Walt Disney, the founder of the Walt Disney Company, overcame early failures in his career to become a legendary figure in animation and entertainment. He created iconic characters like Mickey Mouse, faced numerous challenges during and after World War II, and ultimately opened Disneyland in 1955, which set a new standard for amusement parks. Despite struggles with stress and health issues, Disney's vision and perseverance led to enduring success and the establishment of numerous theme parks worldwide.

1. Jariyaporn Seenay
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8th April 2016
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney, the eponymous founder of the Walt Disney Company, an
American business magnate, cartoonist, producer, film director, writer, screenwriter,
philanthropist, voice actor, and animator.
The man who has affected generations to come with his cartoon creations, was once
considered a failure. Disney was fired by the editor in 1919 from his job at the Kansas City
Star paper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
Disney formed his first animation company in Kansas City in 1922. He made a deal with a
distribution company in New York, in which he would ship them his cartoons and get paid
six months down the road. Disney started Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., which produced short
cartoons based on popular fairy tales and children’s stories. The shorts were popular in the
local Kansas City area, but their costs exceeded their returns. He was forced to dissolve his
company and at one point could not pay his rent and was surviving by eating dog food. After
creating one last short, the live-action/animation Alice’s Wonderland, the studio declared
bankruptcy in July 1923. At age 22, Disney's brother Roy invited him to move to Hollywood,
California, and Disney earned $40 in cash which was enough money for a one-way train
ticket to California, leaving his staff behind, but taking an imitation-leather suitcase
containing only a shirt, two undershorts, two pairs of socks, some drawing materials and the
finished reel of Alice’s Wonderland with him. Feeling that others did animation better, his
goal was to be an actor out in Hollywood. It never occurred.
The upside was that he and his brother Roy realized there was no animation business
headquartered in California. They set up stakes and the rest is history. In time they became
the most successful team of brothers in Hollywood. Working together with Roy, the brothers
opened "Disney Bros. Studio" (It would later be known as Walt Disney Studio). Roy handled

2. the business operations and Disney specialized in the animated productions. Although
production costs limited their profits, Disney still felt the enterprise was making progress.
They continued to create a series of Alice productions and began exploring other ideas as
well. When the time came for the brothers to negotiate a new contract with their distributor,
business began to turn ugly. Finally, they decided not to continue once their contract ran out.
On a train ride back from a fateful meeting in New York, Walt created a new character called
Mickey Mouse, who would serve as symbol of the entire company. However, when Disney
tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey Mouse in 1927 but he was told that the idea
would never work as a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women. By 1943, Walt had a
deal with United Artists. He also had a production staff of 187 employees, up from six in
1928. By the late 1940s, Disney Studios had created Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy.
On the morning following December 7, 1941, the United States Army took over the Walt
Disney Studios as a repair shop for tanks and artillery. Disney's artists went to war.
Worldwide markets were closed to film distribution. And even Disney himself had to have a
government ID to get on his own property. Working on government projects, bookkeepers
would question all expenditures. Working on one project for the treasury department, Disney
created a film starring Donald Duck called, The New Spirit. The film did much to inspire
Americans to pay their taxes, something not commonly done back then. Those monies served
to help win the war. The company had more than $4 million in debts, and business was still
very slow in the aftermath of World War II. The company was distributing films in Europe,
but they had difficulty getting monies to come back to the Studios in the United States.
Described by Roy O. Disney as "the lost years," after a heated exchange one night, he told
Disney: "Look, you're letting this place drive you to the nuthouse. That's one place I'm not
going with you!" Still, Disney struggled to deal with the stress he was facing. With monies
held in Europe, they began producing some of their first feature films across the seas. This
supported Walt as he learned to diversify his studio beyond doing animation. He also took up
a new hobby to deal with his stress: trains. And that interest in trains fed his interest in
building a park with a train running around it.
Disney envisioned an amusement park in which his cartoon characters could come to life and
interact with the visitors. He also wanted a park that catered to the entire family. The
stereotypical American amusement park was not what Walt Disney had in mind. Disney was
turned off by the vulgarity and grime that he found when he went to other amusement parks.

3. Disney's goal was to create a park where parents and children could have fun together. The
uniqueness of this concept was part of the reason that it was initially difficult for Disney to
get support. He struggled to find a location and sufficient funding. The only way he could
see was in doing television. But the major Hollywood studios put pressure on each other not
to support television production as it would ruin the movie business. Disney took courage and
went with television anyway. From it, we have classics like The Mickey Mouse Club, Davy
Crockett, and The Wonderful World of Color. Moreover, Disney gained the financing to open
Disneyland.
Disney's $17 million Disneyland theme park opened on July 17, 1955. Walt Disney dedicated
Disneyland before a television audience of millions. Meanwhile, forged tickets were bringing
thousands of people into the park without his knowledge. The newly poured asphalt melted
the heels of women, and a plumber's strike kept drinking fountains from being installed in
time. Critics blasted it as "Black Sunday." Disney resisted allowing the park to become
poorly cared for. He held the park to high standards of customer service as well as paying
attention to detail. The result was that Disneyland became a phenomenal success, spawning
other parks, and creating a critical component of the Walt Disney Company.
Disney won 26 Academy Awards out of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year,
giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual. He is also the namesake
for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, as well as
the international resorts in Japan, France, and China.
So beyond all that disappointment and learning came fantastic success. Disney would say,
"Get a good idea, and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done, and done right." In
picking himself up and in learning from his mistakes and moved on. He said: "To some
people, I am kind of a Merlin who takes lots of crazy chances, but rarely makes mistakes. I've
made some bad ones, but, fortunately, the successes have come along fast enough to cover up
the mistakes. When you go to bat as many times as I do. You’re bound to get a good
average."
Within a few years of the opening, Disney began plans for a new theme park and
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow in Florida. It was still under construction
when, in 1966, Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on December 15, 1966, at
the age of 65. Disney was cremated, and his ashes interred in Los Angeles, California. After

4. his brother's death, Roy carried on the plans to finish the Florida theme park, which opened in
1971 under the name Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney was human, he suffered through many fits of anger and depression through his
many trials. Yet he learned from each setback, and was motivated and still continued to take
even bigger risks which combined with the wisdom that experiencing failure can provide, led
to fabulous financial rewards.