Sylvester Stallone is in the news again. And it reminded me of another one of the best bits of career advice given in a movie. This is a quick one that’s in an early scene in a bar.

Saw it again today when I was watching Rocky for the umpteenth time and he’s in a Philadelphia bar and the bartender makes some disparaging remark on Apollo Creed, the Boxing World Champion who’s on TV in a press conference. (This is before Rocky gets his underdog shot at the title.)

Can’t remember exactly what the bartender says, but Rocky looks at him and says “He took his best shot at becoming champion. What shot did you ever take?”

So what about you – are you taking your shot at your ideal career and going for the life through the right world of work that you really want?

If you’re not now, when will you?

Sylvester Stallone’s real life holds a career tip as well. When he had only $106 in the bank, Hollywood offered him hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the screenplay he wrote and give the part of Rocky to a big name star. But he held out and insisted that the only way Rocky would be made as a movie was if he played Rocky Balboa himself.

They finally gave in, despite the fact that he was an unknown. And when the movie was made and released in 1976 it won the Academy Award for Best Picture and launched his career as a movie star. You can read the rest of his story on his official website.

And by the way, he wrote the script in three and a half days — so it doesn’t have to take a long time to create a new life once you figure out how to draw upon your own unique gifts and talents and even limitations. If he had gotten more initial work as a young actor, he wouldn’t have been driven to write the script that made him a star.

What is your greatest limitation that you could turn into your biggest advantage in the marketplace to help you get what’s most important to you?