Everything I learned about dreams daring doing, I learned from Walt.

This is a particularly perilous moment for me, a time of changing perspectives & fresh opportunities that leave me exhilarated & shaken with the new, the unexpected, the unconsciously bidden.

Someone who's helping me move through it, up to the next level of play is Walter Elias Disney.  My current personal & professional challenges are rooted in my entrepreneurial spirit - and Walt Disney was THE entrepreneur par excellance. 

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." 

Walt always tried to learn from mistakes, to keep his eye on the horizon, working his way toward it. 

Would that all of us had the great good fortune to have a big brother like Roy Disney.  Mickey would never have delighted us if Walt's creativity hadn't been beautifully balanced by his canny, kind & generous older brother.  

“My job all along was to help Walt do the things he wanted to do. He did the dreaming. I did the building.”  Roy Disney

An example of Walt's lack of business smarts - rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his first successful cartoon creation, were registered in his distributor's name, leaving him with no claim.  That only happened once.  

Until the past few weeks, I hadn't a clue about how vitally important CURIOSITY has been in my life.  The core genius of Walt Disney is found in his curiosity.  Wait - Walt would disagree...

“Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence."

Curiosity drove my ability to move past family crises, what looked like professional set backs, personal dilemmas.  In each case, curiosity about each situation helped me step back, if just a smidgen, to get a better view.  

Mom once pointed to my belief in the possible as the quality she most admired in me - it's rooted in my curiosity.

Now, I've moved into uncharted waters.  And that requires something that's been lacking in my life.  Confidence.  

Walt's spot-on that the greatest of the four Cs - curiosity, confidence, courage & constancy - is confidence.  I'm upbeat & optimistic, with a lot of bluster & bravado.  That's a far cry from confidence.  

My curiosity could be compared to one of the Saturn 5 rockets Mim & I saw climb up to beyond the skies.  It's the vehicle caring the payload, glistening & gleaming on the launch pad.  

 

Without confidence fueling it, that's where it stays. It takes sufficient confidence to ignite my courage & constancy, all three to propel my curiosity into a successfully completed mission.

 

It's a scary grand place to be, with startling twists & turns, unexpected consequences & startling new paths.  Exhilarating, yet demanding that I give it my all or just don't bother.  Will be thinking a lot about Walt & Roy, looking to their example, putting my heart into making my own dreams come true.   

"Always remember that this whole thing 

was started with a dream and a mouse."

 Well, a mouse, a dream, two brothers & the 4 Cs.