Age: 65yrs (Died December 15^th 1966)

Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Industry: Entertainment/animation

Biggest Hold Back: Bankruptcy & Told He Would Fail

Net worth: $1.1bn

Company Website: www.disney.go.com

I’m pretty certain almost everyone (if not everyone) will know who Walt Disney is, and he is a great example of a successful entrepreneur. After dropping out of school and being refused entry to the army due to his age, Walt went on to work for the Red Cross. Upon his return to Chicago he managed to gain employment through his brothers collegue as an artist for a local business, where he created adverts for newspapers and movie theatres. After leaving his job, he and fellow artist, Ubbe Iwerks, started the Iwers-Disney Comercial Artist Company, which fell after a very rocky start. He was then offered a job by the Kansas City film Ad Company, where he learned how to create animations from cut-outs. However after reading the book; Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, by Edwin G. Lutz, Walt decided to leave the Kansas City Film Ad Company and try once more with his own business.

Laugh-O-Grams his second business went out of business due to bankruptcy, mainly because he had studio costs, far too many staff and not enough revenue to pay everything, disaster. Walt had failed not once but twice, but he didn’t know how to give up. Having learnt very really lessons in how to fail, Walt and his brother Roy went to Hollywood in search of glory. Whilst there he managed to secure a distributor to help with his business. Things went from strength to strength, it started with his live action Alice in Wonderland stories, and then continued with his own unique characters such as Julius the cat and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. His real success came with Mickey Mouse when he made a series of animated shorts such as “Silly Symphonies” and “The Skeleton Dance”. In 1932 after popular demand for the character Mickey Mouse by all of his new found fans, Walt received an Academy Award. He had made it, thanks to help of a little fictional mouse called Mickey. Walt continued his success for a further 34yrs before his death, leaving behind his legacy which we all now know as the Walt Disney Company, which is worth somewhere in the region of $35 billion today.