Latest / Motivation Mindset Podcast / Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Life Advice: The Key to Unlocking Your Future

Transcript

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Life Advice: The Key to Unlocking Your Future · Motivation Mindset Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So people always ask me, They say, why is it
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that you're working out so hard five hours a day,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: six hours a day, and you have always a smile
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: on your face. The others are working out just as
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hard as you do, and they look sour in the face.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Why is that? And they told people all the time,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I said, because to me, I'm shooting for a goal
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in front of mister mister universe title. So every rep
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to make this gore, this vision turn into reality.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: So I couldn't wait to do another.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Five hundred pound squad, I couldn't wait to do another
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: five hundred pounds bench press. I couldn't wait to do
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: another two thousand reps of sitrups.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I couldn't wait for the next exercise.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: If you don't have a vision of where you go,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and if you don't have a goal where you go,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you drift around and you never end up anywhere. My
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: whole life, I had this unusual talent that I could
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: see things very clearly in front of me. If I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: can see it, then it must be achievable. The first
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: rule of success is to have a vision. It's like
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: you can have the best ship in the world. You
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: can have the best airplane.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: In the world.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: If the pilot or the captain doesn't know where to go,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: it would just drift around. It would not end up anywhere,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: or most likely in the wrong place. So I was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: very fortunate that I stumbled onto my vision. I felt
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that I was born for something special, for something unique,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: for something big. This is the blueprint for my life.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: This is exactly what I want to do. I want
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to become a bodybuilding champion. I want to get into movies,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and I want to make millions of dollars and be
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: rich and famous. Do you know how great it felt
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that I knew where I was going. Imagine the majority
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of people don't know where they're going. I knew where
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I was going, that I'm going to become this bodybuilding champion, So.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: It was just a question of how do you do it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I was so relieved because when you have a gold,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: when you have a vision, everything becomes easy. I felt
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: so blessed that I knew what I was doing. It's
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: like a medical student that studies and knows he wants
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to become a doctor.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: You know where to go. So I knew where to go.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So people always ask me when they saw me in
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the gym, in the pumping iron days, They said, why
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: is it that you're working out so hard five hours
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a day, six hours a day and you have always
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a smile on your face. The others are working out
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: just as hard as you do, and they look sour
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: in the face. Why is that? And they told people
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: all the time, I said, because to me, I'm shooting
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: for gold in front of mister Universe title. So every
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to make this gore, this vision turn into reality. Every
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: single set that I do, every repetition, every weight to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the lift, will get miss step closer.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: To turn this goal into reality.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So I couldn't wait to do another five hundred pound squad,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to do another five hundred pounds bench press.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to do another two thousand reps of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: sit ups. I couldn't wait for the next exercise. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: felt so great knowing where I was going, and I
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: tell you it worked. I mean, think about it, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I was just not visualizing just my exercise, but I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was really lifting.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: The trophy over my head.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking about and in the age
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of twenty, I went to London and I won the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Mister Universe contest as the youngest Mister Universe ever.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And it was because I had a goal.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And this is no different than anything else what I'm
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: talking about. This is not just about bodybuilding. It was
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the same in acting. I remember when I was doing
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Conan the Barbarian. I was crawling on the rocks with
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a sword in my arm, crawling on all four so
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: if the ten takes, my elbows were bleeding and my
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: knees were bleeding. And the director came to me and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: he said, I'm I'm so sorry that you have to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: go through this, but you need one more take a
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: close up of you crawling with the sword towards the camera.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Can you handle one more take? And I said them,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. This is I'm
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: totally fine, he says, but you're bleeding. I said, because
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I don't feel it, because I can visualize what the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: scene will look like in a film, and I'm so
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: excited about this scene. And so I had this in
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: my mind. And so this is why it didn't matter
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: if I had to do another fifty takes. Or one
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: hundred takes. No matter how much I bleed on my elbows,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: on my knees, I saw that vision of the perfect scene,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and it was an important scene, and I would do
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: it over and over again until we got it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: So let me tell you something.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Visualizing your goal and going after it makes it fun.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You got to have a purpose. No matter what you
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: do in life, you got to have a purpose. So
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: that's rule number one. Have a vision.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Rule number two is, don't listen to the naysayers. Don't
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: listen to the naysayers. Everything I ever did, the thing
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that they heard out of people's mouth was that's impossible,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: it can't be done, or no. I remember when I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: want to be a bodybuilding champion, including my parents and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: everyone else around me said this is impossible. When it
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: become a ski champion, that's what they do in Austria,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: or bicycle champion, they'll do some track and field, you
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: can't be a bodybuilding champion. That is exactly what I heard.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And of course I proved to the people that it
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: can't be done. So whenever someone said to me it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: can't be done, I heard it can be done.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: When they said no, I heard yes. And when they
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: said it's impossible. I heard it is possible.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I'm a strong believer what Nelson Mandela said that everything
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: is always impossible until someone does it.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to be the one.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, I'm going to do it, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to show you to them. Maybe it has
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: never been done before, that's perfectly fine with me, but
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. And I did not listen
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to the naysayers. When I wanted to come to America.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They said it's impossible. There is no mind that you
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: have to fly and over there, you have no money
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: when you go gover there to live with and what
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: do you think they're going to wait for you? There
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: have plenty of big bodybuilders over there. It was all no, no,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and it can't be done. It's impossible. And I remember
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: then that the same thing happened also when I'm inut
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: of the show business. Did you imagine I was now
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: a bodybuilder. I weigh two hundred and fifty pounds. I
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was missed Olympia six times. And now I said to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the agent I want to get into movies. He said, ah,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: that's funny, Arnold. I ask a studio executive. I say
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I want to get into movies. I want to be
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a leading man. He started laughing. So they all say
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: this impossible. I said, why is it impossible? Says because
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: look at how big you are. You weigh two hundred
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and fifty pounds. So do you ever forget about it?
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And then they told me this and your accent. Even
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: if you reduce all your body weight and everything and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: they have a normal body, your accent, I said, your
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: accent them and it will give people a goosebumps. With
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the German accent, they will get people the creeps, They
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: will get scared. This is no one in Hollywood ever
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: has become a leading man that had an accent.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Doesn't happen.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: People in America want to hear their actors talk like
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: John Wayne, or like Burt Reynolds, or they cleaned the Eastwood.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: That's the kind of stuff that they heard. They said, no,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: you see, it's impossible. And plus your name, you name
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: who can pronounce Watson Knittel or something like that. No
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: one can pronounce that, So forget about it. Donald, This
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: is the kind of thing that I heard. Imagine you
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: go from studio executive to studio executive, from agent to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: agent for manager to manager, and they all said exactly
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the same thing. That that's very encouraging, isn't it. But
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I didn't give a shit. I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: didn't because I believed that I can be a leading man.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I believe that I could be another Clean the Eastwood
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: or one other Bird Reynolds.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I believe that it could be those people.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I said, there's enough room and that ladder that I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: can fit up there. And I looked back again and
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: learned from what I learned in sports. In my case,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in bodybuilding, it's all about the hard work that you
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: put in. I said, I'm as if in bodybuilding I
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: worked out five six hours a day. I'm going to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: do the same thing now for acting. And of course
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I went to college to study English. I started the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: said voice accent removal, acting classes and all of this stuff.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: All day long, I worked and I worked and I worked.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: And but in a short period of time I made
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: one movie called Hercules in New York, which of course
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: went right into the toilet, but it didn't discourage me.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I still had the same vision. And then all of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: a sudden I did Streets of San Francisco. I did
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: stay hungry and pumping out and the villain. And then
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I was asked Patino de Larandez
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and the Universal Studio the biggest studio to start in
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Conan the Barbarian. And after I did Conan the Barbarian,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the director at the press conference said he said to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the press, if we wouldn't have had Honored, we would
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: have had to build one. To think about that, the
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: very body that they said can never be sold because
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the time is wrong.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: A few years later.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I'm doing Connan the Barbarian and it was the number
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: one hit at the box office when it came out
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: in the summer of eighty two. Think about that, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the director says, if we wouldn't have had his body,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: we would have had.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: To build one.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, my body became an asset,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: not a liability.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: And the same thing was with Terminator.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: After we were finished filming Terminator, Jim camer And say
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to the press, if Arnold wouldn't have had that accent
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and talked like a machine, I think the movie wouldn't
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: have worked.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: So think about that.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: The body and the accent that they attacked was an asset.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: But I didn't listen to those losers.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I didn't listen to them at all, because that's exactly
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the way it was in politics again, and everyone said no, no, no,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: and it can't be done, and they became governor of California.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: And this is with everything like that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's just the reality of it is that you cannot
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: listen to the naysayers. So this is a very important
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: lesson for all of you. So when someone says no,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: this is a stupid idea, you in your mind, you
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: don't have to say it, but in your mind, just
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: say this of you, You're an asshole.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: What do you know?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: If I would have listened to the naysayers from bodybuilding
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to show business to politics, I would not be standing
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: here talking to you. I will be in Austria and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the Alps yodeling. So this is why I say, don't
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: listen to the ny says. The third point that I'm
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: going to make to you is work your ass off.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: There is no magic bill, there is no magic out there.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: You cannot get around. You have to work and work
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and work. And it drives me crazy when people say
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: they don't have enough time to go to the gym
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: for forty five minutes a day and workout, or to
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: there's something for forty five minutes to an hour day
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to improve, if it is physically improved or if it
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: is mentally to improve. Imagine you read one hour a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: day about history, how much you will learn after three
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five hours in one year. Think about it,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: if you study about the history of musicians, of composers,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: how much you would know. Imagine if it will work
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on the business and some business that you want to
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: develop every day for an hour, Imagine how further how
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: long you will go and get. So it drives me
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: nuts because people say, we don't have the time. We
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: have twenty four hours a day. We sleep six hours
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a day, so it gives you still eighteen hours. Now
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: there's someone shaking their head out there in front to say,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: probably I don't sleep six hours. I sleep eight hours, right,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: or just sleep faster, So we have eighteen hours a day.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: The average person works around eight to ten hours, so
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: let's as stay them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: It's ten hours, so we have eight hours left.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Then you travel around an hour a day, maybe two
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: hours a day, so now you have still six hours left.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So what do you do with your six hours? What
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: you do? It is six hours.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Then we eat a little bit, then we shmoose a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: little bit, talk a little bit to people and all
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that stuff. But you can see how much time day
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: is available if you organize your day. Got to work hard.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, let me tell you something, man. I went
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to America, I went to college. I went and worked
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: out five hours a day and I was working on
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: construction because in those days in bodybuilding, there was no money.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't have the money for food supplements or anything.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: So I had to go to work. So I worked
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in construction. I went to college, I worked out in
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the gym and at night, from eight o'clock at night
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to twelve midnight, I went to acting class four times
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: a week. So I did all that. There was not
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: one single minute that I wasted. And this is why
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I'm standing here to day. I became very friendly with
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Mohammad Ali in the seventies, and Mohammad Ali worked his
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: butt off and I saw it firsthand. And I remember
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that there was a sports writer that was there in
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the gym when he was working out and he was
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: doing situps, and they asked him how many situps you do?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And he said, I don't start counting until it hurts. Now,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: think about that. He doesn't start counting his sit ups
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: until he feels pain. That's when he starts counting. That
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: is working hard, and so you can't get around the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: hard work.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter who it is. It's a matter fact,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I believe.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: For the Ted Turner said, work like hell and advertise
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: you get it.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Work like hell, go to.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Bed and early, early to rise, Work like hell and advertise.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: So you work your ass off and then you let
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the world know about your work. That's what it is
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: all about. Let people know. If you have a company,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: if you have a movie, if you're doing sports, work
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: your ass off, but then advertise and let everyone know.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So this is what it's all about. So anyway, so
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: those are the three main rules.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Work your ass off, do it, do it now.