"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing"
About this Quote
The subtext is entrepreneurial and industrial. This isn’t a romantic call to “follow your passion”; it’s a production note. Disney came up in a world where creativity was inseparable from logistics: teams of animators, costly experiments, tight schedules, and constant technical problem-solving. In that context, “begin doing” means committing resources, making drafts, building prototypes, shipping imperfect work, and revising in public. It’s an ethos of motion over purity.
There’s also a subtle brand philosophy baked in. Disney sold wonder, but he built it through relentless process. The quote works because it punctures the myth of inspiration as a lightning bolt and replaces it with a more durable magic trick: momentum. It flatters the listener with agency while denying them excuses, a pep talk that doubles as a managerial directive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Unverified source: Hedda Hopper syndicated newspaper interview with Walt Disney (Walt Disney, 1957)
Evidence: Best-attested earliest PRIMARY-source appearance located is a July 1957 Hedda Hopper newspaper column quoting Walt Disney in the context of persuading bankers/obtaining financing: Disney says he "found the way to get started was to quit talking and begin doing it" (often later shortened to the mo... Other candidates (2) Introduction to the Constitution of India (A Diagrammatic... (CA. Ashish K Agrawal and Aditi Agrawal, 2021) compilation95.0% ... The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing . " – Walt Disney 22 " Focus on doing the right things ... Walt Disney (Walt Disney) compilation41.7% dual i have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep th |
| Featured | This quote was our Quote of the Day on December 14, 2023 |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Disney, Walt. (n.d.). The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-way-to-get-started-is-to-quit-talking-and-173037/
Chicago Style
Disney, Walt. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-way-to-get-started-is-to-quit-talking-and-173037/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-way-to-get-started-is-to-quit-talking-and-173037/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.








