In 1974 Sylvester Stallone was a broke, discouraged actor and screenwriter. While attending a boxing match he became inspired by a “nobody” boxer who “went the distance” with the great Mohammed Ali.
He rushed home and in a three-day burst of creative output produced the first draft of the screenplay entitled Rocky.
Down to his last $106, Stallone submitted his screenplay to his agent. A studio offered $20,000 with either Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds playing the lead character. Stallone was excited by the offer but wanted to play the lead himself. He offered to act for free. He was told, “That’s not the way it works in Hollywood.” Stallone turned down the offer though he desperately needed the money.
Then they offered him $80,000 on the condition that he wouldn’t play the lead. He turned them down again.
They told him that Robert Redford was interested, in which case they’d pay him $200,000. He turned them down once more.
They upped their offer to $300,000 for his script. He told them that he didn’t want to go through his whole life wondering “what if?”
They offered him $330,000. He told them that he’d rather not see the movie made if he couldn’t play the lead.
They finally agreed to let him play the lead. He was paid $20,000 for the script plus $340 per week minimum actor’s scale. After expenses, agent fees, and taxes, he netted about $6,000 instead of $330,000.
In 1976 Stallone was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor. The movie Rocky won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing. The Rocky series has since grossed almost $1 billion, making Sylvester Stallone an international movie star!
Follow your gut. Stick to your guns. – from book The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.
Tags: Academy Award, actor, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, best seller, book, books, inspiration, life, Mark Victor Hansen, movie, movies, people, personal, reflections, review, Robert G. Allen, Rocky movie, screenwriter, stories, Sylvester Stallone, The One Minute Millionaire, thoughts, wonderocity
Posted by ineta on Feb 21, 2010 in
being powerful,
energy 
Think of this. We are all connected. It could be through thought, through action, through communication, and even through sharing our art or invention. Even that homeless person you saw the other day and you are connected. You don’t even know that person, you may argue. You just thought of him or her. Right? You are connected through thought. Or, you drop a stick. The dog picks it up. You are connected. The dog smelled you through the stick. Even when person drops the cigarette butt – the bird like a mockingbird will pick it up and use it in its nest for padding. Seriously, I seen the nest made of cigarette butts, ribbons and moss. All actions have consequences.
We are all connected in one way or another. Did you ever thought of long lost friend, and that friend calls you or e-mails you out of the blue. That’s one powerful connection. We all are made up of energy and we transmit it with our being. Why dogs sniff you after you petted the other dog or animal? They can trace others’ energy, like pawprints. Now, if we all connected through our energies, thoughts and beings, how can we make a world a better place? How can we make a business better? How can we make a communication with our friends, family, or people on the street better?
On business scale, we all pretty much dealt with people who are only concerned about themselves, on both ends: customer and person who serves you. We dealt with people who only care to get paycheck and do not care about customers or service or business. We dealt with customers who rudely talk on the phone and do not pay attention, or walk with their nose in the air treating everyone like they’re beneath them. Now if these people would feel connection to business and others, they might surprise themselves. Employee who cares about business not only helps it, but has a great chance of keeping a job, increasing clients; therefore get more hours and even perhaps a promotion. A customer who respects business, might go home with great product or have the most awesome service. Who knows? Through great communication, they even can have a great connection. Perhaps they will find something they are looking for. Perhaps that person knows someone who can help them with their endeavors.
We are all in Universe (Uni-One, Verse-Song) as Wayne W. Dyer puts it in his book You\’ll See It When You Believe It “No matter how we separate into individual little notes, we are still involved in the onesong.”
Albert Einstein challenges us to think outside ourselves and to see how we all are connected:
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.”
Tags: "You'll See It When You Believe It", Albert Einstein, book, books, business, connection, friends, inspiration, life, opinion, people, personal, photo, picture, post and photo by Ineta Mcparland, random thoughts, reflections, relationships, thoughts, Universe, Wayne W. Dyer, wonderocity, Wonderocity of Mind
