Eye of the Tiger*

The Future

Throughout his career, Muhammad Ali was only knocked down three times in the ring. One of those times was during his fight with Chuck Wepner.

Wepner, expected to fall within the first three rounds, kept getting back up despite being battered—then, in the ninth round, he knocked Ali down.

Wepner lasted all the way to the 15th round before finally being knocked out. His resilience and determination captivated the world.

Inspired by this story, a man picked up a pen and paper and wrote a screenplay. He was turned away by every studio he approached—until he met Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler.

Until then, he had only ever sold one screenplay—for just $100. Chartoff and Winkler offered him $125,000. But he had one condition: he would play the lead role.

The producers insisted he was a writer, not an actor. He responded, “You didn’t understand my screenplay,” and walked out of the room. Weeks later, they called again. This time with an offer of $250,000. Again, he refused. Their final offer was $350,000.

Still, he wouldn’t budge: “It doesn’t work without me.” They finally agreed—and paid him $35,000 for both the script and the role.

In my first article, I wrote about how BV Portföy rejects the traditional approach to investment management and instead focuses on disruptive innovation—betting on transformative technologies to invest in the future.

As I considered how best to explore the idea of investing in the future, this film and its writer’s story came to mind—for good reason.

Here was someone who had only ever made $100 from a script, who turned down offers of $125,000, $250,000, and even $350,000—at a time when he really needed the money. Instead, he held out for his vision. And in the end, he settled for $35,000.

When the Academy Award nominations were announced, the film earned 10 nominations across 9 categories. Two of those—Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor—were especially significant, as only two other people in film history had ever been nominated for both in the same year: Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles.

At the 1977 Oscars, the film won Best Editing and Best Director. And in a stunning finale, it beat out All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory, Network, and Taxi Driver to win Best Picture.

The film was Rocky, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone.

The reason why investing in the future matters is perhaps best captured in this one detail:

Rocky, which was made for just $35,000 in total for its writer and lead actor, went on to gross $225 million, making it the highest-grossing film of 1976.

*“Eye of the Tiger” is the theme song of Rocky III (1982).