Walt Disney

The Biography of Walt Disney – “Never give up attitude”

We all know about Walt Disney as we grew up watching cartoons created by him. Like every human being he too had to face many obstacles in life, but he gained success by hard work and determination. Here is a short biography of Walt Disney which motivates us to do better in our day to day chores of life.

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois. Walt was interested in art and drawing at a very early age. He sold some of his drawings and sketches to his neighbors when he was just seven. He attended McKinley High School where his interests were divided between drawing and photography. He also contributed to the school paper with his drawings. Walt wanted to improve his drawing abilities, so he attended night classes at Academy of Fine Arts. He wanted to join army at the age of sixteen and hence he dropped out of the school. But to his dismay he was rejected for being underage. Rejection by the army made him join red cross and he was sent to France. He had to drive ambulance for one year. He had to return from France after the World War I ended. Walt was under the dilemma whether to become an actor or a newspaper artist. He decided to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. He was fired from a newspaper because he lacked imagination and had no original ideas. Nobody wanted to hire him as either an artist or even as an ambulance driver.

With his brothers help he was a able to get a temporary job at a studio. Later he has decided to start his own commercial company (Laugh-O-Grams) along with a friend after their time at temporary job at studio expired. Walt produced short animated films and one such film was “The Alice Comedies”. He could not finish the project as he ran out of money and hence his company went bankrupted. He never gave up.

Failure has made him strong and he was not afraid of failure anymore. He packed his bags with his unfinished Alice project and went to Hollywood to start a new business. It was risky as he was just twenty two years old by that time. His brother has come to his rescue again by lending him some money. They had set up a shop in their uncle’s garage. Soon they received orders from New York for an animation project. He has the endless drive to perfect the art of animation. His enthusiasm and faith in himself and others took him straight to the top of Hollywood society. He wanted to open an amusement park where children with their parents can come and enjoy the rides and meet the animated characters they know and all this in a clean and safe environment. This dream has come true in the year 1955 as a Disneyland Park. It was another great success. Famous Disney characters are Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, Aladdin, Cinderella, characters in Duck Tales, characters in Tales Spin, The Jungle Book etc.

Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 Academy Awards and 7 Emmys in his lifetime. Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations; Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Some of the famous quotes by Walt Disney:

1. "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."
2. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
3. "When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."
4. "You reach a point where you don't work for money."
5. "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
6. "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
7. "It’s kind of fun to do the impossible."