Something About Walt Disney You May Not Know…

1 Dec

I’m sure you have heard of Walt Disney.  Just about everyone has.  He is famous for his theme parks, cartoon characters, and movies.

But here is something you probably didn’t know about Walt…

Back in the late 1940s, Walt Disney Productions was struggling.  Due to World War II cutting off 60% of the international movie market, now-classic animated films like Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi underperformed at the box office.

Yes, when those animated films were released, they didn’t cause trucks full of money to appear on Disney’s doorstep. In fact, they didn’t become successful until they were re-released again and again over the years both in movie theatres and eventually on home video.  But Disney almost didn’t last long enough to do that…

Walt wanted to make Cinderella, but he ran into massive opposition from the rest of the company.  Everyone thought it was going to be another disaster.  At the time, the company was $4 million in debt, which was quite a bit of money in the late 40s.  In 1950, the price to go to a movie was 25 cents!

But Walt believed in the movie… and himself.  He pushed to have it made, and after its release on February 15, 1950, it became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and helped reverse the studio’s fortunes.  It is considered one of the best American animated films ever made, as selected by the American Film Institute.  It received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Music and Original Song for “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”.

I bet you didn’t know Walt Disney struggled and had MASSIVE failures.  I bet you didn’t know people at his own company had serious doubts about what he was doing.

Most people think success is luck, and successful people get there easily.  The truth of the matter is, behind every success there are usually years and years of set backs.

The only difference between the successful and unsuccessful is often the simple fact that the successful people do not quit.

Best,

Dr. Binder

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