The world might find it hard to believe that a man who once struggled to find roles in movies — and who has started in soft-core porn — went on to become one of the most legendary actors in Hollywood. According to Forbes, the once-broke actor has a net worth exceeding $400 million.
As we grow up we usually stop following our dreams — However, obstacles are a necessary part of life, and just like Rocky — the bigger our dream is, the bigger our obstacle will be. Sylvester Stallone may not actively practice stoicism but he is a living and breathing example of a true stoic.
“Life’s not about how hard of a hit you can give… it’s about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.”
And with that let’s dive right in…
The Homeless Pornstar
Stallones’ obstacles started at child-birth. While he was being born the doctors accidentally cut a nerve, and paralysed the left side of his face. This didn’t change his self image, or stop him from believing in himself. He was born a fighter — and as a young adult, he moved to New York to pursue a career in acting.
To make ends meet, he played a role in ‘Kitty and Stud’s’ (1970) soft core porn film — seriously, go and Google it. He said that “it was either he rob someone on the street or act in a porn film”. Luckily, he chose the soft-core porn film.
One night, inspired by watching a Muhammad Ali fight — Stallone turned to writing his own films, the first of which was Rocky. Stallone said he was offered $300,000 for the rights to Rocky, but turned it down because producers wanted a different actor to play the main role.
“They wanted every celebrated actor at the time,” Stallone said during an appearance on the Today Show. “And big-name directors, when they found out I wanted to be involved, they scattered, ran for the hills.””It was really insane at the time ’cause I was pretty broke,” he added. Luckily, his persistence paid off, and the film earned $117 million.
Since then, the Rocky six-part franchise has earned over 1.4 billion dollars at the box-office and has been nominated for 10 academy awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing.
The Conclusion Is To Be Fearless
Sylvester Stallones’ fearless approach can be applied to our own lives.
Stallone was rejected throughout his entire life and half of his face was paralysed since childbirth — yet, this impediment didn’t stop him.
And this too is the nature of the human experience. As children, we want to disprove our parents, test boundaries and challenge authority. We want to express our freedom.
When the film producers offer him $300,000 for the screenplay without him playing the lead, he REFUSED because it was a deal that would have changed his vision — Instead, he decided to fight for his dream.
Rocky represents all of us — he inspires us to follow our dreams.
Credits: Sam Berry
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