 |
| Sylvester Stallone |
During birth, a wrong
gynecological procedure caused Stallone to have one sided paralysis. At school,
his middle class being and his facial paralysis became a thing for others to
make fun of.
He started
body-building because he wanted to frighten those who bullied him. Slowly he
started thinking of a career in movies.
Around 1974, he had a
pregnant wife, a dog that he loved a lot, a lot of bills to pay and no success
in his movie career. What he still had was
a belief in his dream that he will make it big.
Soon a time came when
he went broke. He was heavily under debt.
Restless, anxious,
stressed and still loaded with hope that he WILL make it big.
The cold American
winter forced him to choose between electricity and his dog. He sold his dog, his best friend
for $25.
Two weeks later, on TV
he watched a boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner. That match was
like a flash of divine inspiration… For the next 20 hours he sat and wrote the
script of what today is a cult movie, ROCKY.
In the words of
Stallone himself, “After nearly 1500 rejections”, he got a production house to offer $125,000
for the script.
Despite the poverty,
pains, pregnant wife and lost dog… His dream was to STAR in the movie as the MAIN LEAD.
In an era when heroes
were super handsome men and spoke fluently, a body builder with a facial
paralysis that made him stammer while speaking, made Stallone the wrong choice
for any role.
The studio bluntly
rejected his offer… And Stallone went back home with another failure.
A few weeks later, the
studio offered him $250,000 for the just
the script, and not him.
-He refused.
Soon they offered $350,000 for the script but not him.
At that time everyone
was pushing him to accept.. It would be MAD not to do so.. He was making a
fortune.
-He still refused.
The rest as they say
is history!
The movie was made for
$1 million and went to make around $200 million. It won the Oscar for
Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Film Editing. Stallone was a
“bankable” hero for the next 20yrs, till the late 90s… with his movies making
billions of dollars.
And what did he do
with the first $35,000?
He stood outside the
liquor store, where he sold his dog, for 3 days. Identified the man who had
bought it, and finally got him back for $15,000.
“Let me tell you
something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a
very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you
to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody
is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about
how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and
keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Now, if you know what
you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing
to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be
because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're
better than that! I'm always gonna love you, no matter what. No matter what
happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life.
But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life.
― Sylvester Stallone,
Rocky Balboa
