#72 Stan Lee: Founder of Marvel

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
How did it happen? How did I get into this? Me, a guy who's almost always written fantasy, suddenly having to deal with facts. The facts of my life. Although I come to think of it, those facts themselves are pretty fantastic. If I hadn't lived the whole thing, I might not even believe it. During those strange, struggling early years, I wallowed in embarrassment because I was a mere comic book writer. And now, because of those same humble comic books, here I am, the featured star of a real grown up book. The hero of my own life story.
There's probably a moral hidden there. Feel free to search for it as we roll along. To tell the truth, I can't wait to read the pages that follow. Since so much of the past has managed to homogenize in the plot cluttered recesses of my mind, it's a chance to rediscover little truths about my own inscrutable self and the titanically talented people I've worked with.
Here are a couple sentences I wrote some years ago to describe my feelings about what Marvel Comics represents.
Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and the prosaic. It's a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination. A literate celebration of unbridled creativity coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon.
There you have it, my take on Marvel and the fantasy genre in general. And perhaps my own philosophy in particular. If those words strike a chord with you, read on. If they don't, I'd rather not know. Okay, that was an excerpt from the book that I want to talk to you about today, and that is Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. And I guess I'll just jump ahead before I jump back into the book, because that's a bizarre word, right? Like the title of the book. I don't know if I've ever seen that word anywhere else. And so I looked it up, and he talks about it later on in the book, but there's two things. First, I want to tell you the definition. And second, he has a really great idea right off the bat. And he decided to make the word Excelsior, which means ever upward, his life motto. But I also love the idea of having a life motto. And that's something I'm going to think about and see if I can come up with one of my own. Maybe you want to do the same. Okay, so as you could just see from that little excerpt, this guy, I mean, no surprise. He, I was going to say he's a hell of a writer, which, I mean, that's kind of obvious. He built a, what is now, what, a multi-hundred billion dollar industry based off of his ideas and the creation of, you know, characters like Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, which I think just overtook, and is now the most, like the highest grossing movie of all time. And what I love most about the book and what you're going to come to learn over the next little bit of our time together is that we're seeing, as with all these biographies, we see the end result. So everybody knows who Stan Lee is now. Everybody knows who Marvel Comics are, even if you're not into the movies or the books. But what I loved about reading this book so much is that the vast majority of his life, he was filled with unbelievable doubt. And he talks about, right from, he says, during those strange, struggling early years, I wallowed in embarrassment because I was a mere comic book writer. So I'm going to talk a lot about that today, because I found that probably the most interesting part of the book.