66 – 80

Thought Cheryl and i would spend 40 years each at Walt Disney World. Can you imagine one couple serving and leading (and having fun) for 80 years combined?

Turns out our 66 combined years of Disney Service is perfect. Cheryl with 36 years and me retiring 10 years early with 30 years of service.

.think .differently

My decade-early departure (retirement in 2014) was a six-year plan spurred on by two things:

First, a catalytic Disney layoff in 2008-09…the Real Estate and Banking collapse (the Great Recession, akin to the Great Depression).

Second, the realization that i should have a Plan B in case this ever happened again.

Historical note: It did happen again in 2020 when Covid-19 decimated Disney operations world-wide. Roughly 30,000 Cast Members in Florida and California were laid off and eventually terminated. Disney Institute went from approximately 170 Cast Members to about 20.

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By jeff noel

Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.