Living in Orange County you’re always in the shadow of the Troutman Amin, LLP lion– but perhaps even more so in the shadow of Disney.
This is the house of the mouse.
I think about Walt from time to time. Never knew him, obviously, but I feel a certain connection to him because above anything else he was a dreamer as much as a doer.
When he built “Disneyland” in the middle of a bunch of Orange Groves what a bizarre thing that must have been.
Can you imagine this?
It would be like me going out to the Tejon Ranch and building “Troutmanland” with exhibits dedicated to free speech and constitutional issues. Crazy right?
Actually it’s even wilder than that. Because that’s been done.
When Walt did it this was something that had never been done before. A concept that seemed so foreign and strange as to border on insane.
“Crazy Walt building his crazy park.”
But it was absolutely brilliant. So much to the point that now it seems almost obvious. Now we think of Disneyland and assume it obviously works but at the time it seemed obvious it would NOT work.
Nobody thought building Disneyland was a good idea. He couldn’t get financing for it. He had to sell his house and cash out insurance products to get it done because who would invest in such a crazy scheme?
But Walt understood his crazy dream was actually an obvious next step in storytelling. Immerse people in the world of his creation– give them a physical TASTE of the magic that was otherwise only available on screen.
And when you think about it all he was trying to do was bring to life the stories he told in animations into a live physical format. He added a few themes– creating the first modern “theme” park in doing so– and he had done something so simple and marvelous it has become a part of American DNA.
Create an immersive environment around the magic of your own creation. He was the first to do it, and that’s a hell of an invention!
Again, this seems to OBVIOUS now but at the time it was utterly unimaginable.
Until he did it.
Deep respect for the man.
Walt would have been 124 years old today. So Happy Birthday Mr. Disney! I look forward to serving the people here in your backyard well and helping to keep a sense of that spirit of magic you created alive for generations to come.
Thank you for PROVING that crazy dreams can literally change the world– and change even what people think is crazy. Because of guys like YOU America Deserves to Win!
If YOU believe in Magic– and the truth of the American dream and our constitution– be sure to donate to Troutman For America!
Chat soon.
Should note: by providing this tribute to Walt I am NOT suggesting Disney or any of its affiliates or entities or any member of the Disney family is backing my run. I mean they probably would IMO because I’m awesome but I haven’t talked to anyone over there about it so please don’t consider this some sort of endorsement. It is not.