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This is the inspiring story of how Sylvester Stallone went after his dreams and what we all can learn from it.
Let’s listen to the man himself…
We all have goals and dreams that seem a little far fetched.
Sometimes we hardly even admit them to ourselves, but then when we lie awake at night and we dream about the thing we always wanted to be.
And we assume it can never happen…
You really can make anything happen as long as you have the determination and as long as you never give up.
Sometimes it means working incredibly hard…
…yes, some people may need to (because, for example, they are naturally lazy, or they are simply ignorant)…
…and sometimes it means taking the less obvious route to getting what you want.
And to demonstrate, consider the case of Sylvester Stallone…
How Stallone Landed His Star-Making Role, Despite Everything
If you’ve ever looked at someone highly successful and wished you could swap places with them…
…consider that they weren’t born that way – and that maybe they once thought the very same thing.
At the ripe old age of 30, Sylvester Stallone had only $106 to his name and had been forced to sell his dog Butkus.
Those were some hard times.
Sly always wanted to be a film star but whenever he applied for roles, he would be turned down on the basis of his slurring voice and his heavy stature.
He was only considered for roles that called for a ‘thug ’, never the lead man.
So Stallone decided to do things differently.
He turned to something else he was good at: writing.
Sly wrote the script for Rocky – apparently – in a single night (though he returned to edit the draft many times) and submitted it to a producer after an audition that didn’t go that well.
The studios loved the story of the spunky underdog who came good and they offered him $300,000 to make the movie – roughly the equivalent of $1 million today!
Remember: Sly has $106 in his accounts right now.
But he turned them down and said he would only let them make the movie if he could star.
The studio was reluctant and offered more and more money.
Eventually, they agreed to his terms but only on the proviso that he would take minimal pay and would have a tiny budget to work with on the movie.
The rest, as they say, is history.
What We Can Learn
The first thing we can learn from this is that it’s never too late to be what you always wanted to be.
You might be jealous of other people right now but you’re probably on the right course – just stick with it!
The other lesson to take here is to stick to your guns…
…to know what you want and to focus on only what you want.
Had Sly taken the $300,000, I wonder if any of us would know his name today.
The man just flat out refused to be typecast.
And finally, you do not need to take the most obvious route to the top.
If you’re not having any luck getting to where you want to go, then get creative and come up with a new strategy!
There is more than one way to every destination.
That system you might be following from your favorite guru might need to be tweaked to fit your needs…
As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Not that you would want to, or course…
PS: I think I’ve seen all the Rocky movies…
There is another person who comes to mind of someone refusing to be typecast…
Black British Labour MP, Diane Abbott, whose teacher told her to set her sights lower when she expressed her dream of going to the University of Cambridge.
Sources:
Video from the Mulligan Brothers YouTube™ Channel. Their website is at https://www.mulliganbrother.com/ [Accessed November 13, 2020].
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