Walt Disney — Bankruptcy, a Stolen Rabbit, and One Mouse

Walt Disney's early life is a catalog of failure. His first animation company went bankrupt. His comeback creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was seized through a contractual trap — distributor keeping the rights, staff poached, nearly everything lost. On the way home, reportedly aboard a train, he conceived a new character: a mouse.

From the ashes of bankruptcy and betrayal came the world's most beloved character. He then bet the company on Snow White, the first full-length color animated feature — derided, it is said, as "Disney's folly" — and made history.

In his later years came another unprecedented notion: a place parents and children could enjoy together — Disneyland, 1955. Bankruptcy taught him management; losing Oswald burned intellectual property into his bones; called foolish, he kept breaking convention.

His famous words — "If you can dream it, you can do it" — are no dreamer's line, but the words of a practitioner who rose three times from ash.

What do you work for?