Here ' s a big inspirational story for you. It ' s the real Silvester Stallone story. This is an accomplished tale of a man who knew what he wanted, and did what ever it took to make his reverie a materiality. And through they state the rest is history...
See most people roughly know that Silvester was a struggling actor, no one would hire him and so he wrote his own film, Rocky, and now is a massive star. That ' s appealing much since broad seeing the know it, and exact still it ' s still a lovely good story. But I heard a yarn from one of his close friends who tells us what utterly happened.
His compatriot is Anthony Robbins who is a motivational speaker and was language to Machiavellian about the story but wanted to know the full story, straight from the horse ' s orifice. So Artful told him.
He told him that people just deduction he was a struggling actor, but in materiality he was so down-and-out he couldn ' t eat. He would go to auditions and get high away for he looked thick, couldn ' t talk properly and didn ' t fit the role. But Sly had decided from a young age that he was gonna be in the movies, not on TV the movies!
A fair big ask, but Sly had massive faith.
Apparently Sly went to 15, 000 auditions with no luck. Trim truly he got a couple of sympathy roles considering a thug who got beat up, proving that persistence does recompense off. Although he was one shot on camouflage for about 20 seconds. So Rocky wasn ' t his first movie role either.
So he is still struggling at this point, so bad in - gospel that he can ' t look after to remuneration for heating in his apartment, his wife is going mad at him telling him to sort himself out and get a job. But Sly is still determined to become a star.
It got so bad that he actually pawned his wife ' s jewellery to pay the rent... Fella ' s please note: DO NOT DO THIS!! No matter how bad it is, big mistake.
One day Sly went to a library, not to read, but instead just to get warm, because he had no heating at all. So he sat down and obviously had to pretend like he was there to read so picked up a book someone left on the table. It was a book of poetry, and he read the whole lot cover to cover.
And it was this book of poetry that led him to change his approach and made him want to become a screen writer. Is he mad! He can ' t pay the bills and now he ' s dreaming of writing movies as well as staring in them.
The friend who asked him for the real story butts in at this part of the story and says why didn ' t you just get a regular job for a bit and pay the bills so at least you had heating and food.
And Sly said that if he did that he wouldn ' t have been as focused, it was the all or nothing approach... it had to work or he would be screwed.
Well needless to say his wife despised him by now and thought he was a dreamer, and she packed her bags and left him. Sly was writing but had no luck with the agencies and his auditions weren ' t going much better either.
And then came his lowest point. The worst day of his entire life. He had not eaten for 3 days and was forced to sell his dog. His best friend in the world. He went to the local shop and waited outside for 30 mins asking everyone if they wanted to buy his dog for $50. His best friend in the world for only $50. Very bad times.
Well eventually a man said he would buy him, but he would only pay $25 dollars for him. 25 Bucks!! Crazy right?
But times were hard and Sly had to do it.
The next night Sly watched a boxing fight between Chuck Wepner vs Mohammed Ali. Well Chuck went the whole 15 rounds with the Greatest. He kept getting battered but never gave up, every time he got knocked down, he got himself up and carried on.
That night Sly started to write. He was inspired. He wrote non - stop for 26 hours, no sleep. And in one go Rocky was born. Sly then went to some of the agencies to sell his movie, some didn ' t like it, some said it was not realistic enough.
But in typical Rocky fashion Sly never gave up, and kept getting back up after getting knocked down. Then he found a movie company that loved the story. And wanted to buy the film for $100, 000. And this to a man that has just sold his dog for $25. So happy days right?
Wrong!
Sly said no. Sly turned down the deal because he wanted to star in it. They didn ' t want him to, so he walked out. Still broke. A few days later he got a phone call saying they would up the money so he wouldn ' t star in it.
Again he said no. This is a man who can ' t eat because he has no money.
Again he meets with the executives and they have lengthy talks and Sly is adamant that he is going to star in the movie " I ' m Rocky! "
So they come to an agreement that they will cast him in the role as Rocky but they are only going to pay him $35, 000, so if it flops they haven ' t lost that much money. Sly agrees.
If we end the story there it would be a pretty epic tale. Well the good news is that the story continues and it gets better...
Now what do you think a broke man who has just been given $35, 000. Did he go to the best restaurant in town? Did he go shopping? Did he go partying?
No... Sly went to the shop where he sold his dog. Sly waited 3 days hoping that the man who bought his dog off him would pass by. Well on the third day he did.
" Excuse me sir, do you remember me?... I sold you my dog, I was in a mess but now I would like to buy him off you I will give you $100
The man rejected the offer saying that his family love the dog and that no amount of money will make him part with him. So sly started going up negotiating $200, $500... Nothing.
Eventually, the man settled. The man received $15, 000 and a part in Rocky... THE MAN WAS IN ROCKY.
And the best part of the whole story is that the dog in Rocky is actually Sly ' s real dog. I love it when a plan comes together.
The point of the story in case you missed it was Sly knew what he wanted, he took massive action. And kept changing his approach until it happened. This is what we all need to do ( myself included ) when something isn ' t quite working, change the approach and take action. MASSIVE action.
