HATTIE: I want you to talk to me about great people that you've been close to and what you learned from them.

FESS: Walt Disney would certainly be at the top of my list as a human being and as a creator. And he was interesting. Looking back on this event of 40 years ago, when I was under a personal contract to him, his dedication to the quality of whatever he was trying to do I think sort of became something that I have appropriated for myself and hopefully for the family. And that was that he always wanted to do it as well as he could. And he was open. I remember when we were filming the "Davy Crockett" episodes. They were not terribly important to him because they were fulfilling a financial obligation to a business partner. ABC was the third network, and they were not doing well. And they came to Walt Disney, who needed money to open Disneyland; said, `If you will do a television program for us, we'll loan you the money and become a partner and you can take us out later.'

HATTIE: And he needed the money, didn't he?

FESS: He needed the money.

HATTIE: Because he was always spending more than he had.

FESS: Absolutely.

HATTIE: You don't do that, though?

FESS: Absolutely, I do.

HATTIE: You do? OK.

FESS: I figure if you're going to be, you know, an entrepreneur, you can't worry about the money. I mean, this man was thinking openly. So that was a great lesson for me. And he was that way in person. As an employee, I could go up and ask his secretary if I could speak to him. Usually, I went in and if he had people there, he'd say, `Have a seat and I'll talk with you in a little bit.' And so I'd sit and listen to business that I didn't understand, but...

HATTIE: It was rubbing off.

FESS: Yeah. I really believe the way life is is that we're only guaranteed today, and yesterday we can't do anything about. And I feel like that the 40 years that I've been trying to do business has been a learning experience. I'm anxious to apply it somewhere else. I'm anxious to see another project change from less than successful to successful. It's fun.

HATTIE: But work is a good thing to you?

FESS: Absolutely. It was not my goal to work. You know, driving up here from Santa Barbara to the winery this morning, I guess I was in my thoughts and my wife said, `Well, why don't you lighten up'? I said, `Well, I'm doing what I like to do. I'm thinking about things that I want to do.'I'm not working. I'm just having a good time.

HATTIE: Do you think that's what keeps you younger, happier, more fulfilled, having something to go do?

FESS: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, it's the quality of the people. You know, I work with a lot of young people. Now I find that fun, you know. And I can see kind of where they are at their time of life and can go back and kind of relate a little bit to that. But at the same time, I think most of the time, I forget that I may be two or three times older than they are because we're both working on a project together.

HATTIE: So you feel as young as they are?

FESS: I do.

HATTIE: Don't forget Fess Parker's advice: Every great business has a great story. Find your story and tell it. We'll be back next week.