Page 20 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Chapter 1

Walt’s Way

My only hope is that we never lose sight of one thing . . . that it all
started with a mouse.
Walt Disney, 1954

hen a young Midwestern artist was struggling to get his first
film-making business off the ground in 1923, he borrowed
W $500 from an uncle. The uncle insisted on repayment in cash
rather than taking an ownership interest in the venture. That young artist,
Walter Elias Disney, went on to advance the demanding art of animation to
new heights and founded a company based on such sound business principles
that it has survived for over three-quarters of a century and has influenced
virtually every aspect of American culture.
Hindsight, of course, has a well-deserved reputation for startling clarity,
and we don’t know if the uncle lived long enough to feel a full measure of
regret. But had he opted for stock in The Walt Disney Company instead of
a cash repayment, the return on his $500 would have amounted to almost a
billion dollars from 1923 to the present.
How did a boy born into rather modest circumstances in turn-of-the-
century Chicago accomplish so much? Legend has it that Walt Disney
explained his success this way:

I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and
I execute my vision to make those dreams come true.

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