We All Need Heroes

THE ROCKY STORY

Chapter: Never Give Up

In the 1970’s, film star Sylvester Stallone was nearly broke and living in New York. With barely $50 to his name, he sold his script for the movie Paradise Alley for $100. Stallone had his first starring role in the soft-core pornography feature film: The Party at Kitty and Stud’s (1970). He was paid $200 for two days work. Stallone later explained that he had done the film out of desperation after being evicted from his apartment and finding himself homeless for several days. He has also said that he slept three weeks in the New York City Port Authority bus station prior to seeing a casting notice for the film. With no money for food or electricity, he had to steal his wife’s jewelry and sell for $25 what he loved most in life; his dog. His life was full of setbacks, which would have made most people give up, before he finally broke through with his film Rocky.
    Sylvester Stallone was born in New York in 1946. From birth, parts of his face was paralyzed, resulting in his characteristic slurred speech. Stallone knew deep within that he wanted to be an actor in the movie business, but because of his paralyzed face he received constant rejections at auditions. He went to every agent in New York several times each.
    Despite his poverty, he refused to take a regular job, as he did not want to lose his motivation and his will to succeed. Two weeks later he saw a movie which inspired him to write Rocky. When visiting the different producers, Stallone said he wanted to sell the script, but on one condition, he was to play the lead role. The companies liked the script, but due to his demands he received countless rejections. It came to a point where he was offered $325,000 for the script, but he kept refusing their offer. Eventually, one company agreed to give Stallone the starring role in Rocky and paid him $35,000. He couldn’t have been happier. The same day he went to buy his dog back, but the man who bought him didn’t want to sell. Stallone then offered him $1,500 for his dog, plus a small role in the movie. The man agreed, and both he and the dog were featured in the film.
    When Rocky was released in 1976, the film became a huge success. It brought in $225 million and won three Oscars awards. At the award ceremony Stallone read out some of the rejection slips from those who said the film would be sappy, predictable and a film that no one would want to watch.

Possible Moral
This story is about the power of persistence and self-belief. Sylvester Stallone was offered $325,000 for his script, but still declined. Was he nuts? I mean, the man was poor, he could barely pay for food. He was certain that he was an actor and that was it, there was no room for compromise. True persistence and self-belief pays off every time in every circumstance. Persistence will fight off failure faster than skill or luck ever could. Just ask Stallone, he persisted and knew his outcome.


Story from We All Need Heroes: Stories of the Brave and Foolish.
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