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DON’T PLAY THE VICTIM
Samuel explains how Sylvester had shared with him that he didn’t have a great start to life, (in fact, terrible!), he got picked on at school and felt unloved as a child. However, it’s not about where you’re coming from but about where you’re going. He made the choice to not allow his PAST to affect or determine his future!
“It’s not about how hard you get hit, but it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep standing and walking, that’s what winning is” – Sylvester Stallone.
So, don’t play the victim, be a victor and look forward!
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HAVE DOGGED PERSISTENCE
Never give up! Stallone didn’t grow up from a privileged background and he worked tirelessly to get his script accepted for the renown film, ‘Rocky’. It wasn’t until the producers told him they didn’t want to act, that Stallone pushed and pushed to own what he’d made!
Sylvester Stallone is an all or nothing guy, Samuel explained. His persistent determination allowed to literally achieve overnight success.
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HAVE A ROLE MODEL!
It is important to have someone you can aspire to be like and use as motivation to succeed. During their time together, Sylvester explained to Samuel how his role model was ‘Hercules’, after seeing the film at the movies. He admired the characters ‘self-worth’ and believes having role models and mentors is key to growing and succeeding.
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MAKE MISTAKES!
Mistakes. We all hate making mistakes.
However, Stallone revealed to Samuel how he LOVES making mistakes (yes, sounds strange, I know!) because making mistakes means he can then LEARN! Making mistakes puts you one step closer to succeeding, he explained, and you should see it as a real life first-hand lesson of how not to do it next time.
“He [Sylvester Stallone] continually made mistakes and quite literally failed his way into success. If you were to write a book of the mistakes you have made, I think that’s really powerful”
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And finally, BE CREATIVE! (Samuel’s favourite point!)
You can flip a bad thing into a good thing and turn positives into negatives.
Sylvester Stallone created a script for a new film but it got turned down. “Rocky is done! Sylvester Stallone is dead now! Rocky is dead, no-one cares about the films anymore, it’s done!”.
This was the BIGGEST negative he had ever had and he was determined to turn it into a positive. Instead of giving up, he wanted to flip the cards. So he came back and did the script of Rocky Balboa about being a ‘passed it’ boxer and metaphorically ‘dead!’. He used this negative as the theme for the next film, and used it to his advatange which we now know, became a massive hit and huge success.
