Born in New York City in 1922, Stan Lee began his career by working at Marvel (formerly known as Timely Comics and then Atlas Comics) at the age of 17 and later becoming a famous editor of Marvel.
During this time, this iconic comic house helped introduce characters such as the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Thor that continue to be featured in popular comics and films today.
In the 1990s, Lee became chairman of emeritus at Marvel and reportedly raised revenues of 1 million US dollars per year. Moving forward, Disney acquired Marvel for US $ 4 billion in 2009, and Lee became a brilliant cameo in every Marvel film with a fantastic budget released in the following years.
There are a number of advice Lee shared about careers inspired by his life journey, including the failure and deadlock of creativity.
Don’t stop before trying
In a 2009 interview, Lee said that his wife, Joan, gave him the best advice around 1961. On the brink of quitting his job, Joan advised him to write one [comic] book like Lee wanted, rather than just listening to publisher Martin Goodman. Lee made his wife’s words a challenge and instead could create The Fantastic Four, a group of superheroes to rival the Justice League DC Comics.
Ignore negativity
Lee has been in the comic book business for so long that he saw (and helped push) the evolution of media from ridiculed tabloids to a unique and loved literary form. One piece of advice he shared in 2013, in an interview with The Globe and Mail, was “don’t listen to negative comments.”
Stay humble
Lee revealed to the Mens Journal in 2014 that one of the best suggestions of his life came from a teacher when he was 12-13 years old. “The biggest one is the simplest,” he repeated the words of his teacher. “I don’t know why he chose to write in my book, but it’s always inherent,” Lee said.
