Have you ever looked at Walt Disney’s grave?
In its simplicity is its impact, for how do you abridge the life of a giant like Walt Disney on a single grave marker? How do you properly summarize everything he accomplished, and everything he did for the world in just a few characters? You can’t. You shouldn’t. He was an illustrator and animator. He pioneered nature films, developed new techniques for use of sound and story in films and changed the landscape of animated feature films. During his lifetime, Walt created more than 600 films, won 32 Oscars, and received nearly 1,000 awards. As impressive as that is, imagine if that’s where his obituary ended. Imagine if, as a young adult, he had been so focused on his day job of illustrating advertisements that he never learned the craft of animation. Imagine if he had been so focused on animation that he never left his studio to pursue building Disneyland. Imagine if he had been content with Disneyland, and never bought land in Florida. Imagine if Walt had gone down in the history books as an advertiser-cartoonist… and nothing more. Thankfully, Walt had the foresight to not limit himself to just illustration, or just filmmaking, or just one park. Walt’s willingness to let himself be serenaded by the siren call of his daydreams is something very few of us have the bravery to do. And in the working world, where supervisors and boards oversee everything we do, it’s something we rarely get the chance to do. The lesson here is simple – be like Walt! Let yourself go in many directions. Don’t be limited by your job title, your location or the little voice in the back of your mind telling you that you can’t do something! In our non-profit environment, you might run into naysayers from time to time, but it’s up to you to push past them and keep your eye on the prize! Remain focused, keep pivoting, keep creating!
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