Going for Broke
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Many years ago, a young fairly unknown actor was struggling. He had $106 in the bank, a pregnant wife, a dog he couldn’t afford to feed and was late on his rent. What to do? Write a screenplay!
In three and a half days, he wrote it and received interest from a studio that wanted to do the movie . . . but only if a more well-known actor played the lead. He turned it down.
He also knew that he could not afford to hold out for very long and decided that if the other side did not give in by the end of the weekend, he would. Fortunately, the studio agreed on Friday and Sylvester Stallone starred in the movie he wrote, “Rocky.” He owned 10% of the movie. It was filmed in less than a month for a $1 million budget and earned $225 million at a time when that was an enormous grossing film. It won 3 Oscars including Best Picture and led to 5 sequels and a robust movie career for Stallone.
When I speak with most job hunters, recruiters, business owners, HR professionals, they work to lead nice lives within the system. They say they aspire to success, maybe even fame or celebrity but it has to be done safely.
One lesson I learned a long time ago is that there is a price that has to be paid for every decision we make.
In the great old movie, “Inherit the Wind,” a fictional account of a famous US trial, “Spencer Tracy says, “. . . you may conquer the air but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline.”
Everything we do has a consequence.
What are you willing to do to fulfill what you believe your destiny is?
What do you have to defer or give up to achieve it?
Want to be a successful recruiter? Maybe it’s giving up several nights a week to speak with people? Maybe it’s leaving your current firm and going out on your own and reinvesting your income to hire staff, buy tools to help you and lose your arrogance.
Want to be in the C suite?
Maybe you will have to give up your limiting beliefs about “politics in business,” embrace it and master it. Maybe you and your family will need to spend time becoming professionally visible?
Whatever it is. If my words in some way resonate for you, “Like this article” and leave a comment. Maybe your words will inspire someone to go for broke.
Oh! By the way, for an insight into Stallone’s gesture above and how important it is, listen to Dr. Amy Cuddy’s TedTalk.
© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC 2015, 2024
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS job search coaching and career advice globally because he makes job search
and succeeding in your career easier.
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