Your Hidden Genius, Part I

By Robert Ringer

In a shocking display of fuzzy-headedness over the holidays, I acceded to my wife’s insistence that I take her to a movie — an activity I have avoided like the plague for years. My defense is that it was her birthday, and the only alternative was strangulation … not an option, given that the husband is always the prime suspect.

Her choice was the long-awaited “last” Rocky film. I know, I know … Rocky II, III, IV, and V were all supposed to be the final Rocky film, but … hey … Sylvester Stallone has to make a living. And if George Lucas could use “last” as a marketing ploy for Star Wars over and over again, why shouldn’t Stallone? In any event, I’m happy to report that even though the newest Rocky film is a bit farfetched, it is vintage Stallone — emotionally draining, uplifting, and, above all, highly entertaining.

I should point out that I’ve had an emotional attachment to Stallone and his Rocky films since 1977. It all began when my then secretary told me she had seen a movie over the weekend that was a “must see” for me. She went on to say that Sylvester Stallone’s success with that first Rocky closely paralleled my own success with my first book.

She explained that Stallone had done it all. He wrote the script, raised the money, played the lead character, and produced and directed the film. Unfortunately, there has been a several-hundred-million-dollar disparity between our respective returns on invested time and energy over the years, but tortoises get used to such inequities.

Nevertheless, watching Rocky Balboa got me to thinking about Stallone’s amazing rise from troubled teenager to wealthy, famous superstar. Injured at birth, he has had a droopy lip and slurred speech throughout his life, making him as unlikely a movie star as a weightlifter with an Austrian accent and a name most people can’t pronounce.

At fifteen, his classmates voted him “most likely to end up in the electric chair.” Then, after stumbling from one job to another for several years, Stallone came upon the mother of all stumbles: acting. This happened while he was coaching women’s athletics at the American College of Switzerland.

After some bit parts and a “light” porn film, he wrote his first script, The Lords of Flatbush, in which he cast himself as one of the four main characters. Believe it or not, I actually saw that film back in 1974 — an abysmal piece of work — and I remember Stallone well.

He played a somewhat blubbery hoodlum in a leather jacket — not exactly a matinee idol. At the time, no one could have convinced me that the pudgy guy with the speech impediment would soon become the most famous actor in Hollywood.

RELATED SPECIAL OFFER:

The Best of Robert Ringer

What’s so inspiring about Stallone is that his real-life success bears such a close resemblance to the success of his Rocky character. We’ve all read and heard much over the years about how every individual possesses a “hidden genius,” and Stallone’s life is an archetypal example of this. He wrote his first Rocky script in just three days! That is genius — hidden genius, because he had never written a movie script prior to the incredibly bad The Lords of Flatbush, and he had limited experience with acting and directing.

Had Stallone not stumbled onto acting in Switzerland, it’s quite possible he never would have discovered his hidden genius. Just think about that for a moment. There would have been no Rocky series, no Rambo series, no Hollywood legend by the name of Sylvester Stallone.

So, clearly, the public at large stands to benefit when someone discovers his hidden genius. That being the case, if you would really like to do something for “society,” you would do well to make a serious effort to discover your hidden genius — then exploit it to the max.

As I left the theater feeling exhilarated, another hard-case-turned-success came to mind — one who discovered his hidden genius only after overcoming the twin demons of drug addiction and alcoholism. Today, he’s a major television personality, and there appears to be no limit to what he can accomplish.

I’ll be discussing this remarkable individual in Part II of this article, as I believe his story, along with that of Sylvester Stallone, will inspire you to start thinking seriously about your own hidden genius.

Copyright © 2007 Tortoise Press, Inc.

Robert Ringer is the author of eight books, including three No. 1 best sellers, two of which have been listed by The New York Times among the 15 best-selling motivational books of all time. Subscribe to his FREE e-letter, A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World, and receive a FREE e-copy of his classic No. 1 best seller, To Be or Not to Be Intimidated? Visit www.robertringer.com.