Ariel Reinitz

Sylvester Stallone was so poor he had to sell his dog because he couldn’t feed him. He had $106 dollars in the bank and his $40 car had just blown up. Shortly after he went to watch the legendary Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner fight. “For one brief moment, this supposed stumblebum turned out to be magnificent. And he lasted and knocked the champ down. I thought if this isn’t a metaphor for life.” 3 days later, he wrote the script for Rocky. Writing the character of Rocky he thought of, “A man who is going to stand up to life, and take one shot, and maybe go the distance.” The reason you and I know of the film, is because Sylvester Stallone went in for a casting, realized he wasn’t right for the job, and on the way out he mentioned to the producers he was a writer. They told him to bring his script in later. A major win for Stallone. There was only one problem. They loved the script, but they didn’t want Stallone to play the part of Rocky. They offered him $360,000 for the script and Stallone thought, “You know what? You’ve got this poverty thing down. You really don’t need much to live on…I was in no way used to the good life.” In his mind, he knew he had to sell the script. His heart was saying something totally different. It was do or die. “If I’m not in it. There’s no doubt in my mind. I’m going to be very, very upset.” “So this is one of those things, when you just roll the dice and fly by the proverbial seat of your pants and you just say, ‘I’ve got to try it. I’ve just got to do it. I may be totally wrong, and I’m going to take a lot of people down with me, but I just believe in it.’” With a budget of one million, using family and friends in the cast, handheld cameras, and only using one take to film most of the footage, the first Rocky was filmed throughout Hollywood. But the real test came to a screening at The Director’s Guild infront of 900 people in the industry. “The laughs weren’t coming where they were supposed to… And I just sat there, as everyone left the theatre, and I couldn’t believe it. I really blew it. I was humiliated….” “So I walked down three flights of stairs out of the theatre and everyone from the theatre were standing there waiting for me. And they started to applaud. I mean truly applaud. I’ll never experience a moment like that again.” Imagine if Sylvester chose to walk away when he was at his lowest? Imagine if he walked away after a bad casting call. Imagine if he would have taken the money and walked away from Rocky? Sometimes, no matter how hard it gets, you just have to take the shot. You have to have the confidence to bet on yourself, the wit to climb over and around any obstacle, and the humility to listen for your moment. You take the shot so that you never have to live with the what-ifs. Rocky went on to grossed over $200 million. TAKE THE SHOT.