The Rock is one of the coolest and most honest celebrities out there. He’s also one of the most inspiring too. His journey to becoming the highest paid actor in the world has been a long one. It saw him go from being a college football player to a guy cut by the Canadian Football League, which led to his career in WWE where Dwayne Johnson became Rocky Maivia and later The Rock. After he accomplished all there was to do in WWE, he moved on to Hollywood where he’s become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He may even run for President too, but that’s another story for another day.
Recently on Instagram, The Rock posted a video from Vancouver and talked about how he started his CFL career there and that being cut by the CFL was the greatest thing that happened to him. He shared this story:
“When I was 22 years old, I came to this city (Vancouver) for the first time I was playing in the Canadian Football League playing my first pro football game. I was playing for the Calgary Stampeders, we were playing the BC Lions, I was so excited…two days later I got cut! Dreams shattered. I was sent home with seven bucks in my pocket I was like ‘wait no I gotta play in the NFL eventually’ those are my big goals. You realize that playing in the NFL was the best thing that NEVER happened because it got me here. So my point is you’re gonna get your ass kicked, we’re gonna get the s**t kicked out of us…you gotta get up, you gotta have faith that the one thing you wanted to happen often times is the best thing that never happened. So have faith and just keep plugging away.”
He makes a great point about how not making it in the CFL and not making it to the NFL was the best thing for him. When he got to WWE in his mid-20s it didn’t look great for him at first (remember those “Rocky Sucks” chants), but eventually in 1997 when he was 25 years old he took off as The Rock. A year later he won his first WWE World Title and by 1999, he headlined WrestleMania 15 with Steve Austin when he was just under 27 years old. A few years after that his movie career really started to take off and there’s no looking back now.
The “seven bucks” story he mentioned is something he has talked about many times as well. He named his production company “Seven Bucks Productions” because that’s how much money he had when he was at his lowest point.
Kudos to The Rock for continuing to share inspiring stories like that. I’m still getting used to grey beard Rock, though.
