Trip Hawkins for still scrapping

because "optimism is essential"

Imagine Henry Ford leaving Ford to start another car company, or Walt Disney establishing a realm beyond the Magic Kingdom. Trip Hawkins (who counts these two men among his heroes) has essentially done just that. He built Electronic Arts, of John Madden Football fame, into a powerhouse -- then left it to start another business (which failed) and now another (which, thanks to ever-shifting industry forces, is likely to compete with EA).

Hawkins originally left EA to focus his energies on a start-up he had launched called 3DO, which was trying to devise a better gaming console. Hawkins had hoped that his former firm would grant him exclusive rights to a hot new game, thus securing 3DO's future. But after Sony unveiled the PlayStation in 1994, EA kept 3DO at arm's length. "Chip manufacturing is expensive and political," Hawkins says. "I should have known a company with deep pockets like Sony could pull the rug out from under us." Eventually 3DO went bankrupt.

Hawkins, now 51, shook off 3DO's failure and soon launched another company, called Digital Chocolate. "D-Choc," as he refers to it, creates games for cell phones. So far, over three million D-Choc programs have been downloaded. The company, which raised $20 million in financing, grossed $4 million last year. Some observers have wondered whether mobile gaming, with its rudimentary graphics, represents a technological retreat for Hawkins, but he says no. Others suggest that D-Choc's prospects depend on how aggressively his old pals at EA enter the mobile gaming market. "I expect them to enter more directly either this year or next," Hawkins says, but "rather than fight with them for market share, we are trying to blaze new trails." Of his reverse entrepreneurial journey from industry icon to upstart, he adds: "It's like being an explorer who discovered North America and then found out, hey, there's South America and Antarctica, too."

Lora Kolodny

1. Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Omnimedia
   because she took one for the team
2. Richard Branson, Virgin Group
   because he's game for anything. In fact, everything.
3. Michael Dell, Dell Computer
   for being brilliantly straightforward
4. Jim Sinegal, Costco
   because who knew a big-box chain could have a generous soul?
5. Diane von Furstenberg, Diane von Furstenberg Studio
   for staging an elegant comeback
6. Julie Azuma, Different Roads to Learning
   for offering hope and help to the parents of autistic children
7. Fritz Maytag, Anchor Brewing
   for setting limits
8. Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil Technologies and other companies
   because he is Edison's rightful heir
9. Craig Newmark, Craigslist
   for putting the free in free markets
10. Jack Mitchell, Mitchells/Richards
    because his family business makes an art of customer service
11. Frank Robinson, Robinson Helicopter
    for whipping an entire industry into shape
12. Mark Melton, Melton Franchise Systems
    for giving immigrants their shot at the American Dream
13. Michelle Cardinal & Tim O'Leary, Cmedia and Respond2
    for rewriting the rules for husband-and-wife teams
14. Mike Lazaridis, Research in Motion
    because someone had to stand up for all those frustrated engineers
15. Trip Hawkins, Electronics Arts and Digital Chocolate
    for still scrapping
16. Warren Brown, Cake Love and Love Cafe
    because only in America will someone quit a secure job as a lawyer to start a bakery
17. Muriel Siebert, Muriel Siebert & Co.
    for being a notable first with a worthy second act
18. Chuck Porter, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
    for verging on reckless
19. Katrina Markoff, Vosges Haut
    for setting a completely unreasonable goal for her business
20. Barry Steinberg & Craig Sumerel, Direct Tire and Auto Service
    for showing the power of the peer group
21. Victoria Parham, Virtual Support Services
    for serving as a mentor to military spouses
22. Tom LaTour, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants
    for staying at fleabag hotels so that we don't have to
23. Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams, Mitchell Gold
    for creating a true comfort zone
24. Izzy & Coco Tihanyi, Surf Diva
    for kicking sand in the face of conventional wisdom
25. Tony Lee, Ring Masters
    for saving 16 jobs, including his own
26. Rueben Martinez, Libreria Martinez Books and Art Galleries
    for simultaneously building a business and nurturing Latino culture

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