Dream It, Do It

Last Christmas I received a copy of Dream It, Do It: My Half-Century of Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms by Marty Sklar. I loved reading this book! Not only did it give me some neat insights into the world of Disney Imagineering, but it also gave me insider information about the Disney company, and great management principles as well.

Marty Sklar was the last person to retire from Disney that was involved with the opening of all 11 current Disney parks. He is also the person who wrote the official statement regarding Walt's death (an assignment he still feels bitter towards to this day). He eventually progressed to become the head of Disney Imagineering. His biggest focus was to continue to do things the way Walt would have done them, especially with regards to the Florida Project (Walt Disney World). He describes in candid detail the challenge of building the various Disney parks, especially those outside of the country. I really loved his few descriptions of how some rides came to be, such as Space Mountain (sorry, you'll have to read the book to get that story).

It was also interesting to read his opinion of various leaders of the Disney company, and also to get a glimpse of the politics that were played. Many leaders had self-serving agendas that made certain areas in the company suffer. I was really interested in his perspective of Michael Eisner and his strengths and flaws. A lot of stuff I had already heard, but reading everything from someone who was actually there gave me new insights to the whole situation and what led to various ups and downs in the Disney company.

I was not expecting to learn so much about how to be a good manager by reading this book. In all honesty, I want to go back through and read it again from this perspective, because I am sure there is much that I missed. But here are a few things the author discusses that I really liked:

When all is said and done, there is only one name on the door--Walt Disney's (Pushing for personal glory will get you nowhere because everything you do is to promote someone else)

What is normal and mundane for you may be the first and only experience for a guest, so make it a good one!

Giving bare minimum performance to save a buck now, may end up costing you a lot more in the future.

A leader's job is to be responsive and make decisions.

 Empower your employees; make sure your voice is not the only one you're listening to.

Be passionate about whatever you do.

Never rest on your laurels.

I know there is more, but like I said, I'll need to go back and re-read the book. I'm grateful that Marty Sklar decided to write this book and share his wisdom. It was fun to read about Disney, but also neat to see good manager skills put into practice.