***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*** If you don’t want to know what happens in the historic Avengers: Infinity War, stop reading now!
Tonight, I saw Avengers: Infinity War – the movie event of the last decade. In short, it lived up to and exceeded its incredible hype. This movie is simply amazing! The action starts immediately and never lets up. All the characters get significant screen time and the ending, my heavens, the ending will leave you emotionally spent.
Just in case you need to be reminded, all the superheroes must come together to keep Thanos from acquiring all six infinity stones and destroying half of the entire universe. 10 years of movies have built to this single film (and the next one). No character development was required except for Thanos, who is played brilliantly by Josh Brolin.
Simply put, 2 hours 40 minutes of amazing! Language was no issue but many of your favorite characters die tragically.
The following are 32 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Avengers: Infinity War:
- Struggle Is Necessary For Strength – What defines the quality of your leadership is often measured by what you must overcome. Thanos is easily the toughest test the Avengers and Guardians have ever faced.
- Leaders Can Have Good Intentions And Still Be Misguided – Thanos was basically a galactic environmentalists. His solution to the hunger crisis was to exterminate half the population.
- Destiny Still Arrives – Thanos said, “In time, you will know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right. Yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives.”
- Smart Leaders Never Confuse Exposure With Experience – Loki said, “I consider experience experience.”
- Character And Integrity Sustain Your Leadership – Loki tried one trick too many. After attempting to fool Thanos, he was killed.
- Great Leaders Build Great Teams Around Them – Thanos surrounded himself with the Black Order. These five made incredible villains and were instrumental in helping retrieve the infinity stones.
- Leaders Should Enjoy Their Work – Thanos said, “Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this does put a smile on my face.”
- Spiritual Leadership Is Distinctive – Wong advised Stark, “Attachment to the physical is detachment from the spiritual.”
- Successful Leaders Have Relational Intelligence – Stark told Peter Parker, “Dude, you’re embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”
- Great Leaders Provide Solutions – When Vision and Scarlett Witch were being attacked, Rogers, Black Widow and Falcon arrived just in the nick of time.
- Humor Is A Leader’s Friend – Humor is disarming and makes leaders more approachable. The interactions between The Guardians and Thor and then with Stark is priceless.
- Just Because You Look Like A Leader Does Not Make You A Leader – When speaking to Peter Quill, Drax described Thor, “You’re a dude. This is a man… It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.”
- Successful Leaders Have Clear Goals – Gamora said of her father Thanos, “The entire time I knew him, he only ever had one goal. To wipe out half the universe. If he gets all the Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers. Just like that.”
- Thor told Gamora, “Families can be tough.”
- Great Leaders Have Great Intelligence – Thor told The Guardians, “The rabbit (Rocket) is the smartest among you.”
- A Balanced Life Is Not A Myth – Thanos described a weapon to a young Gamora, “Perfectly balanced as all things should be.”
- Leaders Have A Bias For Action – Steve Rogers said, “I’m not looking for forgiveness. I don’t need permission.”
- Successful Leaders Are Life-Giving Leaders – Rogers added, “We don’t trade lives.”
- Successful Leaders Are Not Passive. They Are Decisive. – T’Challa said, “Evacuate the city! Engage all defenses! And get this man a shield!”
- There Is No Success Without Succession. The Best Leaders Leave Sustainable Organizations And A Trail Of Goodness And Mercy Behind Them. – Mantis said of Thanos, “Death follows him like a shadow.”
- If No One Is Following You, You Are Not A Leader – Parker said, “You can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider Man without a neighborhood.”
- Successful Leaders Are Always Looking For An Advantage – Referring to Thanos, Tony Stark said, “We have one advantage: He’s coming to us… so that’s what we use.”
- Great Leaders Make Great Decisions – Quill said to Star, “I’m half-human so that’s 50% stupid. It’s all you.”
- Great Leaders Want Options – Dr. Strange explained, “I went forward in time to see all the possible outcomes.”
- Leaders Must Engage In Uncomfortable Conversations – Peter Quill said to Stark, “Let’s talk about this plan of yours. I think it’s good, except it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be really good.”
- Smart Leaders Must Properly Manage Expectations – Okoye said, “When you said you were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world, this is not what I imagined.” To which T’Challa asked, “What did you imagine?” Okoye replied, “The Olympics, maybe even a Starbucks.”
- It’s Easy To Take Great Risk When You Have Nothing To Lose – Thor told Rocket, “I’m only alive because fate wants me alive. If I’m wrong what more could I lose?”
- Great Leaders Have Great Tools – Needing advanced weaponry to combat Thanos, Thor risked everything to acquire his ax Jarnbjorn.
- One Of The Prices Of Leadership Is Hard Decisions – Prior to killing his daughter Gamora, Thanos said, “The hardest choices require the strongest wills.”
- The Only Difference Anger And Danger Is A “D” – The Gaurdians, Stark, and Spider Man had a chance to kill Thanos but Quill’s anger over Gamora’s death foiled the process.
- The Ultimate Success Of A Leader Is How Many Lives You Change For Good – T’Challa proclaimed, “Today we don’t fight for any life. We fight for all of them.”
- Last Impressions Last – Because of the many deaths after Thanos snaps his fingers, you simply leave the movie with an empty feeling.
***Bonus*** The following are two others I thought of since this initial post:
- All Leaders Will Eventually Encounter Someone As Smart And Talented As They Are – Therefore, there is a need for continual improvement. Loki thought he had an easy solution to the Thanos problem – the Hulk. Unfortunately, the Hulk had never faced someone an opponent like Thanos before and was easily dispatched. Which leads to my next point.
- Great Leaders Engage The Battle Rather Than Run From It – As the Avengers and Wakandan army charged toward their alien opponents in the climatic battle, Captain America and Black Panther ran far in front of their fellow soldiers. The Hulk, on the other hand, refused to “go green” again because of his fear of Thanos.
Once again, this is as good a movie as you will ever see! Get in line and go see Avengers: Infinity War this weekend! You’ll have a great time.
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