Reviewed by Randy B. Lichtman for Readers' Favorite

I have read several books about Walt Disney, company Disney, Disneyland, training and customer service at Disney, but I have never read a book that brings together the history of Disney and Disneyland and combined it with very practical leadership and personal skills as I have with Jeffrey A. Barnes’ book, The Wisdom of Walt: Leadership Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth. Here is an amazing book which combines the author's love of Disney history, combining it with specific lessons learned from history, application to his own life, followed by how it can change our lives. It truly is an amazing book. Each chapter begins with a story about Disney or Disneyland, told from a historical point of view, with a specific lesson in mind: focus, passion, curiosity, dealing with failure, learning, waiting and not quitting, and many important lessons (18 chapters in fact).

The “history lesson” is told by a man who loves Disney and whose dream was to teach a college level history of Disneyland course — which he succeeded in accomplishing. Once he has engaged us with extremely interesting information on how Disney lived his life, he follows with the way he has applied the principles in his own life and his family’s life, making it a personal journey for him as well. He backs up the principles with wisdom and quotes from authors who are engaged with the history of Disney and/or improving the lives of others such as: Jack Canfield, Twyla Tharp, Marty Sklar, Tom Brokaw, Walter Cronkite, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson, Bob Thomas, Pat Williams and Jim Denney, and many others.

One would think this would be enough, but no, there is more! We must now visit the “Souvenir Shop” to take home the ideas, often asking us to fill in the blanks on ways we can utilize the wisdom which the author has given us from Disney. This allows us to personalize the chapters - not just read an interesting book, but plan on how we will use what we learned. It is not surprising to see this technique used by a true teacher, which is the profession Mr. Barnes has dedicated himself to serve. Before we leave though, we get a concluding idea summarizing the ideas and their importance, and usually asking us to think more about the idea after we leave the chapter as we are “Getting Your Hand Stamped.” This is the structure of every chapter. As a lover of learning about Disney history and about the company’s management principles, I learned a great deal professionally as well as personally from this book, which I would attribute to the wisdom of Jeffrey A. Barnes as well as the wisdom of Walt Disney.