Different

An Unconventional Guide to Becoming Your Best Self

About The Book

Being different is your greatest advantage.

Anton Rabie is the cofounder of Spin Master, the billion-dollar company behind some of the world’s most popular toys, games, and cartoons including Paw Patrol, Toca Boca, Bakugan, Air Hogs, and Rubik’s Cube. But Rabie doesn’t look, think, or lead like a typical CEO. And his success came not despite his differences, but because of them

In Be Different, Rabie shares the unconventional lessons, stories, and insights that shaped his entrepreneurial journey to help you understand what makes people and businesses succeed. His central message is simple: difference creates value.

We’re programmed to be wary of difference. We mirror. We take winning business strategies and replicate them. We see a successful product and turn it into a template for a tidal wave of copycats. We emulate the traits of the people we most admire. But all the while, we forget that the upstarts we so badly want to imitate weren’t imitating; they succeeded by doing something original.

Packed with practical strategies and hard-earned wisdom, Be Different will help you:
  • Leverage your natural strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and even lean into your eccentricities
  • Get really comfortable with failure and actually learn from it
  • Navigate setbacks by learning to “sit in the mud”
  • Understand risk and make better decisions
  • Foster innovation by welcoming ideas from anywhere (and anyone)
  • Laugh at yourself, really listen, and find the gift in everything

Embracing your difference, while scary, brings unimagined benefits. You will have better ideas. You will stand out. Most importantly, you will live a fuller and deeper life. Whether you’re building a business, leading a team, or discovering your own potential, Be Different shows that lasting success comes not from becoming someone else, but from being more fully yourself.

About The Author

Photograph by Flavia De Oliveira Palumbo

Anton Rabie is the cofounder and chair of Spin Master, the children’s toy and entertainment company behind PAW Patrol, Bakugan, Hatchimals, Rubik’s Cube, Toca Boca, Melissa & Doug, and many more. As co-CEO for twenty-nine years, Anton presided over sales, marketing, culture, and human resources and led more than thirty corporate acquisitions, growing the start-up into a multinational business with annual sales of two billion dollars and offices in more than twenty-eight countries. He was inducted into the Toy Association’s Hall of Fame in 2023.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 16, 2027)
  • Length: 304 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668211595

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