Success Advice
What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From The Movie ‘Iron Man’

The 2008 film ‘Iron Man’ was a big hit at the box office and blew away critics and comic book fan boys alike. Robert Downey Jr. received a lot of praise for his role as the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark who turned him self into a motivational character who fought the bad guys. There’s a lot to love about this superhero flick, but you might not know what every entrepreneur can learn from the movie “Iron Man”.
There’s plenty of motivational content in the film, and here are some of the lessons worth pondering on:
How the movie Iron Man can teach you to become a successful entrepreneur
#1: It’s OK Not To Get It Right The First Time
Learning the ropes of business is an ongoing process, not a one-shot deal. In the film, Tony Stark didn’t just develop one version of his armour, but three. Although the Mark I (which he built during captivity) helped him get out of the cave, it was slow, clunky and only lasted 15 minutes.
As soon as he got home, Tony immediately worked on the Mark II which was the silver version he took for an impromptu test flight. With this version, he also ran into problems, namely his suit freezing at extremely high altitudes.
Towards the end of the film, he came up with the Mark III which built upon the strengths of his first two suits while doing away with their respective weaknesses.
So, the point is that Tony didn’t get things right the first time, nor did he expect himself to. He knew that he had to learn from his past mistakes before he could finally come up with something that truly worked.
In the same way, what every entrepreneur can learn from the movie “Iron Man” is that it’s ok to make mistakes because they can teach you what not to do the next time around.
#2: Sometimes You Gotta Run Before You Can Walk
Speaking of the Mark II, Tony’s A.I. butler JARVIS warned him that there were still terabytes of calculations that needed to be done before he could take his suit to the skies. Tony responded by blasting off anyway in spite of this and learned how to fly his baby by learning first-hand.
As an entrepreneur, you can test the waters and speculate all you want, but you’ll never really learn the business by never taking a risk and trying stuff yourself.
Studying business in school and reading books about it is helpful in the sense that you need to know the theories before stepping out into the real world. However, the other half of the equation is about getting out there and actually doing it.
If fear is holding you back in any way, here’s a motivational tip: going out there and doing it will teach you a whole lot of other things you won’t find in a book.
#3: Be Willing To Evolve
When Tony realised that his business endeavors put people in harms way, he decided that he needed to shut down Stark Industries & weapons division and re-think the direction of his company.
In the real world, you also need to change what you’re doing if your previous approaches or methods are no longer working for your business. Change is not only an inevitable part of being an entrepreneur, but also when it comes to life in general.
The better you can adapt to and work around your ever-changing circumstances, the greater success you’ll enjoy.
#4: Don’t Be So Serious All The Time
While Tony Stark often found him self in dire circumstances, he didn’t always hunker down and contemplate on the seriousness of it all. In fact, he always tried to find humor in any given situation in order to diffuse the tension and take the edge off.
Running a business has its challenges and you’ll face constant pressure, so what every entrepreneur can learn from the movie “Iron Man” is that you should always try to see the lighter side of everything so that you don’t drive yourself crazy.
#5: Work With What You Have And Improvise
When you’re starting out in business, you may not have all the resources you’d like. The problem is that you may end up focusing on your limitations more than what you actually have.
While he was held hostage, Tony Stark built the Arc Reactor (the gizmo that powered his suit) in a cave with nothing more to go on than spare parts and components from discarded weapons. He didn’t have the luxury of being in his high-tech workstation, but yet he pulled it off.
Tony didn’t whine about his situation and instead, he made the best of what he had at the moment and powered through his personal crisis.
If there’s one important bit of motivational advice you can get from the film, it’s that you won’t have everything you need all the time.
Sometimes, you just need to suck it up and work with your circumstances rather than struggling against them.
Not everything will go your way all the time. You’ll have to rise above your difficulties and use them to make yourself a better person, be it in business or life in general.
PS. Tony Starks character apparently is loosely based of PayPal creator and Billionaire inventor Elon Musk who we have featured numerous times in the past on Addicted2Success.com, checkout his articles below:
(Video) Elon Musk – The Real Life ‘Iron Man’, Engineer, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist
The Top 5 Successful Men Who Broke The Rules
Success Advice
How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success
Your life is dictated by beliefs and biases that drive your thinking, behaviors, and decisions

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Success Advice
How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness
There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.
I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.
I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.
As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.
I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness.
Everything legal must come through the matrix
I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.
Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.
The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.
Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.
The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be.
Every matrix has an incubation process
While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.
In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.
What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.
However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.
Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time.
“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier
You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time
When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.
The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?
First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.
In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.
For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.
For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.
Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.
You must manifest your greatness
As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.
I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.
There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.
Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.
When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.
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Here’s a Young Man’s Antidote for the Uncertainty of the Modern World
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Toxic Leadership: 5 Ways to Identify a Bad Leader
if you have a leader who displays any of the toxic traits, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all crossed paths with a toxic leader in our careers at some point. Unfortunately, while some toxic leaders don’t even bother to hide their behaviour, some know very well how to conceal their true selves behind a strong-built facade. The latter is the most dangerous of the two. (more…)
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