The story behind Sylvester Stallone Dog

         

The story of how Sylvester Stallone got started is one of tremendous courage and overcoming of adversity.

Stallone’s dream was to be an actor, this despite the fact that an accident at birth paralyzed the lower part of his face (thus his ‘unique’ expression) and caused a slurred speech impediment. When Stallone came to New York City to pursue his acting dream, nobody wanted to hire him. At one point, he went three weeks sleeping at the New Jersey Bus Terminal since he was so broke. Things got so bad, he had to sell his loyal companion, his dog, to a stranger for $25. It was Stallone’s lowest point.

Then one day, Stallone got an idea for a screenplay while watching Muhammad Ali box. It took 3 days to write out the script for "Rocky," which tells the rags to riches story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector and club fighter who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship.

Eventually Stallone found producers who offered him $125,000 for the movie. The only catch? He couldn’t act in it. Stallone was broke, but he walked away since his dream was to be an actor. Weeks later, the producers offered him $325,000, but he still said “no.” Eventually, they let him act in the movie, but only paid $35,000. Out of that, Stallone immediately spent $15,000 to track down his dog and buy him back. The dog appears throughout the movie.


Stallone shot "Rocky" in 28 days. The movie went on to make $225,000,000, becoming the highest grossing film in 1976. It won three Oscars, including Best Picture. It launched four more Rocky films and established Stallone's successful acting career.


“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving on. That’s how winning is done.” – Rocky Balboa

How did Stallone make it? He had endured a lifetime's worth of adversity before he penned the Rocky script and estimated being rejected for TV and movie parts 1,500 times. His desire to be an actor was so strong that he used these rejections to fortify his inner core and motivate himself. I think everyone has a life's ambition that is strong enough to overcome multiple failures, as long as they don't give up. The challenge is to identify that ambition, learn from one's mistakes, and keep pursuing it.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141002213846-6912740-the-story-behind-sylvester-stallone-s-rocky