Don't Trust Anyone
Sylvester Stallone turned 80 this week.
Wow.
36 years ago I was hired to work with boxer Tommy Morrison on the set of Rocky V.
It was a wild experience, as you can imagine.
Hanging with Stallone. Running the steps in Philly where the original Rocky was filmed. Training and working out with Tommy on drills and mindset.
It was surreal.
I have so many stories from that time, and I’ll share them in print at some point. But the feeling that kept coming back was a regular pinching of myself — because I couldn’t believe the 16-year-old kid who watched the original Rocky was now sitting face to face with Sylvester Stallone.
For many of us growing up during that time, the Rocky story coupled with Bill Conti’s iconic theme song became the soundtrack of our lives.
Stallone was more than a movie star. He was human. An underdog who through sheer will, grit, and determination was winning at life. Everyone knows the story — he sold his dog and bought it back, and wouldn’t sell the script because he believed in his vision. No one wanted him in the movie. They wanted a bankable star. He lived for himself.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Rocky story is, in some ways, everyone’s story. It was certainly mine. I wasn’t just hanging out with a movie star. This was a writer, an artist, a guy who stuck to his guns and went on to create so many other legendary characters.
The street fight between Stallone and Tommy at the end was unconventional for most Hollywood fights at the time. It was gritty. Striking, grappling, knees, and more. And when people found out I was on the set, they’d ask if I choreographed it.
Mr. Bass and I did spend time talking about realistic fight choreography versus cinematic fight choreography. I told him if these guys were really fighting, they wouldn’t just be boxing. There’d be headbutts and knees, people bouncing off walls and hitting the ground — just like a real confrontation. So while I wish I could say yes, I choreographed it, it was the creative genius of stunt coordinator Bobby Bass.
One day while we were filming in LA, Chuck Norris walked in to say hi to Stallone. And there I am again, pinching myself, going holy shit. We grabbed this picture together.
Can you see the pendant Stallone is wearing?
It has the initials DTA. Earlier that week I’d asked him what it stood for.
He said, “Don’t trust anyone.”
I loved it.
I was 30 at the time. Like most people, I’d been hurt in relationships and betrayed in business. You know — life. The “shit happens” story.
DTA resonated.
It also reminded me of General Mattis’s great line: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
Life went on. About twenty years later I got severely screwed over in business. A lot of you reading this know that story. For those who don’t — in short, my business partner screwed me, and I almost lost everything. Literally. My business, my wife, my life as I knew it. And it all happened because I had trusted a few people close to me.
As I navigated the emotional and corporate chaos, I remembered the DTA pendant. And I knew exactly what my next tattoo would be: Don’t Trust Anyone. A permanent reminder, inked into my skin
I set up the appointment. The art was drawn. My artist had started on the skull outline.
And something started nagging at me.
By this point in my life I’d really started pausing and listening to my intuition — and it was whispering in my ear right there in the studio. I was unraveling the message when it hit me.
I didn’t want to be scarred because of someone else’s dark shit.
I didn’t want to set my future filter through the DTA lens.
That wasn’t me. I’m a coach at heart. I want to influence my own evolution toward greater self-awareness — and there’s no way I could do that if my inner coach and my worldview were set on DTA.
DTA was cool. It might work for others. It didn’t work for me.
So I stopped the tattoo, and had the letters changed from DTA to DTE: Don’t Trust Everyone.
A subtle reframe, but a significant one. There are shitty people out there — and there are also really good people. Just don’t trust everyone.
DTE is a more tactical and spiritual message. A reminder to keep evolving, keep growing, and keep seeking out good people.
That was 16 years ago. I’ve made plenty of errors in judgment since. But my time to pivot, recover, and reset keeps getting shorter — the emotional reaction less intense, the lesson clearer.
Our scars, psychological and physical, are reminders of growth. A tattoo with a story is a spiritual scar.
Happy birthday, Sylvester Stallone. Thank you for the memories, the education, and the inspiration.
Coach B
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