Unlock These 4 Superpowers with Jim Kwik & Stan Lee

4 superpowers I learned from the man Stan Lee and how you could use them to become a mental superhero. I wanted to make this special episode a tribute to our superhero friend Stan Lee. If you hear sirens in the background, it means because I am filming this right now, recording this in New York City where he co-created some of my very favorite superheroes of all time that happen to be in New York. We're talking about Spider-Man, we're talking about Fantastic Four, we're talking about the X-Men in Westchester, New York. And I'm gonna share with you 4 superpowers, mental mindset superpowers that I learned from the legend Stan Lee. Now I first met Stan when I was 16 years old because as the boy who was labeled the broken brain with all my difficulties, many of you know I got involved in comic books because I couldn't read. When I had my accident when I was 5 years old, it didn't awaken these incredible superpowers to read a book a day or to memorize everyone's names or to do the things that I teach. I wasn't bit by a radioactive bookworm, if you will, or radioactive elephant who, by the way, has an incredible memory. I didn't get my powers that way. I had my accident and I couldn't read. I couldn't focus. I had these learning difficulties, put in special classes, and it took me a few years to learn how to read, but I taught myself how to read by reading comic books, Stan's work. Something about the comic books, about his work with the illustrations, with the stories, it brought the words to life, if you know what I mean. And really, I feel like the essence of all superhero work that he co-created was about one person can make a difference. Isn't that true? That throughout all of the flaws of all his characters, they weren't these incredible wonder men or Wonder Women that were just perfect. They were actually humans, humans with superpowers. So, you know, I think about Iron Man, I think about Spider-Man, and they have their flaws, right? And they have their challenges, but they came across these superpowers. And I believe, like many of you, if you've listened to our past episodes on how to read faster, how to remember names, this is gonna be a little bit different episode. It's gonna be about mindset, the mindset of an incredible Creator that affected billions of individuals. Now, when I met him, because I was such had such a love for comic books, we met at a comic book convention where as a child, as a kid, I was selling comic books there, and I bumped into him, and that was my first like I was in awe, almost speechless. But I remember I asked him this question about superpowers, modern-day superpowers, because we feel that in today's modern age that we have the Power to make a difference. It's not about leaping tall buildings or shooting lasers out of our eyes. It's about discovering and developing your superpower so you could make a difference. Because just having a superpower doesn't make you a superhero, right? You have to use it to what? To be able to save the day. And San really understood this. I remember I asked him 2 questions, and this— you've, in past episodes, you've heard me ask people the same thing. Questions were, if you could have any one superpower, what would it be? What are your current superpowers? And I also ask people, how do you want to be remembered? How do you want to be remembered in terms of your legacy? What are you going to leave behind? And I'm going to talk about that specifically in this episode. So I'm going to share with you right now the 4 superpowers that I learned from Stan over the years, and starting though with one principle, one principle. And the story goes, I posted this on Instagram recently, you might have read it, that Stan wanted to meet another individual that I know, Richard Branson, and I got the privilege of introducing these 2 modern-day superheroes together over dinner. And in the car ride, I remember asking Stan, Stan, you've co-created such, such an array, a pantheon of superheroes. Who's your favorite? And he says, Jim, my favorite is Iron Man. And I was like, wow, yeah, Iron Man. I'm a big Iron Man fan too. And he's like, Jim, who's your favorite? And Stan was wearing this big Spider-Man tie. And I said, Stan, it's gotta be Spider-Man. And without a second, a second wait, he goes to me, Jim, with great power comes great responsibility. And I grew up with these learning challenges, and I still struggle in certain areas. I flip things around. I had dyslexia and reading challenges. And I heard something different. And what I heard was, I was like, Stan, you're right. With great power comes great responsibility. When you have great power, you have great responsibility to wield it in the area of service, right? And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. That when we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make things better. And he's like, Jim, you are so right. And I feel like the starting point of his legacy and people who really step into the best version of themselves, they're modern-day superheroes, For themselves or their family is taking responsibility. Because when we take responsibility for what we focus on, what things mean, for our actions— we've done past episodes on how to own your mistakes and, and how to be accountable— then I feel like you have great power. And so I want to start with that because we're going to talk about unleashing your 4 superpowers, but you need to know that you are responsible for not only what you do but the results you get from it. All right, now what are these 4 superpowers? Well, these are 4, I call them mental superpowers, or they're superpowers of the mind, if you will. When I first asked Stan what his superpower was, he said, Jim, it's like a lot of people's superpower. It's our ability to create. It's our imagination. And I wanna label these into 4 Ps, 4 Ps superpowers. So I'm gonna call this projection. Stan had this incredible ability to take the invisible and make it visible, that when he went through his process, his creative process, He would think about a superhero and all of their flaws and made it really relatable and human. I think it's really remarkable that, you know, when you think about Spider-Man, he was like, Jim, Spider-Man wears a mask so anybody can project themselves inside that person. Doesn't matter your age or your race, that could be— that could have been any of us, right? And I'm like, yes, stepping into that version of ourselves. Projection is about taking the invisible and making it visible. It's about unlocking the superhero power of imagination, of your creativity. Because really everything in the world that you see came from somebody's mind. And out of everything Stan created, think about all the superheroes came from this gentleman's mind. And you have that ability too. You have the ability to project, to envision something in your mind like you are a thermostat, you know, where you set a standard. We've talked about this in past episodes. And you create the world the way you want it to. So whether it's your relationships, whether it's in your health, whether it's in your business, whether it's in your career, it all begins in the power of the mind because it's not, as we've talked about, one of my favorite, favorite quotes is from Wayne Dyer, and I had the privilege of speaking on stage with him and knowing him. He's like, Jim, it's not you'll believe it when you see it, it's you'll see it when you believe it. It's about taking the invisible like Disney has done. You know, they envision these things and then they make it the way they see it. That's the power of projection. So that's the first P. The second superpower, the second P if you will, stands for play. There's this phrase that says, we don't stop playing because we grow older, we grow older because we stop playing. And if you want to be a fast learner, we always talk about this. Who are the fastest learners on the planet? They're children, right? Children learn so quickly. They can learn a musical instrument faster They can learn languages so much quicker. They're sponges, and part of it is because they play all the time. And here's the thing, when it came to Stan, Stan was like the youngest old, quote unquote, person that I've ever met. And I'm not talking about chronological age. I mean the age of your mind and the age of your heart. He was always learning, right? He was always playing. He would always go to Comic-Cons. He was always making jokes. And because of it, he learned so incredibly quickly. And he was always telling stories. He was very passionate. about that. And that's the third superpower. The third P is passion. And that's a mindset, right? People are always talking about to find your passion. And it's kind of interesting. Maybe the twist on it is not you finding your passion, but maybe your passion is also looking for you also as well. And Stan certainly found his passion. He had two passions that he always talked about when we were together. Number one passion was he loved his, his work. Even in his late 80s, early 90s, he was still going to work because he loved his— he was passionate about storytelling. He was passionate about, about being creative, doing his projection, if you will, because that lit him up. And I feel like it kept him incredibly young. And also from this mindset, he was learning also. So passion. And his second passion was his wife, who is one year older. And so I think that's wonderful because happy wife, Happy life. So he was passionate about storytelling, he was passionate about his relationships. And so how can you tap more into your passion? And I think part of it is novelty, because how are you going to know what you're passionate about if you're struggling to find your passion? You need to give yourself stimulus. And Stan, when you walked into his office, he has all of this stimulus around, much like Einstein. They say that in order to have clarity of thought, you need a clean environment. But if you need to be more creative, You have stimulus in your environment, and Stan had all this amazing stuff in his office that gives him ideas. So he's incredibly, incredibly passionate about storytelling. Finding your passion is what lights you up, right? But what lights up the world really is your purpose, and he used his storytelling to make a difference. You know, it's interesting that when you read interviews or you talk to Stan, what is one of the things he was very passionate about was unity. Unity, mutual respect, mutual love. When I asked him if he could have any one superpower, what would it be? I got 2 answers from that. One was the superpower of luck, which actually is one of the superheroes, is Domino. But he was like, Jim, having the ability to be lucky is like the ultimate superpower. You're going to win every single battle. You're going to be able to, you know, do all these amazing things because you're always lucky. And he felt lucky in his career. He felt lucky in his life. And I— going back to the episode we did on Thanksgiving about the power of gratitude, gratitude, how it rewires your brain. What you appreciate appreciates actually gets better. Luck really is a superpower, and I think a lot of it is your observation. Paying attention to the things that you are most grateful for makes you more lucky and grateful. But the second answer I've gotten from Stan over the years when I asked him if he could have any one superpower, what would it be besides the luck, was the power of love. Meaning that hate was like the supervillain, right? And how do you have tolerance or acceptance? He was like, the ability to spread love is the ultimate superpower. And, and I think he did that also through his purpose, going back to this superpower of P, purpose. He was able to spread love, he was able to spread hope. And these are the things that I feel like the world needs more than ever. Back in the '60s, even when we lost Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. He actually talked in his soapbox writings about the evils that come from racism and how we need unity, we need mutual respect. And he used his characters, his storytelling, which was his passion, for his purpose. And he had characters. He introduced the Black Panther. He introduced the X-Men, who happened to be my very favorite superheroes. You know, growing up as a kid with learning difficulties, at the age of 9, I was labeled the boy with the broken brain. Right? I felt like I was an outcast. And he created the X-Men. These were superheroes that were born with their abilities. They were called mutants. And these mutants were ostracized. They were marginalized and separated. They were bullied. And I felt like growing up as a kid, I didn't fit in. I felt like I was broken. I didn't find— I found like I didn't have my superpowers or my super friends. So he created the X-Men and he created the School of the Gifted with Professor X. And he's like, this is an incredible superpower, the superpower of the mind, right? He had all these teenagers that were developing their— emerging their mutant powers. And the headmaster, Professor X, had this incredible power of the mind. And he's like, oh, and I'm gonna— But also, just like with all superheroes, they have their challenges. And so he was paralyzed from the waist down. He moved in a wheelchair. And but he said, look, the power of the mind is such an incredible superpower. That's something Stan also has told me. And it really is because his life is a reflection of all of this. Right? All these comic books I have here on the— on my shelf came from his mind, right? But he used the power of storytelling, his passion for storytelling, to find his purpose, which was making a difference, and used that. So how can you use your passion, what lights you up, to find your purpose, which is what lights up the world? A superhero is not somebody who has just discovered and developed their superpowers. That doesn't make you a superhero. What makes you a superhero is using those powers for what? for good. And that's what he was able to do when he found his purpose. The other thing he did was he created this incredible foundation called the Stan Lee Foundation, which I've been very active in, because the purpose of the Stan Lee Foundation was to bring entertainment into the classrooms. You know, we've talked about in past episodes what are the keys to long-term memory, and it goes way beyond just remembering names, remembering languages, the episodes we've done in the past, or how to give a speech without notes. We talk about the key is information by itself is forgettable. But information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. And Stan really understood that, that education was here, but people paid more attention to what? Entertainment. But if you could meld the two, education and entertainment, then you have the third E, which is empowerment. So Stan was really passionate about bringing entertainment into the classroom, much like I first learned how to read by reading his comic books. They were entertaining, and that's how I got educated and then empowered. So everything we do with our podcasts and our online programs and our videos is all about How do you engage people at an emotional level through storytelling, through gaming, and making it fun? Because learning is fun, and Stan was a living representation of that. So those are the 4 mindset mental superpowers that I learned from Stan. Number 1, the power of projection, that imagination is more powerful than knowledge. The second P is the power of play. Children are the fastest learners on the planet, and it's not a matter of your age, it's the matter of the age of your mind And your heart. The power of passion. Find what lights you up. Discover it. And if you haven't found it yet, find— get around more stimulus, because maybe that novelty in your environment is going to help stimulate something inside of you. And finally, it's not just about what lights you up, but what are you going to do to light up the world? You learn, you earn, so you could return, right? And so what— how are you sharing your superpowers to be able to make that difference? And when we're talking about Stan, we're talking about these Superhumans that he created. I feel like Stan was a superhuman. Not superhuman as in has all these superpowers. Yes, he had these 4 superhero powers and a lot more, but I mean he was a superhuman. He was a living example of being a superhuman being, and that's a life worth living. That's a life worth remembering. I believe there's a superhero in each of us, and at Kwik Learning Superhero U, you'll discover how to unleash Your superhero powers. Excelsior! So I'm standing here in front of this work of art. I actually received this from Stan himself. It's made out of candy, like jelly beans and gumdrops. It was very sweet of him. So this is one of my very favorite pieces because Iron Man was Stan's very favorite superhero. So it's kind of an homage for him. It's by artist Mike Alcantara. He actually— this is Stan's name right here. And he embedded also my name and my family members' names also in this piece. Amazing. So this piece actually is made out of real comic books, Iron Man comic books, that makes the large Iron Man. I think Stan would have liked Iron Man the most because he was just ruggedly handsome and very wealthy, and he was using it for— to make a difference, all his incredible wealth. So I'm in the process of turning this into like the Hall of the Avengers. Stan came over recently and signed some of his movie posters. So you have Stan Lee. Guardians of the Galaxy, again, was a tribute. There's all these, these misfits, if you will, traveling around the universe. And for me, again, it was not only about making a difference, but it was about the power of unity. Here he signs Thor's hammer right there. This is the god of lightning. And for me, like, lightning is always firing off in your brain. It's like when you have those eureka moments inside your brain, the neuro— The connections, if you will. And because this is very electrical, and it's like, can you pick up— are you worthy to pick up Thor's hammer? You have to be extremely worthy. I think Stan was incredibly worthy. He could have picked up the hammer. So one of my very favorite Marvel superheroes is this guy right here, Wolverine. I got this as a gift working on one of the films. Hugh Jackman signed it there, and it was just— I love his superpower of healing. I mean, who doesn't want the ability to be able to heal themselves? Imagine being able to do that and then heal other people. I think it's coming. This is gonna happen. So these are some of my very favorite Stan Lee superheroes. You have Magneto, Michael Fassbender. You have Hugh Jackman, the man Wolverine, the ability to heal. You have Jennifer Lawrence playing Mystique, who has the ability to change form. You have Storm, who could control the weather. You have, you have Patrick Stewart, who is Professor X, Professor X, who has the ultimate power of telepathy and the mind. And this makes me think this question right now. You have Magneto, the other Magneto here also as well. What— who's your favorite superhero and your favorite superpower? Who is your favorite superhero of all time? And if you could have any one superpower out of all these things, or even just something else that you come up with, what would it be? Please. Share that. Please share us your favorite superhero and your superpower, and tag me in it @JimKwik, K-W-I-K.