Marc Ecko: "Skill Sets to Take to the Bank"

The NY Times has a great little business autobiography from Marc Ecko.

Some gems:
"Sometimes kids are interested in stuff like video games that are seen as a pastime, but those pastimes generally have industry behind them. If you look under the hood, you can probably find skill sets to take to the bank..."

"The first five years were like a baptism by fire, to the tune of about $6.5 million in debt. Trying to get back out of that debt and turn the business around was something I couldn’t do today. I don’t have the pain threshold..."

"I have A.D.D., and rather than take drugs to curb it, I just build my world to adapt around it. That’s partly why we’ve branched out into so many different things: clothing, video games, a magazine and other projects..."

"I don’t do it alone. If we went up to the fifth floor of our offices and walked through that bullpen of 40 designers, those are the guys doing the heavy lifting. I look at myself as providing air coverage for the guys on the ground."