Disney Rewards Seven Employees with Cash Bonuses and Brand-New Ferraris

Walt Disney’s legacy is one of ingenuity, dedication, and vision–of patience and a refusal to give up when failure loomed. Though he began his career in the early 1920s as an animator, it was his vision, creativity, and business acumen that would serve him best.

Related: Walt Disney Is Alive and Well in One Missouri City, and Residents Are Working Hard to Keep It That Way

Over the years, Disney’s approach to business has become a benchmark for other business leaders striving to become successful in their respective pursuits.

Many of Walt’s operational methods have been included in books, motivational speeches, and seminars about the right way to go about business in the United States–and around the globe. In fact, the so-called Disney Strategy–an innovative business method that began with Walt and focuses on creativity, storytelling, technology, and innovation–is taught by leaders mentoring leaders in businesses across a myriad of industries and endeavors.

But Walt Disney wasn’t always so formal in his operational mode. Sometimes, he conducted business and encouraged creativity in his employees in more simplistic ways and with tools that might seem unconventional. But if those methods worked to incentivize his employees to continually think outside the proverbial box, why not?

Walt Disney Wants to Plant Money Trees at Disneyland

It was 1960, and Disneyland had been operating with great success in Anaheim, California, for almost five years. In 1956, just twelve months after the park opened, Disneyland welcomed its five-millionth guest, and in 1957, ten million guests had walked through the gates of the first-ever Disney park, endearingly referred to as the Happiest Place on Earth.

But Walt Disney–ever the visionary–knew that, despite the success of the park, there were ways that Disneyland could generate greater revenue, so he reached out to Mike Vance–a youth pastor and television talk show director and host–telling him that Walt’s older brother Roy–who had worked beside Walt for years and was responsible for securing funding for Walt’s many imaginative projects–wouldn’t “give him money to make movies.”

Related: The Walt Disney Company Is Doing Something It Hasn’t Done in Nearly 95 Years

He then asked Vance, “Can you help me get more money out of [Disneyland]?”

Whether Walt was serious or only speaking in jest is anyone’s guess, but Vance was hired on the spot and immediately began to build a think tank of seven individuals who were tasked with developing new ways for Disneyland to make money.

The Disneyland Think Tank Comes Up With Something Awesome

Walt once described Vance, saying that he was “one of the most creative guys [Walt had] met in a long time.” The head of The Walt Disney Company also noted Vance’s approach to business and new ideas, saying, “He’ll take you down new roads, no matter how many you’ve been down before.”

And new roads were indeed traveled. One of the women on the team pinned a calendar where the team could see it, and notes about what happened at Disneyland were added to the calendar each day.

Related: Disneyland: Made Possible By Strategic Partnerships and Exclusive Sponsorships

At that time, Walt’s shiny new park was only open Wednesday through Sunday, so the woman had an amazing idea. “Let’s open the park on Mondays and Tuesdays,” she suggested to her teammates, but she was met with immediate rejection.

The consensus in the room was, “No one will come,” but the woman wasn’t about to give up, so she continued to develop her idea.

“We’ll form a Magic Kingdom Club,” she offered, “and let corporate members give their employees discounted admissions on those days.”

And the rest, as they say, is history. The Magic Kingdom Club ultimately led to an increase in revenue inside the park’s gift shops as parents spent more money on toys and gifts for their children after receiving a sizeable discount on admission tickets.

The club was an overwhelming success. It was a hit with guests and boosted revenue for Disneyland. As such, it was a big hit with Walt as well.

On Christmas Day that year, Mickey Mouse visited each of the seven team members at their homes. He delivered an envelope to each person, and inside, there were 100 shares of Disney stock, 25 $1,000 bills, and a handwritten note of gratitude and encouragement from Walt himself that simply read, “It’s fantastic. You’re fantastic. Do it again.”

(Happily) Back to the Drawing Board

That afternoon, each of the seven team members returned to their office, ready to develop the next new way for Disneyland to boost its profits.

In the team’s second effort to create a new way for the park to increase revenue, the woman who had so boldly proposed an increase in operating days at Disneyland embraced that boldness again–this time, displaying a clock alongside information about what took place at the park at various hours throughout the day.

It became apparent to the team that there was something taking place at Walt’s park 24 hours a day. During the daytime operating hours, guests were coming through the front gates in droves. After visitors left in the evening, maintenance workers and other employees went to work around the park making the necessary repairs and tending to various checklists of tasks–the completion of which was integral to the park’s success.

“Let’s open the park late on Thursday nights in May,” the woman suggested, and once again, she was met with rejection despite her first idea having delivered unbridled success.

“No one will stay,” the team members responded.

But the woman had been here before, so she quickly delivered the rest of her idea, saying, “We’ll invite and limit it to graduating high school seniors and call it ‘Grad Nites.’”

The idea translated into the second homerun for the team put together by Mike Vance at Walt Disney’s request.

Disneyland hosted the very first Grad Nite on June 15, 1961, with more than 8,500 students in attendance.

It was the largest high school graduation party ever held in the United States. The event was a hit with high school students who not only arrived at the park in huge numbers but also purchased every kind of food and drink offered in the park–especially young men who had brought their dates to Disneyland for the evening.

Mickey Mouse Visits Team Members’ Homes Again

A few weeks after the rollout and huge success of Disneyland’s Grad Nites, each of the seven team members heard the doorbell ring and opened their front doors to find Mickey Mouse yet again. Surely each of them looked for an envelope in Mickey’s white-gloved hand.

But how could Walt possibly top what he had given to the team at Christmastime?

With a car key.

Mickey did, indeed, hand each team member an envelope, but this time, each envelope contained $25,000, a handwritten note from Walt with the same encouragement as the first time–with the charge to “do it again”–and the key to a brand-new Ferrari–likely a Ferrari 250 GT SWB, Ferrari 250 TR, or Ferrari 250 TR, which were three of the most popular models Ferrari manufactured in 1960.

One by one, each team member had the same response upon being handed a key: “Mickey, what’s the key for?” And every time Mickey responded, it was by pointing to a brand-new Ferrari waiting in the team members’ driveways.

Walt Finds a Replacement

Only six of the seven team members returned to the office that afternoon. Who was missing? It was the same woman who had come up with the idea for the Magic Kingdom Club and Grad Nites–the one who faced rejection from her teammates both times, only to lead them on to success with her well-thought-out ideas.

Mike Vance once explained the woman’s absence, saying that she “took her $50,000, her 100 shares of Disney stock, got into her new Ferrari, and drove away.” Looking back at that day, Vance exclaimed, “What a great company that enables people to disappear when they want!”

Related: Timeless Photos of Walt Disney Capture the Very Heart and Soul of the Legendary Visionary

The team immediately called Walt Disney, asking him to select a new member to fill the now-vacant seventh spot. Walt was thrilled. After all, he had just “acquired” a new kind of employee–something called an “MBA.”

The very next day, Disney’s Disneyland think tank welcomed the new team member. They began their meeting by showing the young man their calendar and clock and explaining their significance in the team’s revenue-boosting ideas.

“Do you have the list?” he asked the team, to which they responded, “What list?”

The new MBA team member was referring to the list of Magic Kingdom Club members. To the team’s surprise, the list of members was quickly found–in 20 different boxes. It was that long. (But no one had ever taken a look at it.)

Walt’s Next Token of Gratitude Enrages His Staff

The very next day, the team met with Walt to present the new MBA’s idea, which involved writing letters to the Magic Kingdom Club members and offering them Disney records and books–something he called “direct marketing.”

Walt clearly liked what he heard from the team, but the new team member’s abilities really caught his eye.

By that time, news about Walt’s grandiose gifts of gratitude to the team had made its way to many of his employees throughout the organization–the cash, the stock, and the Ferraris–but, surprisingly, most of the Disney employees who heard about the gifts were largely unbothered by the show of gratitude, despite the extravagance.

It’s what Walt did next that sent shockwaves across Walt’s employee base, irritating and frustrating many of them.

Following the team’s presentation of the direct marketing initiative with Magic Kingdom Club members, which took place on the new MBA’s second day with the team, Walt was so impressed that he promoted the new team member to Vice President of the company–solely on merit.

Though volumes could be written from all sides about whether Walt’s decision was the right one for the company, for morale, for the bottom line, etc., business leaders today tout Walt’s willingness to “surprise and delight” employees with whom he was well pleased.

George Bradt of Forbes.com, an expert in executive onboarding and leadership strategy, put it this way:

The best examples of things that motivate others over the short-term almost always involve surprise and delight. Of course, long-term motivation is internally driven and is all about commitment to the cause.

Bradt refers to Walt’s grandiose gift-giving and the immediate promotion of the new MBA based on his ability to see something that others likely should have already seen by that time as “Disney’s best-ever example of motivating employees.”

This writer will leave it up to you to decide.

But Ferraris and $1,000 bills from your boss don’t sound like an egregiously awful deal, especially when you just played a major role in making him millions.