Episode 245: Wisdom & Inspiration

Acting Business Boot Camp

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Today, I will read you something that a listener sent me, so thank you, Margaret.

I absolutely love this, and I'm going to read it just as it was presented to me because I think it's so inspirational about not giving up and also just it's about tenacity.

"Hi, Peter. I ran across this post on Twitter and had to share some good points. Didn't know any of this about the film Rocky. In 1975, Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rocky. He shopped the script to every producer and studio in Hollywood but was repeatedly rejected.

Eventually, one production company, Chartoff-Winkler Productions, expressed interest, but there was one condition…

They didn't want Stallone to play Rocky. They wanted a "more marketable actor" for the leading role.

In fact, they were so desperate for Stallone to *not* play Rocky that they kept offering him increasing large sums of money to go away.

"It went up to $360,000," Stallone said, "to go away to get off my lawn, boy."

Stallone didn't take the money for two reasons:

1) "I had learned to manage on very little money," Stallone said, "I had it down to a science. I really didn't need much to live on, but more than that…"

2) "There was something about the idea of unrealized dreams, Stallone said, "I knew that if I sold the script, even for $500,000, I knew that after the money was gone, I would've become very bitter if I never realized my dream."

Money Mastery for Actors

This course is just like what Stallone is talking about. It's really finding what your magic number is and what it takes to make that. Do that repeatedly so you're not living hand to mouth so that when oh, a strike happens, you are not panicking.

So you have money. The money you make today is actually for the future, not for today. You're not living that hand to mouth, and you are cognizant of what is going on with your money.

So that gave him the freedom to say, "You know what I'm, I'm good, how I am. I'm good. How I am."

He goes deeper, and he talks about that money. Money comes, money goes, money comes, money goes.

He said he'd be very bitter once the half a million dollars was gone because he would've sold out.

He would've sold out his dream. Think about it, $500,000 or the career that Sylvester Stallone has had today.

Tom Rothman, CEO of Sony, says, "Be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless. "

The trick is to be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless.

Hollywood is a ruthless business. If Rocky failed, that likely would've ended Sylvester Stallone's acting career.

But because he had his fiscal responsibilities down to a science, Stallone could make the reckless decision to turn down the money and gamble his career on Rocky.

And this is the thing; if you are not worried about your money, you can be so free.

Because you know you're taken care of. You have that safety net. Wouldn't you love to have that safety net?

Now let's talk about the other takeaway.

Stallone turned down the money because he feared the bitter person he would've become if he never went for his dream. This leads me to the core work question: Are you really pursuing your dream?

And if you are not really going for your dream every single day, why not?

Why aren't you going for it? What is standing in your way? Oh, so good.

The screenwriter, Brian Kopelman, talks about why he finally started writing after many years of putting it off.

"What I finally realized was that if I allowed these creative impulses to die, It would be like a real death, and like any form of death, it would be toxic, and this toxicity would ooze out of me onto everyone and everything."

The core work has been fully responsible for me going after what I want to do. It's the core work. It's the work on myself. It's the self-confidence it's for; it's the part of me knowing in and of myself I am enough when I create.

I can also do so freely because I'm fiscally responsible, and that is why I hammer time after time, after time, after time after time about core work in these podcasts, because that is the key to your success.

So that you can say, "I am not gonna let my creative impulses die."

Okay. The final quote for you.

"If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do. Kid. Money is the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive." –Bill Cunningham.

If you didn't have fear, How would you go after your career? What would you do differently?

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