During my career, I've had the privilege of working with some great people, and one of those folks was Dean Jones. Dean had starred in a bunch of Disney movies (LOVE BUG, BLACK BEARD'S GHOST, etc.) and was great friends with Walt. I directed him in a TV movie called SCROOGE & MARLEY that we shot at Universal/Hollywood, and one day on the set I told him I was a huge Disney fan, so he started telling me Disney stories. My favorite was this...
Back in the fifties, Dean was having lunch with Walt at the Disney commissary when Walt's brother, Roy, stormed up to their table. Roy was in charge of finances for the studio and he complained to Walt that their investment in that "kid's park" down in Anaheim was going to bankrupt them. They were in debt to Bank of America for a million dollars, Walt had mortgaged his home, and if the park failed, not only would they lose the studio, Walt would lose everything--including his home. Dean said Walt just sat there quietly and let Roy yell at him. Flash forward a year and Dean was having lunch with Walt again and this time Roy was there. Disneyland had opened and Walt was telling Dean how millions of people were visiting the park each week and it was making a million dollars a day, etc, etc, etc...and the whole time Roy just sat here, head down, eating his lunch and not saying a word.
The point of the story was this: why are some people successful while others are not? Because successful people believe in themselves, trust their instincts, and are willing to take chances. That was Walt Disney...and it can be you as well.
