(dramatic orchestral music)
- You take a drink with your friends
and somebody says yeah, we should go skydiving tomorrow.
And you go yeah, we'll go skydiving tomorrow.
Yeah, yeah!
And you go yeah!
And everybody goes yeah!
So then that night you're laying in your bed
and you just eh!
And you're terrified.
You keep imagining over and over again
jumping out of an airplane and you can't figure out
why you would do that.
You wake up the next day and you go you know down
you said where you were gonna meet and everybody's there.
So you get in the van and you like oh my God,
oh my God, and your stomach is terrible.
You can't eat and everything.
But you don't wanna be the only punk
who doesn't jump outta this airplane.
So you fly and you go up.
You go up, you go up, you go up to 14,000 feet
and somebody opens the door and in that moment
you realize you've never been in a frickin' airplane
with the door open and you're looking out down to death
and they say on three!
And they say one, two, and he pushes you on two
because people grab on three.
And you go ha!
And you fall out of the airplane and in one second
you realize that it's the most
blissful experience of your life.
You're flying.
There's zero fear.
You realize at the point of maximum danger
is the point of minimum fear.
It's bliss!
Why were you scared in your bed the night before?
What do you need that fear for?
Everything up to the stepping out there's actually
no reason to be scared.
It only just ruins your day.
The best things in life on the other side of terror.
On the other side of your maximum fear are all
of the best things in life.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- I didn't have an easy experience.
I didn't have come in as a top rated recruit.
I didn't come in with the opportunity to play right away.
I had to earn it.
And you know what the greatest honor I've ever received
as a player is?
In my fourth year and my fifth year
I was named team captain.
That to this day is the single greatest achievement
I've ever had as a football player
because the men in this room chose me
to lead their team and these were my best friends.
These were the guys that knew that I liked to work,
that knew that I loved football,
that knew that I loved to play,
that knew that I wanted to be the quarterback from Michigan.
And all the lessons that I learned here on State Street
and in the big house,
that's still what I bring to practice today.
And after 14 years I love the game
more than I've ever loved it.
Where did I learn the love for the game?
Where did I learn to practice?
Where did I learn to compete?
It was sitting in the same chairs
that you guys are sitting in today.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- There was a young man who, you know, he wanted
to make a lot of money and so he went to this guru right?
He told the guru, you know, I wanna be on the same level
you on and so the guru said if you wanna be
on the same level I'm on I'll meet you tomorrow
at the beach at four a.m.
He liked the beach.
I said I wanna make money.
I don't wanna swim.
Guru said if you wanna make money
I'll meet you tomorrow four a.m.
So the young man got there four a.m.
He all ready to rock and roll, got on his suit.
The old man grabs his hand said how bad
do you wanna be successful?
He said real bad.
He said walk on out in the water.
When he walks out to the water it goes waist deep.
So he like this guy crazy.
I wanna make money.
He got me out here swimming.
But the old man said I thought you said
you wanted to be successful.
He said I do.
He came, dropped his head in, held him down,
hold him down, just before my man was about to pass out,
he raised him up.
He said I got a question for you.
He said when you were under water what did you wanna do?
He said I wanted to breathe.
He told the guy, he said when you want to succeed
as bad as you wanna breathe then you'll be successful.
And I'm here to tell you number one
that most of you say you wanna be successful
but you don't want it bad.
You just kinda want it.
You don't want it badder than you wanna party.
You don't want it as much as you wanna be cool.
Only those who risk going too far can possibly
find out how far one can go.
Are you hearing me?
You don't count the cost on this one.
You just do what you gotta do on this one
and then you look back when it's all over
and you see the reward.
You look back and you see the accomplishment.
You don't count it.
You just look back and you see that you succeeded.
So what I'm telling you is you can't count the cost
because if you count the cost and you see
how much it costs you might quit.
You might give up.
So you gotta go in knowing that I don't count the cost.
Listen to me.
You don't count how many breaths you take.
You don't count it.
You get to a point where you don't count it.
You just do whatever it takes to get whatever you want.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- Like this lion.
He's the king of the jungle.
Huge mane on there.
He's laying down under a tree in the middle of Africa.
He's so big.
So hot.
He doesn't wanna move.
Now the little lion comes.
They start messing with him.
Biting his tail, biting his ears.
He doesn't do anything.
The lioness, she starts messing with him.
Coming off, making trouble, still nothing.
Now the other animals they notice this
and they start to move in.
The jackals,
hyenas,
barking at him, laughing at him.
They nip his toes and eat the food that's in his domain.
They do this and they get closer and closer and bolder
and bolder till one day that lion gets up
and tears the shit into everybody,
runs like the wind, eats everything in his path
'cause every once in awhile
the lion has to show the jackals
who he is.
- Everything you people have told me
I didn't have the technology,
I didn't have the right contacts,
I didn't have the time, I didn't have money.
Everything you've told me,
I didn't have enough Supreme Court Justices.
Those are resources.
And so you're telling me I failed
because I didn't have the resources
and I'm here to tell you what you already know.
Resources are never the problem.
It's a lack of resourcefulness is why you failed.
Because the ultimate resources are emotional states.
Creativity, decisiveness, passion,
honesty, sincerity, love,
these are the ultimate human resources.
And when you engage these resource
you can get any other resource on earth.
Resourcefulness is the ultimate resource.
And if you don't have what you want
stop telling yourself a story
because you don't have the money, you don't have the time.
That's bullshit.
It's because you haven't committed yourself
where you would burn your boats.
If you wanna take the fuckin' island
burn your fucking boats and you will take the island
'cause people when they're gonna either die
or succeed tend to succeed.
- I was in this strange little hotel
and I just lost the competition.
I cried all night.
I was this 21 year old kid and I was crying all night.
But then eventually I got back again
and kept thinking about what am I doing in America?
I'm here to beat all of the American body builders.
To be up here to beat all of the body builders
all over the world.
So let's get our act together.
There will be payback time.
It is so important that you work your butt off.
Don't ever look for shortcuts.
You have to recognize that there are 24 hours a day.
We sleep six hours a day
and I know there are some of you that say
wait a minute, I take more time to sleep.
I say just sleep faster, okay?
'Cause you should only spend six hours in bed
because otherwise it's a waste of time
and then you have 18 hours left.
Most people work let's say eight or 10 hours.
So now you still have eight hours left.
What do we do with this eight hours is really the question.
So this is when you have to study and learn something new.
The key thing is to keep in mind what is your goal
and keep looking at that as you get up
and dust yourself off.
Okay?
- He sleeps on the floor.
Him and two other dreamers up there.
Look at 'em.
It was hard, ladies and gentlemen,
coming to speak to people.
And I was facing financial difficulties in my own life.
I was behind on my bills and my dreams
and I'm saying to them you can live your dream!
It was hard, ladies and gentlemen.
It was very difficult to pick myself up each day
believing that I could do it.
There were times that I doubted myself
and said God, why is this happening to me?
I'm just trying to take care of my children and my mother.
I'm not trying to steal or rob from anybody.
Why did this have to happen to me?
It was very hard.
And here's what I wanna say to you.
For those of you that have experienced some hardships,
don't give up on your dream.
No one coulda convinced me by holding on,
by continuing to push forward,
by continuing to run toward my dream.
It's a long shot ladies and gentlemen from Liberty City
in an abandoned building on the floor,
never knowing my mother or father.
It's a long shot being here with you today
in this dome in Atlanta.
It's a long shot!
No college training, labeled eligible mentally retarded
but I kept running toward my dream!
Don't stop running towards your dream!
- I've had my shares of ups and downs.
I've had many struggles.
I've had blood clots in both my lungs at the same time
and I lived through tragedies and controversies
and people looked down on me, put me down
because I didn't look like them.
I look stronger.
I've had people look past me
because of the color of my skin.
I've had people overlook me because I was a woman.
I had critics say I will never win another Grand Slam
when I was only at number seven
and now here I stand today with 21 Grand Slam titles
and I'm still going.
And I cannot help but think of my favorite poet
Maya Angelou and she has this poem called
And Still I Rise.
So here it goes.
You may write me down in history
with your bitter twisted lies.
You may trod me with the very dirt.
But still, like dust, I rise.
Just like moon and suns with the certainty of tides.
Just like hopes and springing high.
Still I rise.
Did you wanna see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling like teardrops,
weakened by my soulful cries?
Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.
From a past that's rooted in pain I rise.
Into the daybreak that's wonderfully clear I rise.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave I rise.
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.
- 35 years of lifting weights and open heart surgery
dying three times on the operating table.
CT.
So you should sit down, sir, because of your diagnosis
and don't do a damned thing.
Ha.
Bullshit.
Hell no.
Every time I go to the doctor they tell me
what I shouldn't be doing.
And what I should be doing.
And what I won't do, and what I can't do.
And I politely go out the door
and do whatever the fuck I wanna do.
And I'm gonna do that until they throw dirt on top of me.
It's my life and I choose to live it
the way I wanna live it.
It's impossible.
I've heard that so many times.
It's just impossible.
Can't be done.
It is impossible until some crazy son of a bitch
has the audacity to believe that no matter what
the expert or the doctor says
I can still do that shit.
Will is the key.
Will.
Will power.
Anytime that you give your best effort,
that you give everything that you possibly can give
there is satisfaction in knowing
that I did my absolute best.
I did all I could do.
There's victory in that.
Remember what you are.
Remember who the fuck you are.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- I'd had like 106 dollars in the bank
and like I said I had to sell my dog
and things were not looking very, very good.
My 40 dollar car had just blown up
so I was taking the bus to work.
I had no film history, no real film knowledge.
I was just working from, I guess, instinct
and I knew this was like the moment of truth
and they said Sylvester, are you ready?
I said no.
But Rocky is.
'Cause so often I had gone to fight films
or sporting films, yes we're gonna go out there.
We're gonna knock 'em out.
You're gonna win.
I said no.
I'm not gonna win.
I'm going to get destroyed.
But if I can just be lucid,
if I can still be standing on my feet, you know what?
Then life isn't so bad.
And I think again, symbolically,
at the very end of our lives if we can still say you know
we were never humbled.
We were knocked down but we got up
and I can say I lived life with integrity
and I took all the blows and I still prevailed.
I think that's a good epitaph for anyone
and that's what I try to capture in this film.
But more importantly, you can't be alone.
To really succeed, no man really is an island.
When you find the right components in your life,
the right people that gel with you
then you feel as though you're invincible.
(dramatic orchestral music)