How Michael Gardenzio Achieved the American Dream (part I)
By: Pablo Lacasia
Tags: Dreams, Sylvester Stallone, Movies, Perseverance, Resilience

I want to tell you the fascinating story of Michael Gardenzio. I know it doesn’t sound like a saleable name for performing arts but trust me you know who I’m talking about. If you haven’t googled it yet read down for 15 seconds and I’ll reveal that and his morals.

Son of an Italian hairdresser. Born in New York. He was 30 years old with a first newborn son and $ 106 left between his wallet and bank account. He already had a divorce on record and was living in a 2x2x3 meter room with his dog.

Heartbroken, physically exhausted, hanging on the last bundle of hope, he went out one night to watch the televised Muhammad Ali-Chuck Wepner fight (3/24/1975) like millions of other viewers. Only one attendee of that vast audience sprouted a script, frantically written in 3 days and 20 straight hours.

It arose from Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone. Rocky was born (1976) and only half of the author’s first and last name became famous forever.

American Dream

Michael Sylvester reached the long-awaited and elusive American dream. He moved to Los Angeles and this story continues there.

‘We’re here for one simple reason: I believed in the dream’ he once said, speaking of the dream that is part of the spirit of the United States supported by a set of ideals such as democracy, rights, freedom, opportunities and equality that gives them the possibility of pursuing happiness to prosper. The Declaration of Independence of the United States is about “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. As simple as arduous and stoic as that.

Joan (Pauline Collins), tells Max (Patrick Swayze) in the film adaptation of City of Joy (Dominique Lapierre): ‘There are really only three actions open to a person. Max: Only three — okay. And what are they? Joan: To run, to spectate, to commit. Sylvester Stallone is not my idol. It is not an example of virtues that I consider important. He is not a versatile actor, nor is he extraordinary, nor is he a great comedian. I could list dozens of other things that I disagree with. But in this article, I choose to show one outstanding characteristic of the author and his characters: they got involved. They commit to life.

An enviable, admirable and worthy commitment to imitate.

The Chances

On average, just under 4 million babies are born each year in the United States. Of those only 400 people born in 1946 are recognized as famous in The Famous People page. The equivalent of 0.01% of all born that year. This means that only 1 in 10,000 dreaming Americans born per year will reach something equivalent to Sylvester Sly Stallone status: become super-famous, millionaires, successful in the most varied fields and industries, from politics to acting or medicine and science.

In the Entertainment Industry field of all those born in 1946 only 5 have a star on The Walk of Fame.

The United States has 328,200,000 inhabitants (2019) of which -and according to the probabilities-, 32,820 will be those who will come to fulfill ‘The Dream’ as Sly did, those who will ascend to the pinnacle of the social and economic pyramid where the golden pot is at the end of the rainbow. Getting there is very difficult (1/10,000), staying there is less harder (1/100), but what is almost chimerical (1/144,000) is getting the stardom on The Walk of Fame. Becoming one of the 614 Billionaire in the USA, if that’s the aspiration, is even harder: 1 chance out of 540,000.

A-List actors make on average 2 movies a year. Only 1% of the actors appear in near 100 film credits. ‘American actor, filmmaker, author, director, producer, writer, and screenwriter, Sylvester Stallone has appeared in over seventy-five films. This is a list of his acting roles as well as directing, screenwriting, producing credits’. Sly is going for his 45th career year in the holly woods of LA.

Michael (aka Sylvester) shows us everything about chasing the dreams. Everything and much more as you can see in the more than 5.5 million results for: “life lessons from Rocky movies” or 1.2 million results for: “life lessons from Sylvester Stallone” in Google. You can go and search them. It’s all there: No 1 Lesson from Sylvester Stallone; 3 Lessons in Customer Retention from Sylvester Stallone; 4 Motivational Lessons Rocky Balboa Can Teach You; 5 Life Lessons Rocky Balboa taught us; Top 6 Lessons from Rocky; 7 Things Filmmakers Can Learn from Rocky; 8 Life Lessons We Learned from Rambo; 9 Sylvester Stallone movie props you could own; 10 Life Lessons from Rocky; 11 Surprising Facts About Sylvester Stallone; 12 Surprisingly Brilliant Life Lessons from Sylvester Stallone; 23 Tough Guy Lessons Taught by Sylvester Stallone.

And unnumbered, but just as didactic teachings form dear old Sly also includes business, resilience, and perseverance: Why Sylvester Stallone Has Taught Me About Business; How to Remain: Lessons from Sylvester Stallone; Life Lesson in Grit from Sylvester Stallone.

So, uh, what’s up Doc!

Angelo ‘Snaps’ Provolone, John Rambo, Judge Dredd did it! It was probably the most unlikely, but it got into planetary Pop Culture. Today while I was training Eye of the Tiger was playing on my AirPods and my fists began to hit the air like I was a boxer (and I’m not). Never in my life did I think I was going to write an article about Sylvester Stallone “the Italian Stallion”, the one with the scream of ‘Adriaaaaaan’ in Rocky; the one with the red headband on Rambo and the round tiny glasses of Raymond Tango.

As in Homer (not Simpson, but the Greek), his odysseys (movies and life) have similar characteristics. Repetitions, choirs, the gods (luck) play dice with the lives of men. Mythical story of a comeback. The son’s search for the father. A set of intersecting stories. Greek tragedy and classical mythology: fatality of destiny dictated by the gods. Mimicry: imitating nature, pursuing noble actions. Catharsis: personal purification. Aren’t all lives like that?

Not all is said about his life and his films, but there should be unanimity on at least one thing: we don’t understand why and how someone came up with inserting into Macaulay Culkin Sly’s face in this Home Stallone deep fake. What alcoholic extents had their veins reached?

I know, yes, that Stallone is the king of the Razzies, ‘for better or worse. He’s been nominated for Worst Actor a whopping 15 times and for Worst Supporting Actor three times’. But to be fair, in 1977, at the 49th Academy Awards, Rocky was nominated for ten Awards, including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay nominations. The film went on to win the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Directing and Best Film Editing.

From the extensive ‘Stallonian’ artistic universe born of the underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, I choose to keep these 45 lessons for life (yes, 45! In this article part I only 19), sieved by The 21 rules of coexistence for a good life; The Beatitudes by Thomas More; 16Personalities and some individual phrases by Gary Vee (Vaynerchuck) and his batch of increasingly extensive online followers. I share my incomplete, subjective, controversial and full list (with some Easter Eggs for those who want to discover them).

45 Life Lessons from Michael Gardenzio

Gnosce Te Ipsum: Know yourself. Rocky VI (2006) motivational speech ‘Believe in Yourself’

2. Be an Entrepreneur: fail. Fail a lot.

3. Build with imagination and follow a plan.

4. Entertain. Make people smile.

5. Think before you act and pray before you think.

6. Always do the right thing. Live with integrity.

7. Play sports. They help, release and heal.

8. Be a practitioner of atomic habits that improve your life 1% every day. At work, spirituality, love, sports. Practice!

9. No matter what others say, do your thing.

10. Be a Protagonist. Do not expect to be invited as a supporting actor in a play. Act in yours, which is your life.

11. It is good to be kind, and it is necessary.

12. We all have the same 24 hours every day.

13. Honesty is not a bargaining chip.

14. Rest and sleep without excuses.

15. The truth is not negotiable.

16. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You will be appreciated by those around you.

17. Life is epic. It is sometimes a superhuman, Homeric, legendary, fantastic journey. Just Live it!

18. Listen to yourself. Escape to meditate like McConaughey in his book Greenlights.

19. Stallone’s films are a compendium of unrivaled fables of transformed common men.

To be continued…