Life Guidance: 7 Life Lessons to Learn from Iron Man
Tony Stark is one of the members of the Avengers who started out not necessarily being the best person he could be, but then changed to be the world’s greatest hero. From his mistakes and good choices alike, we can find valuable life lessons in his experiences to learn from – here are 7 of the best ones!
- Selfishness & Pride Don’t Help You at All
When Tony accepted that getting help from others – especially his close friends and family – he felt so much better and did better, too. But, in the first Iron Man film, he was the opposite: talking like a know-it-all, refusing Pepper Potts’ valuable guidance, and trying to succeed on his own didn’t improve his public image or even mental health. Building a good, supportive family by Endgame really grew him into a more sensible and loving man!
- Money Isn’t Everything
Being a millionaire, Tony Stark seemed like he had an infinite amount of money in the Iron Man trilogy. Hiring secretaries, running a giant technology company effortlessly, and constantly buying expensive dinners for himself and Obadiah (wait, why did we have to mention that again?) just showed how much cash he had in his wallet: a lot.
But with so much money, he was too focused on his riches instead of caring about his own health and family – until he changed into a devoted parent in Endgame. Money is useful, but it isn’t everything!
- Teaching Others Isn’t Wasting Your Time
Despite Tony’s rough beginning, he later realized that mentoring young, eager Peter Parker was actually a really good use of his time. Peter was a student willing to learn even though he did make mistakes sometimes, and Tony realized that: in Spider-Man: Homecoming: he devoted more time to mentoring Peter than he had ever before, leading to Spider-Man embracing and taking care of his true responsibilities as a superhero.
- Always Have Backup Plans
Iron Man was famous for always having a backup plan. He has a mega-sized workshop filled with suits of armor, then he’s still using his polymath brain to create Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, etc. (how many plans does he have anyway?) Like most of the Avengers need to know, having backup plans is crucial even when you aren’t in a battle – but make sure to have more than one! Who knows what can happen..
- Make Amends for Your Mistakes
He’s far from perfect, and, in fact, messes up a lot. First Tony Stark creates Ultron, an android determined to make the world a better place by killing everyone in it, and then he constantly gets in the other Avengers’ hair at various times with his overconfident personality. What can he do? Well, do what we all should do when we make mistakes: make amends and fix it.
- Sacrifice Things for the Bigger Good
I don’t mean you have to die for something good like Tony did to defeat Thanos, but it’s totally worth it to sacrifice something for the good bigger than yourself. It’s again the reverse of Tony’s original selfish behavior: at the end of his life, he willingly snapped his fingers, declared, “I am…Iron Man,” and died peacefully knowing he had saved the universe. (R.I.P. Tony Stark!)
- Health Is More Important than What You Want to Do
One thing Tony Stark often puts aside is his health – both mental and physical – which was the reason why he ended up nearly dying from heart disease in Iron Man 2. Being the genius he is, he’s often too focused on his new inventions and not his well being (or his friends’ physical conditions, too), but this is a reminder for us at the same time that we should always prioritize health over what we want to do. We wouldn’t be able to do those things if we didn’t have good health in the first place, either!
There’s no tech superstar in his workshop suffering from fatigue and sneezing.
