February, 20 2023 | Family-Where Life Begins and Love Never Ends!
Mat and I were fortunate enough to spend this holiday relaxing and watching the ROCKY series movies. Wow did those movies ever bring back great memories. In addition, it made me feel so good as I remembered Sylvester Stallone’s story. It is such an inspiration to me. When I watched the movie in 1976, at that time, we didn’t know that Sylvester was going to become the huge household name and have the success that he did. His story is a real ‘rags to riches’ story. I don’t know if you are aware that just a week before he wrote the Rocky movie script, Sylvester was broke and homeless. He had just sold his dog for $25 as he couldn’t afford to feed him anymore. Sylvester was broken hearted. Later that night he happened to watch a Muhamad Ali fight through the window of the one of the shops selling TV’s. The fight inspired him to write the Rocky movie. The next day he wrote the whole script for Rocky. He wrote it in one day! Can you imagine and he knew without a shadow of a doubt, he had a winner.
Carrying on with his vision, he shopped the movie to various movie studios and he was offered $300,000 for his script, but he would lose the rights to script and he wouldn’t be able to act in it. He turned down the offer and continued on with his vision for his dream. Later, he accepted an offer for $35,000 for him to play his role of Rocky Balboa in the movie and was given a $1,000,000 budget to make the movie, but he kept all the rights.
After receiving his cheque for $35,000, the first thing he did was go and buy his dog back. It cost him $15,000 get him back. Sylvester’s principles didn’t waiver and he bought the dog back for that price.
History showed that the movie went on to gross $230,000,000, it received 10 Academy Award nominations, made the phrase, “Adrienne” a household name, the song, “Eye of the Tiger” became synonymous with working hard to reach your goals and the vision in your head as you climb the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. No one can help but feel fantastic as they listen to that song and work out or do something challenging. The song makes you already feel like you are a champ. ‘Rocky Balboa’ or ‘Sylvester Stallone’ was immortalized outside the museum with a statue to symbolize his enduring passion for success and completion of his dream. Not a bad return for a actor nobody knew and a script he wrote in one day.
I knew Sylvester Stallone’s story when I was younger but watching the movies yesterday and then looking back over the history of the last 40 years it made me realize a couple of things about life. The first thing,
“Never give up on your dream.”
Sylvester Stallone knew he had a hit when he wrote the script and he wanted the movie produced his way. He wrote the script for him to act in it and he wanted to be in charge of producing the movie. He was so broke that it would have been so easy for him to accept the $300,000 from the movie studio and walk away. But he did not. He held onto his dream and his vision. It the end it paid off big for him.
The second thing,
“Don’t accept the first offer that comes along just because you are struggling.“
Imagine if he had accepted the $300,000. for his script and lost the acting part and being able to decide how the movie was made. Would there have been a Rocky II, III, IV, V and the VI?
While watching this old movie, the acting was so raw and real. Sylvester Stallone brought “The Italian Stallion” to life on the screen in a way that no one else could and you could feel his passion for his life, his boxing career, and his love for Adrienne and his family.
To say I totally enjoyed cuddling up on the couch and watching these movies was an understatement. It made me realize how far our society has come. So many dysfunctional scenes in this movie that were the ‘norm’ in the 70’s are no longer the norm in our society today. We have grown so much!
Family Day and this movie inspired me to never give up on my dream and our new adventure we are working on. Because of the relaxing nature of the day, we were able reset and rejuvenate to gain the energy to keep striving and continue moving forward with the amazing business Mat and I are building together.
Who knows what our story is going to be like by the end of this year? So far 2023 is turning out to the be the ‘Year of the Bests’. Maybe by the end of this year, I will have quite the story to tell as we are in a day and age when business can be done globally with the stroke of a keyboard typing on your computer.
Mat and I both say all the time it is such an amazing time be to alive! We are so fortunate and blessed! This family day living in the now and experiencing this beautiful connection as well as reliving the past watching the movies and overlaying the inspiration to today….. again I say, “Go out into the world and write your own story, write your own Rocky movie and never, ever stop believing in what your life and dreams can be!”
