The Former Governor of California Explains The Reason He Was Able To Make A Success Of His Life
Born in 1947 in the small Austrian village of Thal, it is fair to say that no one would have anticipated the life Arnold Schwarzenegger has had.
Not only has he been a Bodybuilder, an actor, entrepreneur and politician but he has risen to the top in each of those professions to be one of the best and most respected.
At the age of 23 he became the youngest winner of the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding competition which he went on to win a further 6 times.
While he was training for those competitions in the now world-famous Gold’s Gym in Venice he would also attend acting classes in the evening.
Those classes were not in vain as he would go on to star in some of the biggest films of the 80s and 90s most notably The Terminator which he is still known for to this day.
To cap this off and clearly not content with the achievements he already had he became a Republican Governor of California in 2003 and to this day that it was his time in public office that gave him the most satisfaction.
Rising to the top in bodybuilding, acting or politics can be regarded as an amazing achievement in itself but for someone to have success in all three must mean they are doing something different than everyone else.
In this speech that went viral speech, the Total Recall star broke down his methods.
1. Work Your Ass Off
“That’s obvious I do work hard … what’s next?”
Not so fast.
Most people will tell you they work hard when in fact if you saw what they did in a day you would compare them to you to say if they worked hard or not because you always work hard. 😉
But rather than comparing people to yourself, look at what those who have achieved more than you do in their day.
Bodybuilding was not the sport that it is today back when Arnold started and there was little money involved for being a champion. As a consequence, he would work a job in construction during the day then train in the gym for five hours then go to acting class in the evening.
Do you work as hard as that? Would you be willing to?
Arnold in Gold’s Gym in the early days
2. Set a Goal
Have a vision of where you want to be and work towards it.
If your answer here was “lots of money,” then try again.
Whilst material wealth and possessions can be a motivator in the short term they will not help you through the times when things get difficult – as they inevitably will.
What will keep you motivated over the long term is simple – passion for what you are doing (which is also advocated by the late Steve Jobs ).
If you don’t enjoy what you are doing it becomes hard and it becomes “work” and a “chore”.
3. There is No Plan B
In order to become successful, you will at some point have to take a risk. A risk that most people won’t be willing to take in their own lives.
Those same people who won’t put themselves out of their comfort zone for whatever reason are the same ones to tell you you should have a backup plan… a plan B.
It sounds like good and reasonable advice from the outset but here we have one of the former Governor of California telling you to scrap the plan b and that he hates the plan B.
It’s hard enough to deal with all the negative people around you, the naysayers that if you start doubting yourself and your vision that when things can be dangerous.
A “plan B” is you admitting that you don’t believe in your goal or yourself and are doomed to failure from the start.
“Every thought that you put into plan B, you’re taking away that thought and energy from plan A”.
4. Don’t Be Afraid of Failure
One of the reasons people are afraid of starting a business or pursuing a different career is fear of failure.
It isn’t so much the failure of the pursuit which drives the fear it’s the individual’s perception of how other people will react to the failure.
Why voluntarily put yourself in a potential position of ridicule or embarrassment and the pain and anguish that can cause…why go through that?
When we look back at the 72-year-old’s career, we only remember the great things that he achieved and all the bodybuilding champions he lost or the movies that tanked in the ratings are all but forgotten about.
The point that the Austrian drives home here is that “everyone fails,” but winners get up after failing and losers “stay down”.
