Walt Disney: creative genius, terrible businessman

New York

HERE is something that might surprise you: Walt Disney, that icon of American ingenuity, was in financial straits through most of his career. You probably thought he would have been a business genius - a model for others to study. But Disney was an atrocious businessman, constantly running his company into the ground. At the same time, though, he was a corporate visionary whose aversion to typical business practices led to the colossus that the Walt Disney Co became.

Before he was even old enough to legally sign the incorporation papers, Disney wrangled a few friends together, raised some cash and started Laugh-o-Gram, a studio in Kansas City, Missouri, that made comic cartoon shorts based on fairy tales. But he seemed less interested in making money than in having fun, and the company promptly went bankrupt, sending Disney, by then 21, to Los Angeles to look for work in the film industry.