Friday, March 4, 2016

Two Sides To Every Coin

Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Many people don’t realize that Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse and so many other iconic characters, was once a man who was very familiar with failure. In fact, in his younger years, he had a boss who fired him because he said he lacked creativity. But Disney refused to give up.

He had a dream, and he wanted to see it come true, so he hung in there. At one point, Disney raised enough money to start a company called “Laugh-O-Gram.” But when the business failed, he lost everything. He was so poor he could hardly pay his rent, and survived by eating dog food.

He even faced failure when he created Mickey Mouse. He was told that Mickey would scare women. But he believed in his idea, so he fought tooth and nail for his dreams.

In fact, Disney spent 16 years convincing the author of Mary Poppins to turn her story into a movie. For a decade and a half, Disney frequently flew to England, trying to persuade author Pamela Travers to sell her story to him. His persistence paid off when she finally agreed. In many parts of the world, Mary Poppins is now a classic and well-known tale.

But, there are two sides to every coin, and Walt Disney also had a dark side. While hard-working and creative, many people also say that Disney was racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and paid his workers poorly. While he regularly gave his housekeeper stocks in his company, which ended up being worth millions of dollars, some of his animators made only $12 a week.

To be fair, Disney lived in an age when these things were unfortunately pretty common. Those who support Disney say that he may have been a little insensitive, but that he was not a bad person. He was just a product of his time.

Certainly, Walt Disney brought the world to magical places in his stories and movies. He encouraged us to wish on stars, believe in our dreams and never give up. Despite reports of his darker side, Disney was truly an American icon.

The post Two Sides To Every Coin appeared first on Deep English.

from Deep English » Blog http://deepenglish.com/2016/03/two-sides-every-coin/


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