He Wanted To Be An Actor
He wanted to be an actor. He auditioned to almost every agent in NYC’s phonebook and was rejected. He barely scraped by getting money however he could. He hocked his wife’s jewelry. He sold his dog for $50 outside a liquor store. One day he churned out a screenplay after watching TV and started pushing that. For months his screenplay was rejected.
Finally, he got a bite. Someone wanted to buy the rights for 100k! He said “OK, as long as I get the lead part.” He auditioned and was rejected. They told him “stick to writing, you’re not cut out for acting.”
He didn’t sell them the rights.
They came back and offered more. He declined again. He wanted to be an actor. Back and forth it went before they agreed to make him the lead, but he’d only get paid 25k for everything. He agreed.
His name is Sylvester Stallone and the movie was “Rocky.”
P.S.—Afterwards, he waited outside the liquor store for 3 days until the guy who bought his dog came through. He bought the dog back for 15k.
This made me smile.
It also made me go on to ramble the story at several people in my life who all had the same reaction – “I can take over the world!”