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Stan Lee’s Top 10 Rules For Success (@TheRealStanLee)


I got this great idea I want to quote
spider-man and he’s a teenager so I gave
him the idea and he said stand that is
the worst idea I have ever heard I
always had the feeling that the other
comic books they had good stories good
artwork everything was fine but there
was a detachment years ago I used to
feel somewhat embarrassed that I was
writing comics it is such fun creating
characters writing stories even doing
interviews even though I can’t hear most
of what the guy says to me will you shut
up can’t can’t you explain anything in a
simple way and everybody thought I was
crazy you know that books so better than
most of the others of that period do you
have a specific target audience
oh just anybody who can read anybody
who’s literate people want entertainment
people want adventure stories we
suddenly began to realize hey we’ve got
fans we never had fans before man I am
so fired
he’s a comic-book writer editor TV show
host and actor he created spider-man The
Hulk Iron Man Thor the x-men and many
other fictional characters he led the
expansion of Marvel Comics from a small
division of a publishing house to a
giant corporation he Stanley and here’s
my take on his top ten rules for success
I had done the Fantastic Four and the
x-men and my publisher said hey they’re
doing well do another one so I came up
with spider-man and I said to him I got
this great idea I want to quote
spider-man and he’s a teenager so I gave
him the idea and he said Stan that is
the worst idea I have ever heard he said
first of all people hate spiders you
can’t call it hero spider-man secondly
he said he can’t be a teenager teenagers
are only sidekicks
and finally he can’t have personal
problems don’t you know what a superhero
is so he wouldn’t let me do it one day
we had a book we were gonna kill called
amazing fantasy when you’re gonna do the
last issue nobody cares what you put in
it just to get it out of my system
I put spider-man in the book and we sold
it and it was a best-seller so my
publisher called me in a couple weeks
later zat stand you remember that
character spider-man that you and I
liked so much when he do a series of it
and that’s how Spidey was born I tried
to inject a feeling of warmth in all the
books I always had the feeling that the
other comic books they had good stories
good artwork everything was fine but
there was a detachment even in their
letters pages and they had very few we
were the ones who really made letters
pages popular but occasionally they’d
run a letters page and it would be like
this dear Editor I read your story and I
liked it signed Charles Smith and the
answer would be dear child’s thank you
very much
v editor well I decided to run lettuce
pages but I wanted to make them friendly
I wanted the kids to feel a part of
Marvel so even if somebody wrote a
letter that said dear editor to me
when I printed it I wrote dear Stan
I changed the word at it it is dead and
um when I answered the letter instead of
saying dear Charles I’d say something
like hey thanks a lot charlie
you know and I tried to keep the tone
friendly as if I’m a guy they know and
we’re just talking together and after a
while it became very natural and after
while all the letters hey Stan I loved
his story hey Stan I hated your story
whatever it was but it was like they
knew me and I knew them I’d like to
think of myself as an entertainer I feel
if I can entertain people in any way
it’s very gratifying because it’s a
funny thing years ago I used to feel
somewhat embarrassed that I was writing
comics I felt there are men building
bridges and working in laboratories on
cures for illness and and doing real
things and I’m writing these comic books
but over the years I’ve learned how much
joy these comic books have brought to
people and then I began to realize that
entertainment is very important in
people’s lives
most people almost everybody have lives
that have problems and troubles and
things to worry about and if you can
entertain somebody take his or her mind
off the things that would normally be
bothering them that’s a good thing to do
so I like to think of myself as an
entertainer somebody who offers a little
entertainment to people in whatever form
it may be mostly in my case it had been
comic books how do you keep the creative
juices flowing
to keep creating work over the years
greed is probably one of the reasons no
actually I’m doing what I enjoy doing
it’s like other men like to play golf so
they play golf every chance they can so
you don’t say to him how come you’re
playing golf today you played last week
was the same with me to me it is
such fun creating characters writing
stories even doing interviews even
though I can’t hear most of what the guy
says to me but it’s an exciting life and
when you do something that you know the
fans seem to enjoy that gives you such
satisfaction you don’t want to stop my
publisher had learned that DC Comics
which was then called national comics
had a book called the Justice League and
it was selling very well and it was made
up of a number of superheroes so he said
to me Stan why don’t you come up with a
book with a team of superheroes and I
really didn’t want to do the same old
thing with guys who just wear costumes
and masks and have secret identities and
and the girl is always a token girl who
has to be rescued all the time in fact
at that time I really wanted to quit
because I have been doing these comics
for about 20 years and they were I had
the same instructions from my publisher
all the time don’t use words of more
than two syllables
don’t play up too much dialogue the
readers get bored reading dialogue and
so I felt I was just writing
one-dimensional stories and my wife said
to me you know Stan if you want to quit
anyway why don’t you do the next book
you do the way you want to do it just
for fun the worst that happens is you’ll
be fired and you want to quit so what’s
the big deal and luckily that was when
he asked me to do this team of
superheroes so I thought how can I make
them a little different than what had
gone before one no secret identity to
the girl is going to be as much a
valuable member of the team as the other
three guys three I am
instead of the heroin not knowing that
the hero is really a hero you know the
Clark Kent Lois Lane syndrome I let them
be engaged they know each other and they
know what they do wouldn’t that’s it and
instead of the typical teenage sidekick
I’ll get a younger member but I’ll let
him be the brother of the girl so after
the girl the guy get married he’ll be
the brother-in-law so it’ll be a little
family
and I felt at least that’ll make it
realistic then to continue
I felt rear it earns will be the hero
Reed Richards or mr. fantastic as as he
modestly called himself I don’t want him
to be the typical square-jawed hero who
says let’s go down but I thought I’d
make him a little bit more like me
something of a bore he talks too much he
uses whatever big words he can think of
and I’ll have fun with that because the
other members always say will you shut
up Kent can’t you explain anything in a
simple way and I thought I’d have them
talk to each other like real people do
then I needed a fourth member who I
wanted to be totally different the guy
who’s really strong but I thought what
if he’s F monster what if he could
supply a lot of the humor and also a lot
of the payoffs and I don’t know I think
really I don’t know how I came up with
the idea but I’m so glad I did because I
love the thing I think he’s one of the
best characters I ever came up with as
you can probably tell the main objective
was to try to make them as close to real
human beings who might have possessed
superpowers as I could
there was one time and I don’t even
remember it might have been the
Fantastic Four some other book we had a
story that I thought wasn’t that good
but we were stuck with it we had to send
that out there was the due date I didn’t
have time to do it over and on the cover
I wrote
notes um I don’t remember the exact
words but something like hey kids I’ve
got to admit this isn’t the best story
we’ve ever done but we’ve given you so
many good ones before we think you owe
it to us to buy this one also everybody
thought I was crazy you know that
books sold better than most of the
others of that period and I got a ton of
mails and you guys are great nobody else
would have written anything like that do
you have a specific target audience or
just anybody who could read anybody
who’s literate it used to be again when
the comics were just for little kids or
they were thought to be for little kids
that’s tanks yeah yeah with Marvel
because we started directing marvel at
ourselves really the foot the theory was
we’re going to write the kind of stories
we would enjoy reading you see and I
didn’t know if it would work or not but
it worked better than anybody expected
because we grabbed a lot of readers who
are much older who liked the kind of
things that we liked but we didn’t lose
the young kids so we ended up we have
kids seven years old who read Marvel who
don’t understand the subtle implications
and ramifications in the psychology and
philosophy of the subliminal moralizing
but they love the nutty characters and
the long underwear the colorful costumes
and the older readers enjoy all the
little subplots and the little asides we
put in in the little things that a young
kid can’t ever grasp but they’re there
in the story it reached a happy medium
yeah so we find the best formula if you
call it that is we don’t try to write
for any audience we try to write stories
we would enjoy and apparently there are
enough people in the world who have the
same tastes I hate to say that I’d like
to think my tastes be small better but
apparently everybody must have pretty
much the same taste with the book sell
pretty well if you do a good movie good
television series anything good you get
the audience there’s never a chance to
worry people want entertainment people
want adventure stories they just want
them to be good I can tell you exact
Li wen timely comics became marvel
actually from timely they had a lot of
other names in the interim I don’t
remember all of them but the last name
they had before they became Marvel was
Atlas comics and after we did the
Fantastic Four we did the Hulk
spider-man the x-men so forth we
suddenly began to realize hey we’ve got
fans we have had fans before we had
never gotten fan mail before but all of
a sudden with the start of our new
superheroes
we got real letters I like this I don’t
like this you did a great job on this so
I decided we ought to change the name of
the company get something better than
Atlas and the very first book that
Martin Goodman had ever published when I
could even before I came to work there
was called Marvel Comics so I think
Marvel is a great word and also there’s
so much you can do with it you can make
up slogans and mottos so I decided I
would treat Marvel like a big
advertising campaign and I made up
slogans like make mine Marvel marble
marches on welcome to the Marvel Age of
comics you know things like that and I
came up with a lot of catchphrases I
would sign all the things I wrote with
enough said or hang loose or face front
but I noticed that the competition was
starting to use those expressions too so
I figured I’ve got to get something that
they won’t copy and I tried to think of
something a they wouldn’t know how to
spell and B they wouldn’t know what it
means and that’s why I came up with the
word exile Co
you
with the leaders of over 200 nations
attending singing services transformed
Ellen
Murdoch I’m concerned security or to be
paid good morning dr. dressler security
wouldn’t be beefed up a lot more in a
place like this welcome back to the
Baxter dr. Richards I’ve got the usual
for you good to have you back sir thanks
really
you know I guess one person can make a
difference
enough said
ah invitation sir and I should be on
that West named Stanley yeah nice try
buddy this is really I remember me sure
don’t look great Hef there’s something a
bit more interesting it’s possible gamma
sickness Milwaukee man drank one of
those guarana sodas guess it had a
little more kick than he was looking for
what a pleasant I see it
he was your jingle
did it work to prevent this medal for
valor my personal friend Captain America
Captain America captain that’s your cue
I thought he’d be taller superheroes in
New York can be pretty this so-called
waiting on the big guy ma’am
Iron Man a lot of people eat here just
to see him fly by
right
maybe another time tables years as long
as you like
nobody’s waiting on it else we’ve got
free wireless radio
is for not being more run Victorian home
in the Cotswolds but could you even give
her a moment what with your baking job
requiring you to travel to the States
from Tuesday to Saturday every other way
you know I’m terribly sorry about your
loss dear as for you now is your chance
to do better why don’t you see that you
take it let’s go
is here
is
everybody
yeah can I have my shoe back you’re
gonna wear that now you’re gonna fight a
war you got to wear you
oh man I am so fired
crazy
Hido
you
thank you so much for watching I made
this video because Aaron derecho asked
me to so if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you want me to profile
next leave it in the comments below and
I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know which it stands
top ten rules meant the most to you have
the biggest impact leave it in the
comments I’ll join the discussion thank
you so much for watching
continue to believe and I’ll see you
soon
well you know reality television shows
are so big now I want I like to get on
the bandwagon whenever I can find one
and I felt if we’re gonna do a cartoon
an animated movie for the hub network I
want to make it more different than
anything before why not make it a
reality animated cartoon so in order to
make it a reality cartoon we have real
people in it I’m as real as I know I can
get so I’m in it we have a few other
real Bueller Jim Belushi’s and Jim
Belushi Christian Slater they don’t
worry boys right here he has just one
ask them our army hammers in it flee and
Darren Criss they’re all voicing
superheroes all the superheroes new
heroes they’re all new heroes actually
they’re aliens from another planet which
is not unusual in a superhero story
there’s always so much more to do I’m
working on so many things now that I
don’t think you can ever feel you’ve
really made it until you totally retire
which I hope I won’t have to do for at
least a week or two I am it’s very easy
not to get a swelled head when you don’t
feel that you’ve really made it yet I
mean there’s so much more to do I’ve
been lucky in a number of areas I have a
great wife a great daughter but in that
one area I have been extremely lucky
because I love to write well that isn’t
true I hate to write but it comes easy
to me and I write fast because I don’t
like to write and I like to get finished
quickly but I enjoy it after I finish
knowing that I’ve done it but I enjoy
the people I work with because I work
with writers with artists now with
directors producers and I’m always
working in an atmosphere where we’re
trying to think of what can we do now
what kind of movie can we do what kind
of television show what kind of book
I’ve often thought it’s really tragic
there are so many people whose jobs are
just jobs I mean they go to work as they
have to make a living but it’s nothing
that they really enjoy
doing and that’s really most of the
world and I really have a great sympathy
for most of the working people and I’m
aware that I’m incredibly lucky because
of the work I do and so are and so is
anybody who really enjoys his work
whether he’s a shoemaker or a sports man
anybody if you enjoy your work I think
that that’s one of the secrets of some
sort of happiness
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