Recently I finished reading a book about learning to be like
Walt Disney. It was a great read and is definitely something that I would read
again in an instant. I read it at the recommendation of Glenn Beck who, like
me, is a big Disney fan. It was amazing
to hear about how Walt went from sitting in an apartment eating cold beans from
a can to owning an entire studio and eating cold hot dogs from his fridge. He had
an eye for how to improve things, like when he went to a restaurant and gave
the manager an entire new layout idea on a napkin and about a week later, when
the layout was redone the restaurant was doing even better than before because
of Walt. Many of the quotes featured in the book were wonderful, such as, “It’s
kind of fun to do the impossible,” by Walt Disney and also by him, “I only hope
that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”
One of the things that I learned from Walt was that if I wanted to accomplish
something amazing, one of the things that I needed to do was to remove any
barriers that would hold my imagination down. I will look through the world
with childlike wonder. This book showed me ways that I can be like Walt. First,
I can and will be a leader and not be afraid to take risks. I can get people to
help me with my dreams even though I may lose some things on the way, and even
if I do, I can find a way to fix those things. I will also stick to my ideas
and projects and not give up on it even though people will tell me that it will
never work. I can always keep ‘plussing’ my ideas, giving people more than they
expect. I can and will look at something and say, “It’s okay, but how can I
make it better.” I can and will always look to the future and ask myself, “What
will tomorrow hold?” I will stay focused to make my dreams, ideas, and projects
become a reality. I can and will dare to do the impossible, I won’t just give
up as soon as something goes wrong or somebody tells me I can’t, I can just
find I way to fix it and keep going. I will listen, watch, and study to improve
things, I can ask, “How can I make this better?” I can gain feedback to see
what works. One of the biggest lessons in the book is to Be the Person That God
Made You To Be. If you have the potential to make it big, why would you settle
for flipping burgers at McDonalds? One of the stories told in this book is
about Walt’s housekeeper, Thelma. Every Christmas Walt would give her some
Disney stock and would say, “Hang on to this stock, because it’s going to grow
in value.” Thelma put that stock into a box and for the rest of her life, lived
simply and was happy with it. She died in the 80’s and seemed to have been
poor. As it says in the book, “In her will she left half of her belongings to
her only son Michael, who was in a home for the developmentally disabled. The
other half she left to help poor and disabled children. After her death, as her
possessions were being itemized, the executer of Thelma Howard’s estate found
the stock certificates. The market value of those certificates was found to be
$4.5 million. Thelma Howard died completely unaware that she was a millionaire.”
As Thelma was given a valuable gift from Walt, so were we. We were given the
inspiration to become all that we were meant to be. We were given someone who
saw tomorrow and with it a better world where people could live in harmony with
their fellow man. Though Walt has died, his legacy lives on. People looked at
Disneyland and saw a theme park. Walt looked at Disneyland and saw a place of
dreams. A place where people could become adventurers in the old west, or
become travelers of the future in the land of tomorrow, or live out their
wildest fantasies under a castle, or just plain relax on Main Street. I look at
Disneyland and I think I can see what Walt saw, I can see a place that is never
truly finished as long as we have the ideas to propel us forward while not
forgetting our past. A place where dreams are welcomed and can be safe, a true
Neverland, where you never really grow up. I will be honest like Walt was in
his business and have a sense of optimism in my work. I respect Walt and his
ideas, and I respect his brother Roy for his support in those ideas. And I hope
that I have truly learned how to be like Walt.
