Walt Disney

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
     - Abraham Lincoln -

Who doesn't know the name Walt Disney today? Yet when he came on the scene, fresh from a little town in Missouri in the early 1920s, it took awhile for people to notice him or realize his genious. He was fired by a newspaper editor early on because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Disney started a number of businesses that failed. He lost everything he had accumulated three or four times before he finally landed his spot in the entertainment industry. Even then, however, he could not lead a carefree life.

In 1938, after the great success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and his brother bought their parents a home close to the studios in California. Less than a month later, his mother Flora died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. The guilt haunted Walt for the rest of his life.

Disney's dream of a clean and organized amusement park came true when Disneyland Park opened in 1955. The $17-million Magic Kingdom soon increased its investment tenfold. By the beginning of its second quarter-century, it had entertained more than 200 million people, including presidents and royalty the world over.

Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity grew from his ideals: imagination, optimism, creation, and self-made success in the American tradition. Through his work he brought joy, happiness, and a universal means of communication to people of every nation. Imagine if he had given up after his first failure.