Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When they might have won, had they stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow,

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor's cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,

It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit!

The Sylvester Stallone Story

This is a real story of how Sylvester Stallone turned from a nobody to a somebody. It's a true rag to riches tale that is sure to inspire anybody.

Most of you would have know Sylvester Stallone as the Star of Rocky and Rambo. But life wasn't so rosy for him in the beginning...

Stallone attended school in suburban Philadelphia where he first started acting. He then spent two years instructing at the American College at the American College of Switzerland in Geneva. When he arrived back in the United States, he became a drama major at the University of Miami where he also began to write.

He left college before graduation and moved to New York to pursue his acting career. He auditioned for almost every casting agent in town but with little success. He then decided to turn more towards writing and wrote many screenplays while waiting for his acting career to blossom.

In 1974, he got a break as one of the leads in "The Lords of Flatbush." He also received his first writing credit for additional dialog on this film.

However, despite this small break, he struggled to build momentum. He kept auditioning but was faced with rejection one after the other. He started writing more screenplays and received similar rejections.

Stallone had run out of money and he was living in a desperate situation. He could barely even feed his family. Then one day he was walking through the streets of New York and he wandered into the library to keep warm. This became a regular habit for him during the colder months.

At the library he began reading books from famous writers. This gave him a bit of an extra edge in his writing and so he pursued this more and more.

By this stage, he was desperate to get work but he wouldn't take an average job, he knew what he wanted. He wanted to be an actor and he was determined to make that happen.

One day, Stallone was sitting at home watching a fight between Weppner and Ali. Weppner was getting absolutely slaughtered but kept holding his ground and coming back for more. This underdog was really fighting for it despite the slim chance he would even get close to winning.

Stallone was inspired by Weppner and started writing. He wrote for over 24 hours straight and after this time, he had written the entire script for Rocky.

He began trying to sell the screenplay to many producers but was once again met with rejections. This went on for months.

He was so poor by this time that he decided he had to sell his best friend, his dog. Stallone waited outside of a local liquor store asking people if they would buy his dog. Eventually someone bought the dog for around $50. He was devastated that he had to do this.

He kept pursuing the story that he had written. Eventually someone agreed to do the movie. Stallone was ecstatic and told them that he wanted to play the part of Rocky.

However, they declined, telling him that he was a writer and not an actor. Stallone disagreed and told them he was an actor. He declined their offer of over $100,000 despite his desperate poverty.

You must be thinking now, is Stallone mad? Well, Stallone knew what he wanted and he would go all out to get it.

A couple of weeks later, they contacted him again and offered him a higher offer but still Stallone insisted that he played the part of Rocky. The offer kept rising so that he would sell them the film without playing the part. Even when the offer was as high as $400,000, Stallone declined.

He was certain that he was the actor and there would be no compromise.

Eventually, they gave in and offered Stallone a measly $25,000 and having him play the lead role. Stallone accepted the offer. Then the first thing he did was to go back to the liquor store to buy back his dog.

He waited 3 days for the guy to come by and finally there he was with his dog. He offered the guy $150 to buy back the dog but the man declined. The offer kept rising but again, Stallone knew what he wanted.

He ended up paying $15,000 for his dog and gave the man a role in the movie. The man and the dog are indeed in the movie.

The rest as they say is history. Rocky the Movie won the Academy Award for best picture in 1976. At the awards ceremony, Sylvester Stallone read out all the rejection slips from those who said the film would be sappy, predictable and a film that no one would want to watch...

True persistence pays off every time in every circumstance. Most people give up too easily. Persistence will fight off failure faster than skill or luck every could. Just look at Sylvester Stallone, he persisted and always knew what he wanted. Look at where he is today, he is living his dream. :)

It ain't about how hard you hit...

An inspiration scene from Rocky 6. Rocky teaches his son about life...

"...But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stop being you.

You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you start to look for something to blame, like a big shadow.

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place... and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life.

But ain't about how hard you hit... It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward.

That´s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you worth, go out and get what you worth.

But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers saying: You ain´t what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody.

Cowards do that and that ain´t you! You´re better than that!"...

So, are you a coward or a winner?

The Power Of A Positive Attitude

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a positive attitude. Sometimes even when the chips are down, you must be positive. Seriously, will mulling over your problem or thinking the worst help you to solve the problem? No? Then why not adopt a positive mindset instead?

It'll cheer you up, give you hope and in the process clears your mind and help you think better. And do you know being positive will bring you luck too? Ha. Yah I know it sounds silly but luck can actually be explained by science. (More on luck in another article soon. :)

Being positive opens up your mind and you may spot opportunities that you may have missed otherwise. Positive thinking can also improves your health too. Your mind controls your body, if you THINK you feel lousy, your body will feel sluggish, you'll feel tired and have no mood to do anything.

But if you THINK you feel good, observe how GREAT you will feel. Suddenly, you are full of energy, there's a smile on your face and you're rearing to get some work done. :D (Notice how when you read this sentence you suddenly feel good. That's the power of the mind in action!)

So, if you are a negative person, it's time to change your mindset. You have a choice. Why not think positive starting from today?

It's all about Perspective

One day, according to an old story, a man with a serious illness was wheeled into a hospital room where another patient was resting on a bed next to the window. As the two became friends, the one next to the window would look out of it and then spend the next few hours delighting his bedridden companion with vivid descriptions of the world outside.

Some days he would describe the beauty of the trees in the park across from the hospital and how the leaves danced in the wind. On other days, he would entertain his friends with step-by-step replays of the things people were doing as they walked by the hospital.

However, as time went on, the bedridden man grew frustrated at his inability to observe the wonders his friend described. Eventually, he grew to dislike him and then to hate him intensely.

One night, during a particularly bad coughing fit, the patient next to the window stopped breathing. Rather than pressing the button for help, the other man chose to do nothing. The next morning, the patient who had given his friend so much happiness by recounting sights outside the window was pronounced dead and wheeled out of the hospital room.

The other man quickly asked that his bed be placed next to the window, a request that was complied with by the attending nurse. But as he looked out of the window, he discovered something that made him shake: the window faced a stark brick wall.

His former roommate had conjured up the incredible sights that he described in his imagination as a loving gesture to make the world of his friend a little bit better during a difficult time...

To live happier, more fulfilling life, when we encounter a difficult circumstance, we must keep shifting our perspective and eventually ask ourselves, "Is there a wiser, more enlightened way of looking at this seemingly negative situation?"

Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest physicists ever, once said that we live on a minor planet of a very average star located within the outer limits of one of a hundred thousand million galaxies. How's that for a shift in perspective?

Given this information, are your troubles really that big? Are the problems you have experienced or the challenges you might currently be facing really as serious as you have made them out to be?

Remember, it's all about perspective. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Adapted from, "Who Will Cry When You Die? - Life Lessons From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" by Robin S. Sharma.