When Stan Lee pitched Spider-man, his publisher said it was “the worst idea he’d ever heard”.
He said the character wouldn’t work because “people hate spiders”, “teenagers are sidekicks, not heroes”, and “a superhero shouldn’t be unattractive, poor, love-troubled, and an orphan”.
But Stan couldn’t shake his gut feeling, so he put Spider-man in the final edition of a magazine that was being cut due to low sales.
The magazine flew off the shelves.
Fast-forward to today and you can’t go anywhere without seeing a child in a Spider-man t-shirt or with a Spider-man backpack.
Stan’s advice was “if you have an idea that you think is genuinely good, don’t let anyone talk you out of it”.
I didn’t hear this story until today, but I can still remember how I felt, sitting in the movie theatre, watching Spider-man for the first time.
Stan’s decision that day, to put an idea out into the world despite the opinions of other, has had a huge impact on me and many others.
I highly recommend taking two minutes to hear Stan tell this story.