Tommy Mapother was not a good student in high school.

At Glen Ridge High School, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey — a small borough within the New York metropolitan area — he struggled with learning “difficulties.”

For instance, dyslexia was a problem.

At Glen Ridge, the one thing that Tommy was known for was wrestling.

Ironically, Tommy wasn't very good at wrestling. He was a below-average wrestler. The first year he went out for the sport, Tommy didn’t win any matches.

By the time Tommy was a junior, however, he was doing okay.

“Tom,” his wrestling coach said, “next year you’re going to have a winning record.”

But Tom was small. He only weighed 135 pounds.

“He’s not a big guy,” explained Tommy's former teammate and the captain of that wrestling team.  “To be a wrestler you had to be in great shape and physically strong. It was a perfect fit for him. Wrestling helped to control your body and mind. You have to be in perfect shape and it’s one-to-one combat.”

Yet, each summer in high school, Tom had the same recurring argument with his mother — Tommy wanted to play football, not just wrestle.

“Tom, look at you,” his mother told him. “You’re a little kid. If you play football, you’re going to get hurt.”

Tommy negotiated with his mother. “Mom, it's my last year of high school. If I don’t play football now, I’ll never play.”

His mother relented.

Tommy bulked up over the course of the summer and played on the football team in the fall. He was good enough and tough enough that they even played him at linebacker … of all places.

He never got hurt when he was playing ball.

However, Tommy was caught drinking beer part way through the season and got kicked off the football team.

When wrestling season came around, this — unfortunately — was when Tommy did get hurt. In one of the first practices of his senior season, he injured his leg.

The injury was so bad that the doctor wouldn’t clear Tom for the remainder of the season.

Wrestling was his thing. Tommy loved wrestling.

He was devastated.

So, Tommy couldn't participate in sports for the rest of his senior year. Instead, he tried out for the lead in the school play, Guys and Dolls.

As they got ready to open the show, it became clear that the girl who got the female lead had one of these “stage moms.” A nightmare for the rest of the cast.

The mom figured on her daughter being the next Barbra Streisand or something. So she arranged for a New York City theatrical agent to attend the opening of the high school production of Guys and Dolls.

An agent did show up and he watched the girl. He saw nothing in her, however. Bland, untalented, and had an annoying mother.

But he did notice little Tommy Mapother. The agent said to himself, “This kid has something going for him.”

This talent scout called Tom aside after the show and gave him his card.

“Look Tom,” said the agent. “I’d like you to study acting in New York. The Big Apple.”

Fast-forward just three years later and little Tommy Mapother was starring on the silver screen, this time as a high school football player — already his 6th role in a major Hollywood movie.

In this one, Tom got to play a star high school defensive back — one who is gifted athletically, but only a B-student academically — in a 1983 sports drama that some consider one of the best "football movies" of the 1980s.

Tom's character also got his season cut short for some off-the-field shenanigans.

But his name is not Tommy or Tom Mapother in the movies.

His full name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.

He uses his middle name.

That’s the story of Tom Cruise.

Lights! Camera! Attack!

Tom has been attacking the movie screens now for decades, and it all started because he did not quit.

He was at the right place at the right time.

And it just goes to show, you never know what can happen as long as you keep your toes a-tappin'.

As always,

Brian

P.S. —  Momentum is huge, particularly if you start in the right place at the right time.

We have the right place for you within O'Leary's Inner Sphere.

The timing's never quite "right," however, but now is better than anything else.

Our members help create the momentum for each other to achieve our "imagined futures."

We believe in the power of right now. Take swift action. Take massive action.

It worked for Mapother and it is working for us.

For more:

P.P.S. — The film? All the Right Moves.