Photo: Unique Nicole/Getty
Rob Gough knows a thing or two about succeeding in life, even when facing hurdles.
The actor and entrepreneur was diagnosed with bone cancer at just 18 years old, during his freshman year of college.
“I couldn’t really walk, I was worn down after months and months of chemotherapy,” Gough tells PEOPLE, going on to describe how the treatments took 17 months out of his life.
“For me, being in chemo for so long, you lose all that muscle mass,” Gough says. “You’re really not able to live like you’re used to.” The illness also made it necessary to remove his big toe.
Nonetheless, even while recuperating from the disease, Gough was getting involved in various business ventures, slowly paving the way to a string of successes.
“As soon as I got done [with chemotherapy] I went back to school [at Ball State University],” he says. “I invented a tech business at the time, that I invented while being sick, that was a way for people to afford products like a plasma [television] for a lot cheaper, and then we would donate money to charities.”
“I’m from Indianapolis, there’s not a lot of VC money in Indianapolis wanting to give a 19-year-old kid money,” Gough says of how he got the business off the ground. “So I bootstrapped it, got college loans, worked, and used all the extra money from both of those to really fund this business.”
When reflecting on how he was able to not only overcome cancer but also bounce back with a successful business venture, Gough mentions his mother.
“I’ve always been a very positive person, and my mom was always that mom, anything that I thought I couldn’t do, she would always say, ‘Can’t never did anything. You can do that, you’re not able to quit.’ So I grew up with that,” he says.
“It showed me that anything that’s thrown at you, you can figure it out. It may suck for a little bit, but that storm will pass, and you’ll get through it. You just got to keep the feet moving.”
RELATED VIDEO: Bruce Willis and Wife Emma Heming Are ‘Proud Parents’ as They Take Daughters on First Ski Trip
Gough has indeed kept his feet moving, with moneymaking forays into a disruptive recycling business in the midwest, a coupon business he eventually sold in Silicon Valley, fashion venture called Dope and even trading high-profile baseball cards.
But one childhood passion always remained on his mind, which was film and acting — something he says he did as a kid.
A few years ago, after a fateful trip Cannes Film Festival with friends, Gough met various industry people and was eventually invited to the set of a new film, theNicolas Cage-Selma Blairblack comedyMom and Dadfrom 2017, to “learn how the movie industry works.”
“I had nothing else to do [at the time], so I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!'”
But he ended up doing a lot more than learning, as he scored his first small role in the film as a police officer.
“I jumped in, and did a role. I had a blast and the director was like, ‘Wow, that was great!'” Gough remembers.
Now he’s already acted with some leading industry veterans including Cage,John Travolta,Forest Whitakerand most recentlyBruce Willis, in his latest filmAmerican Siege,out on Friday.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“Because of that [first role], it just was a snowball. It was word of mouth. And I’ve caught the passion and really fell for it.”
About working with the “legend” Willis, Gough says, “Bruce is a sweetheart. He’s just a nice guy, he’s great, he’s a legend. He’s been in this so long — he’s an icon.”
While shooting the movie in 2020, Gough shared some on-set photos of himself with theDie Hardstarto Instagram, writing in the caption, “Behind the scenes shootingAmerican Seige[sic]. Bruce Willis and I look friendly now but we definitely aren’t friendly in the movie.”
Transcendental Graphics/Getty
And if that weren’t enough, Gough is involved with several other lucrative ventures, last yearbreaking the world record for the largest purchase of a baseball cardin history when he forked over $5.2 million for a 1952 Mickey Mantle card.
“I’m keeping it,” he says. “I was just in Chicago earlier in the year and someone offered me $15 million for it. Crazy. And I said no.”
“I didn’t buy it to sell,” he adds. “As a kid, that was the holy grail for me.”
Gough is even launching an ETF on Nasdaq starting next week focused on halting climate change. “All the fees that are made from the ETF are going to be invested into private companies that are actually reversing climate change.”
American Siegecomes out in theaters on Friday, Jan. 7.
source: people.com
