This past Monday, Josh and I had the honor to interview Dave Smith, the founder and director of the Walt Disney Archives.  We met with him in his office on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank.

We were there to cover the 40th anniversary of the Archives for InsidetheMagic.net.  We’ll be posting the majority of our coverage over there.  But I wanted to share with you Dave’s answer to one very important question.

I asked Dave what he had gleaned over the last 40 years of studying Walt’s life that would indicate what made Walt Disney so successful.  This is what he said:

“I think the basic quality about Walt is that he was a genius in knowing what the public wanted in entertainment.  He didn’t listen to all of his critics that tried to talk him out of doing things he wanted to do because he knew what would interest the public.  And that was proved true throughout his career.

He was always trying new things… things that other companies and individuals were afraid to do.  He was always willing to put up his money to do things that other people didn’t want to do.

Of course, most people were afraid that these things wouldn’t be successful.  He wasn’t afraid they weren’t going to be successful.  He knew they were going to be successful.  Now if only we all had that ability… but I think that was indeed where he was a genius and I think that was his most important quality.”

Some key points stuck out at me from what Dave said.

• Walt didn’t listen to the naysayers in his life
• Walt tried new things – always
• Walt was a risk-taker
• Walt believed completely in his projects

I’d like to share one more quote by Walt Disney himself which backs up what Dave Smith observed.

“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making his dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way.”

I believe that you and I can be just as big an impact on our world as Walt Disney.  I’m prepared to try.  Are you?