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Author: Jorge

How I Turned My Rejected Cartoon Network Pitch into a Children’s Book

Written by Jorge on . Posted in The Search for Success. Leave a Comment

This is the story of how my rejected pitch script to Cartoon Network for a Pookie and Tushka cartoon series became my book Tushka’s Tooth Trouble.

So, as I continued my never-ending search for success, I started writing cartoon bibles and pilots about my characters to present to animation studios. This would require that I attended animation conferences such as Kidscreen in Miami and MIP in Cannes, France. I live in Peru, so, not quite around the corner.

Luckily, I had just been pre-approved for a 20k Chase MasterCard and, suddenly, money was not an issue!

These conferences were incredibly fancy. MIPCOM Cannes for sure was the fanciest I’ve ever attended. They even had movie stars in attendance, and some booths gave out free food and drinks. One had freshly baked lasagna, and they didn’t yell at me when I asked for a free serving for the third time.

To try to stand out, I walked around the conference halls with colorful mini Blobbies (transforming plush toys I created) around my neck while dragging a carry-on bag with a big Blobbie on top (sometimes “blobbiemorphed” into a Unicorn or a Tyrannosaur). I was a bit self-conscious to do this, but I sucked up and I did it.

At the conference, everyone else was professionally dressed, so I did stand out. I’m going to assume this was a good thing …

I guess it was because, during a Q&A session, I raised my hand and a VP at Cartoon Network said “You! The colorful man in front!” and selected me to ask a question. (I did see her again in the streets of Cannes the following year. So, excitedly I caught up to her and I yelled her name a few times. She turned around looking startled, probably wondering if she should call security. I realized my error and just said “I-I … wanted to say hi.” She replied “It’s always nice to say hi.” I awkwardly waved goodbye and kept walking. In retrospect, not my finest moment).

At the end of each day at conferences, there was a small mixer party meant for networking. Oh man, I hated those!

I’m very much an introvert and even the 3 mojitos didn’t make me want to socialize (maybe tequila would’ve worked better?). But people did approach me, usually saying “what are those things on your neck?” and I would proudly blobbiemorph a Blobbie, they would be wowed and then we’d start talking.

I had learned this trick for remembering names and to create “warmth” when meeting someone new, which is to look into the other person’s eye and try to notice their eye color, while you shake their hand and say their name. That simulates interest on the other person and you are “liked” more. I guess it works, but I was embarrassed to do it.

I did make a few contacts in this way and I met lots of important people from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony, PBS, WB, etc.

I will say that I felt that most of the people in this industry are very nice (and I think women were in most of the top executive positions, which was nice to see since I don’t think other industries are as “even”). I think people that want to make cartoons are, in general, nice people.

Through the years, I was able to secure several pitch meetings and I was even invited to Nickelodeon in LA for a pitch meeting!!! (Nothing came of this meeting, so I don’t know why I put 3 exclamation marks).

But something positive did happen: around the time of the “unfortunate Cannes encounter”, I had written to that same VP of Cartoon Network and said “Hello! It’s me! The colorful man!” and asked for a meeting.

She was nice enough to not block me on the spot and went above and beyond and got me a meeting with the lead acquisitions person on her team!

So, on September 30th, 2022, I had this meeting and it went pretty well! The acquisitions person loved Pookie and Tushka and she said that it could be a good fit for Cartoonito! She liked the sentimental aspect of the stories. I had mentioned that each episode would have a song related to the story and she really liked that!

She wanted me to write a sample script about “children’s first experiences”. She mentioned things like “first holiday”, “first visit to the dentist”, etc. I asked her to give me a couple of months for this and she agreed.

As I tried to come up with a story, I remembered that I have a nephew that HATED brushing his teeth, he would cry about it, lie about it, whatever it took to avoid it. I particularly remembered that he said that the toothpaste burned his mouth. “Funny” thing is that he is 25 now and … he still doesn’t like to brush his teeth.

So, I did some research to find out why kids don’t like to brush their teeth, and found out the main reasons were: that toothpaste burns, that toothbrush bristles hurt, and … that it’s boring!

I figured I could make a funny episode about Tushka (the polar bear cub) not wanting to brush his teeth, with all the common excuses kids make, and Pookie (his older penguin best friend) finding a solution to each of his excuses, while simultaneously giving real solutions to kids and parents.

As part of the story, Pookie composes a song to help Tushka brush his teeth. Initially, all that was requested from me was a script, but I really wanted to give it my best shot, so I went all in! Not only did I write the script, but I created a “shooting script” with sketches for each scene, and I even wrote, played and sang the song for the story! There was NO way Cartoon Network would turn me down now, right? RIGHT!?

So, on December 7th, I sent an email to the CN acquisitions person to set up our follow-up meeting. 2 days later, her assistant replied saying that Pookie and Tushka was a sweet concept but they wouldn’t be prioritizing it for Cartoonito at the moment. I was welcome to submit my new materials, though.

I was like … what!? Two months ago the acquisitions person had been enthusiastic about Pookie and Tushka and now the reply was coming from her assistant. 🙁 It was disappointing … but I sent my materials anyway.

On January 20th, 2023, I got their final reply. Basically, they liked the relatable challenge, they appreciated the song and the research it was based on. But ultimately, they said, the theme and tone felt “too educational” for what Cartoonito needed.

So, my story was TOO educational? Shouldn’t that be a compliment!? I was crushed! 🙁 I’d even made a song!!! And it was actually a good song!

No hard feelings, but after this rejection, and many more rejections in 2024, I figured this was a waste of time and especially money. I was already in debt big time because, contrary to popular belief, Cannes is not cheap! I decided to stop attending these conferences and stop sending pitches. I had to find new ways to succeed.

I did make a lot of contacts, though, but I’m not a social person and I’m very bad at networking, so, besides having the top executives in the industry as connections on LinkedIn, I lost touch with everyone.

On March 20th, 2023, I celebrated the 20th anniversary of my characters and my first book, so I decided to relaunch my books at Amazon and I finally published the prequel to my first book, which I titled When Pookie Met Tushka.

I wanted to make more P&T books, so I decided to turn my Dental Dilemma script into a book. I created sketches for all the pages, and formatted the book in Adobe InDesign, but making the final illustrations would take me months, so I shelved the book for the moment.

Cut to 2025, when I was having a friendly chat with ChatGPT and fed him information about my many, many project ideas, and then I asked him which of them could be the most successful in the short term.

ChatGPT said, and I quote: “You clearly have gold in terms of Intellectual Property … You’re sitting on a purpose-driven, multi-IP empire in the rough.” OMG! ChatGPT REALLY believed in me!!! But then I remembered that ChatGPT is a suck-up, so I took the compliment and demanded a strategy!

ChatGPT said that Tushka’s Dental Dilemma would be the best project to focus on first because of its “Emotional, relatable topic for parents” and the fact that I have a song and I was planning on making a brushing video. I bet he also liked that the story was “Too Educational” (No, no. I’m not still bitter).

Since I have bills to pay and I can’t leave my design clients, finishing the book and making the video would take me a long time, so I had to accept that I had to delegate. I paid an illustrator to finalize my sketches and an animator to make a video with my illustrations. But I’m a “perfectionist”, and I wasn’t happy with the final results, so I still spent a couple of months improving the illustrations and the animation.

I decided to change the book’s name, because … I realized that there wasn’t really a “dilemma” in Tushka’s Dental Dilemma (D’oh!). I liked “dilemma” because it started with a “D” like “dental”. So, I came up with Tushka’s Tooth Trouble all with a “T” now! Genius!

In the story, I had drawn Tushka brushing his teeth with a “blobbiebrush”. This was meant to be just a cute Easter egg with the Blobbies, but then my fiancée saw the blobbiebrushes and said “Wow, they look so cool! You should sell those!” This surprised me because my fiancée is my harshest critic. So, I figured, if my fiancée doesn’t hate them, the world is going to LOVE them! Now I’m working with a certified toothbrush manufacturer on the prototypes! 😊

But then I was like, why don’t I just create a COMPLETE brushing experience!? I could make kids love the experience so much that they would be like “Why go to Disneyland when I can brush my teeth!”

So, I went all out and created the Blobbies’ Emotional Toothbrushing System™, which includes a brushing chart, reward stickers, and an emotion chart that lets kids express their feelings as part of a playful brushing routine. (No, I can never create anything simple). All included inside Tushka’s Tooth Trouble. And when the Blobbiebrushes come, by year’s end, the full system will be complete!

But as I published my book, I had a couple of setbacks, because why would life decide to get easier now?

One setback was that I had released the video for Pookie’s “You Must Brush” Song on YouTube and all seemed good until I played my video on the TV and I could barely hear the voices against the instrumentals 🙁 It so happens that YouTube on a TV sounds very different and you need to account for that. I had to pay a sound mixer to improve the voice levels, so it would sound good on all devices.

Also, my YouTube analytics showed that I had under 20% retention, which meant that a lot of kids skipped my video because it seems the TikTok generation needs spikes in adrenaline every 2 seconds, or else they get bored. So, I had to improve my video (now, after my changes, I have over 75% in retention! 😊)

The other major setback was that a few months after publishing, I ran into Amazon’s notoriously ruthless automated compliance bots. 🙁 Platform guidelines for indie authors shift constantly, and an algorithmic update suddenly flagged my listing over formatting and community review compliance. Anyone who publishes on Amazon knows how terrifying that automated email is!

Rather than spending weeks on an appeal, I took this as an opportunity to improve my book, add more educational content, and republish it. The only sucky thing is that I had to start over with the book promotion and get reviews again (and no, cousin Evita, you cannot leave me 5-star reviews, because friends and family are not allowed to leave reviews. Thank you, though!)

Cut to now, where I’m planning my promotion strategy for the book with Claude AI (ChatGPT is SO 2025) and among the many things that Claude suggested I do, was to write the story of how I created Tushka’s Tooth Trouble for a TikTok, newsletter, and blog article. So, here it is! (I hope I made you proud, Claude!🥰).

In the end, I guess it all worked out for the best, otherwise there wouldn’t be a Tushka’s Tooth Trouble book … Oh, who am I kidding!!! I still want my Pookie and Tushka cartoon!!! 😭

Moving on … all I have left to say is that I hope you enjoyed this story and I invite you to check out Tushka’s Tooth Trouble at Amazon (the Kindle version is currently free and the paperback is discounted). And if you enjoy the book and find it useful, please leave me a review (those things are gold to an indie author!).

And be on the lookout for the Blobbiebrushes!

Take care,

Jorge

PS1: You can get “Tushka’s Tooth Trouble” here: https://www.amazon.com/Tushkas-Tooth-Trouble-Brushing-Preschoolers/dp/1932179372/

PS2: You can listen to Pookie’s “You Must Brush” Song here: https://youtu.be/_2kBWOwdkoM

PS3: I’ll make sure to send a copy of Tushka’s Tooth Trouble to my 25-year-old nephew. Maybe I can finally get him to brush his teeth.🤞

In the Search for Success: The Toy Industry Is No Fun

Written by Jorge on . Posted in The Search for Success. Leave a Comment

I’ve always dreamed of becoming successful by creating characters for books, games, and movies. I moved from Perú to the U.S. and, to pay the bills, I worked for Apple, Adobe, and other technology companies. But (as told in Part 1 and Part 2 of my story) I decided to leave my life in Silicon Valley to return to Perú and focus on my dreams.

I’ve tried many things to be successful, but none have worked out. They say the road to success is long and hard… and boy, I made sure to hit every pothole along the way.

I was around 30 years old and I needed to come up with a new plan to achieve success. That’s when I decided I was going to be: a Toy Inventor!

I had recently written a children’s book about shape-shifting characters named the Blobbies, so I decided to invent a toy that transformed, just like them.

I went to RadioShack looking for parts that I could use for my new toy. Then I went to Toys”R”Us and bought toys to open them up and get their parts. One by one, I dismembered the bodies of countless Barbies, Barneys, and Elmos. I shed a tear as I dismembered my beloved quack-quack electronic Ducky. My living room looked like the aftermath of a Sesame Street gang war.

Unfortunately, to create the kind of toy I wanted, I required complex pieces and tools I didn’t have. Ducky had lost its life in vain.

I researched on the internet and found out about resin casting and latex rubber. I went to Michael’s Arts & Crafts and I got all the supplies. I was able to create crude prototypes but, though I had fun, I wasn’t happy with the results.

Then, on my next trip to Michael’s, I had a revelation! There was a whole other section I had not yet explored: the Sewing Section.

I filled my cart with threads, zippers, fabrics, and foam. I brainstormed on a toy design and then used my rudimentary sewing skills to bring my design to life. After a few tries, I was able to sew a Blobbie plush toy that morphed into a teddy bear. And with that, the amazing Blobbiemorphers had been born!

I asked my parents for help improving my franken-prototype. My dad helped me cut new molds and my mom, who can actually sew, put together a set of decent Blobbiemorpher prototypes. Now, all I needed was someone who would want to produce my toy.

With prototypes in hand, I went to toy conventions, I reached out to dozens of toy companies, and I had the honor of being rejected by FAO Schwartz, Mattel, Toys”R”Us and the top toy companies in the world!

It soon became obvious that if I wanted my Blobbiemorphers to become a reality, I would have to produce them myself.

I went to the New York Toy Fair and met with manufacturers from China and Indonesia and gave them my samples. Soon, I received their “counter samples” and price lists.

I still needed a distribution partner and I was struggling to make a deal … but then the Universe gave me hope: I landed a meeting with a large US retail chain … let’s call this chain … hmmm … “Dry’s Electronics”. Well, “Dry’s” loved the Blobbies!

They requested Blobbiemorphers on consignment, but I still needed time and money to manufacture the final toys. So, in the meantime, Dry’s would sell the Blobbies’ books. They just had one request: large POP displays for each of their stores. Unfortunately, custom POP displays were very expensive. The best quote I got was $7,000 for a set. I figured, I had to risk it (Bad Business Decision #64).

A couple of weeks later, my beautiful POP displays were ready! I shipped them to Dry’s and then … they lost them!

They lost my expensive, gorgeous displays and they blamed me for “sending them to the wrong address.” I contacted UPS and got a copy of the shipping receipt with the signature of the receiving person at Dry’s. I sent this proof to Dry’s and they replied: “The guys at the warehouse probably didn’t know what the boxes were and they threw them away. Send a new batch of POP displays”.

Chésu Madre!!! (pardon my spanish). I could not believe this! I told them that I could not afford to create a new set and that they should at least help with half the cost… they stopped responding to my calls. Eventually, they returned my stock of books, most of them broken and in unsellable condition.

After this unpleasant experience, I decided to use my credit cards (I never learn) to order a container of Blobbiemorphers and try to sell them directly to stores at the N.Y. Toy Fair.

Thankfully, the Blobbiemorphers were very well received! People loved stopping at my company’s booth and everybody smiled while looking at my products. I was able to get several small orders and I also caught the interest of some influential people.

A director from a video game company was very interested in the Blobbies. He even flew me to their headquarters and everything. The director said that they were going to put a million dollars to start the marketing campaign for the Blobbies!!! I was on my way to success!

Once I got back home, I called the director. He never answered. A few days later, I opened a gaming news site and there, in the front page, it said “Video Game Company has dreadful fourth quarter.” The company lost many people… including the director interested in the Blobbies (didn’t I go through this before?).

Then a direct marketing company wanted to make an infomercial for the Blobbies and sell then on TV! Of course, there would be a small one time fee of $25,000. I thought it was a scam, but I confirmed they were a legit company and I decided to get a loan and risk it (Bad Business Decision #76). Well… all I got was a cheesy infomercial that went nowhere … except YouTube.

It seems the company tested the infomercial and the numbers weren’t excellent, so they lost interest in the project. Funny how they had been calling me non-stop before I paid the $25,000 but after, they stopped replying to my e-mails and phone calls…

Then I was approached by Nelvana and other TV/Film companies. They all requested a script and series bible, which I didn’t have. So, I created a script and animation shots for: the Blobbiemovie! Unfortunately, by the time I had everything ready, my contacts had either lost interest or moved on to other companies.

The good thing is that I now have a very nice script, ready to be made into a blockbuster movie. So, Mr Spielberg, if you are feeling generous, feel free to give me call (please leave a message, I screen all my phone calls).

I kept trying everything to spread the word about the Blobbies. I even sent the story of my life and a set of Blobbies to Ellen… but, apparently, the story of the poor Peruvian boy trying to succeed had been done to death.

On a positive note, I was able to sell Blobbiemorphers to stores in the U.S., Europe, and South America. They received a “Toy of the Year Award” and they were featured in Better Homes and Gardens as one of the “Top Holiday Gifts” of 2005. Man! That Christmas I was packing Blobbies non-stop. Everybody would tell me “you are going to be a millionaire next year.” Well, “next year” hasn’t arrived yet!

I was never able to get a large distribution deal, so my profits couldn’t cover my many many bills and/or stop the calls from my dear friends at Discover Cards.

I continued producing and distributing the Blobbiemorphers on my own, but eventually, China decided to place better labor laws (the NERVE!) and voilá! plush prices went up!
Now Blobbiemorphers were too expensive to manufacture … so I decided to put them on hold until the day I get a good distribution deal.

I have more stories to tell… but I think I reached the quota of whining in this article.

At this point, I am thinking how unfair it is that success seems to come so easy for people like Justin Bieber, the Twilight actors, and the Facebook guy.

Giving up on my dreams has never been an option but, when I turned 40, I started to wonder… what if I am not meant to be successful? What if I have all this talent (yes, yes, humility, I know) but in the end I am meant to be a failure?

Should I give up and just “live”… just work/eat/sleep, repeating that cycle with no purpose until I die? For dreamers like me, that is a fate worse than death …

I started reading Steve Jobs’ biography trying to find out if he struggled like me. I read and re-read the pages trying to convince myself that “Yes, Jorge! Steve also struggled! Just like you!” And well…he kind of did. He had several failures, he was removed from his own company, he even had public crying meltdowns…while I’ve never had a public crying meltdown (HA!). Then again, all through his struggles he was a bazillionaire, so … he did beat me on that.

J.K. Rowling may be a better example. After all, she was broke, considered herself a failure, and even contemplated suicide… until she made it big with Harry Potter at 32. And 32 is almost the same as 41, right? Right?

Well, thanks to Google (another company that reached success in, like, 2 minutes!) I found some people who found success later in life: Sam Walton started Walmart at 43, Ian Fleming published James Bond at 44, Henry Ford created his Model T at 45, Taikichiro Mori (Forbes’ world’s richest man) got into investing at 55, Coronel Sanders started KFC at 65, Grandma Moses started painting at 76!!!

So, now that I’ve convinced myself that there is still hope for me, I am ready to continue with my next plan for world domination …

In the Search for Success: Into the Self-Publishing Nightmare

Written by Jorge on . Posted in The Search for Success. Leave a Comment

I used to be a design manager at one of the largest software companies in the world. Unfortunately, I had been born with dreaded “dreamer” gene and, as told in my previous blog post, I decided to leave it all to follow my dreams.

Since I was a child, I’ve been creating characters and stories which I wanted to bring to life in books, games, and movies. I had now decided that the easiest way to achieve “success” with my creations, was to publish an illustrated book.

After several years of working as a designer at companies like Apple and Adobe, I felt extremely confident in my illustration skills. What I felt very unsure of were my writing skills…

English is not my first language (I was born and raised in Lima, Perú) but that didn’t really worry me; my grammar was excellent and my accent couldn’t be heard on paper. What terrified me was thinking that my stories could be silly, or even worse, boring.

I decided to “ease in” into writing professionally by writing children’s books (I figured, fewer words = less chances to make mistakes). I selected “Pookie” (a little penguin character I had created years ago) and his friend “Tushka” (a little polar bear), as the stars of my first book. Supposedly, it is tougher for most people to write for children, but thanks to my immaturity, it was a piece of cake for me!

I submitted my manuscript and illustrations to dozens of book publishers and I had the honor of being rejected by HaperCollins, Random House, Scholastic, and the top publishing houses in the world!

I went to book fairs and personally approached publishers. I kept getting rejected. The publishers that would be willing to talk to me would tell me: “A publisher won’t publish your book, unless you have an agent.” So then I approached agents, who in turn told me: “An agent won’t represent you, unless you have been published before.” Something seemed off with the publishing industry…

After the endless rejections, I was wondering if buying all those Writing for Dummiesbooks had been a waste of money… but then the Universe gave me hope: a small publisher accepted my manuscript! I was on my way to success!

The contract arrived and I eagerly opened the envelope. I figured, as a formality, I should read the contract before signing it. Well… it was not a pleasant read. Not only would I make a measly percentage, but also my characters would become property of the publisher and so would my next book. I politely declined their offer.

I was fed up! If I was ever going to publish my books, I needed to take matters into my own hands. That’s when I decided I was going to be: a self-publisher!

By this time, I had already written and illustrated a second book about a group of colorful alien characters named “The Blobbies.” I decided to self-publish both my books at the same time.

I spent many days in the Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing aisle. I registered my manuscripts with the Library of Congress and Quality Books Inc. I bought the brand new Adobe InDesign and worked hard on the “ready to print” digital files for my books. But doing all of this work while still keeping a full-time job was very difficult. Days were too short, I needed more time… and soon the Universe would give it to me!

I had recently turned 30 and to celebrate the occasion, my body developed a brand new kind of “stomach ache.” I decided to power through it, as I had no time to get sick, and kept on working until my VERY painful “stomach ache” faded away two days later. But when I started developing a fever, I began to wonder if maybe this was no ordinary “stomach ache”… a few hours later, as I was being rolled into the ER, I was told that I had just powered through appendicitis and my appendix had burst.

Yes, I could have died but, on the plus side, I was forced to take three weeks off work, and instead of accepting my sentence of bed rest with Ricky Lake re-runs, I decided to grab my laptop and use all this free time to work full-time on my children’s books!

Soon, my digital files would be ready. All I needed now, was the right printing company, and… lots and lots of money.

You see… in all my excitement of becoming a writer, I didn’t realize that printing full-color children’s books is waaaaay more expensive than printing paperback B&W; novels. I had to use up all my savings, my Adobe stock, and the money from the nice folks at Discover Cards.

A year later, my two masterpieces were ready: Pookie and Tushka Find a Little Piano and Here Come The Blobbies! Now, all I needed was a distributor.

I paid for a booth at Book Expo America (BEA) in L.A. and searched for a distributor. As usual, I kept getting rejected. Distributors didn’t want to take a chance on an unproven author. Then someone told me: “If your book gets an award, a distributor may consider you.” It seemed like a long shot, but there was hope!

I submitted my books to several awards contests and, lo and behold, both my children’s books won several awards, including a Best New Children’s Book of the Year award!!! I was ecstatic! Specially because, apparently, I didn’t suck as a writer.

The following year I went to BEA again and, very sure of myself, I approached distributors with my awards. Unfortunately, two years had now passed since I published my books and they were now considered “old.” The top distributors didn’t want to carry them. “SIGH” would be an understatement.

I decided to distribute my books via Amazon.com. Thankfully, the books sold pretty well! I mean, I didn’t become the famous writer I was hoping for, but I have a handful of fans all over the world (and if I count my nieces and nephews, I can probably double the amount!).

My books were great accomplishments, because they showcased my skills. My books came with a CD-ROM with songs I’d composed and games I’d programmed… including a Flash game called Ice Toss Frenzy (a plot point for a future blog post).

Yes, yes, I am quite talented: I draw, I write, I program, I compose, I even kinda sing… but boy, do I suck at finances!

Let me give you an example of this: I was eventually able to get signed by a small book distributor at the following BEA. By signing with this distributor, I was able to reach bookstores across the U.S. But, the “funny thing” is that, in order to sign with the distributor, I had to stop selling via Amazon.

Well… this distributor didn’t promote my books, they would just ship them IF a bookstore requested them (fat chance!). So, now I was selling fewer books than with Amazon. On top of that, shipping my heavy books to the distributor costed me several thousands of dollars, plus I now had to pay monthly storage fees to the distributor for books they would hardly sell. As you can see, a great business decision! One of many that would follow…

My adventures in the publishing industry brought me some recognition and small successes, but not the kind of big success I was craving for.

My never-ending search for success would go on…

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you are a writer planning to self-publish, I strongly advice that you to try eBooks. The risk is much lower. Having to deal with shipping and storing palettes of physical books can be very expensive. If you do decide to self-publish physical books, try to have a deal in place BEFORE you print the books, so ideally your books arrive directly to the distributor’s warehouse and there are stores waiting for your books.

In the Search for Success: From Peru to USA and Back Again

Written by Jorge on . Posted in The Search for Success. Leave a Comment

Most people aspire to find a comfortable job, settle down, and have a pleasant life. But there are some people that must follow their “dreams” and won’t be happy until the moment they achieve “success”.

Unfortunately, I am one of the dreamers.

In my case, “success” means making my stories and characters come to life in books, games, and movies, being able to inspire others, and doing my part to change the world. Oh, and making tons and TONS of money.

I was born and raised in Lima, Perú. I loved watching cartoons and movies, especially sci-fi and fantasy. Spielberg, Cameron, and Lucas inspired me. I was also inspired by my dad, who had his own small company, “Indursa”. He used to say “I rather be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion” and I agreed. That’s when I decided I was going to be: an Entrepreneur!

So, at age 9 or so, I created my first company: “Tacosa”. It was a wooden box filled with trinkets that I would sell to my friends. My mom, who is a great cook, taught me how to bake … soon I realized that I could also sell cupcakes around the block. At first, people were afraid to buy cupcakes made by a 10 year old, but they were really good (the secret is butter) and I had daily sales … that is until my mom found out that I was using up all her ingredients and, on top of that, I was selling my cupcakes for half the price of the ingredients. As you can see, I was not very good at finances … this would be a bad omen …

By then, my family thought I was a bit … “odd”. I was composing bad music with my Casiotone by 8, I knew all about the big bang theory (the non-tv show one) by 9 and I was trying to improve my telekinesis by 12 (still not that good). On top of that, my social skills were non-existent (a virtue I still possess) and I seriously lacked self-esteem. All I had going for me were my dreams.

At 15, I got my first job at “Mueblelinea” doing pencil drawings for a furniture catalog. I got paid half the minimum wage and I doubled as the receptionist, but I was proud to be earning my own money. My parents only found out that I had a job, two months later, when I arrived late to my own birthday party … then they called the store owner, yelled at her for hiring an underage boy, and made me quit. During those long walks, to and from work, story ideas and characters would incessantly come to my mind. That’s when I decided I was going to be: a Storyteller!

The name of my future company would be: “Pers” and, according to my calculations, I would be famous by the time I reached 20. Yeah, we’ll see …

At 18, I was studying “Electronics Engineering”. I would use this knowledge to make robots, software, and movies better than Tron. Unfortunately, math bored me to no end. This would, years later, inspire me to create “Ice Math Ninja“, but at the time, it just made me quit the university. That’s when I decided I was going to be: an Artist!

Soon, I announced the great news to my family. Let’s just say … they weren’t “thrilled”. In their eyes, I had gone from rich respected successful engineer to poor weirdo starving artist. This was a source of constant stress with my family.

To make things more interesting, I discovered that I started liking my male best friend a bit more than was customary. I tried everything to make this feeling stop, with no success. I had seen the movie “An Early Frost” and I had heard about the “Gay Cancer” (a.k.a. AIDS) since I was little … I really did not want this life for me. And my friend wasn’t too “thrilled” with my brand new feelings either.

I felt alone, buried in problems, with no escape. I started daydreaming about killing myself … and then I would imagine how everyone would feel bad for not treating me better. But suicide was never an option, in part because it seemed wrong, but mainly because I was a wuss.

So, my only option was to go far, far away and start over. A ticket to China was too expensive, so USA seemed like a good alternative. That’s when I decided I was going to be: an Illegal Immigrant! (kidding, kidding, don’t lynch me).

I sold my Commodore Amiga and my CD collection and bought a ticket to USA. I had a Tourist visa and thanks to the “Catholic Charities” I was able to get a temporary work authorization. Now, at the age of 19, I was ready to continue my search for the Peruvian dream!

By this time, my plan was to make my very own comic book. I went to conventions, mailed dozens of letters, and I had the honor of being rejected by DC, Image, Marvel and the top comic book companies in the world!

When I was 22, I met with a company called Defiant at the San Diego Comic-Con. The art director liked my drawings. He told me I wasn’t good enough yet but that I could start working for them as a colorist! I was on my way to success!

Once I got back home, I called the art director. He never answered. A few days later, I grabbed a comic book news magazine and there, in the front page, it said: “Defiant Comics is Out of Business” … and with that, my journey into the world of comics had ended. This would be just one of the many stumbles on my path to success.

During this time, I was also trying to get a better job since I had grown tired of my glamorous life as a waiter at the “Old Spaghetti Factory”. I mailed dozens of resumes and I had the honor to have been rejected by DreamWorks, LucasArt, Pixar, and the top entertainment companies in the world!

A friend that had seen my struggles told me, “Jobs like those don’t happen to normal people like us.” I ignored that comment.

When I was 23, I got my first break. I went to an engineering job fair looking for a design job, hoping I’d stand out as a designer. The plan worked! I was offered 2 jobs, including an internship at Apple!!!

My first day at Apple, I felt like Tom Hanks in “Big”. I had so many ideas, so much to give … unfortunately, I was “the intern” and no one wanted to listen to me. You see … I was hired to meet an intern quota at the “eWorld” team. It didn’t matter to me–I was on my way to success! I bought a new car (this time with working tail lights!), moved into an apartment (no more basement for me!) and … 2 months later I was fired because e-World was shutting down.

Luckily, I was able to get a job in another division at Apple. A year later, I moved to the Claris division and, for a while, I was happy … but then Steve Jobs had a fit and fired half of Claris (I still love you, Steve! R.I.P.).

The good thing is that, with Apple on my resume, I was in high demand and I was soon hired by Adobe.

During all this time, I had to go through the stressful yearly process of renewing my temporary work authorization. Apple and Adobe had tried to get me a permanent authorization, but there was a period of six months that I had remained in the US illegally (when changing from tourist to work status) and that impeded me from getting a Green Card.

And then I received a letter from immigration telling me that I had six months to leave the country.

Thankfully, the Universe figured I had squirmed enough: A new amnesty law passed and my six months of illegality were forgiven! I was able to get my Green Card one month before I was going to be kicked out!

By this time, I became the visual manager of the Creative Suites. I was able to make many innovations, such as the breaking-the-border Splash Screens, the new Photoshop toolbar icons, the PDF icons, and the Adobe Bridge. I was proud that my work was being seen by millions of people around the world.

I now had a good life. I was very self-confident, I was comfortable with my sexuality, I made good money … but I wasn’t happy. My life felt empty.

You see … for dreamers like me, working for someone else is not fulfilling. I felt stuck in the endless cycle of work/eat/sleep … and I had gotten sidetracked in my search for success.

On top of that, my Peruvian genes started to kick in … I felt that life in the Silicon Valley was too … sanitized? Don’t get me wrong, the Bay Area is possibly the best place in the world, but I felt that many people there only cared about working and making money. This included my best friends who were always busy working and rarely had time to do anything “fun”.

In contrast, every time I stayed in Perú, friends and family will show up with drinks in hand and would take me out partying until 6am (sometimes even going straight to work right after!). As you can see … priorities are a bit different here.

With all these things in my mind, I contemplated leaving Adobe to focus on my dreams. I knew this would risky. I would be throwing away my future in the software industry.

In the end, the decision was easy … this was not the life that I wanted to live. So, on March 20th 2003 I created my company: Pers. http://www.pers.com

Soon after, I left Adobe and three years later, I would move back to Perú! The future was now very uncertain, but it had gotten a lot more interesting …