Not every hero born with a silver spoon, there are years of struggle, uncountable failures, and exhausting hardships, Every successful person have a story, a tragedy that he or she might have faced, it didn’t matter what the tragedy was – could have been their childhood, health, parents, debts –they had a compelling reason to get out of that situation, finding a way to get out of a situation that’s the start where change begins.
Walt Disney the man behind famous cartoon character ‘mickey mouse’, creator of the first full length animated movie ‘snow white and the seven dwarfs’, the originator of the modern multimedia corporation, the inventor of the theme park Disney land and Walt Disney world and author of the most famous children stories, had a hard time on his way to being billionaire, through most of his carrier he encountered failures and faced financial crisis.
Disney was born in Chicago in 1901, his family wasn’t well-off, he had three brothers and a younger sister, Disney and his brothers worked as paper boys and didn’t have much time for school,initially Disney became interested in drawing and started selling his drawing in the neighborhood, during the first world war when Disney was only 16 years old – dropped out from school to join the army, but unfortunately he was rejected for being too young,later Walt joined red cross and sent overseas, there he drove ambulance for a year, after the war, Walt returned and decided to start started his career as a newspaper artist and got a job in Pesmen-Rubin art studio, there he met fellow cartoonist and lifelong friend Ubbe Iwerks, later he was fired by his editor the justification being, “ he had no good ideas and lacked imagination,” but this didn’t discouraged Disney.
“All of my obstacles have strengthen me, you may not realize it when it happens, but the kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you – Walt Disney”
Disney started his very first business ‘Iwerks-Disney commercial artists’ with his new friend Ub, unfortunately they were not able to attract much customers and the business went into failure in just a month, he again started his second business, this time his company went bankrupt, even he went bankrupt five times before he found success with Disney land, at one time he was so poor that he only survived on dog food.
Initial failures sent Disney to Hollywood, here he started working with his older brother, together they created ‘Disney brothers studio’ and came up with a character ‘mickey mouse’, the character first appeared in two silent films, Plane Crazy and the GallopinGauchi, initially the character was rejected by the audience but Disney was used to failures, Disney and his time integrated synchronized sound and came up with a third short film ‘Steamboat Willie’, it became an instant success the reviews were beyond imagination.
“It’s a kind of fun to do the impossible – Walt Disney”
6 years and many successful animations latter Disney decided to create a full length animated movie, he risked all he had, while the production of movie, he ran out of funding and borrowed $1.5million for unprecedented budget, even his wife and brother was thinking that this is all just madness, nobody is going to sit through a full length cartoon movie, but he ignored all the ridicule and remained focused on his work, he spent three years in the creation of movie- the results was a huge success, the film became the most successful motion picture of the year.
Disney’s life teaches a lesson that our accomplishments solely depends on our willingness and not-giving spirit, if you can dream it, you can do it, he won 22 academy awards, more than anyone else in the history.
“All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them – Disney”