Walt Disney on Celebrity

Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, and founded the Disney Empire. Once someone asked him, "How does it feel to be a celebrity?"

"Feels fine," Disney said, but he didn't stop there. "Feels fine when it helps get a good seat for a football game. But celebrity status never helped me make a good film or command the obedience of my daughter. It doesn't even keep the fleas off our dogs—and if celebrity won't give me an advantage over a couple of fleas, then there can't be that much in being a celebrity."

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Our culture places great importance on public recognition—but it's not who we are in public that defines us. It's who we are when no one is watching—in the high calling of our daily work.

"Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word."

(Isaiah 66:2)

• Tags:  
• character
• humility
• perspective