Mark Given - Creating A Company Legacy

My wife and I made a promise to each other some 30 years ago when we were just— we've been married 33 years, and we made a promise that we would always take our kids to Disney World because that was a way for us to just kind of build some memories. Last year, Disney World— now we, there's always the— we have the same— I mean, they want me to be in control, so I make the plan. So anyway, we're in the park, we only get ice cream one time. 'Cause, you know, I mean, we don't need to have ice cream 3 or 4 times a day, so we have ice cream one time. The ice cream that I want to buy them, 'cause I'm covering the whole tab, is in Adventureland. So we go to Adventureland. The reason I go to Adventureland is 'cause it's the only place in the park that has healthy ice cream. It's yogurt with real fruit that's, you know, it's a swirl. Ah, it's great. So anyway, we went, so they can get a lemon swirl or they can get a tangerine swirl, I think. So anyway, I went and bought about 4 of them. And I, they're standing underneath the big tree, you know, and I walk over and I did what I should do. I gave the first one to my wife, because, well, you know, she's put up with me for 33 years, she should get the first one. I gave the second one to my daughter and my daughter-in-law. Gave the third one to my oldest grandchild, Lee, who's 7. And then as I was turning to give the fourth one to who, you know, I heard a "uh," that's all I heard, just "uh," and I turned back because it was Lee's voice, you know, what do 7-year-olds do? What do they, what do kids do? Yeah, he dropped it, he dropped it, and I, Lee's standing, and here's the ice cream and here's a billion people now, you know, and Lee is like, little tears are just coming down his face, you know, And I bent down and I said, "Oh Lee, you know, it's okay, it's okay," you know, because the 5-second rule doesn't apply on ice cream. I'm wanting to scrape it in saying, "Better eat it fast," you know. But it's ice cream, so we can't do that. But anyway, so as I bent down to help Lee, my grandson, and he was sad, this guy just appears out of nowhere. He's got on the Disney uniform and he's got this little brush and all that stuff. And instead of just automatically sweeping it in, which you would expect him to do, he handed it to my grandson, the broom, and he said, "Here, let's see what you can do with that." And I thought, "Oh great, he's going to teach my grandson a principle about cleaning up behind himself." What a great idea. And then he disappeared, he just disappeared, he was gone. And so Lee had the, and I was trying to help him sweep it all up, you know, about, before we could even get it all swept up, the guy reappears. What do you think he's got in his hand? Ice cream. He's got ice cream. Now he actually did what a Disney employee is not supposed to do. They're not supposed to bend over or bend down because it's bad on your back. So it's a safety issue. But he bent down anyway, he broke the rules. He bent down anyway and he handed my grandson the ice cream and he handed it to him and he said, "I'm so sorry," he said, "but this is for you." And he said, "You know, Disney is the happiest place on earth and we just want you to be happy." You know, and I'm thinking— And I said, "How much do I owe you?" And he said, "You don't owe us anything. And we pretty much already cleaned it up." So he took his little spray bottle and he sprayed, you know. And all these people are going, it's like all this is, we're like captured in time. It's like nothing else is going on around us. He sweeps, finishes, and he's gone. Just like, I never even got his name. It happened really so quickly, I didn't even get his name. Now we've been to Disney World dozens of times, and the reason that we keep spending a gross amount of money with them is because we can count on that kind of culture. See, that doesn't happen everywhere. It just doesn't happen. See, real estate is no different than that. What the message is, is that it's how we make people feel that causes them to want to come back to us. So even though I'll never go back and do business with that individual again, because I may never see him again, Disney created it, and because that's the way they do it, I won't be expected to do business with him again. But see, we should build a real estate company the same way so that we teach our people the kind of skills to create— if they understand the why, the purpose, that will create a legacy.