Morale of the Story: Never Give Up
Grace Massoud
6/18/2025 4:57:14 PM
We all grew up watching Disney movies and animations. They played a major part in shaping who we are today as adults. Women in particular had formed unrealistic expectations when it came to Prince Charming and that the princess’s whole world revolves around falling in love and marrying her one true love.
Thankfully, we grew out of these fairyland delusions and kept the wonderful memories and enchanting plotlines Walt forever engraved in our souls.
If Walt Disney hadn’t had unshakeable faith in himself and his talent, the world would be a miserable place. The man with the vision grew up poor in Missouri and got started drawing sketches he then sold to neighbors for coins. The kind of drive and ambition he had were clear when he lied about his age to join the army. When that didn’t work out for him, he volunteered as a Red Cross driver. Following the war, he pursued the arts, his true passion, and moved to Kansas City. He secured a job in a newspaper and got laid off for “lacking imagination”, go figure. Walt Disney, no imagination.
After that, he launched a studio calling it Laugh-O-Gram. This is the part of the story where he makes short cartoons. To his dismay, the business goes belly-up and he goes bankrupt at 22. At this point, he moves to LA with only 40$ in his pocket and a suitcase. The man with the dream started over once more building a new studio with his brother Roy. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was his first big hit, but that didn’t last long as the distributor pulled the rug from under him, stealing the character and the animators. Walt suffered a major loss yet again. The warrior that he is, he came up with a new character we all know and love: Mickey Mouse. Walt got over three hundred rejections for Mickey. Nobody saw the appeal in a cartoon mouse. At long last, he got a yes. With Steamboat Willie, Mickey blew up. Disney went on to execute hits like
Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia. They were all risky bets, and each one altered animation forever. The sky was the limit for Walt. The trailblazer built a theme park which people laughed at and called “Disney’s Folly”. Despite the naysayers, it was inaugurated in 1955 changing entertainment forever and the rest is as they say history.
The morale of the story is no matter the decades of rejection and flops, believe anyway. No matter the difficulties, arm yourself with courage, listen to the knowing inside of you and never give up. Walt never did, and today Disney is valued at 150 billion dollars and his name has become legendary.
As Walt himself said: “If you can dream it, you can do it”.
Thankfully, we grew out of these fairyland delusions and kept the wonderful memories and enchanting plotlines Walt forever engraved in our souls.
If Walt Disney hadn’t had unshakeable faith in himself and his talent, the world would be a miserable place. The man with the vision grew up poor in Missouri and got started drawing sketches he then sold to neighbors for coins. The kind of drive and ambition he had were clear when he lied about his age to join the army. When that didn’t work out for him, he volunteered as a Red Cross driver. Following the war, he pursued the arts, his true passion, and moved to Kansas City. He secured a job in a newspaper and got laid off for “lacking imagination”, go figure. Walt Disney, no imagination.
After that, he launched a studio calling it Laugh-O-Gram. This is the part of the story where he makes short cartoons. To his dismay, the business goes belly-up and he goes bankrupt at 22. At this point, he moves to LA with only 40$ in his pocket and a suitcase. The man with the dream started over once more building a new studio with his brother Roy. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was his first big hit, but that didn’t last long as the distributor pulled the rug from under him, stealing the character and the animators. Walt suffered a major loss yet again. The warrior that he is, he came up with a new character we all know and love: Mickey Mouse. Walt got over three hundred rejections for Mickey. Nobody saw the appeal in a cartoon mouse. At long last, he got a yes. With Steamboat Willie, Mickey blew up. Disney went on to execute hits like
Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia. They were all risky bets, and each one altered animation forever. The sky was the limit for Walt. The trailblazer built a theme park which people laughed at and called “Disney’s Folly”. Despite the naysayers, it was inaugurated in 1955 changing entertainment forever and the rest is as they say history.
The morale of the story is no matter the decades of rejection and flops, believe anyway. No matter the difficulties, arm yourself with courage, listen to the knowing inside of you and never give up. Walt never did, and today Disney is valued at 150 billion dollars and his name has become legendary.
As Walt himself said: “If you can dream it, you can do it”.