Have We Gone Too Far to Wish Upon Stars?

As you might well imagine since I was recently in Walt Disney World, I've been thinking a great deal about the works of Walt Disney. I say "works" because he is not a man whose accomplishments were limited to one or two recognizable things or products or ideas. When you say to someone "Walt Disney" and ask what they immediately think of, you're likely to get at least a few different answers.

One says "amusement parks" or "vacation" or "resorts." One says "cartoons" or "animated films" or simply "Mickey Mouse." They're not wrong. But they're only scratching the surface.

The truly savvy might say "branding" or "customer service." Again 100% correct.

When you ask me what word comes to mind when I think of Walt Disney, I might simply says "pioneer." And in my mind, that encompasses all of the above.

Walt was a leader, an explorer, a businessman, a philosopher, a General (sometimes perhaps a Dictator), and a dreamer.

He coined the phrase, "if we can dream it . . . we can do it."

I'd like to say this is a mantra by which I live my own life. I'd like to, but I can not. I have many dreams. Some so far out in the clouds that it would take a fortune and an act of God to make them reality. Some are so simple and pure it would seem, at least to my mind, they shouldn't take but a simple step in the right direction, or perhaps just the hand of providence opening the right door at the right time to bring that dream from conception to birth.

Yet we live in a world where I'm afraid dreams no longer hold currency. Commerce has all but destroyed art.

I wonder if Walt Disney were a young man today, could he do it all again? Is it possible for a man with a dream, a fantastical dream, and determination to build an empire. 20 years from now, could a man stand in the midst of his entertainment kingdom and say it all started with a mouse?

Or would he have to say it all started with a hedge fund and a group of venture capitalists who hired an independant research group to determine the probability of Americans to watch an animated mouse and go to an amusement park . . .? Sadly, odds are he'd never even get to that point, as how would even get to those investors?

Someone asked me when we were at Disney World if I thought someone could "do this all again, now." I thought for a moment and said "no."

I just have a terribly cynical feeling that dreams are no longer enough. We live in a world of cold metal, concrete, circuitry, and theoretical currency. Or to simplify it, the old addage is true: you gotta have it to make it.

If you don't already have it, your dreams probably aren't going to be enough.

See, I think all this. I hear it my head, every time I sit down to the white page (screen) in the hopes of creation. There's a monkey perched squarely on my shoulders, slapping my skull like a bongo telling me all this. Until, finally, he stops for a moment . . . and I think about Walt.

If "Uncle Walt" knew I was thinking all this. If he believed I truly felt this way, he might slap me harder than that monkey. Because in times like ours, especially in times like we're in now, where those corporate raiders and investment bankers and short-sighted politicians on the take have sold the American Dream up the river. Maybe this is the time when our dreams mean more than ever before. Maybe the world needs a visionary who believes that something simple and pure and whimsical can be the cornerstone of a business that is not only profitable but also brings true joy to millions of lives.

Could Walt Disney do it all over again now? No, of course not. Everything's changed. The game has changed. The playing field is completely different. So the new Walt Disney would have to do it all differently. But he would still do it. He would more than likely relish the challenge. Even if he had to scrape for it inch-by-inch, rejection after rejection until he finally reached success.
He would not give up, as I've wanted to and have so many times. And when he finally looked out over all the success he'd made, he'd still think of ways to "plus it."
Above all, no matter how different the new Walt Disney's empire might be, it would more than likely all have still started with something the size of a mouse.