This is the TRUE story of a man who never gave up on his dream, and kept on trying despite constant disappointment.
Growing up, the man always knew that he wanted to become an actor. It was his dream.
He moved to New York to pursue an acting career, and he auditioned over 1500 times in various agencies which he each visited over 7 times..
He got rejected again and again.
"You don't talk properly, and your face is not symmetrical either", he was being told.
Then one day he was waiting at an agency in the afternoon, but the Manager didn't want to talk to him.
He stayed in the office overnight, and when the Manager returned the next day and saw that man still sitting at the entrance, he gave the man his first acting job.
But after that, he still didn't break through with his career.
He kept being rejected, was broke, couldn't even afford heating in his apartment, and kept going to auditions and trying to pursue his dream.
"I have to keep going. If I stop now and get a regular job in the meantime, I know that I will get used to the routine and then stop going after my dream. I have to be tough and keep going!", he said to himself.
One day when it was particularly cold, he went into the Public Library because it was nice and warm there.
He sat on a char and noticed that someone had left a Book by Edgar Allan Poe there.
So he started reading it and got so inspired that he decided to start writing some screenplays.
He had written before in college, but always knew that acting was more of his passion.
So he started writing Screenplays, but they all got rejected as well.
He kept struggling, kept being pushed back, but didn't give up.
And then came the worst day of his life:
He was so broke that the only thing he had left to sell was his dog.
He loved his dog more than anything in the world, it was his best friend.
But still, he didn't even had money to feed it and didn't have any other choice, so he just stood in front of a liquor store and tried to sell his dog to people passing by for $ 50.
After a while, a man walked by and agreed to buy the dog for $ 25.
That day, the man went home crying.
A short while later, he was watching a boxing match between Weppner and Muhammad Ali.
Weppner was an underdog, a newbie fighting against a Boxing Star, but he didn't let that intimidate him and kept attacking although he got beat up by Ali numerous times.
The man was so deeply inspired by this character that never gave up, and got the idea for a screenplay.
He started writing it down, didn't sleep, and wrote for over 20 hours straight.
After that, the whole Screenplay for the movie "ROCKY" was finished.
After that, he was so excited and knew exactly what he had to do.
He tried to sell the script to various agencies, but always got rejected again.
People were telling him that "the story was too predictable and sappy", and "nobody would want to watch it".
This kept going on for months.
Then finally, an agency showed interested and wanted to buy the script for $ 125,000 .
The man, who was still totally broke at the time, told them that he would only sell the script under the condition that he would play the main character.
"You?! You're not an actor, you're a writer!", was their answer. They wanted to hire a professional actor who was already famous.
"No, this is my story and I am Rocky!", was his response.
So he denied the deal.
The agency later offered him $250,000 and even $325,000 for the script but still didn't want to let the man star in it - and he refused again.
Finally, they agreed to a compromise and promised to let him be the main character, but only pay him $35,000 for the role.
The man agreed.
This man was Sylvester Stallone.
The first thing he wanted to do with this money was to get back his dog.
He waited outside that same liquor store for 3 days straight, hoping that the man who bought the dog would return.
Eventually he did on the 3rd day.
Stallone explained the situation, but the man responded: "No, it's my dog now. I won't sell it back to you for any amount!"
They kept negotiating and in the end, Stallone managed to buy back the dog.
In return, he ended up paying $15,000 Dollars, and also managed to give the man a role in "Rocky".
Sylvester Stallone and his real dog Butkus, who also starred in Rocky
As we all know, the movie ROCKY turned out to be a huge success, and even got rewarded with an Oscar.
As Sylvester Stallone was accepting the award, he read out all the things that agencies had told him about the movie being "not good enough" when they had rejected his script.
This story shows that you can really make your dreams come true if you keep striving towards your goal, change your approach if you fail, and then keep going until you have achieved it!
But don't sell your dog on the way to success ;)
Much Love
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© Sirwinchester