S.Y.S talk » Dream

To make the Dream a Reality: the Disney Brothers’ Way

Dedy Sofyan — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:01:25 +0000

This is part two of the Walt Disney’s blog post I wrote… in memory of Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966).
To read the first part: http://sys-talk.com/inspiration/to-make-the-dream-a-reality-the-walt-disneys-way/

Soon after the completion of The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World,
someone said, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?”
Mike Vance, Creative Director at Disney, replied, “He did see it. That’s why it’s here.”

You can even follow @Disney on Twitter and see the sketches made for EPCOT, Tomorrowland at WDW, pictures of Walt showing the concept arts, and read his famous words of wisdom. He did see it in his vision: EPCOT, Tomorrowland, and many more.

Even at the time before he passed away. Hours before, he still spoke to a reporter and let the reporter write his imaginary vision of DisneyWorld and EPCOT on his hospital ceiling while lying in bed. Barely able to speak clearly, he asked the reporter to came closer so that he could whisper it. Such passion, determined to fulfill that dream, and Walt’s belief that one day it will be there even if he couldn’t really see it being built with his own eyes. But in reality, it was already built in his mind on that hospital ceiling wall, and people believed in it also, especially his older brother, Roy (who postponed his retirement and determined to continue Walt’s unfulfilled dreams). That’s why it’s there and still there, even continue growing and expanding, even now. Walt’s death actually pushed his employees more determined toward completing those dreams in honor of Walt.

“I know of no other man whose personality has continued to inspire so many for so many years.”
Charlie Ridgway, Disney Press and Publicity Director

But vision, hope and dreams, also enthusiasm alone won’t make all that appear out of nowhere. Even a dreamer, innovator, inventor, artistic genius like Walt Disney himself was aware of this.

“I’d say it’s been my biggest problem all my life… it’s money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true. “
Walt Disney

Thankfully, Walt was so fortunate to have the support of his beloved older brother, Roy O. Disney. Since he moved to California, his older brother Roy supported him, and helped him most from the financial side. When Walt came up with an idea, he went to his brother and asked him to prepare some capital to finance his ideas and dreams. At the end of the day, “Just get the money for me,” Walt said to his brother.

Roy was a miracle worker himself, much like his younger brother Walt, he almost always came up with the capital Walt required for his dream projects. Some said Walt couldn’t achieve so much without Roy, and vice versa. Walt was the CEO and Roy was the CFO. Walt the dreamer and Roy the financier.

“My business is making people, especially children, happy.”
Walt Disney

Yes, Walt let Roy took care of the funds and capital, so that Walt could focus on his business: making people, especially children happy. His brother, Roy must have loved Walt so much that he understood and also let Walt focus on his dreams, pour all his heart and mind on his ideas. The ability to focus and excel in the things you like doing, and the support of the people you cared most are God-send.

“I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.”
Walt Disney

And yes, Roy took care of that part for Walt, too. To invest on something, you must calculate the risks and the return of investment if you want to invest smart. Rarely would-be-investors put their money on something that came out of a dream, especially when someone stated that he wanted to make something completely new like no other in the world. In their point of view the risk is really high. Especially in the theme park business when most theme parks of the time was unclean, not well-maintained and degrade with time. Disney envisioned a theme park that both children and even parents can enjoy, that is clean, entertaining and imbued with Disney’s magic. When you enter the gate, they’ll be transported to a magical land, leaving their daily problems at the gate. Most people predicted that it would become a failure, the dream was too grand to be realized, even if it were to be build, it would required a great amount of money to maintain such large facility.

“People look at me in many ways. They’ve said, ‘The guy has no regard for money.’ That is not true. I have had regard for money. It depends on who’s saying that. Some people worship money as something you’ve got to have piled up in a big pile somewhere. I’ve only thought about money in one way, and that is to do something with it. I don’t think there’s a thing I own that I will ever get the benefit of except through doing things with it.”
Walt Disney

“I knew if this business was ever to get anywhere, if this business was ever to grow, it could never do it by having to answer to someone unsympathetic to its possibilities, by having to answer to someone with only one thought or interest, namely profits. For my idea of how to make profits has differed greatly from those who generally control businesses such as ours. I have blind faith in the policy that quality, tempered with good judgment and showmanship, will win against all odds.”
Walt Disney

That quality that sprung out Walt Disney’s passion for his work made all this possible and success was ensured. While others were skeptical, Roy stood by his younger brother, believed in his dreams, supported and financed Walt’s dreams.

.
“Walt Disney World is a tribute to then philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney and to the talents, the dedication and loyalty of the entire Disney Organization … may Walt Disney World bring joy and inspiration and new knowledge to all who come to this happy place.”
Roy Disney, October 1971, formal opening and dedication of “Walt Disney World”

Two months after the opening, in December 20, 1971, Roy Disney passed away because of stroke. Merely two months after he saw his brother’s dream came true.

Roy Oliver Disney was lesser known to most people as his name was eclipsed by the enormous shadow of his younger brother Walt. But his dedication, support and hard work, keeping the company financially stable, providing the means for Walt’s dream projects were equally important to Disney’s success.

Honoring both Walt and Roy Disney, for both their passion and dedication to make millions of children and parents happy.

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To make the dream a reality: the Walt Disney’s Way

Dedy Sofyan — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:30:49 +0000

The Evolution of Mickey

All started by a Mouse

“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”
Walt Disney

He was talking about the mouse that everybody knows, loves, and adores: Mickey Mouse. Mickey was created in 1928, and appeared for the first time on screen in “Steamboat Willie” in November 1928. Decades ago, but still children everywhere are so familiar with this lively and lovely mouse even to this date.

Mickey and his friends

With Mickey Mouse’s success, Walt added supporting characters like Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. Mickey and his friends have made millions of children (including ourselves) smiled, giggled, and laughed. They are our friends whom have accompanied us through our childhood and will continue to do so with our children and most absolutely will accompany our children’s children as well. Such is the magnificent and powerful dream of Walt Disney coming true even long after he passed away. The dream that he once envisioned to continue growing and unending as long as there’s imagination left in the world.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Walt Disney

The time before Mickey

Walt started drawing and sold sketches to neighbors at the age of 7. When the first World War hit, he tried to enlist in Military service, but got rejected because he was only 16 at the time. Instead he joined the Red Cross and he spent that time driving an ambulance that was covered with cartoons and drawings, instead of the standard camouflage.

After the war ended, he tried his luck in California, with nothing more than drawing materials and a few dollars in his pocket. Luckily his brother, Roy supported Walt and with the capital they raised, they set up a small cartoon studio in the garage. They named the studio: the Disney Brother’s Studio. They began with a live-action series, but soon discovered near the end that animated characters were more appealing. The studio produced a new series with an animated character: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Oswald was an instant success and became popular.

But… the success didn’t last long.

After a failed negotiation, Disney lost the rights to Oswald, and lost most of his staffs to Universal, too.

An extremely hard blow for Disney. He had to start all over again on his own. It seemed so impossible to beat the popularity of Oswald and another popular animated character at the time: Felix the Cat.

Not giving up, Walt Disney created a new character to replace Oswald.

He drew the sketches of a mouse inspired by his pet mouse.

Later the sketches were fine-tuned by fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. Walt Disney personally lent his voice and personality to Mickey.

In the words of a Disney employee, “Ub designed Mickey’s physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul.”

Sound in cartoons were new at that time. With the animation fully-synchronized with sound, it really brought the animated character come to life and complete with personality. The audience fell in love with Mickey Mouse’s personality and adored him right away.

With the success of the release of “Steamboat Willie” the first animation / cartoon with sound (featuring Mickey Mouse), Mickey became a new instant success and replaced Felix the Cat as the world’s most popular animated character.

Golden Age

Later, in 1932, Disney released a full-length animated musical, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, which was estimated to had been produced at the staggering cost of $1.5 million during the time of the Great Depression, the time when most people struggled to make a living because of the devastated economy. “Snow White” became an instant masterpiece of the motion picture industry.

Disney literally trumped the impossible.

Years later Disney continued to produce more animated classics, which I believe you all should have seen by now.

Classics like Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Cinderella, and many more.

Truly the Golden Age of Disney Animation.

Disneyland

“Disneyland is a work of love.”
Walt Disney

Still full of dreams, Disney envisioned an amusement park where his employees can spend time with their children.

Interestingly enough, the engineers and planners for the Disneyland project were named “Imagineers”.

Why? Because he said that he wanted it to look like nothing else in the world. To accomplish that they have to use their imaginations.

“We did it: Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster – closed and forgotten within the first year.”
Walt Disney

Disneyland officially opened in 1955, with Walt’s speech: “To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land.

Here age relives fond memories of the past …. and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.

Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America … with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

Contrary to what analysts predicted, it wasn’t closed and forgotten within the first year, and became a hit.

The dream didn’t stop there for Walt, early 1964 he announced a larger version of Disneyland, to be called Disney World. With the heart of the Disney World was EPCOT, short for the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow. A prototype to improve the quality of life in future America.

Too bad, he passed away because of a heart attack in 1966, years before he could see his latest dream came true.

To honor Walt, his brother Roy took over his brother’s dream and insisted on renaming the “Disney World” to “Walt Disney World”. It was opened for public as scheduled in 1971 and EPCOT in 1982.

Even years and years after his death, his legacy lives on.

His dreams have brought joy and laughter, have inspired and entertained millions of children and adults all around the world.

It was all started by a mouse, called Mickey Mouse and it will never end as long as imagination lives on. That’s the legacy of Walt Disney.

“All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966)

Walt and Mickey the Mouse that started it all

Epic Mickey with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

As for the fate of Oswald, he was finally reunited with his friends at Disney more than a half of century later, in 2006 after a trade with NBC Universal.

You can meet both Mickey and Oswald in Disney’s latest Wii Game, the Epic Mickey.

Epic Mickey’s developer Warren Spector comments on Oswald: “All he really wants is to be loved by Walt Disney.”

Next part of the story:

To make the dream a reality: the Disney Brother’s way

http://sys-talk.com/inspiration/to-make-the-dream-a-reality-the-disney-brothers-way/

References:

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“Libera Mentem” & “Nil Desperandum”

Dedy Sofyan — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:30:19 +0000

You might have been more familiar with this chant/spell: “Expecto Patronum”. Yes? Sounds familiar?
Which is in Latin (if I’m not mistaken) and it’s one of that spells that any Harry Potter’s fans will vividly remember.

Well, I’m not here to discuss Harry Potter. (But yes, the new movie is out so go queue for the tickets at your nearest cinema.)

Without the author, you won’t even got the chance to get into this wonderful world of fantasy and wizardry. From the amazing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where these young children learn magic, then the game of Quidditch and the racing brooms, potions and spells, hexes and curses in words that’s familiar yet strange on your ears. It was all sprung out from the creative mind of J.K. Rowling and her road to success surely wasn’t easy.

Meet J.K. Rowling…

She wrote the first book when she was a single parent, taking care of her daughter and was living on state welfare support at the time. She wrote in local cafes when her child was asleep. But the idea of the story was already molded in her mind a few years back, she didn’t really know where the idea came from, but she began writing it immediately.
A lot has happened since then, her mother passed away, Rowling moved to Portugal, got married and have a daughter. But the marriage didn’t last long and she came to Scotland as a struggling single parent with her daughter. Rowling was even diagnosed with depression and contemplated suicide at that time. Surely the darkest period of her life.

When she finally finished writing the first book, it was submitted to twelve publishing houses and all turned it down. Not until a year later, an 8 year old which happens to be the daughter of the chairman of Bloomsbury, a small publishing house read the first chapter and got very excited to actually demanded more from his father. Bloomsbury then agreed to publish the book, but the editor advised Rowling to get a real job because they could only get little money out of children books.

(Well, if you look back now… You wouldn’t have wanted to actually say that to her, would you? Had you now knew that the world of Harry Potter has now bewitched and bedazzled not only children but adults as well.)

She still had a long way to go, months later the book got its first award, she continued writing sequels and these sequels had won awards too. Then came the fourth book, which sales hit the roof, in the US: three million copies sold in the first 48 hours. Rowling was named author of the year.

Then came the fifth, sixth. More records broken, more awards given. The seventh which was the final, sold eleven million copies in the first day in UK and US.

With the amazing success of the books, Warner Bros. purchased film rights from Rowling for great amount of money.
In 2004, J.K. Rowling became the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. In 2008, the 144th richest person in Britain. She received honorary degrees from universities and even bestowed the honor as “Officer of the Order of the British Empire” (OBE).

One of the local cafes where the world of Hogwarts came to life

What’s the secret?

I’d say…
“Nil Desperandum“:
Don’t ever give up.
J.K. Rowling’s rags to riches life should be prove enough and inspire us to live our life to the fullest and achieve our dreams…
The Latin proverb “Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo”: don’t give up, trust in God. God will show you the path…
Undeniably, her love for her daughter also took great part to make her not giving up because there’s a new life that solely depends on her to succeed.

“Libera Mentem“:
Set your mind free, be an open mind, know no boundaries, create (write, paint, compose, sculpt, construct, build) whatever it is that came flooding through your mind…
Let the magic flows through… Let the automatons, giants, ships, spaceships, flying saucers; or magicians, knights, princesses, and dragons inhabit your newly-created world and share them with the real world.
(Which reminded me of “Eragon” a fantasy book written by Paolini at the age of 15!)

Once you realize all that… Combine them with hard work, faith and dedication…

**“Expecto… Maiestas“**

The author and the main casts that brought the world of Harry Potter to life on the big screen


Side note: Now less and less people are encouraged to be creative,
because it's far more easy and faster to imitate rather than to create and come up with something new.

Unrelated to creativity... but more related to the story...
Once I attended a sermon discussing about hope and how the number of suicides are high nowadays.
These people should have looked up to the famous people who had suffered and never gave up hope.
The preacher then mentioned a novel author whom I didn't recognized as an example...
I was telling myself, he should have also mentioned J.K. Rowling,
all these young people must have known and more familiar with her and the Harry Potter series 
so there you go, it was my inspiration to write this blog post.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

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Conan’s Pale Whale?

Dedy Sofyan — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:08:54 +0000

Oh hey! Conan’s back! And he’s riding a whale…

Yes, that was created by the “Pale Whale” (or “Fail Whale” of Twitter fame)’s artist, Yiying Lu.

If you aren’t familiar with them, by the way I’ve written about Miss Lu in my previous blog post. As for Mr. O’Brien if you tuned in to your TV (cable here in Indonesia) during late night, I bet you already knew who he is.

For non-fans, perhaps a little recap: Conan once got the dream job that every comedian has been dreaming of: hosting “The Tonight Show”. He did secure a deal to replace Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show”, leaving his old gig “The Late Night Show” behind in the hands of Jimmy Fallon in early 2009.

However in early 2010, after “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” aired for just a mere seven months, the network decided to change the airing time and make Mr. Leno’s show back to the original time slot. Conan refused and publicly stated he would quit the show if his show was moved to the next day. Even his fans became angry and thought that it was so unfair. After weeks of disputes and negotiations, the network and Conan finally agreed on a settlement: the network made him agree to leave the show and that he could only freely return on-air as early as nine months later. That might as well be a devastating moment for one comedian’s life for sure. The dream that he has put decades of his life fighting and working hard, the team supporting him and working hard beside him… To be on “The Tonight Show” was like a dream come true and yet at that time that was all crumbling apart.

Weeks later, Conan interviewed his Squirrel and jumped to the Twitter bandwagon. (You can still read on his Bio: “I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account.”) He was so funny and so creative, you will soon find out that @ConanOBrien isn’t his only active twitting account, you can still find and follow his squirrel, his beard, and I don’t even know for sure what or who else you may find tied to his account. But that wasn’t the big news at the time. It was his only “following” account. He picked her at random, suddenly this lucky girl’s life changed just like what Conan wrote on his Twitter page:

I’ve decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change. Saturday, March 06, 2010 3:55:09 AM via web

And sure that came true. She was all over the news and that was more than some fifteen-minute of fame. She is one and only Conan’s Twitter pal till now. Even when he was going through hard times, he still managed to pull great things off and made someone’s life a difference.

Months later he started his own tour across the States. Surely a very welcomed move for his fans, who missed his late night shows.
Fast forward to the present: earlier this month, he finally returned on cable. Yes, he’s back with his new show, “Conan”. Why? So that it would be harder for them to replace him, he said. Lol. Yes, it’s time to laugh your *beep* out loud once again. He even made Tom Hanks soaking wet on his couch. Priceless.

So… the moral of the story is… ? Mmm, wait, I’m not going to spill it all out for you… :p

Wait, what’s that? Yes, life is unfair… yes, you might be right… no, you might be wrong… but hey, you can always have your own opinion on that matter. There’s no sure answer in life, you are entitled to whatever it’s you wanted to think about this story… But I hope that it’s all positive.

Well, for me personally: things might not gone the way you’ve always wanted to, your dreams might have been taken away from you, but remember, don’t ever give up. You shouldn’t give up, you mustn’t give up. There’s always hope. Learn to pick yourself back up again, you’ll be a stronger person in the process.

Cheers!

Related story:

Twitter fail whale artist creates the Conan O’Brien pale whale

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Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream”

Dedy Sofyan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:42:14 +0000

Today is the National Commemoration of “Ibu Kita Kartini” in Indonesia. She was the mother of Indonesia’s very own women’s right movement for equal rights in education. Thanks to her and several others, women in Indonesia now can study and work just like the men do, and even outperform the men in some areas.

Susan Boyle

Okay, back to the topic, which I personally think is still related to the “equal rights” topic today, let’s discuss about Ms. Susan Boyle.

Several days back, if you watched “Britain’s Got Talent“ show or simply just watched the viral videoclip of “Susan Boyle” on Youtube.

You’ll be amazed by how skeptical people are when they see a person, which is “in their own perception”, is below their standards in appearance. You can even clearly see some people rolled their eyes when they first saw Ms. Boyle on stage. But… when she started singing, their perception drastically changed. It was (what I personally call) a “wake up” call, or perhaps even a “slap to the face” for some of the audiences.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

From NYTimes.com: Of course, bookers on the show had heard Ms. Boyle sing. But Simon Cowell said he and the other judges were in the dark.

“It had been a long day in Scotland. We’d seen no talent at all. All I knew about her was a name on a sheet of paper. She came out and she looked a bit odd, and the dress looked odd. I gave her five seconds at most. But then she started singing, and within two seconds everything changed.” - Simon Cowell, Britain’s Got Talent Judge

Her performance of “I Dreamed a Dream”, the video clip of the perfomance on Youtube shook the internet and got millions of viewers to date, perhaps the first for a first-round performance of any “idol / talent shows” to date. She even got her own Facebook page with increasing numbers of fans joining and commenting on her performance. Her own Wikipedia page! Not to mention that she also got worldwide media attention.

Perez Hilton, socialite blogger, wrote a blog entry about her.
Jay Leno, the famous American talk show host, paid tribute to her and even joked that they could’ve been related.

For me, the sensation of Susan Boyle internationally is a strong reminder that:
“It’s never too late for you to chase after your dreams.”

References:

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Barack Obama, Fulfillment of a Dream

Dedy Sofyan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:43:20 +0000

Barack Obama, Fulfillment of a Dream…

a History in the making, a new Dawn of Hope and Change…

When I first saw Obama’s speech about change, about optimism “Yes, We Can!” Wow! No, I am not an American citizen, but I was moved and amazed.

This is THE leader… the kind of leader any nation could ever dreamed of… Even my nation could use such leader to pull the nation out of harm’s way and recent crisis.

For the last few days and weeks, you could watch Obama’s tribute to the late Abraham Lincoln, and the late Marthin Luther King, Jr.

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Abraham Lincoln
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

19 January, Martin Luther King Day and today, 20 January 2009 is the day of inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, a new day in history. The day Martin Luther King’s dream: “a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” came true to even greater extent.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And so, the whole world watch… on January 20, 2009… a dream of hope and change… came true… and so help us God that this dream can be shared and spread to the entire earth. =)

[UPDATES]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before you click play, just a note: This video is 133.95MB in size. =)

References:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

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