Chapter 101 - The Story of Walt Disney
Today’s Chapter is based on the book “The Story of Walt Disney” by Diane Disney Miller. Diane Disney is the daughter of the well-known Walt Disney.
Walt Disney was an influential American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur, best known for creating iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He co-founded the Disney Company, revolutionizing animation with the first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, and the first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney also established Disneyland and Walt Disney World, transforming family entertainment and leaving a lasting legacy in the industry.
Here’s what I learned:
Resilience
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.”
— J.K. Rowling
Walt Disney’s journey to success was anything but smooth. He faced countless obstacles, from financial failures to professional setbacks, yet he never let adversity deter him. Instead, he viewed challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. As Walt Disney once said, “There are two kinds of people. The first kind are licked if they can’t get a job. The second kind are sure that even if jobs are scarce, they can always do something.”
One of the earliest examples of his resilience was his experience with the Laugh-O-Gram Corporation, his first animation studio. Despite his best efforts, the company went bankrupt, leaving Disney penniless. Yet, rather than giving up, he saw the experience as a valuable lesson. As a matter of fact, Diane Disney Miller explains that her father told himself that it was good to have a failure while you’re young because it teaches you so much. She explains that “For one thing, it makes you aware that such a thing can happen to anybody, and once you’ve lived through the worst, you’re never quite so vulnerable afterwards.”
This ability to bounce back from failure became a defining trait of Walt’s character. When his first major creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was taken from him by a distributor, he didn’t dwell on the loss. Instead, he channeled his energy into creating a new character: Mickey Mouse, which later became a household name. Yet, even after Mikey Mouse became a sensation, Disney continued to face challenges.
For example, the transition to sound films was a daunting task, but he embraced it with enthusiasm. Despite having no sound equipment or experience, he succeeded by developing a ground breaking synchronization system. Despite all the challenges, Disney insisted on creating the first synchronized sound cartoon as “He believed that the combination of sound and animation could create a connection with the audience that film alone could not achieve.” Facing setbacks with innovation became a key to Walt Disney’s success.
“I function better when things are going badly than when they’re as smooth as whipped cream. When I’m in a fight I don’t worry, but when things are going good I’m afraid that something’s going to crack under me any minute. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
— Walt Disney
To me, Walt Disney’s story is a perfect example that setbacks are sometimes required in order to innovate. As Marcus Aurelius once said, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” This reminds me of what we have learned previously from Chung Ju-Yung, the founder of Hyundai. Similarly to Disney, Chung’s success comes from resilience and from working diligently. As Chung once explained, his life motto was “Do it until nothing more can be done. Give it your all ‘til the very end.”
As a matter of fact, Chung Ju-Yung believes that giving it your all and working diligently can make up for any shortfalls or failures you may have. For example, while Chung Ju-Yung stopped his formal education after the sixth grade, he more than made up for it by reading books diligently. In fact, he once said that “if my first mentors were my parents, then my second mentors were books.”
Chung explains the importance of being diligence even after facing failures by giving an analogy with bedbugs. He mentions that "Even bedbugs think long and hard, and use every bit of energy they have to achieve their goal, and ultimately they succeed. I'm no bedbug, I'm a man. These bedbugs can surely teach a man a few lessons. If these bedbugs can do it, why can't we men do it? We just need to stick to it and not quit. We need to emulate these bedbugs.”
“The story of my life demonstrates that one does not need great wealth and education to become successful. Even though I was poor and had little education, I am running one of the world's most successful businesses. For those people who are in a difficult situation but continue to have big dreams, I hope my life can be an example that inspires them to push forward toward a better life through honest, hard work.”
— Chung Ju-Yung
Innovation
“Innovate or die, and there's no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.”
— Robert Iger
As discussed previously, due to the various setbacks in his early career, Walt Disney’s life was characterized by a relentless pursuit of creativity and innovation. As he once said, “To me it’s a slow way of liquidating. Let’s go forward or let’s sell the business.” From an early age, he showed an innate desire to experiment and create, pushing boundaries that others hadn’t even considered. His career as an animator and filmmaker was driven by the belief that art and technology could work together to create something entirely new.
As a matter of fact, Disney was never satisfied with the status quo. One of the most striking examples of his creative spirits lies in his early experiments with animation. When he was working at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, he began experimenting with animation techniques. However, his boss was reluctant to change and refused to allow him to try new things. As Diane Disney Miller explains, “He wanted to experiment with new ways of doing things, such as making drawings on several sheets of celluloid, then photographing them one above the other, pretty much the way he was to do them later in Hollywood; but the boss wouldn’t hear of it. ‘We’re doing all right the way it is,’ he protested.”
Unwilling to let his ideas stagnate, Disney borrowed a camera, built a makeshift studio in a garage, and began experimenting at night. He also borrowed all the books he could find on cartoon animation in the Kansas City Library to study. His relentless curiosity led to the development of groundbreaking techniques that would later revolutionize animation.
Disney’s creativity was also evident in his determination to create Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film. Many in the industry doubted the project, calling it “Disney’s Folly.” Yet he pressed on, pouring his heart and soul into the film. The result was a masterpiece that not only silenced his critics but also changed the course of animation history. Diane Miller explains that “Snow White proved once more that the best and quickest way to make headway, although not the easiest way, is to do things no one has ever done before.”
And yet, I believe it is fair to say that Walt Disney innovated beyond the animated film industry with how he reimagined the concept of a theme park with Disneyland, introducing immersive storytelling into the realm of amusement. As Disney once said, “I wanted it to be a place where dreams come true.” Disneyland was a bold and unprecedented idea and the fact that he was able to achieve it without having any knowledge in building a theme park is a perfect example of his innovativeness and willingness to learn new things.
Furthermore, in my opinion, Disneyland is a perfect analogy to Disney’s philosophy of perpetual innovation which became the hallmark of Walt Disney’s career. He was never content to rest on his laurels; instead, he sought new challenges and opportunities to bring his vision to life.
“The way I see it, my park will never be finished. It’s something I can keep developing and adding to. A movie is different. Once I’ve wrapped it up and have turned it over to Technicolor to be processed, I’m through with it. … I’ve always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing.”
— Walt Disney
This constant drive for innovation in order to maintain success reminds me of the story of Anton Philips, the co-founder of the Philips & Company. Part of the reason why Philips & Company could compete over their larger German competitors was because of their constant innovation. As a matter of fact, while Anton was not a scientist himself, he understood the importance of innovation. In fact, due to his imagination, he was able to look ahead and envisage possibilities, in terms of application of new technical products, that technicians themselves could not think of. As such, Anton Philips was always willing to invest heavily in R&D in the company. He understood that “no commercial success can ever guarantee permanent sales, especially if technical developments do not keep pace with the most recent discoveries.”
“Even when commercial interests would in the long run force the decision, Anton never lacked the boldness to finance expensive technical experiments if there were a possibility of their leading to economically justifiable exploitation of new inventions.”
— P.J. Bouman
Furthermore, in no way was scientific research at the Philips & Company restricted even during times of crisis. On the contrary, Anton Philips believed that scientific research was the path to overcome times of crisis. He believed that the exploitation of new discoveries can bring solutions to their problems. For example, if they were unable to obtain a material to build their electric lamps, they would find a new material to replace it. And once Philips saw an opportunity through his company’s scientific research, he was decisive in exploiting it immediately.
“We were first and we were the quickest, and that is why we did big business. And if we consider how fast everything moved, and how fast it will have to move again, we must never be satisfied with saying, "Oh, we shall be able to make a start with that by the end of the year." If valuable discoveries are made by the laboratory, then we must apply them immediately, before the others, for he who is first has won the greater part of the field. And it is the same in television.’”
— Anton Philips
Teamwork
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”
— Lao Tzu
While Walt Disney’s resilience and creativity were crucial to his success, his ability to inspire and collaborate with others was equally important. He understood that achieving his ambitious goals required a team of talented individuals working in harmony.
In fact, he recognized that his own creative genius could only be amplified by the talents and expertise of others. He surrounded himself with skilled artists, animators, and storytellers, fostering a collaborative environment that encouraged innovation and creativity. Diane Disney Miller describes that her father’s “organization is made up of specialists who can't be matched anywhere else in the world, but working with them is like trying to pull a big temperamental philharmonic orchestra together.” As Walt Disney once said, “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is co-ordinating those who work for us and directing their efforts to a certain goal.”
But more importantly, Disney realized that if he needed to be surrounded with amazing people, he would need to develop and nurture talent within his organization. This led to the establishment of the Disney Training School. He understood that investing in his team was essential to achieving his ambitious goals and he needed to foster an environment of continuous learning and improvement.
“I learned that if we were really going anywhere, we had to begin training our own people.”
— Walt Disney
Furthermore, Disney’s ability to delegate was perhaps most evident in the creation of Disneyland. As mentioned, Disney did not have any experience in building a theme park. And as such, to bring this dream to life, he had to assemble a team of architects, engineers, and artists who shared his passion to create a park as a place where families could create lasting memories together.
This reminds me of what we have learned from Peter Kiewit, the co-founder of Kiewit Corporation. He understood that if one is to delegate, it is primordial to train employees in order for them to be ready for leadership roles. As such, Kiewit encouraged his employees to train and mentor a successor. He once said, “Before you can go on to a position of greater responsibility, someone must be trained to do your job, unless the job you are doing is not an essential one. If any of you fellows wants to admit that your job is not essential, you do not need to do anything about trying to see that anyone else is trained for your job.”
Furthermore, as Kiewit has always been a company that focused on their employees, Peter Kiewit mentioned that people and their talents are the company’s most valuable asset. As such, he preferred to promote from within rather than hiring from outside of the organisation.
“In some organizations, top jobs are reserved for relatives. I would like to say again that this is not the case in our company. It has always been our policy, and will continue to be our policy, to promote on the basis of their ability to perform. It has also been our policy to fill vacancies by advancing qualified [employees] whenever possible. I'm happy to say that the number of occasions when we have had to bring [people] in from the outside for a particular job is negligible, and this should occur even less frequently in the future because of the fact that we are making headway in developing more and better [employees].”
— Peter Kiewit
Beyond the Book
Read "Turning Adversity Into Advantage" by Farnam Street
Read "Why You Should Practice Failure" by Farnam Street
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