Monday Musings - Monday Musings (Dreaming Like Disney)

​

Hi friends!

For decades, Walt Disney had been focused on productive endeavors like animations and full-length feature films. Throughout his career, he'd always used profits to reinvest in his business, but beginning in the 1950s Walt began to put profits into realizing his childhood fantasies.

Now, Walt was focused on the “nonsense” of a backyard model train set — a 1:8 scale live steam locomotive and a half-mile train track that circled his house. People thought he was throwing his career away.

The people around Walt thought his obsession with trains was a waste of time. One critic wrote: "All of his zest for invention, for creative fantasies, seemed to be going into this plaything. I came away feeling sad."

But now that his story has been told, you can trace a direct link from Walt’s backyard train project to his magnum opus: Disneyland.

Disney’s story begs a larger question. What happens when we become obsessed with something we can’t justify rationally?

The history of innovation is filled with endeavors that seemed useless at the time:

• Newton was as obsessed with alchemy as he was with calculus.
• Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class in college, which contributed to the typeface renaissance Apple would later pioneer.
• Mr. Beast’s family thought he wouldn’t amount to anything because of all the hours he spent studying the mechanics of viral YouTube videos.

Many of the best scientists are poets. Many of the best investors are philosophers. Many of the best politicians are historians.

Though life is random and spontaneous, something in the human psyche expects a linear, ascending staircase towards the penthouse of success. Fearing judgment, people are scared to explore unproven avenues. Second-time authors, musicians, and entrepreneurs struggle because they’re afraid to go back to the beginning and look like a novice again.

A train is the first thing you see when you walk into Disneyland. Maybe the architecture is Walt’s reminder to guests: honor the dreamer within you and stop trying to justify everything.

​