Your Big Break: The 3 Steps To Make It Happen

Grant Cardone and Sylvester Stallone. What do these two guys have in common?

They’re both Italian. They both found themselves completely broke in their 20s and they both found a way to dig out of that hole and do something wonderful with their life.

Stallone’s life mirrors that of his best-known role as the movie character Rocky. That movie is one of the most popular movies of all-time because so many people can relate to it—including Grant.

So many of us find ourselves broke, just needing a break in life. And there’s a simple formula in the movie that shows ANYONE how to have success in life and create your big break. (Rocky is not just a boxing movie)!

The 3 Steps to create your big break are:

Dream,
Risk, and
Persist.

Let’s look at each one a little more closely:

#1 DREAM:

The first theme in Rocky is that you’ve got to start with a dream, whatever it may be, big or small, realistic or unrealistic…you’ve got to have some idea of what you want to accomplish.

Stallone is a great example of running against the wind and going against the odds for a dream.

He couldn’t get a job acting when he first started out so he did the hard work of writing screenplays and scripts, learning about cameras, and doing everything around the area of acting.

If your dream is in a space but you can’t yet do that ONE thing you want, just start getting around that space and do things related or near to what you really want to do.

[ACTION IDEA: Identify your dream. What is that ONE thing you want? How can you get around it? List 3 things you can do, actions you can take that would immediately get you right up next to the ONE thing.]

#2 RISK:

The second theme of Rocky is that you’ve got to be willing to risk getting knocked out in order to pursue your dream. There are no guarantees life will go how you plan or want. But if you never risk going after your dream, you will for sure NEVER get it.

Rocky is about taking a shot, swinging for the fences. Life throws a wall at you and you stand up to it. At some point, if you’re going to be extraordinary in ANYTHING in life, you’ll have to risk something—and it’s going to be scary and NOT comfortable.

For Stallone, the producers at the studio loved the script he wrote for Rocky Balboa and offered $360,000 just for the script, with the condition that he wouldn’t play Rocky… because they wanted a big Hollywood Star. $360K was tempting to a guy that had literally NO money. But Stallone knew HE was the guy to play the part of Rocky.

He wouldn’t settle!

In life, it can be RISKY to not settle—it’s risky to go after it ALL. But I know Sylvester wouldn’t have been happy if he had played it safe and settled for the $360K—which he really needed at the time—in order to let someone else play HIS character. You must be confident in your abilities and what you want if you’re going to RISK big.

[ACTION IDEA: Think about a time where you didn’t settle. Why didn’t you settle? How did that feel? Now think about a time you took a risk. Why did you go for it? What was the result? What decision did you make after that result?]

#3 PERSIST

What people admire about the character Rocky is that he GOES THE DISTANCE. He stood up, took a shot, and went all the way with it. Don’t quit on your dream! Know that nothing worth having is EASY.

Many people say they’re going to 10X, become a millionaire, bla bla bla…but when it’s time to train they don’t want to put in the time.

Don’t start down the road of success only to quit.

Life and business are a sprint but it’s also a marathon. The studio told Stallone they wanted his movie, but NOT him, but he kept persisting that HE WAS THE GUY to play Rocky.

Opportunities will pass you by, just because you are a NOBODY. Doors will be shut on you. Can you persist?

Rocky went on to receive nine Oscar nominations and got three wins, including Best Picture and grossed over $200 million.

That movie is a cultural icon and made Stallone a star. But don’t forget that before all that became a reality, Stallone did all kinds of odd jobs like cleaning out lion cages in the city zoo and working as an usher at cinema halls…working hard just to survive and find a way to make his dream work.

Grant’s dreams have also never come easily.

Nobody knows how much he trained in sales, nobody knows how much he was rejected in the early days of launching his first business, and nobody knows how much he had to persist just to win ONE big deal.

[ACTION IDEA: Who or what have you NOT taken a shot at? The 10X Rule compels you to think 10X bigger and go 10X bigger. If you haven’t hit your target yet or you tried and quit, all you need to do is get back in the ring and continue to persist and work on Grant’s Success Formula daily. A³. Look at your target and rate yourself daily on these 3 things and isolate where you need to put your attention

Attitude: How’s your attitude?
Approach: Is your approach effective?
Action: Are you actually doing enough?

Much like Rocky, how can you relate to these lyrics?]

Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast
You trade your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight…”

HANG TOUGH AND STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS.

REMEMBER: Be Great (because nothing else pays) and your big break will be something that you cause, not something that just happened to you out of nowhere.

Your Big Break: The 3 Steps To Make It Happen