Entrepreneurial Leadership

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Casey Jackson

Teresa Greenwood

Contemporary Business (Bus508)

October 18, 2011

Two of many famous entrepreneurs of all time are Walt Disney and Thomas Edison. These two became successful by believing in themselves and pushing forward in reaching their goals. Walt Disney is famous for creating the character Mickey Mouse. Thomas Edison is most known for the creation of the light bulb. Both entrepreneurs had a similar drive to pursue their dreams. Disney however, was more of a profit oriented entrepreneur where Edison was more of a social entrepreneur.

Walt Disney was born in the early 1900’s in Chicago and was a devoted artist at an early age. His young adult life was spent working at the Red Cross driving an ambulance that he had customized with his own cartoon drawings. After he was unable to enlist in World War 1 due to his young age he moved to Kansas City, Missouri advertising cartoons. This job did not last long.

Disney then moved to California and went into partnership with his brother Roy Disney. Within their business Roy Disney was more business and financial where Walt Disney was more geared toward the creative aspects of the business. The brothers borrowed money to start their business in their uncle’s garage. Soon after that they expanded their production operation to the rear of a Hollywood real estate office. It was Walt’s enthusiasm and faith in himself, and others that took him straight to the Hollywood society (Aldridge 1999).

Walt Disney started a series of black and white cartoons produced for Universal Studios. Through this process Walt still needed more funding but he stopped short, but it did not stop his drive. Walt went back to square one and produced a silent cartoon called Plane Crazy featuring a new character named Mickey Mouse. Soon after that he produced a second Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound. Mickey’s image was licensed to be used on tablet paper geared toward children.

Disney later started looking into long length films and released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Over 1.5 million dollars was used to which was odd during the Great Depression era. The growth within the company came from Walt recognizing his great technique in design and not so much in animation. Disney made it through the Great Depression and World War 2 by dedicating much of his new studio producing health, education and propaganda films for the U.S. government, also producing short comedies aimed to producing nation morale. To raise additional money Disney took this operation public in 1940 (Richads, n.d.). Disney did many films after this time and thought to make the films into live theatre to