The Distillation of
Arnold Schwarzenegger
His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and it’s one that will leave you inspired and realizing you’re capable of more in this life!
“He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere
police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion
and a movie star.
By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned
Mr. Universe.
Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in
the world.
Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his
business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the
winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.
Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star.
Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow bodybuilders
as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy
in the world.”
“Every morning you have two options. Continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them.”
“Life is richer when we embrace the multitudes we all contain.”
Every time Arnold meet’s someone who is “great” at what they do he always tries to uncover what made them successful. He loves distilling down rules and lessons that he can apply to his own life and share with others. This Distillation is going to be jam packed with lesson’s Arnold has used and learned along the way.
Some of Arnold’s Principles of Success:
Write Down Very Specific Goals
Have a Vision of What You’re Going After
Reps, reps, reps
Be Brutally Honest about Your Weaknesses
Sculpt The Body AND Mind
We All Have the Same 24 Hours… How Are You Using Them?
Our Limits are Purely Psychological
Always Go To Win
You Must Be Passionate
Trust Yourself
Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
Don’t Listen To The Nay-Sayers
Work Your Butt Off
Give Back
Turn your liabilities into assets.
When someone tells you no, you should hear yes.
Never follow the crowd. Go where it’s empty.
No matter what you do in life, selling is part of it.
Childhood
“My dad’s answer to life was discipline. We had a strict routine that nothing could change: sports, exercises were added to the chores, and we had to earn our breakfast by doing sit-ups. In the afternoon, we’d finish our homework and chores, and my father would make us practice soccer no matter how bad the weather was. If we messed up on a play, we knew we’d get yelled at.
My father believed just as strongly in training our brains. Visiting another village, maybe, or seeing a play. Then in the evening we had to write a report on our activities, ten pages at least. He’d hand back our papers with red ink scribbled all over them, and if we had spelled a word wrong, we had to copy it fifty times over.
He had no patience with our problems. If we wanted a bicycle, he’d tell us to earn the money for it ourselves. I never felt that I was good enough, strong enough, smart enough. He let me know that there was always room for improvement. A lot of sons would have been crippled by his demands, but instead the discipline rubbed off on me. I turned it into drive.
We were also super competitive the way brothers often are – always trying to outdo each other and win the favor of our dad. I was always on the lookout for ways to gain the advantage.
I fought back my fear mainly because I had to prove that I was stronger. It was extremely important to show my parents I am brave.”
Work ethic + earn everything + constant improvement + feeding the mind and body + bravery = The Terminator
Get Clear on Your Vision
“All I know is that the first step is to create a vision, because when you see the vision – the beautiful vision – that creates the want power.”
Arnold’s vision became crystal clear when he heard about former bodybuilding champion Reg Park
“All my dreams suddenly came together and made sense. I’d found the way to get to America: bodybuilding! And I’d found a way to get into movies. They would be the thing that everyone in the world would know me for. Movies would bring money—I was sure that Reg Park was a millionaire—and the best-looking girls, which was a very important aspect. In weeks that followed, I refined this vision until it was very specific. I was going to go for the Mr. Universe title; I was going to break records in powerlifting; I was going to Hollywood; I was going to be like Reg Park. The vision became so clear in my mind that I felt like it had to happen. There was no alternative; it was this or nothing.”
So there would be plenty of work – and plenty of opportunity to become as big a star as any of them. I wanted to be in the same league and on the same pay scale. As soon as I realized this, I felt a great sense of calm. Because I could see it.
“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things, fail because we lack concentration—the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else?” – John D Rockefeller
“The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus.”- Bruce Lee
“As a CEO, I worked to create blinding clarity and singularity of purpose.” – Frank Slootman
Writing Down Very Specific Goals
“I always wrote down my goals, like I’d learned to do in the weight-lifting club back in Graz. It wasn’t sufficient just to tell myself something like “My New Year’s resolution is to lose twenty pounds and learn better English and read a little bit more.” No. That was only a start. Now I had to make it very specific so that all those fine intentions were not just floating around. I would take out index cards and write that I was going to: get twelve more units in college, earn enough money to save $5,000, work out five hours a day, gain seven pounds of solid muscle weight, and find an apartment building to buy and move into. It might seem like I was handcuffing myself by setting such specific goals, but it was actually just the opposite: I found it liberating. Knowing exactly where I wanted to end up freed me totally to improvise how to get there.”
Arnold was laser focused on his goals and then was ruthlessly practicing them every single day. He was fanatical about getting REPS REPS REPS. (practice repetitions)
“Writing out my goals became second nature, and so did the conviction that there are no shortcuts. It took hundreds and even thousands of repetitions for me to learn….”
“I find joy in the gym because every rep and every set is getting me one step closer to my goal.”
Growth mindset
“Whether you’re doing a bicep curl in a chilly gym or talking to world leaders, there are no shortcuts–everything is reps, reps, reps”
I can’t emphasize this point enough. It is one of the foundational principles that have guided Arnold’s life = get specific on your goals then get as many reps as you can practicing towards them.
Sculpt The Body AND Mind
Arnold was influenced at an early age by his father’s approach to developing both your mind and body. He also took inspiration from the ancient Greeks who were masters at this.
“The Greeks started the Olympics, but they also gave us the great philosophers. You have to build the ultimate physical machine but also the ultimate of the mind.”
This ability to learn and grow has been apparent throughout Arnold’s adult life with the success he’s earned in bodybuilding, real estate, acting, investing, entrepreneurship and politics… Sheesh, just writing this makes me admire even more how impressive Arnold is!
“The world became my university, I developed such a need to learn and read and take it all in” Similar to Bruce Lee learning from everything and everyone.
We All Have the Same 24 Hours… How Are You Using Them?
Arnold puts great emphasis and thought on how he uses his time and gets angry when people talk about not having enough time in the day. We all have the same 24 hours so why can some people achieve great things and others don’t? It comes down to how they use their time and the focus they have.
For me work just meant discovery and fun. If I heard somebody complaining, “Oh, I work so hard, I put in ten- and twelve-hour days,” I would crucify him. “What the fuck are you talking about, when the day is twenty-four hours? What else did you do?”
“The day is 24 hours; 6 hours we sleep, so you have left 18 hours. So don’t ever give me this thing “I’m working 12 hours so I don’t have time to exercise and to work out.” Or “I don’t have time to study another language” and all these kind of things. 18 hours; so utilize the 18 hours, that’s what I’ve always believed in, and I feel like that’s the only way you can get ahead.”
“Going to school, training five hours a day at the gym, working in the construction and mail-order businesses, making appearances, and going to exhibitions—all of it was happening at the same time. Some days stretched from six in the morning until midnight.”
What Oprah learned from Jim Carey
Visualization
“If I can see it and believe it, then I can achieve it.”
“If you want to turn a vision into reality, you have to give 100% and never stop believing in your dream.”
“They needed me to lose weight. First I had to redo myself mentally – let go of the 250-pound image of Mr. Olympia that was in my head. I started visualizing myself instead as lean and athletic. And all of a sudden what I saw in the mirror no longer fit. Seeing that helped kill my appetite for all the protein shakes and all the extra steak and chicken I was used to. I pictured myself as a runner rather than a lifter, and changed around my whole training regimen to emphasize running, bicycling, and swimming rather than weights. All through the winter, the pounds came off, and I was pleased.
“Positive thinking can be contagious. Being surrounded by winners helps you develop into a winner.”
Are you surrounding yourself with winners?
Visualization is a consistent theme I’ve found across a majority of the people I study and interview.
One of his boyhood friends recalls Steven Spielberg saying “he could envision himself going to the Academy Awards and accepting an Oscar and thanking the Academy.” He was twelve.
“I’d imagined having medals around my neck, chalk dust on my legs, and a bright smile on my face… I’d then visualize making the national team, imagining it like a movie.”- Simone Biles
“Every master visualizes their success.”-George Leonard
“I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.”- Jack Nicklaus
I breakdown my Visualization Practice in my You Unleashed Online Course.
“The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.”
Breaking The Pain Barrier
“The body that isn’t used to. maybe the ninth, tenth… eleventh, and twelfth rep with a certain weight. So that makes the body grow, then. Going through this pain barrier. Experiencing pain in your muscles and aching… and just go on and go on. And this last two or three or four repetitions… that’s what makes the muscle then grow. And that divides one from a champion and one from not being a champion. lf you can go through this pain barrier, you may get to be a champion. lf you can’t go through, forget it. And that’s what most people lack, is having the guts. The guts to go in and just say, ”l’ll go through and l don’t care what happens.” lt aches, and if l fall down…. l have no fear of fainting in a gym… because l know it could happen. l threw up many times while l was working out. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s all worth it.”
I Went To Win
“I never went to a competition to compete. I went to win. Even though I didn’t win every time, that was my mind-set. I became a total animal. If you tuned into my thoughts before a competition, you would hear something like: “I deserve that pedestal, I own it, and the sea ought to part for me. Just get out of the fucking way, I’m on a mission. So just step aside and gimme the trophy.” I pictured myself high up on the pedestal, trophy in hand. Everyone else would be standing below. And I would look down.” LFG!
“The limit I thought existed was purely psychological. Now that I’d seen someone doing a thousand pounds, I started making leaps in my training. It showed the power of mind over body.”
“The mind always fails first, not the body. The secret is to make your mind work for you, not against you.”
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Insatiable Drive
“I was already the favorite to win the 1967 Mr. Universe competition. But that didn’t feel like enough – I wanted to dominate totally. If I’d wowed them with my size and strength before, my plan now was to show up unbelievably bigger and stronger and really blow their minds.”
Just think about this for a minute. He’s the best in the world at what he does and he still feels like it’s not enough. This hunger and drive is what has gotten him to the top and allowed him to remain there.
“Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.”
“Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.”
“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”
An Entrepreneur is Born
Real Estate:
“Over the next two or three years, I did research. Every day I would look at the real estate section in the newspaper, studying the prices and reading the stories and ads. I got to where I knew every square block of Santa Monica. I knew how much the property values increased north of Olympic Boulevard versus north of Wilshire versus north of Sunset. I understood about schools and restaurants and proximity to the beach. I knew every building in town. I knew every transaction: who was selling, at what price, how much the property had appreciated since it last changed hands, what the financial sheet looked like, the cost of yearly upkeep, the interest rate on the financing. I met landlords and bankers. The math of real estate really spoke to me. I could tour a building, and as I walked through it, I would ask about the square footage, the vacancy factor, what it would cost per square foot to operate, and quickly calculate in my mind how many times the gross I could afford to offer and still be able to make the payments.”
I included this because it shows how much of a student Arnold is. He’s clearly going to outwork and learn more than anyone in his industry.
Knowing it all is not really the answer:
Seeing me pull off a $215,000 deal left my old friend Artie Zeller in shock. For days afterward, he kept asking how I had the balls to do it. He could not understand because he never wanted any risk in his life. “How can you stand the pressure? You have the responsibility of renting out the other five units. You have to collect the rent. What if something goes wrong?” Problems were all he could see. It could be terrible. “Artie, you almost scared me just now.” I laughed. “Don’t tell me any more of this information. I like to always wander in like a puppy. I walk into a problem and then figure out what the problem really is. Don’t tell me ahead of time.” Often it’s easier to make a decision when you don’t know as much, because then you can’t overthink. If you know too much, it can freeze you. The whole deal looks like a minefield.
“Risk taking is the cornerstone of empires.” Estee Lauder
I’d noticed the same thing at school. Our economics professor was a two-times PhD, but he pulled up in a Volkswagen Beetle. I’d had better cars for years by that time. I said to myself, “Knowing it all is not really the answer, because this guy is not making the money to have a bigger car. He should be driving a Mercedes.”
“Just let me stumble into it. I don’t want to be forewarned.” You can overthink anything. There are always negatives. The more you know, the less you tend to do something. If I had known everything about real estate, movies, and bodybuilding, I wouldn’t have gone into them. I felt the same about marriage; I might not have done it if I’d known everything I’d have to go through.”
Free The Mind
“Hearing them talk about the need to disconnect and refresh the mind was like a revelation. “Arnold, you’re an idiot,” I told myself. “You spend all this time on your body, but you never think about your mind, how to make it sharper and relieve the stress. When you have muscle cramps, you have to do more stretching, take a Jacuzzi, put on the ice packs, take more minerals. So why aren’t you thinking that the mind also can have a problem? It’s overstressed, or it’s tired, it’s bored, it’s fatigued, it’s about to blow up – let’s learn tools for that.” They gave me a mantra and taught me to use a twenty-minute meditation session to get to a place where you don’t think. They taught how to disconnect the mind, so that you don’t hear the clock ticking in the background or people talking. If you can do this for even a few seconds, it already has a positive effect. The more you can prolong that period, the better it is.”
Channeling his Phil Jackson & Bruce Lee
There Is Nothing Normal About Me
“The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.”
“She was a normal person who wanted normal things, and there was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me.”
“But I felt that I was born to be a leading man. I had to be on the posters, I had to be the one carrying the movie….The only way you become a leading man is by treating yourself like a leading man and working your ass off.”
“Maria was the first girlfriend I ever had who didn’t treat my ambitions as an annoyance, some kind of madness that interfered with her vision of the future: namely, marriage, kids, and a cozy little house somewhere – and the stereotypical all-American life. Maria’s world wasn’t small like that. It was gigantic.
I’d finally met a girl whose world was as big as mine. I’d reached some of my goals but a lot of my world was still a dream. And when I’d talk about even bigger dreams, she NEVER said, “Come on, this can’t be done.” She’d seen it happen in her family. She understood why I had to get up at six in the morning to train for two hours, and she’d come with me to the gym. At dinner she’d see me about to dig into some ice cream, and she’d literally take it away.”
“ I wanted money and excitement and loved the idea of cutting myself loose from the rules and low ceilings of the straight world.”- Jay Z
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs
“I knew going against the grain was just part of the process.”- Michael Jordan
Be True To Yourself
“I knew the way my mind worked, and that to accomplish anything, I had to buy in completely. The goal had to be something that made total sense and that I could look forward to every day, not just something I was doing for money or some other arbitrary reason, because then it wouldn’t work.”
“I wanted what everyone wants. To be me, full-time.” Phil Knight
Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?
Be Brutally Honest about Your Weaknesses
“It’s human nature to work on the things that we are good at. It’s so satisfying. To be successful, however, you must be brutal with yourself and focus on the flaws. That’s when your eye, your honesty, and your ability to listen to others come in.”
Most bodybuilders (and people!) only focus on their strengths but Arnold went after his weaknesses as well. He’s always looking to develop and never wants to remain at a plateau.
When Arnold realized his calves could use work he cutoff his sweatpants at the knee to expose his calves so he would be more motivated to work on them.
I feel it’s important to understand your weaknesses and work them up to a sufficient level but strength gets built on strength and I’ve found you get a greater improvement when you focus on what your natural strengths are as opposed to trying to get marginal improvements on your weaknesses.
Showbiz
“I felt like my movie career had suddenly come into sharp focus. The vision had always been there, but hazy: I never knew which direction it would go or how I was going to get the big break. But being chosen for Conan was like winning my first international bodybuilding title. Until then I could see my progress in the mirror, I could see my muscles slowly grow, but I really never knew where I stood. Then, after winning Mr. Universe, I thought, “Jesus, that was international judging, and I was competing against guys I see in the magazines, and I won. I’m going to succeed.”
Selling
“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.”
“I saw myself as a businessman first… Very few actors like to sell. I’d seen the same thing with authors in the book business. The typical attitude seemed to be, “I don’t want to be a whore. I create; I don’t want to shill. I’m not into the money thing at all.” It was a real change when I showed up saying, “Let’s go everywhere, because this is good not only for me financially but also good for the public; they get to see a good movie!”
Will Smith did the exact same thing: JL and I ran the numbers. We realized, for example, a film that might only earn $10 million in Spain could easily earn $15 to $25 million if you go to the country, do a premiere, a day of press, and a couple of fan events. (It doesn’t hurt if you learn a handful of phrases in the local language and say them on the news.) If you multiply that across thirty global territories, actually showing up in the countries could take a $250 million box office global potential north of half a billion dollars.
“Whenever I finished filming a movie, I felt my job was only half done. Every film had to be nurtured in the marketplace. You can have the greatest movie in the world, but if you don’t get it out there, if people don’t know about it, you have nothing.”
Passion
“I loved the variety in my life…. Everything I did could have been my hobby. It was my hobby, in a way. I was passionate about all of it. My definition of living is to have excitement always; that’s the difference between living and existing. I seldom saw my life as hectic.”
“I was putting in six days a week at Price Waterhouse, spending I early mornings and late nights and all weekends and vacations at Blue Ribbon. No friends, no exercise, no social life-and wholly I content. My life was out of balance, sure, but I didn’t care. In fact, I wanted even more imbalance. Or a different kind of imbalance. I wanted to dedicate every minute of every day to Blue Ribbon” Phil Knight
USC Commencement Speech 6 Rules of Success
1. Trust Yourself
2. Break Some Rules
3. Don’t be Afraid to Fail
4. Ignore the Naysayers
5. Work like Hell
6. Give Something Back
1. Trust Yourself
“And what I mean by that is, so many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from their teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who. And I’m talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. I’m talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people.
I spent a lot of time by myself, so I could figure out and listen to what is inside my heart and inside my head. Everyone else thought that I was crazy. But I didn’t care. I wanted to be a bodybuilding champion and use that to come to America, and use that to go into the movies and make millions of dollars.
So this is rule number one. I wanted to become a champion; I was on a mission. So rule number one is, of course, trust yourself, no matter how and what anyone else thinks.”
2. Break The Rules
“We have so many rules in life about everything. I say break the rules. Not the law, but break the rules. My wife has a t-shirt that says, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” Well, you know, I don’t want to burst her bubble, but the same is true with men.
It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you’re too well behaved and don’t want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That’s what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble? Those were their rules, not my rules.
3. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
“Anything I’ve ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. In the movie business, I remember that you pick scripts. Many times you think this is a winning script, but then, of course, you find out later on, when you do the movie, that it didn’t work and the movie goes in the toilet. But that’s OK, because at the same time I made movies like Terminator and Conan and True Lies and Predator and Twins that went through the roof.
So you can’t always win, but don’t be afraid of making decisions. You can’t be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come. So don’t be afraid to fail.“
4. Don’t Listen To The Nay-Sayers
“I love it when people say that something can’t be done. That’s when I really get motivated; I like to prove them wrong.”
“How many times have you heard that you can’t do this and you can’t do that and it’s never been done before? Just imagine if Bill Gates had quit when people said it can’t be done. I hear this all the time.
I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I’m the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can’t be done.
So I never listen to that, “You can’t.” I always listen to myself and say, “Yes, you can.””
5. Work Your Butt Off
The most important rule of all: Work your butt off. You never want to fail because you didn’t work hard enough. I always believed leaving no stone unturned.
Work your ass off: There is no magic pill. You have to work. It drives me crazy when people say they don’t have enough time to work out or do something to improve.
“The best way to prove your value is to work. To learn. To absorb. To be a sponge. You always want to outwork your potential. As hard as you believe you can work? You can work harder than that.” – Kobe
6. Give Back
Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country.
My father-in-law, Sargent Shriver – who is a great American, a truly great American who started the Peace Corps, the Job Corps, Legal Aid to the Poor – he said at Yale University to the students at a commencement speech:
“Tear down that mirror.
Tear down that mirror that makes you always look at yourself, and you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help.”
Turn your liabilities into assets.
When I wanted to star in movies, the Hollywood agents I talked to told me to forget it–my body and my name and my accent were all too weird. Instead, I worked hard on my accent and my acting, as hard as I’d worked at bodybuilding, to transform myself into a leading man. With Conan and The Terminator, I broke through: the things that the agents said would be a detriment and make it impossible for me to get a job, all of a sudden made me an action hero. Or as John Milius said when he directed Conan the Barbarian, “If we didn’t have Schwarzenegger, we would have to build one.”
When someone tells you no, you should hear yes.
Impossible was a word I loved to ignore when I was governor. The only way to make the possible possible is to try the impossible. If you fail, so what? That’s what everybody expects. But if you succeed, you make the world a much better place.
Embrace Your Uniqueness
“I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way. I hope it never will.”
I always wanted to be an inspiration for people, but I never set out to be a role model in everything. How could I be when I have so many contradictions and crosscurrents in my life? I’m a European who became an American leader; a Republican who loves Democrats; a businessman who makes his living as an action hero; a tremendously disciplined superachiever who hasn’t always been disciplined enough; a fitness expert who loves cigars; an environmentalist who loves Hummers; a fun-loving guy with kid-like enthusiasm who is most famous for terminating people. How would anybody know what to imitate?
No one could put me in a mold.
But life is richer when we embrace the multitudes we all contain, even if we aren’t consistent and what we do doesn’t always make sense, even to us.
Stay Hungry
Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.
Don’t rest on your laurels. So many accomplished people just coast. They wish they could still be somebody and not just talk about the past. There is much more to life than being the greatest at one thing. We learn so much when we are successful, so why not use what you’ve learned, use your connections and do more with them?
My father always told me, “Be useful. Do something.” He was right. If you have a talent or skill that makes you happy, use it to improve your neighborhood. And if you feel a desire to do more, then go all out.
You’ll have plenty of time to rest when you’re in the grave. Live a risky life and a spicy life and like Eleanor Roosevelt said, every day do something that scares you.
We should all stay hungry!
Hasta la vista, baby.