But are things that you wanted to, that you Yeah, bring an elephant, bring, bringing, bringing a herd of elephants in from Krueger, very controversial, but they were calling elephants in Krueger National Park. This is 1994. Because they had too many, well, they said they had too many. So… Read More
But it would’ve been an incredible exhibit for, for, and, and I, the el the elephants would’ve been better off too. I think Chris Krueger was getting decimated the, the habitat. But, so that, that was kind of a disappointment, but it was a, it it was a political it,… Read More
But, but I, I was, I was, so the biggest achievement was Joe and I, we convinced Conway to come back. You know, Conway was, they were using Conway as a consultant, and then Conway couldn’t do it anymore. And he recommended me, but he never told me that. I… Read More
A little bit rubs off, you know?… Read More
You know, I, I think I’m right, but I, I wanna be challenged here too. And so we brought in an advisory board, and then we brought in the big guys, you know, and then, then Conway and, and Meyer and Terry Maple. I said, we had Bill Burnham from… Read More
You can’t be both. He said, very rarely. Can you be both?… Read More
Well, the big one that did happen was the advisory board. Joe Rody was on my side on this. I I, I, I reported more to Joe than I did the operations guy. Bob was later, but Bob hired me. But I was really an imagine with the imagineers. And… Read More
So when you were at Houston and Disney as the leader, were there programs or exhibits that you would’ve wanted to implement during the time you were there, but just didn’t happen?… Read More
Who gave you that advice of builders and maintainers?… Read More
He was the guy that built all the restaurants for Disney. He was Dietrich, his name was d Dieter Dieter. And he had a German accent. And he was brilliant guy. And he said, Rick, when I design these restaurants, I have one group, but then when I open ’em,… Read More
You would’ve made a lot more money. You could have retired at 40 and you would’ve had millions of dollars to give to conservation. You would’ve made a bigger impact. I said, I don’t wanna do it that way. I wanted to have fun. Now, when I was young, not,… Read More
There’s, there’s my curse word. Okay?… Read More
You don’t, you hire people that are better than you, that challenge you, that make the organization better. And if you can’t, and you’re eventually gonna get phased out, and then you do something else, or you, or you stay. But the best advice I got, and that’s your question… Read More
That’s all that’s operate. Those are operators. I’m not an operator. I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m more about, you know, going outside the, the, the envelope and, and trying new things and a little bit more risky, you know, which I think is important as a leader, that, that, that you,… Read More
But it is, you know, then you’re hired. That is bullshit. Read More
But, so I, and I still agree, I still agree with that philosophy. I don’t agree with people hiring puppets. That, and basic, you, if you’re loyal to me, I don’t care how qualified you are. Read More
This sounds a little political right now, you know?… Read More
But I knew in the long run, I knew at Disney, I hired a woman, Beth Stevens, that would run this place. I knew she was capable of doing that. It’s not what I wanted to do. I wasn’t good at, I was good at, I was a builder, not… Read More
You know? Yeah, it is, I think it’s, it’s the approach you use. It got me in trouble. It got me slapped down a couple of times. But you get back up, you know, I, I think it taught me resilience. You know, there, there were bosses I had that… Read More
You say, well, you could do that, but how about we do this instead?… Read More