Friday Filosophy v.04.22.2022

Friday Filosophy v.04.22.2022

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor, businessman, and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he wrestled for WWE for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3.5 billion in North America and over $10.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the world’s highest-grossing and highest-paid actors. 

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area to a Samoan mother and a Black Nova Scotian father, Johnson played college football at the University of Miami and won a national championship in 1991. He aspired to a professional career in football, but went undrafted in the 1995 NFL Draft. He signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), but was cut from the team in his first season. Part of the Anoa’i family, Johnson’s father Rocky and maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were professional wrestlers, and he secured a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1996. He rose to prominence after developing the gimmick of a charismatic trash-talker and helped usher in the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnson left WWE in 2004 and returned in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013, making sporadic appearances until retiring in 2019. A 10-time world champion, including the promotion’s first of African-American descent, he is also a two-time Intercontinental Champion, a five-time Tag Team Champion, the 2000 Royal Rumble winner, and WWE’s sixth Triple Crown champion. Johnson headlined the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view (WrestleMania XXVIII) and was featured among the most watched episodes of WWE’s flagship television series (Raw and SmackDown). 

Johnson’s first leading role was as the titular character in the sword and sorcery film The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in the comedies The Game Plan (2007), Tooth Fairy (2010), and Central Intelligence (2016); the action-adventure films Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), and Skyscraper (2018); the science-fiction films San Andreas (2015) and Rampage (2018), and the animated film Moana (2016). His role as Luke Hobbs in the Fast & Furious films, beginning with Fast Five (2011), has helped it become one of the highest-grossing film franchises. Johnson also stars in the Jumanji films, appearing in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and is set to portray Black Adam in its superhero film adaptation.

Johnson produced and starred in the HBO comedy-drama series Ballers (2015–2019) and stars and produces the autobiographical sitcom Young Rock (2021). In 2000, Johnson released the autobiography The Rock Says, which was a New York Times bestseller. In 2012, he co-founded the entertainment production company Seven Bucks Productions and is the co-owner of American football league, the XFL. In 2016 and 2019, Johnson was named by Time one of the world’s most influential people

  • Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.
  • I’m always asked, ‘What’s the secret to success?’ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.
  • Attitude and enthusiasm play a big part in my life. I get excited about the things that inspire me. I also believe in laughing and having a good time.
  • Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.
  • For me, training is my meditation, my yoga, hiking, biking all rolled into one. Wake up early in the morning, generally around 4 o’clock, and I’ll do my cardio on an empty stomach. Stretch, have a big breakfast, and then I’ll go train.
  • I’m very low-key. I don’t really blend in, so it’s difficult to go out in public. I like to do things that are kind of quiet, whether it’s a dinner at my house or a restaurant, or a movie night at home.
  • I grew up where, when a door closed, a window didn’t open. The only thing I had was cracks. I’d do everything to get through those cracks – scratch, claw, bite, push, bleed. Now the opportunity is here. The door is wide open, and it’s as big as a garage.
  • I absolutely believed when I was young because the Tooth Fairy was always good to me. The Tooth Fairy generally left me a dollar or two dollars and, as a kid, that was a lot of money.
  • I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‘Here I am. This is me.’ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.
  • My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

The Time is Now.

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