Narrator: The year is 2004. The stage is E3, the world’s biggest video game conference. Nintendo, once the undisputed king, is on the ropes. It’s seen as the "kiddy" company, losing ground to the sleek, powerful consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The audience of journalists and industry insiders is skeptical, waiting for more of the same. But then, a new executive, a tall, imposing man nobody recognizes, walks to the podium. He leans into the microphone and says, "My name is Reggie. I'm about kicking ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games." The room erupts. In that single moment, the narrative changed. But this was no accident. It was the culmination of a lifetime of lessons in leadership, strategy, and relentless determination. The story of how that moment was made, and the principles that powered it, is the subject of Reggie Fils-Aimé’s memoir, Disrupting the Game.

Narrator: Before Reggie Fils-Aimé could disrupt the game, he had to learn how to survive it. His story begins not in a corporate boardroom, but in a tenement in the Bronx, as the son of Haitian immigrants. His early life was defined by a set of core principles, learned through harsh experience. The first was that life is hard, and success requires an inner strength and determination to move forward. The second, and perhaps most important, was the mandate to do what is right, regardless of the consequences.

This principle was not just an abstract idea; it was demonstrated to him in dramatic fashion. As a young boy, he and his brother were robbed of their pocket money by two teenagers on the way to the local bodega. When they returned home, their mother didn't just console them. She marched them back to the store, identified the culprits, and chased them down the street. When the teenagers ducked into another building, she confronted them in the lobby. Five men from the building intervened, not to help the robbers, but to support her. They forced the teenagers to return the stolen money. In that moment, Fils-Aimé learned that standing up to injustice, with courage and conviction, was not just talk. It was action. These foundational values—resilience and integrity—would become the bedrock of his decision-making for the rest of his career.

Narrator: Fils-Aimé’s path to Nintendo was not a straight line. It was a long apprenticeship in the trenches of corporate America, at giants like Procter & Gamble and Pizza Hut. It was here he learned that to disrupt an industry, you first have to master its rules. At P&G, he learned the art of disciplined thinking, famously through the company’s rigid "one-page memo" culture, which forced him to distill complex strategies into a single, persuasive document.

But it was at Pizza Hut where he truly honed his skills as a disruptor. As a marketing director, he saw that the national strategy, focused on dine-in restaurants, was failing his division, which was dominated by delivery and carryout locations. He proposed a radical idea: a separate, targeted advertising campaign for the West Coast. Corporate headquarters resisted. So, Fils-Aimé went to work enrolling others in his vision. He flew to Spokane, Washington, to meet with a skeptical local co-op chair. Instead of just arguing, he came armed with data. He presented revenue simulations showing that the national strategy would lead to stagnating sales, while his targeted approach would drive growth. The data was undeniable. He won the support he needed, and the West Coast campaign was a massive success. This experience taught him a critical lesson: disruption isn't about loud rebellion. It's about building a case so compelling, backed by data and clear logic, that others have no choice but to join you.

Narrator: At the heart of Nintendo's turnaround was the powerful relationship between two very different leaders: Reggie Fils-Aimé, the bold American marketer, and Satoru Iwata, the humble and brilliant global president of Nintendo in Japan. Their partnership was built not on hierarchy, but on deep mutual respect and trust. This was put to the test during the launch of the revolutionary Nintendo Wii.

The American advertising campaign featured two Japanese businessmen playfully demonstrating the console in American homes. A week before the ads were set to air, Iwata called Fils-Aimé at home. The executives in Kyoto, he explained, were concerned. They felt the ads portrayed the Japanese businessmen as too informal, breaking cultural norms. They wanted the campaign changed. Fils-Aimé stood his ground. He argued that he was hired for his marketing expertise and his understanding of the American market, and he believed the ads were perfect. It was a tense moment, a direct challenge between a subordinate and the global president. After a long pause, Iwata gave his answer: "Yes, Reggie. I trust you. Please go ahead." That trust was rewarded. The Wii became a global phenomenon, with its best performance in the world happening in the Americas. Their relationship showed that true leadership is a two-way street, where conviction is met with trust, and respect allows for the honest debate that leads to breakthrough success.

Narrator: When Fils-Aimé joined Nintendo in 2003, the company was losing the console war. It was perceived as a brand for children, unable to compete with the mature, powerful offerings from Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox. Fils-Aimé knew that to change the business, he first had to change the story. His opportunity came at the 2004 E3 conference.

Working with his communications advisor, Don Varyu, he crafted a presentation designed to be a declaration of war. The now-famous opening line, "My name is Reggie. I'm about kicking ass and taking names," was intentionally provocative. When he presented the script to Mr. Iwata and the Japanese executives, there was confusion. Iwata's translator asked, "Why are you so angry?" Fils-Aimé explained it wasn't anger; it was conviction. He argued that Nintendo needed to be aggressive and send a clear message that they were on a different path, ready to fight. Mr. Iwata, understanding the need for a dramatic shift, gave his support. The night before the show, the team made one final, crucial tweak. The line "I'm about making games" was changed to "We're about making games," shifting the focus from one man to the entire company and its partners. That speech became legendary. It signaled to the world that Nintendo was no longer playing defense. It was on the attack, ready to disrupt the industry on its own terms.

Narrator: The E3 speech was the spark, but the fire had to be fueled by results. This came with the launch of the Nintendo DS, a dual-screen handheld that would redefine portable gaming. After its reveal, the prototype received harsh feedback; critics called it clunky and ugly. Instead of getting defensive, Fils-Aimé and the team embraced the criticism. The hardware was tweaked and redesigned in just two months.

Then, Fils-Aimé made an aggressive strategic push. He argued that for the DS to be a global success, it first needed a blockbuster launch in the Americas. He lobbied Mr. Iwata to break with tradition and launch in the US before Japan, timing it perfectly for the Black Friday shopping season. He challenged his teams to create aggressive marketing plans and pushed the development team to finish a compelling demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, to be packed in with every console. The plan worked. The Nintendo DS sold over a million units in the US in its first month, exceeding all expectations and setting the stage for it to become one of the best-selling consoles of all time. This demonstrated Fils-Aimé's core philosophy: a leader must not only have a bold vision but must also drive that vision forward with aggressive goals and a relentless focus on execution.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Disrupting the Game is that true disruption is not a random act of rebellion. It is a disciplined process built on a foundation of unwavering principles, a mastery of the fundamentals, and the courage to forge a new path when others are following the crowd. Reggie Fils-Aimé’s journey from the Bronx to the top of Nintendo was powered by a clear set of personal philosophies he developed at every stage of his life.

His story challenges us to look at our own careers and lives not as a series of jobs or events, but as a continuous opportunity to learn, adapt, and define our own principles. It leaves us with a critical question: What is your "So What?" What are the actionable lessons from your own experiences that you can use to disrupt your own game and build your own legacy?