Monday Motivation: Be it Rambo, who enters different countries around the world and rescues sixes from the enemies, the captain of the Expendables team, another name for destruction, and Rocky Balboa, who can defeat his opponent in the ring with just one punch. All these characters are alive among their fans. They take action. They fall, get up and stumble, but do not shy away from fighting. There are many sorrows in their lives (of course, those sorrows were there in the films only) but they are not afraid of fighting. They get up and fight again and again. The name of the Hollywood superstar who played all these characters is Sylvester Stallone. The film characters played by him match his real life. So today’s story teaches us that unless you believe in yourself, your life will not change.
Sylvester Stallone was carrying a mountain of troubles since childhood. When he was born, the lower part of his face was paralyzed. This effect is still visible on the lower part of his face. He suffered more from this natural problem when children used to tease him. The result was that Sylvester became quarrelsome and irritable. Which started affecting his personal life. As much as someone’s irritability is troublesome for the other person, it is equally troublesome for the person who is behaving like this. The life of the person who suffered all this did not change suddenly. The process of suffering and being troubled had just begun.
Sylvester saw such bad times that the soul trembled
The story of Sylvester Stallone’s transformation from zero to hero is long, but let us talk about his period where his Rambo-like never-say-die spirit is clearly visible. In fact, his times were so bad that he had to steal his wife’s jewelery and sell it. He became homeless and had to sleep in New York bus stands for 3 days. What could be a worse time than when someone has to sell his pet dog to a stranger for a few rupees because he did not have the money to feed it. The worst time for Stallone might have been when he sold his dog to a stranger for just $25. He himself had told about this that after doing this he came back crying from there.
Something that supports you even in bad times is called courage and the habit of not giving up. In fact, two weeks after selling the dog, he had gone to watch the boxing match of the then famous boxers Mohammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. While watching the match, he got the idea due to which Hollywood got ‘Rocky’. He started writing the script and worked on it for 20 hours.
Why is it important to be stubborn towards the goal?
Sylvester Stallone started wandering from one studio to another with this script. ‘Started wandering’ because his condition was that he would give this script to the same studio which would give him the role of hero i.e. Rocky in the film being made on this story. The studio refused to give work to a paralyzed and unknown face. Even his ‘speak’ and ‘looks’ were made fun of. It was said that he looked ‘funny’.
However, he was offered to buy this script for 1 lakh 25 thousand dollars. When Sylvester refused, he was offered 2 lakh 50 thousand dollars for this script. When Sylvester again rejected this offer, he was told that he would be given the studio in exchange for Rs 3 lakh 50 thousand scripts. But Sylvester was adamant that he would become the hero whether the script sold or not.
The studio liked the script so much that after getting tired, they took Sylvester as the hero and made the film ‘Rocky’ based on his script. However, financially this decision could be called wrong for some time because Sylvester got only 35 thousand dollars for this role. But the truth is that it was because of his stubbornness that he was able to become a Hollywood superstar and become so strong financially, socially and mentally. This film, released in 1976, received Oscars in many different categories that year and Sylvester also received a nomination for Best Actor at the Oscars. Additionally, the film was included in the American National Film Registry as one of the greatest films of all time.
Sylvester has a strange mixture of stubbornness and love.
Now the matter becomes a little more interesting. Sylvester Stallone sold his dog, which he loved so much, to a liquor store for just 25 dollars just to keep it from going hungry. After getting 35 thousand dollars, he came to pick it up and kept it at the same place every day for three days. Would go and stand where they had sold it.
Finally, on the third day, the man was seen coming with his dog. Sylvester told the man about his compulsion and asked him to return the dog to him. To this end, Sylvester offered $100 for his beloved pet, which was sold for $25. But when the person in front did not agree, he increased the amount and offered 500 and 1000 dollars, but he did not budge. He kept refusing. It is a strange combination of love and stubbornness that Sylvester gave the man $15,000 out of the $35,000 he earned to get his pet dog and brought his dog back.
Sylvester’s story is full of troubles. We have not discussed all of them because we do not want you to get entangled in the story without knowing too much. We just want you to know that ‘stubbornness’ can also have a positive meaning. You can achieve your purpose with it.
If we understand the essence of the story then it is that even the worst time can turn into good. All you need is to not give up. There is a need not to back down and there is a need to always keep fighting. Because you are the Rambo and Rocky of your life, who has to fight the problems in life and solve the problems that arise.
