THOSE WHO TELL STORIES, RULE THE WORLD!

For some time now, story-telling has held a very interesting place in my heart and head. And to actually unravel this intriguing concept, I went on a journey of discovery…
ENTER THE WORLD OF DISNEY…
I actually went to Disney world, not just to serenade my kids in the wonders of that little mouse called “Mickey”, I also wanted to get a sense of the size – the length, the breath and the depth – of the Empire of Walt Disney . And, oh,… I saw enough to convince me, not just about the power of stories in connecting people and building relationships, I also saw enough that convinced me that stories indeed do change the world! I saw at Disney, a media empire transformed into a tourist haven, massive real estate, huge merchandise franchise and a money machine which pulls over 2 million people from around the world daily, with daily revenues in excess of 2 billion dollars (more than Nigeria’s daily Oil revenue from a sales quota of 1.8 million barrels of Crude Oil daily). From the the over 19 Resorts on site at Disney’s over 500 hectare estate, to Universal Studios, to the Pixar Animation Studio, to Epcot, to the Water-parks, to Animal Kingdom and Fantasy-land, I saw the power of story telling at play!
IT ALL STARTED WITH A MOUSE…
The most intriguing part was the vision defined by Walt Disney himself. He made a very interesting comment before his death in 1966, as the empire was growing bigger, He urged his successors not to forget that the entire Disney story actually started with a small mouse – “Mickey”.
PREFERRING THE FOUNDER OF HARRY POTTER OVER THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND
Watching Shane Snow’s TEDx event on story telling, I came across the result of a poll where people picked the founder of Harry Potter, Joanne K. Rowling, over the Queen of England in terms of likeability and trust. Visiting Disney World, something snapped inside of me – stories indeed rule the world!