which meant thousands of unsold arcade machines piled up in warehouses, resulting in a massive financial burden.

Nintendo had to reverse course if they wanted to remain in the US market. They needed a success. And they needed it ASAP!

The big leap.

With a warehouse full of dead inventory, Nintendo chose to repurpose the machines. The company president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, pushed the company to convert the unsold Radar Scope units into a new game.

Yamauchi made an unorthodox decision to flip the project to a young, relatively untested designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto wasn’t an engineer or coder, but he had studied industrial design at college and was ultimately a storyteller, obsessed with toy-making and adventure.

So, even though Miyamoto wasn’t technical, he was imaginative, and Yamauchi recognized that Nintendo needed this fresh thinking. So he bet the US business on this kid.

With the freedom to explore new ideas and try new concepts, Miyamoto rewrote the script on Nintendo games. Instead of building a “game,” he built a world. A place with characters, conflict, humour, and emotional stakes.

He designed the game as a narrative with each level adding difficulty and an evolving storyline. This kind of storytelling and playfulness in games was unheard of in 1981. Miyamoto proposed a simple but compelling story: the hero had to climb a construction site to rescue a damsel in distress, from a mischievous gorilla!

That world, that place, that game….was Donkey Kong.

And the hero was a guy called “Jumpman” - a human protagonist who could climb ladders and jump over barrels, which were totally new mechanics at the time. The team gave him a red cap to avoid animating hair, overalls so that his arm movements showed clearly, and a moustache to provide some facial definition in the tiny pixel grid.

Does this character sound familiar? That carpenter later evolved to a plumber and became Mario. Yes, the same Mario that would be later be cemented as Nintendo’s mascot as a symbol of play, perseverance, and optimism.

Once it arrived in the US market, Donkey Kong exploded. The initial stack of converted arcade machines sold quickly and, within months, orders for new ones poured in. After about a year, Nintendo had sold 60,000 units in the US alone, generating massive revenue which that allowed Nintendo to scale its American business.

Donkey Kong was a huge success. But it was created on the back of out-of-the-box thinking and a gamble that unleashed decades of further success and legacy franchises.

Game-changing lessons.

The story of Donkey Kong, coupled with the creation of Mario, is another wonderful example of how constraints can create magic when we approach them with a resilient mindset. Here are a few takeaways:

1. Adaptability under pressure. Instead of discarding inventory, the Nintendo team repurposed with speed and agility. They transformed a liability into an opportunity. The timing was tight and the pressure intense, but that urgency forced fast, focused, and fearless action. Any smart, well-framed constraint (such as a tight deadline or a clearly defined audience) will activate our brain’s executive control network, helping it filter out noise, prioritize actions, and stay focused on what matters. It’s why our best ideas often arrive when there’s no time left to procrastinate - we know it’s go time. So, when we have a difficult constraint, we should look at it as an opportunity to get creative.

2. Empowering fresh voices. Nintendo entrusted the young designer with the challenge. It was a big ask, but the bet on talent and out-of-the-box thinking resulted in massive return on investment. That leap of trust let them bypass status quo solutions and tap into unfiltered creativity. The greatest returns often come when we entrust bold problems to fresh perspectives. The opportunity here is to be open-minded and curious and trust that the best ideas can come from anywhere.

3. Story and human connection. Donkey Kong introduced character, drama, and story into arcade games. This emotional hook helped it stand out as something refreshing because it gave players something to connect with. It made them care. When we want people to engage, we need to give them someone to root for. Information might inform, but story transforms by creating loyalty, memory, and movement. Whether it’s a pitch deck, a product, or a keynote, we can lead with human stakes, not just stats and facts. Storytelling is a gateway to deeper connection.

4. Stack the small wins. The pivot from Radar Scope to Donkey Kong kept Nintendo alive in the US, but that act of resilience also made space for the next opportunity. It was a slow burn of breakthroughs for Nintendo, each made possible because they adapted when they needed to. Our legacies are built on the small moments that add up. But we don’t get those wins without showing up when things look bleak. We just need enough momentum to get to the next decision, the next idea, the next shot. Resilience compounds, and so does courage.

The magic of any moment is always born from our mindset. The next big thing rarely looks like a success at the time. It often starts as a dead end, a warehouse full of flops, or a bet on an unproven idea. And then, if we’re brave enough, it becomes our Donkey Kong moment.

Until next time, stay resilient friends.

Carré @ Resilient Minds
Handle Hard Better

PS - if you’re enjoying this newsletter, pls follow me on Instagram for more stories like this and regular tips to practice resilience.