Sylvester Stallone: Aggressively Committed to His Dream and to His Dog

Are you aggressive about your dreams? What is being aggressive? And what does it takes to be aggressive about your dreams.

Here's a story, which inspired me a lot as it taught me one of the greatest lessons in life. This story is about the life of Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone was born poor, so poor that he was not born in a hospital, not even at home but on a school’s stairs. And yet as he was growing into a young man he only had one dream; He wanted to become an actor.

He wanted so much to become an actor but he has this major setback against his dream; He has this defect in his jaw, which causes him to speak with a slur.

And so Stallone would go from production house to production house to apply for an acting job, but nobody accepted him because he cannot speak clearly.

Stallone had this director who he kept on pursuing for an acting job, yet like all the rest didn’t mind giving him a chance. What Stallone did was he kept on coming back into that director’s office. In the morning when the director arrives for work, Stallone was there waiting for him, and in the end of the day, when he leaves for home, Stallone was still there.

Every single day he kept on doing this until finally the director got annoyed and confronted him asking “What can I do to drive you away?!” to which Stallone replied “Give me an acting job.” And so finally the director gave in, he said “Okay, for goodness sake, I’ll give you a role, but this is all you will have, after this you will have no more.” He was accepted, and right after that role, indeed nobody had given him acting jobs anymore.

Though trampled with a lot of rejections, Stallone didn’t think even once of giving up on his dream.

He came up with another idea; He thought of writing a movie script and then offer it to the production houses, on the condition that he will be the main actor.

The script was done and off Stallone into carrying out his plan. The script was commended, but because of the condition that he will take the lead role, nobody accepted his offer.

Finally there was this one movie production house who become so much interested in his script; The production manager said “Stallone, your script is good! We will buy it for $75,000! but you will not be the main actor, we will hire someone else.” Stallone upon hearing this replied to his deepest conviction, “No thanks, I have to be the main actor.” and then he left.

After a while the same production house called up again to him and said “Stallone, come to the office, we’re raising the price, we will buy your script for $225,000! but on the condition, you will not be the main actor, we will hire someone else.” Stallone once again replied with conviction, “No I’m sorry, I have to be the main actor.” and then he left.

After sometime, the movie production house called up to him again and said “Stallone, we’re raising the price, give us the script, you will have $1 Million!.” Plus the manager added a one last degrading advice “Accept this already Stallone, this is too much of an offer. Let's just face it, we all know you will not be able to make a good lead, you know you can’t deliver good clear dialogues, we can’t hardly understand you. How do you expect people to like seeing you on camera with that? Just take the amount already, go on with your life and forget that becoming a lead actor dream of yours.” to this, Stallone replied without any hesitation, “No thanks, I have to be the main actor.”

I want you to understand where Stallone is coming from at that point of his life. He was so poor; He could not even pay his bills. He even had sold his dog which was his best friend for $50 just to have a little to spend going around and to have a little to eat. And yet he turned down a $1 million offer for his script, returning home poor, hungry and alone, all because of a dream.

That is what we call being aggressive! It is having that strongest conviction of not having the will to give up on the deepest desires of your heart.

Finally after sometime, the production house called up again and said “Stallone, we’re giving in, you will be the main actor but we will be paying you $35,000."

He was accepted with great skepticism but he just didn’t mind it at all.

From $1 million it became $35,000 but he is more than satisfied because he got what he wants.

Stallone went on to buy his dog again. He offered $500 but the new owner said he had come to love the pet and will not sell it any more. Stallone raised the price to $1000 which still the new owner declined, and so he raised and raised the amount until out of his aggressiveness he finally got back his dog for $15,000 plus the new owner having a one last request as part of the deal. He asked Stallone to give him a role in his upcoming movie, which Stallone deliberately granted for the sake of having back his dog.

The stage was set. The movie was shoot and done and was successfully released for public entertainment.

That movie,

was Rocky 1.

It grossed more than 171 Million dollars and on that year had won 10 major academy awards including;

best actor,

and the best picture of the year.. .

And there started a spectacular career which greatly impacted the entertainment industry and the world.

Being aggressive about our dreams doesn’t mean a relentless, violent course of action, but a deep pulsating commitment strong enough to turn the tides of war into our side. It is where the greatest epics are written and the most decisive battles are won. Nobody in this world can ever tell us that we cannot do it. If we think we can, we can do it! Because in reality, the only limitation we have, are the ones we set in our minds.