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. :)