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Tormented by his brother's financial stability and haunted by his inability to achieve similar successes, Stu Pickles begins a downward spiral that causes his marriage to deteriorate, culminating in a 4AM screaming match that ended in his wife finally declaring that she wanted a divorce. Though she does not have the heart to demand any sort of financial compensation from Stu (she always made more money than he did, a point she didn't feel needed to be driven home any harder), she fights hard to win custody of Tommy. Stu is awarded visitation rights, but as he can't stand to be seen as a failure in the eyes of his son, he elects to keep these visits brief and infrequent.
With his misery to drive him and focus his vision, the quality of Stu's work improves. He's nothing that could be called an overnight success, but gradually, step by step, invention by invention, he becomes a household name in the toy industry. He becomes a larger success than his brother ever was.
By the time he reaches this point, his son Tommy is in his mid-twenties. Stu has tried to reach out on multiple occasions, offering financial support in exchange for the chance to finally catch up with his son, now that he's no longer a failure and can stand to be seen by him.
Tommy wants nothing to do with him. Stu was so absent from his life as he grew up that he doesn't even think of Stu as his father, and he has no interest in letting Stu purchase his affection.
Decades later, as he is interviewed for a toy industry achievement award he has won, he is asked if he has any regrets, if he would have changed anything about those early years before he became a success.
Stu only says that he regrets losing control of his life.
