When Charles Schulz died in 2000, his net worth was estimated at US$500 million. This was primarily from his creation, the ubiquitous Peanuts comic strip (although in Singapore, as in most of Asia, the names Snoopy and Charlie Brown are better known than Peanuts). At its height in 1990, the Peanuts brand generated around US$1 billion a year in licensing deals, appearing in Christmas specials, on clothes, stationery, greeting cards, toys, and more.
In 2023, long after his death, Schulz’s estate earned an estimated US$32.5 million, rising from earnings of between $25 – 30 million since his death two decades ago. Whoever his beneficiaries, it’s quite likely that they will be financially free for several generations. At the beginning however, all of this seemed very unlikely. Here’s the story of how he did it, and the financial lessons we can apply to our own lives:
Grim beginnings for a sunny creation
Schulz was born in 1922 in Minnesota to a modest family. Early in his childhood, in 1929, America was hit by the Great Depression. His family struggled, with his father barely earning a living as a barber. Charles’ experiences during this difficult period shaped many of the themes of Peanuts later, addressing the fears of insecurity, failure, and resilience. But worse was to come.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland and WWII began. Schulz was drafted into the US Army in 1943, and was sent to the European front with the 20th Armored Division. This unit participated in the liberation of concentration camps toward the end of the war, and it’s likely that Schulz had first-hand experience of man’s inhumanity to man.
After the war, Schulz surprised friends and family by deciding to commit himself as a cartoonist. This was already a risky move, as cartoonists were not taken too seriously at the time – and many questioned if Schulz could earn a living with his comic strip, at the time called L’il Folks.
Schulz faced one rejection after another, and the only publisher willing to take a risk on him was the (very minor) St. Paul Pioneer Press. But the strip was cancelled after just a few years, causing Schulz to seriously question if he had a future with comics. Schulz was forced to turn to mainstream illustrating and marketing jobs, earning a meagre living.
Then in 1950, Schulz came back with a new comic concept called Peanuts. Rather than play it safer, he went in a wholly opposite direction: he had tried to give the market what newspapers thought they wanted. Now he would do his own thing.
The concept behind Peanuts stunned the first editors who heard the pitch: it would be a comic about children discussing deep philosophical topics. Existentialism, absurdism, the nature of identity and human relationships – all concepts better suited to a university-level Philosophy course than a comic strip.
Mind you, this was during an era when comic strips tended to feature simple slapstick humour, or adventure stories.
As expected, the slew of rejections continued. But Schulz soldiered on, and by 1950, United Feature Syndicate took a gamble on Peanuts. The strip was circulated in seven newspapers (considered an insignificant number in those days, and certainly not enough to make anyone rich).
As the late Steve Jobs would say: ““A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
That proved to be the case with Peanuts. Newspapers claimed it would never work, that it was too high-brow and detached, or that grown audiences wouldn’t relate as well to child characters.
Instead, the characters in Peanuts proved deeply relatable. In Charlie Brown’s struggles with self-doubt, in Linus’s need for security, and in Snoopy’s escapism, the audience saw their own daily struggles. Peanuts touches on situations that go beyond simple humor: it dives into themes like loneliness, failure, friendship, and hope; all of which were themes that publishers deemed “too serious.”
And yet, the very element that Peanuts was criticised for became the foundation of its success.
Between 1950 to 1960, Peanuts went from being in seven newspapers to being in 1,000 papers, many of which were major publications.
The 1970s saw Peanuts solidify its place in American culture. It was featured in TV specials, such as A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), which became annual holiday traditions, and the strip was circulated in 1,800 newspapers. By this time however, merchandising and TV shows far outstripped the newspapers as a source of revenue.
By the 1980s, Peanuts was a global icon. It was syndicated in more than 2,200 newspapers worldwide, and also made its way into Asia. Peanuts was as recognised in the form of toys, clothes, and other consumer goods as it was as a comic strip.
By the 1990s, Peanuts was generating an estimated US$1 billion a year, and appeared in well over 2,400 newspapers. Peanuts had become the most recognisable comic strip characters, rivaled only by Garfield.
But Charles Schulz had one other surprise, all throughout the decades
Once a cartoon strip is highly recognised, most creators stop working as hard. They no longer need to churn out strips: they can rely on merchandising and licensing, even if they make nothing new. Likewise, most turn to other writers at this point, to assist in the production of the comics – at this level, most creators are in supervisory roles.
But Charles Schulz never really stopped. He maintained the consistency and quality of Peanuts by working on it solo. White he did have assistants for administrative and production tasks, especially as he grew older, he kept his hand on the wheel for the creative aspects of Peanuts. His assistants only helped with tasks such as preparing the strips for syndication, and managing fan mail.
Schulz only announced his retirement in December 1999, shortly before he passed away on 12th February 2000. Since his death, the strip has been retired, and no new strips have been created.
Three big lessons from Charles Schulz and Peanuts
- It’s not just about listening and delivering; it’s about investing in your vision
- Diversify your revenue streams
- Resilience can’t end with success
1. It’s not just about listening and delivering; it’s about investing in your vision
Standard marketing spiel is to do a lot of surveys, and try to deliver what people say they want. This is the mentality that caused many publishers to fail to see Peanut’s potential. It’s also a mentality that Schulz mistakenly subscribed to in his first few tries: rather than contribute his vision, he tried to contribute what he – and his publishers – felt the market would like.
Many revolutionary creations were not asked for: Apple was criticised for the creation of the tablet, which many claimed was an unnecessary device. James Dyson spent 15 years trying to push his bagless vacuum cleaner, which industry experts saw as an overengineered waste of time. And to be blunt, even Charles Schulz admitted to moments when he wondered whether the market had room for Peanuts.
But the hard truth is that, if all you do is try to make what the market wants, then you’ll mostly end up with mediocre remakes; with nothing new or innovative, to earn you that quantum leap in income. Sometimes you need to not listen to the focus groups, and invest in your own vision.
2. Diversify your revenue streams
Peanuts started as a comic strip, but the bulk of its earnings soon came from elsewhere. Schulz was able to grow a financial empire because he understood how licensing, merchandising, and other products not related to his core work were still important.
In many ways though, the ability to diversify is related to creativity – so perhaps the template already existed. It does take flexible thinking to see something wholly unrelated to your product – such as curtains, shoes, and jewellery – as being another potential driver for it.
Stay flexible, and don’t be too quick to dismiss something as being too far out of your field. Remember that, where you don’t see a connection or a chance to profit, others may – and they’re worth listening to.
3. Resilience can’t end with success
You already know all the mantras and urgings to not give up, which Schulz showed in coping with rejection. But here’s the twist: that’s the easy part of resilience. Many (not all, but many) people can cope with rejection, and quite a few even respond to it with renewed vigour: they’ll want to succeed even harder.
Where resilience tends to fail however, is with success. This is when creators get lazy, and they let someone else take the reins. Or perhaps they feel they’ve proved their point, so the fire to keep going is dimmed.
Schulz went from being just a successful cartoonist (which in his time meant a comfortable middle-income existence) to being worth $500 million because he never stopped. He had the resilience and stamina to keep pushing further, even after he was, by the definition of most of his peers and industry leaders, a success. Hence his continuing to retain creative control, and to be the sole hand behind Peanuts.
For many of us who are comfortable, the resilience to keep pushing is what makes the difference between a single digit millionaire and a multi-millionaire.
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