Disney has achieved success and fame through its amazing attractions and their films. In addition to that, it became famous for its perseverance. Despite the ups and downs, Disney is still on top of Splash Mountain.
How did they do it? Well, they are not dumb enough to lay out a blueprint, but consider the following:
Save everything. And I mean everything–failures and all.
Frozen, the blockbuster Disney film pulled in $1.2 billion at the box office making it the 5thhighest grossing film of all time.
Did you know this is an old movie? Walt Disney (the man) was unable to adapt the Snow Queen to film. It floated around for nearly 70 years until it was permanently shelved. Until it wasn’t. And hence—a blockbuster.
If your idea is not gelling, don’t let go of it completely. Hold on to that idea, archive it and work on something else for a while. Depending on your task at hand, your “while” cold be an hour or a decade.
Make things easier
Disney recently released an algorithm which simplifies the green screen process. As we all are on Zoom, we probably know a bit about green screens. And if you know anything about films, they are a staple in the industry. Making the process easier is a huge help. Just look at the theme park—they are constantly re-designing them to make it easier and more guest friendly.
Always be on the lookout for changes you can implement to make your life easier. Do you know about a low-cost service called If This Then That (or IFTTT)? It is a service that will create macros for you. Write a blog post and have it automatically posted to Facebook and tweeted out. There are literally thousands of options!
Become a community
Most of us work without a traditional team. But we do need a community. Why? Because a community can challenge you, make you think, and help you grow. Thankfully, we all have TRO!
Disney’s Pixar’s philosophy is based on group work and support, along with honest feedback. In short, they believe that collaboration is the key to success. If Toy Story, Cars, and Finding Dory are any indication, it works well.
Get ready to fail
Failure is a given in nearly any endeavor. Nothing will work all the time and there is no recipe for perfection.
While Disney created an incredible success story; remember the failures. Disney was fired for his lack of creativity Disney went bankrupt. Disney released many flops into theaters—Fantasia anyone? Dig deep into the Disney archives and you will see that they likely succeeded because of their failures.
As a travel professional, your trajectory will be the same—successes and yes, setbacks and failures. You may screw up a reservation royally and send someone to Florida when they wanted to go to Central America. You will likely end up working with the wrong client for you (pro tip—fire them). You will burn some bridges and need to rebuild them. You may even question why you are in this crazy industry after all. It’s all part of the deal. You’ll fail at some point and that’s okay. Just ask Walt!
Oh, and after you are done washing your hands–GO VOTE!
