Between Books - Career Magic

 

My career combines operations, customer service, leadership, and relationship building. And being a big Disney fan introduced me to former Disney executive Lee Cockerell. I have a fairly robust intellectual diet of the former Executive Vice-President of Operations, Walt Disney World Resort’s thoughts and best practices. Cockerell recently updated one of his books I had not read before, so I jumped on the pre-order as it suddenly seemed very relevant in today’s current job-seeking world.

Career Magic: How to Stay on Track To Achieve a Stellar Career by Lee Cockerell has recently been updated. Cockerell in podcasts and presentations has stated that he was dissatisfied with the editing of the first edition and that this revised edition cleans up editing errors. Career Magic narratively follows a life and career. Cockerell outlines his steps from a poor family in Oklahoma, a short stint in college, joining the Army, and then starting a hospitality career. Cockerell started at the lowest levels as a banquet server and leveraged his growing experiences into leadership positions at Hilton and Marriott. As an executive, Disney recruited Cockerell to join the Disneyland Paris opening team before he moved to Walt Disney World where he finished a career earning a window on Main Street. The book ends with Cockerell’s current retirement life as a consultant and speaker. In each chapter, Cockerell recounts his career story, connects his story to lessons he learned, and then finishes the chapter with summary statements of his career lessons.

Jobs and careers are a big topic right now. So let’s start with what this book is not. This is not a job-seeking how-to book. Anyone wanting hints and tips in getting hired by Disney or maximizing a job search will be disappointed. Cockerell does not share his ideas on using LinkedIn or his favorite resume format. So those seeking a resource on the nuts and bolts of their job search will not find tactics here.

Instead, this is a career book! Again, not tactics but really this is a book that highlights strategy. For me, I see two main themes; relationship and excellence. I really see relationship as being tied to leadership for Cockerell. He will remind his readers that he was rarely given leadership training as his career advanced. And so he often had to grow this area. As I read his journey, it seemed to me that as he grew as a manager and leader, this was really expressed in his relationships. You see Cockerell grow as a leader and executive in how he treated others. And Cockerell advocates for interactions that are respectful and emphatic. Basically, to grow a career, be nice! Second Cockerell’s journey and growth is tied to his continued excellence in assigned tasks. He took on positions that often pushed his current capabilities. He threw himself into understanding these jobs and then executing on expectations. This excellence often lead to him being noticed and advanced. And while he did have setbacks in his career, he still focused on the task at hand which allowed others to observe his execution and keep him in mind for future advancements.

Writing style, the text is very approachable and feels like Cockerell’s voice in text form. Cockerell is recounting his professional journey and the writing, and perhaps updated editing, provide an easy-to-follow story, even for those lacking a hospitality background. He also does a good job of providing easy-to-understand lessons that are directly tied to his career progress.

So many professionals in the current state of the world are reflecting on job seeking and careers. Career Magic provides professionals with many considerations while considering the next strategic steps and potential job changes. Those who are facing obstacles, perhaps they will find hope that relationship and excellence can create a career legacy of success. For those professionals who are also Disney fans, they will find two chapters on Disney parks operations that may spark additional interest. Lee Cockerell provides us with content to reflect on as we all look to create a career that satisfies and interests us.

 

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Between Books - From Disneyland's Tom Sawyer to Diseny Legend

From Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer to Disney Legend: The Adventures of Tom Nabbe by Tom Nabbe outlines a Disney career that arches over 5 decades.  Nabbe was there on opening day at Disneyland, standing in the crowd as invited guests entered the park.  The youngster would actually get to enter the park that first day though he would not be able to ride his favorite ride.  Nabbe’s history with the park actually started earlier as he relocated to Anaheim and was lucky enough to watch the park grow up from the orange groves it replaced.  The boy started in the park selling newspapers and would eventually be hired by Walt Disney to be the first Tom Sawyer walk around character for Tom Sawyer’s Island.  Nabbe would spend several summers in this role, until he became too old to play the role.  He would then move into other jobs at Disneyland, eventually after a stint in the Marines, entering a management track.  His career would then take him to new and unexpected places which included relocating to Orlando and providing supervision in portions of the Magic Kingdom Park.  He would later move into distribution services managing warehouses that helped build Epcot, supply Walt Disney World, and support expansion under Michael Eisner, and even Disneyland Paris.  Along with his Disney history, Nabbe provides information about his personal and family life.  The book ends with an essay by Keith Murdock, the second Tom Sawyer who filled the role after Nabbe became too old.

I really liked From Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer to Disney Legend.  I flew through the book as I found Nabbe’s recollections interesting and in an easy to read tone.  I felt like I was listening to him tell stories about his time with Disney and even found his later accounts of warehouse work to be highly interesting.  I am thrilled this Disney Legend’s thoughts are captured for fans like me to enjoy.

Sometimes I find Nabbe’s Disneyland hard to imagine.  He goes into some depth on the fishing that occurred from the dock on Tom Sawyer Island.  In today’s legal minded society what I read was honestly hard to comprehend, but it happened.  I just cannot see any lawyer today allowing a company to let a teenage boy supervise adults and kids by himself on an attraction.  And I cannot comprehend that any lawyer would sign off on untrained guests swinging a line with a hook near other guests within the park.  And this does not even include the sanitation issues with fish in the Rivers of America dying due to the results of the catch and release program.  Yes, this is a different time and park then I have ever known.

Tom Nabbe was a company man.  He was hired by the man with his name on the door!  His story filled with love and dedication to his job and family both entertains and inspires.  Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer to Disney Legend is sure to delight those who wish to remember the early days of Disneyland or the creation of Walt Disney World as they lazily sit by the river with their line dangling in the water.   

Review Copy Provided by Theme Park Press

Between Books – Spinning Disney’s World

Charles Ridgeway in Spinning Disney’s World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent details his 30 plus years publicizing Disney parks around the world as both a full time cast member and a consultant.  When Disneyland opened for its press preview in 1955, Ridgeway was there as a member of the press.  And he often covered Disney news stories for the Los Angeles Mirror-Press as a reporter who lived near the Anaheim park.  In 1963, Ridgeway became a Disney cast member in Public Relations, a field he did not feel a good fit for his journalistic background.  Instead of taking on a short term job, he instead found himself embarking on a 3 decade career promoting Disney parks and attractions to the press.  Ridgeway would later relocate to Florida to promote the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort.  This would be followed by promotion of three additional parks within the resort, anniversaries, and attraction openings.  Ridgeway would also help expand the parks worldwide using the lessons learned from promoting the American parks to spread the word about Disneyland Paris and later in a part-time role Hong Kong Disneyland.  Throughout the book, Ridgeway makes it clear that his success was based entirely on building personal relationships. 

I have heard Ridgeway interviewed on podcasts and have enjoyed listening to him share stories of his work for Disney.  So my anticipation of this book was fairly high.  Sadly that was tempered by poor organization.  None of the chapters have titles or coherent themes.  You may be reading on one topic and then have the chapter suddenly switch themes with little to no transition.  Later a similar topic may be brought up again in an unrelated chapter.  Overall, one gets the feeling that this book is an elder sharing his stories and opinions around a dinner table, not in a book.   A little reorganization could really have helped improve this book and helped keep focus on Ridgeway’s stories.  What I took away from this book is the importance of personal relationships in getting good publicity for the Disney parks.  Ridgeway fostered those relationships which lead to reporters, editors, producers and even celebrities talking favorably without prompting about Disney.  In many ways this makes sense as it is often the interactions that Disney fans had with cast members and the attractions on a personal level that have had the most impact on our fandom.