One of my unfortunate aptitudes is the continual mispronunciation of words.

The sandal company you may have heard of, and likely heard pronounced incorrectly Teva (“teh-vah,” not “tee-vah”), which is Hebrew for nature, started from a wild ride.

Now that we’ve established our superiority over the layman, let’s dive into the company’s origin story. Imagine you’re a young man living in Florida. You spend your summers outside, even traveling to Israel to explore her deserts, and working as a boat guide in Colorado. Only, boating is a rather volatile endeavor.

That was an experience that would continue to shape Mark Thatcher, but the time wasn’t quite ripe.

He graduates from college, worked for a stint in the corporate world, and then got laid off. He saw the boom in outdoor activities and people’s willingness to pay for gear, so he decides to take a risk and invest in a new shoe design to solve the river rafting losses of his youth.

The first year he sells 200 shoes. But as time goes on, momentum builds. But not before another storm brews and he’s facing the possibility of losing his company as a partner tries to force him out.

However, he takes legal action, wins and forms a new partnership.

Selling shoes continues on, and with a lot of generalizations, we have the Teva company we know today.