Walt Disney is one of the most successful and beloved entrepreneurs this planet has known to date. With his magic he not only conquered all children's hearts, the world was also at his feet. His company and legacy, the media conglomerate Walt Disney Company, had a whopping $2015 billion in revenue in 52,2. And not only on a business level, Walt Disney also had successes on a personal level. He was nominated 59 times for an Academy Award and won a record number of 22 Oscars. It is clear that Walt Disney's life was literally and figuratively a fairy tale and that you can learn a lot from him as an entrepreneur.
Learning and selling
According to Walt Disney, the biggest problem in his life was money. Money to make his dreams come true. So there was only one option: sold. And Walt Disney did that with his powers of persuasion, because he simply believed in himself. For example, halfway through the production of the film Snow White, the money suddenly ran out, with the result that the film could not be completed. The project seemed to go so wrong that it was even dubbed 'Disney's folly'. Family urged Walt Disney to stop the project. But, determined that he was, Walt Disney personally visited producers to convince them of Snow White. With just some rough sketches he managed to get his film financed. The film was completed and Snow White became the box office hit of that year.
Another genius example of this sold by Walt Disney is the financing of the Disneyland theme park. To finance the construction of the park, he offered television studios original Disney programming. Ultimately, this programming was one big advertisement for Disneyland. By the time the park was supposed to open, there were already millions of children who couldn't wait to go to Disneyland. The deal later turned out to be one of the most successful media campaigns Disney has ever seen.
Believe in yourself
Together with his brother Roy, Walt Disney founded the aforementioned Walt Disney Productions. During this collaboration, Walt Disney had a unique relationship with his brother. Walt came up with an idea and Roy then said no. Stubborn that he was, Walt went ahead with the idea, after which Roy agreed and subsequently provided financing for the project. Walt was told no more than once during his career. For example, he was told that you cannot mix animations with real actors or that an amusement park would fail. Someone even suggested that Micky Mouse was a bad idea because it would frighten women. Yet Walt Disney was often right and proved that you have to dream big and, above all, believe in yourself.
Show resilience
It took 16 years for Walt Disney to get the rights to Mary Poppins. His proposal for financing Disneyland was rejected no fewer than 302 times. And believe it or not, Walt Disney was fired from his first job at a local newspaper because he wasn't creative and innovative enough! These are all setbacks that an average person would have given up a long time ago, but not Walt Disney. He pushed the boundaries and every setback in his career made him stronger. His belief in himself and his abilities made him exceed everyone's expectations. And the local newspaper where he was fired? Ironically, he later became the owner of this company.
Don't stop after your first success
Characteristic of Walt Disney was that after completing a project he immediately started a new one. For example, after the completion of his film classic Snow White, he was already busy creating other films such as Bambi and Fantasia. He also applied this way of working when creating his animations. After drawing Mickey Mouse, other characters such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto were already in the works. Walt Disney was never completely satisfied, did not stand still, wanted to constantly improve and did everything he could to realize his dream.
Walt Disney had little education and came from a poor family, but he still managed to build a fairytale kingdom from virtually nothing and with many setbacks. An entrepreneur par excellence. Want to learn more from Walt Disney? Then take a look are top 10 rules to success.