I never met Walt Disney, never talked to him on the phone, or even corresponded with him. So, even though our time on earth overlapped by 10 years, I surely did not know him. Yet, his strategic imagination has had a tremendous impact on me.

I freely admit to being one of those kids, like thousands of others, who as a young boy followed the man with the magic. Disneyland was opened the year before I was born; and, growing up in a small Midwestern town, I finally visited Disneyland at age 12, after Walt's death.

Before that family vacation to the West Coast, however, I wrote to the secretive, CIA of imagination called WED Enterprises, (for Walter Elias Disney), an act that did portend my future career. Though I did not know the word, I "pitched" the organization now known as Walt Disney Imagineering. I told them that I had some ideas for them.

Around this same time my father purchased a single share of Disney stock, which has happily grown to hundreds of shares today. Each Christmas, I would await the pending arrival of the Disney Annual Report. I devoured that document, as it gave a glimpse into the making of the magic of illusions yet to come.