I was watching the Golden Globe Awards last night and I saw Sylvester Stallone win his first-ever Golden Globe for his role in Creed.  Forty years after his last nomination for the movie Rocky.

Forty years later.

It got me thinking about Rocky, a movie I grew up with.  And how Stallone wrote the script in a few days while living in New York trying to make it as an actor.

Stallone was rejected over and over again, and finally got a studio that was interested in buying the script for a huge amount of money at the time… $350,000. But Stallone wanted more.  He wanted to star in it.

He didn’t let up.  Even though he only had $106 in the bank and was earning $36 a week as an usher.

They finally agreed.  The movie budget was cut to $1 million by the studio and the two producers mortgaged their homes to cover any overages (which ended up being $100,000).

And the film was made.  It was the highest grossing film of 1976.  It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won three.  It was the first sports film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

It was ranked fourth in the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time in 2006.

A script that was written in a few days.  Starring a “no-name” actor who fought his way into the story in board rooms and in boxing rings.

As Rocky says in the movie, “It ain’t about how hard you hit.  It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.  That’s how winning is done.”

That is true inspiration to me.  Never giving up.  Believing in yourself.  When Stallone won the Golden Globe last night he said, “I am the sum total of everyone I’ve ever met, and I’m so lucky I’ve absorbed some of it.  Most of all I wanna thank my imaginary friend Rocky Balboa for being the best friend I ever had.”

Stallone and Rocky followed their hearts and made their dreams come true.  What dreams will we push to the limits today?