Walt Disney Perseverance

Everyone is given the choice to keep moving forward after a loss or give up all hope. One of the greatest attributes to have in life is perseverance exemplified by such amazing people as Walt Disney and the motivational speaker Dr. Eric Thomas; both have achieved greatness through their devoted determination. Perseverance is refusing to fail no matter how difficult the situation becomes. It is not how many times you fail, but how many times you get back up that count. This quality is what separates the average from the great.

Walt Disney was a pioneer of imagination, self-made success and innovative animation, but along with all of his success he had many obstacles that he had to persevere through in order to accomplish his goals. Walt Disney

was fired from Kansas City Star newspaper because his boss thought he lacked creativity.

He then went on to create a company called Laugh-O-Gram Studio that went bankrupt in a matter of two years, and what little money he had left he bought a train ticket to Hollywood. In 1926 Disney created a character that he attempted to sell to Universal, but Universal decided they could get the rights without Disney and hired all of his artist and patented the character, “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit”. That still could not beat Disney’s perseverance; he continued to work hard for his next upcoming projects. Disney’s most iconic were being doubted such as: Mickey Mouse and The Three Little Pigs. Disney knew if he continued to persevere eventually his dream would come true, but his longest and hardest obstacle was still to come and would really test his ability to persevere. When Disney had the idea to make a movie of Mary Poppins he had to get approval from the writer, Pamela Travers, who lived in England. Travers did not want to turn her world-renowned book into a movie, so Disney spent the next 16 years flying back and forth from America to England

in attempts to convince her. If Disney would have stopped short from investing in flights for hope to create this monumental movie it would not have ever happened. Then he continued to let his imagination grow as he began television productions. Disney went on to accomplish his lifelong dream of bringing his animations to life and creating an amusement park. Without the fundamental attribute of perseverance Walt Disney would have not been able to bring his imagination to life or create most people’s greatest childhood memories.
Another person who exemplifies perseverance is Dr.

Eric Thomas. He is one of the most influential people of the today's society, he is known for his motivational speeches , he is a world-renowned speaker, educator, pastor, activist and critically acclaimed author. Dr. Thomas has motivated millions to pursue their dreams and encourage people to live up to their full potential. Surviving his past is what makes him one of the most inspirational people of today's society. He has shown massive amounts of perseverance through the struggles in his life. At the age of twelve he discovered that the man he thought to be his father was not his actual biological father. From that point forth he went from having a great relationship with his family to being disrespectful to his mother and became rebellious and defiant at home and school. He started hanging out with bad influences and his life became a downward spiral. By the age of sixteen he dropped out of high school and after an argument with his mother he became homeless. For two years he would sleep in abandoned buildings, eat out of trash cans and steal from grocery stores for food. One day he woke up and thought to himself, “You have to quit playing the blame game, at some point you have to take personal responsibility that you got yourself here. You have to get yourself out.” From that point on he would tell himself “ I am homeless now, but this is not the rest of my life, I may be homeless today, but this is not how my story

ends.” He began to attend church and surround himself with positive influences. He received his G.E.D and moved the Huntsville, Alabama. This is only the first act of perseverance shown with many more obstacles to go. Dr. Thomas went to Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama where it took him twelve years to complete a four year degree that he completed in 2001. No matter how many times he failed he continued to persevere. Dr. Thomas started a nonprofit youth development program called Break The Cycle I Dare You (BTC) which focuses on developing programs for youth that have made bad choices, had family, social, and academic struggles. He continued on his scholastic Journey by obtaining his Masters degree in 2005 from Michigan State University. Dr. Thomas received his PhD in Education Administration on May 8th, 2015. He not only neat his situation , but prospered greatly to become an entrepreneur, a millionaire, and a light of hope to struggling people by using his examples of perseverance.