I’m reading a book ‘How to be like Walt’ and I tell you there is so much we can learn from good ol Walt Disney’s life. Thanks Ashish-Sindhu for the book – I think this will be the first book I’ll ever read more than once.

I’m a sucker for love/emotions between brothers – in K3G, I shed da tears in that bench scene with Hritik n SRK! There’s this incident in Walt Disney’s life that got me all mushy again! ..

The first person to lend money to Walt was his elder bro Roy. And for the 40 years together when the two made Walt Disney the name it is today, it was always arguments with Walt wanting to do mega projects and Roy kicking in reality for want of funds.. Their company had to go public n “shareholders wealth” was always the reason for the real thick fights between the two brothers.

One fight got real ugly – lasted a year with correspondence between the brothers happening through messages and intermediaries! Roy sent a team of attorneys to final things out with Walt but the talk went ugly & loud. Roy overhearing the arguments, stepped into the room and confronted his attorney team – these guys talked with no respect for Mr. Walt Disney. Mood changes in the room and agreements were struck, but yes with Walt getting most of his wishes.

Then came Roy’s birthday n Walt comes up to him with a gift. An actual Native American peace pipe! The continuous ingenuity of Walt – absolutely marvelous. The two bros filled the pipe with tobacco n smoke in turns. At the end of the day Walt personally wrote his brother this letter:

“It was wonderful to smoke the pipe of peace with you again – the clouds that rise are beautiful. I think, between us over the years, we have accomplished something. There was a time when we couldn’t borrow a thousand dollars and now I understand we owe twenty-four million!
But in all sincerity, Happy Birthday and many more –
And I love you.
Walt”

Sigh!