think big because then you’re gonna get
big then you’re gonna go and achieve big
things that is the most important thing
you know we don’t achieve big things by
accident so shoot for the top shoot for
the sky for the you know for the stars
the other thing is is that you get to
work your butt off if you think that
you’re gonna go and accomplish something
really special and be the best in
anything in the world do you think you
can do it without working you make a big
mistake because no matter what I did if
it was a bodybuilding or in acting or if
it is in the political arena it always
took a lot a lot of work and you gotta
put out and you got the you know
sometimes make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so there’s another
rule that is very important experiencing
pain in your muscles and aching and just
think awan and go on and go on and this
last two or three or four repetitions
that’s what makes actually the muscle
then grow and that’s it divides then one
from a champion and one from not being a
champion if you can’t go through this
pain period you make it to be a champion
if you can’t go through forget it and
that’s what most people like isn’t this
having the guts – guts to go in and just
say I go through and I don’t care what
happens you know it aches and if I for
town I have no fear of fainting in a gym
because I know it’s it could happen I
threw up many times while I was working
out but it doesn’t matter because it’s
all worth it everyone has a problem with
time but today is 24 hours and we sleep
six now I know there’s some out there
that say I need eight but I say just
sleep a little faster because the bottom
line is we have six hours of sleep 24
hours are available so if 18 hours now
available to you
your family your hobbies and also to
learn something new or to do something
new which could easily be that you want
to learn a new language or that you want
to read and as a New Year’s resolution I
have to read a book every week or where
you say I’m gonna go and reshape my
party so you’re gonna go and take this
hour out of your schedule and say I’m
gonna train an hour every day so this is
for most people if you a huge challenge
but it is totally doable I can tell them
because the kind of things that I did
when I came to this country I mean I
went to school I was working in
construction I was working out my five
hours a day I was taking acting classes
from 8 o’clock at night to 12 midnight I
was doing all of those things I wanted
to make sure that out of the 24 hours of
the day that I don’t waste one single
hour those hours were too precious and
so they’ll just want to tell people
don’t give me this thing I have a
difficult time with the time and I don’t
have time for this neither of that you
have time you make the time of course
people ask me all the time they say to
me what is the secret to success these
are my rules and I think that they can
apply to anyone but that is for you to
decide because not everyone is the same
there’s some people that just like to
kick back and coast through life and I
just want to be very intense and want to
be number one and want to be successful
let’s like me I always wanted to be very
intense I always wanted to be number one
I took it very seriously in my career so
this was the same when I started with
bodybuilding I didn’t want to just be a
bodybuilding champion I wanted to be the
best body build of all times the same
was in the movies I didn’t want to just
be a movie star I wanted to be a great
movie star that’s the highest paid movie
star has above the title building and so
this intensity always paid off for me
this commitment always paid off for me
so here some of the rules the first rule
is trust yourself and what I mean but
that is is so many young people are
getting so much advice from their
parents and from the teachers from
everyone but what is most important is
that you have to dig deep down dig deep
down and ask yourselves
who
you want to be not what but who and I’m
talking about not with 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 the
people I was lucky growing up because I
did not have the television or I didn’t
have telephones I didn’t have the TV
computers in the iPods and of course
Twitter was then something that birds
did outside the window but didn’t have
all those destructions in orders have
spent a lot of time for myself so could
figure out and listen the what is inside
my heart and inside my head and I
recognized very quickly that inside my
head and heart were a burning desire to
live my small village in Austria not
that there was something wrong with us
Austria is a beautiful country but I
wanted to leave that little place they
want to be part of something big the
United States of America the powerful
nation the base the dreams can come true
I knew when I come over here I can
realize my dreams and I decided that the
best way for me to come to America was
to become a bodybuilding champion
because they knew that was my ticket the
instant that I saw magazine cover of my
idol reg Park he was mr. universe he was
starring in Hercules movies he looked
strong and powerful he was so confident
so when I found out he got that way I
became obsessed and I went home and I
said to my family I want to be a
bodybuilding champion now you can
imagine how that went over in my home in
Austria
my parents they couldn’t believe it it
would have been just happy if I would
have become a police officer like my
father or married someone like Heidi who
wear the bun should have had a bunch of
kids and rain around like the fun Trapp
family in Sound of Music that’s what my
family had in mind for me but something
else burned inside me something burned
inside me I wanted to be different I was
determined to be unique I was driven to
think big in the dream big
everyone else thought that I was crazy
my friend said if you want to be a
champion in the sport why don’t he go
and become a bicycle champion or skiing
champion or soccer champion those are
the Austrian sports 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 of course for extra
motivation I read books on strongmen and
the bodybuilding and looked at magazines
and one of the things that it was a
decorated my bedroom window of my
bedroom wall right next to my bed it was
this big wall that had decorated all
with pictures hung up pictures of
strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers
and boxers and so on this rule number
one I wanted to become a champion I
wanted I was on a mission so rule number
one is of course trust yourself no
matter how and what anyone else thinks
don’t be afraid to fail
because if you’re afraid to fail then
you’re always holding yourself back
because you’re afraid that if you go all
out you may fail well in weightlifting
we learned it very quickly it’s the only
way you could break a record is if
you’re willing to fail that’s when you
put on more weight you try it sometimes
you maybe don’t you would not be able to
lift it we just happened to me many
times but eventually when you train hard
enough you will lift it so don’t be
afraid to fail you I mean how far can
you fall that just shows you again so
much for it can’t be done this is why I
try to tell you anything and everything
can be done if you can visualize it and
if you believe in yourself it was the
same thing again when I ran for governor
you can imagine when I went on at the
night show and I announced that I’m
gonna run for governor of the great
state of California people came to me
afterwards and says you’re crazy you
don’t announce something like this under
tonight’s show you have an official
press conference at the State Capitol
plus you don’t start with governorship
you go start first with mayor or with
state senator and I said I don’t want to
be senator I don’t want to be mayor I
want to be governor don’t you understand
that well the rest is history I won in
2003 and they won also in 2006 let me
tell you you’re going to find the
naysayers in every turn that you make
don’t listen
just visualize your goal know exactly
where you want to go trust yourself
get out there and work like hell and
break some of the rules and never ever
be afraid of failure and of course rule
number two is break the rules we have so
many rules in life about everything I
said break the rules not the law but
break the rules it is impossible to be a
maverick or 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 like to everyone in
avoid trouble the only way that ever got
any place was the breaking some of the
rules after all I remember that after
was finished with my bodybuilding career
I wanted to get into acting you don’t
want to be a star in films you can
imagine what the agent said when I went
to meet all those agents everyone has
the same line that it can’t be done the
rules are different here just look at
your body have this huge monstrous body
and openly developed that doesn’t fit
into the movies you don’t understand
this was 20 years ago the Hercules
movies now there is the little guys that
ain’t Dustin Hoffman Woody Allen Chuck
Nicholson before he gained weight of
course that is but anyway those are the
guys that win and the agent also
complained about Max and he says no one
ever became a star with an accent like
that especially not with the German
accent in yes I can imagine with your
name Arnold Schwarzenegger or whatever
the name is on a billboard yeah that’s
gonna draw a lot of tickets and sell a
lot of tickets you’re right so this is
the kind of negative attitude they had
but I didn’t listen and listen to those
rules even though they were very nice
and they said look we can get you some
big parts be kingmaker get you to be a
you know playing a wrestler or a bouncer
or maybe be the German accent we can get
you to be
that’s the officer in Hogan’s Heroes or
something like that but you know I
didn’t listen to all this this was their
rules not my rules I was convinced that
could do it that if I worked as hard as
I didn’t bodybuilding five hours a day
only I throat through I broke through
and I started getting the first parts in
TB streets of San Francisco Lucille Ball
hired me and made pumping I’ll stay
hungry and then I got the big break in
Conan the Barbarian and there the
director said if people wouldn’t have
Schwarzenegger we would have to build
one now think about that and then when I
did Terminator I’ll be back became most
of one of the most famous lines in a
movie history all because of my crazy
accent now think about it the things
that the agent said will be totally a
detriment and will be impossible for me
to get a job all of a sudden became an
asset for me all of the things my accent
and body and everything so it just shows
do you never listen that you can’t do
something pay attention to the rules and
I think it’s the most important thing
that we have a very clear vision of
where we go a goal well where do we go
because you can have the best ship in
the world you can have the best cruise
liner but if the captain does not know
where to go that ship will drift around
the world and out there that sea and
we’ll never end up anywhere and this is
exactly the way it is in real life if
you don’t have a core if you don’t have
a vision you just drift around you’re
not gonna be happy this is why it is so
important to have that vision now I
created that vision in Austria because I
grew up after the Second World War
Austria right along with Germany lost
the Second World War
thank God and the problem was that
everyone was so depressed because they
lost the war that there was alcoholism
everywhere there was of course
depression there was a terrible economic
situation there was famine there was
starvation and all those things and also
it was kind of a little place and narrow
I felt kind of I wanted to get out of
there I wanted to escape and I couldn’t
see myself really do work there in the
stadia to work in the factory of the
work on the farm although even to follow
my father’s footsteps and to become a
police officer I couldn’t see that
either Sam I think that’s what my
parents wanted me to do they wanted me
to become a police officer and to marry
a girl by the name of Heidi and to have
a bunch of children and to run around
like the fun trap family in The Sound of
Music but that’s not what I saw this was
the vision of my parents but not mine
and luckily one day in school I watched
a documentary about America and I found
myself I knew exactly that is where I
wanted to end up I wanted to be in
America the rule number three 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 they didn’t work and the
movie goes in the toilet now we have
seen my movies I’m in Red Sonja
Hercules in New York last action heroes
those movies went in the toilet but
that’s okay because they’re the same
time they 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 failure
or you will never push yourself you keep
pushing because you believe in yourself
and in your vision and you know that
it’s the right thing to do and success
will come so don’t be afraid to fail
that I was very fortunate that I had
great heroes I great heroes that I could
look up to and I mentioned two of them
Muhammad Ali and Sargent Shriver my
father-in-law but there’s other great
heroes like Gorbachev Reagan Mandela
great leaders like Mother Teresa
Chancellor Kohl and Churchill and the
list goes on and on I mean those people
had such an impact in the world
single-handedly they’ve changed the
world we all can create change whether
it is now neighborhood or in our local
schools or in our country they can’t be
big but it can also be as little as just
going to a school kid that is problems
reading and teaching that kids are the
read or how to do math we don’t have to
just work on me we should also work on
we not just me but also we remember that
to lead a truly full life you must give
back you must leave the world a better
place than you found it because the
bottom line is it is up to us I mean
those rules that have given you
important rules but giving back is one
of the most important rules don’t listen
to the naysayers I mean how many times
have you heard that you can’t do this
and you can’t do that and it has never
been done before just imagine if Bill
Gates had quit when people say it can’t
be done I heard this all the time some
effect I love it when someone says that
never no one has ever done this before
because
when I do it that means that I’m the
first one I understand it so pay no
attention to the people who say he can’t
be done
I remember my mother-in-law eunice
Kennedy Shriver when she started Special
Olympics in 1968 people said that it
would not work the experts the doctors
that specialized in mental disabilities
and mental retardation said it can’t be
done you can’t bring people out of the
institution you can’t make them
participate in sports and jumping and
swimming and in running they will hurt
themselves that were hurting each other
they were drowned in the pool but let me
tell you something now 40 years later
Special Olympics is one of the greatest
organizations in 164 countries dedicated
to people with mental disabilities and
with intellectual challenge and
intellectual challenge and she did not
take no for an answer and the same as
men you look at Barack Obama I mean
imagine if he would’ve listened if he
would have listened to the naysayers he
would have never run for president
people say that couldn’t be done that he
couldn’t get elected that he couldn’t
beat Hillary Clinton that he would never
win the general election but he followed
his own heart he didn’t listen to the
you can’t and you changed the course of
American history so I went over you see
that if I would have listened to the
naysayers I would still be in the
Austrian Alps yodeling I would never
have come to America I would have never
met my wonderful wife Maria Shriver I
would have never had the wonderful four
kids that would have never done
terminated and there wouldn’t be
standing in front of you today as
governor of the greatest state of the
greatest country in the world so I never
listened that you can’t I always
who’s your power of potential and make
this nation in this world a better place
it worked for this immigrant that came
over here to this country with $20 in
the pocket and I know and I guarantee
[Music]
work your butt off you never want to
fail because he didn’t work hard enough
I never wanted to lose a competition or
lose an election because they didn’t
work hard enough I always believed
leaving no stone unturned
Muhammad Ali one of my great heroes had
a great line in the seventies when he
was asked how many sit-ups do you do he
said I don’t count my sit-ups I only
start counting when it starts hurting
and I feel pain that’s when I start
counting because that’s when it really
counts that’s what makes you a champion
that’s the way it is made everything no
pain no gain
so many of those lessons that I apply in
life I’ve learned from sports let me
tell you and especially that one and let
me tell you it is important to have fun
in life of course but when you’re out
there partying horsing around someone
out there at the same time is working
hard someone is getting smarter and
someone is winning just remember that
now if you want the coast through life
don’t pay any attention to any of those
rules but if you want the win there’s
absolutely no way around hard hard work
none of my rules by the way of success
will work unless you do I’ve always
figured out that there’s 24 hours a day
you sleep six hours and if 18 hours left
I know there’s some of you out there now
and says well wait a minute I sleep
eight hours or nine hours where they
all of those liabilities that they
talked about started turning into assets
when it had Conan the Barbarian the
director came to me and he said if we
wouldn’t have you people don’t have to
build one and then Terminator the
director said I couldn’t imagine to have
anyone played terminated it wouldn’t
have an accent and they wouldn’t have
your body I cannot imagine the line I’ll
be back with a normal American accent it
works so perfectly than you have this
German accent so all of those things
that they say the liabilities became an
asset the moment as moment went on they
grew and grew and I went from one movie
to the next so they’re making more and
more money and then on the end ended up
being the highest-paid actor with 30
million dollars and Terminator 3 just
remember you can’t climb the ladder of
so I had always this desire that felt
like that the only way I ever would get
the America because in those days it was
in common that you buy yourself a ticket
that no one could afford that so yeah I
had to kind of accomplish something big
that takes me to America and then when I
read about this guy reg Park who won mr.
universe three times and then became a
star in Hercules movies and then was in
Italy filming and then in Hollywood
filming I felt that it could be the
ticket I should become mr. universe as
you become kind of a second rich Park of
course no one really bought into that my
parents thought I was totally insane I
think that my parents really thought
that there was something terribly wrong
of being dead driven you know because I
would come home at lunchtime and instead
of having lunch over 200 sit-ups and
they went night I would go to the
stadium and there would be lifting
weights I would come home at 10 o’clock
at night and there would be continue
lifting weights so it was like one of
this insanity in a military I will
continue lifting weights no matter how
the training was and how tough the basic
training was I would always then lift
weights afterwards and as a tank driver
would have on the side of the tank in
the toolbox I would have my weights my
barbells and dumbbells and my exercise
bench and everything there in order to
be at any given time if we stopped
driving the tank and maneuvers at 2:00
in the morning I would be able to pull
out my weights and again lift for two
hours my weights just I was really a
fanatic about the whole thing but that’s
the only way you really get where the
way I succeeded because I became at the
age of 20 at the youngest mr. universe
in London in the history of bodybuilding
because the youngest before then was a
rich Park the guy was talking about with
the age of 24 but I became the youngest
me 20 but it was because I was like so
serious about the whole thing and it
worked with the age of 21 after one by
second mr. Universe title I got an
invitation from Joe Weider
who was the publisher of all the muscle
magazines in America and also the person
that had the biggest wee hours of weight
training equipment and
at food supplement companies and auras
and he brought me the America and so
there was I mean six years after my
dream started I was in America that
takes me the rule number six
which is a very important or it’s about
giving back
whatever path did 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 and my
father-in-law Sacha Shriver who is a
great American truly great American who
started the Peace Corps
the Job Corps legal aid to the poor he
said that Yale University to the
students at the 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
mural and you will see the millions of
people didn’t need your help and let me
tell you something reaching out and
helping people will bring you more
satisfaction than anything else you have
ever done let me tell you as you prepare
to go off into the world
remember those six rules trust yourself
break some rules don’t be afraid to fail
ignore the naysayers work like hell and give something back
big then you’re gonna go and achieve big
things that is the most important thing
you know we don’t achieve big things by
accident so shoot for the top shoot for
the sky for the you know for the stars
the other thing is is that you get to
work your butt off if you think that
you’re gonna go and accomplish something
really special and be the best in
anything in the world do you think you
can do it without working you make a big
mistake because no matter what I did if
it was a bodybuilding or in acting or if
it is in the political arena it always
took a lot a lot of work and you gotta
put out and you got the you know
sometimes make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so there’s another
rule that is very important experiencing
pain in your muscles and aching and just
think awan and go on and go on and this
last two or three or four repetitions
that’s what makes actually the muscle
then grow and that’s it divides then one
from a champion and one from not being a
champion if you can’t go through this
pain period you make it to be a champion
if you can’t go through forget it and
that’s what most people like isn’t this
having the guts – guts to go in and just
say I go through and I don’t care what
happens you know it aches and if I for
town I have no fear of fainting in a gym
because I know it’s it could happen I
threw up many times while I was working
out but it doesn’t matter because it’s
all worth it everyone has a problem with
time but today is 24 hours and we sleep
six now I know there’s some out there
that say I need eight but I say just
sleep a little faster because the bottom
line is we have six hours of sleep 24
hours are available so if 18 hours now
available to you
your family your hobbies and also to
learn something new or to do something
new which could easily be that you want
to learn a new language or that you want
to read and as a New Year’s resolution I
have to read a book every week or where
you say I’m gonna go and reshape my
party so you’re gonna go and take this
hour out of your schedule and say I’m
gonna train an hour every day so this is
for most people if you a huge challenge
but it is totally doable I can tell them
because the kind of things that I did
when I came to this country I mean I
went to school I was working in
construction I was working out my five
hours a day I was taking acting classes
from 8 o’clock at night to 12 midnight I
was doing all of those things I wanted
to make sure that out of the 24 hours of
the day that I don’t waste one single
hour those hours were too precious and
so they’ll just want to tell people
don’t give me this thing I have a
difficult time with the time and I don’t
have time for this neither of that you
have time you make the time of course
people ask me all the time they say to
me what is the secret to success these
are my rules and I think that they can
apply to anyone but that is for you to
decide because not everyone is the same
there’s some people that just like to
kick back and coast through life and I
just want to be very intense and want to
be number one and want to be successful
let’s like me I always wanted to be very
intense I always wanted to be number one
I took it very seriously in my career so
this was the same when I started with
bodybuilding I didn’t want to just be a
bodybuilding champion I wanted to be the
best body build of all times the same
was in the movies I didn’t want to just
be a movie star I wanted to be a great
movie star that’s the highest paid movie
star has above the title building and so
this intensity always paid off for me
this commitment always paid off for me
so here some of the rules the first rule
is trust yourself and what I mean but
that is is so many young people are
getting so much advice from their
parents and from the teachers from
everyone but what is most important is
that you have to dig deep down dig deep
down and ask yourselves
who
you want to be not what but who and I’m
talking about not with 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 the
people I was lucky growing up because I
did not have the television or I didn’t
have telephones I didn’t have the TV
computers in the iPods and of course
Twitter was then something that birds
did outside the window but didn’t have
all those destructions in orders have
spent a lot of time for myself so could
figure out and listen the what is inside
my heart and inside my head and I
recognized very quickly that inside my
head and heart were a burning desire to
live my small village in Austria not
that there was something wrong with us
Austria is a beautiful country but I
wanted to leave that little place they
want to be part of something big the
United States of America the powerful
nation the base the dreams can come true
I knew when I come over here I can
realize my dreams and I decided that the
best way for me to come to America was
to become a bodybuilding champion
because they knew that was my ticket the
instant that I saw magazine cover of my
idol reg Park he was mr. universe he was
starring in Hercules movies he looked
strong and powerful he was so confident
so when I found out he got that way I
became obsessed and I went home and I
said to my family I want to be a
bodybuilding champion now you can
imagine how that went over in my home in
Austria
my parents they couldn’t believe it it
would have been just happy if I would
have become a police officer like my
father or married someone like Heidi who
wear the bun should have had a bunch of
kids and rain around like the fun Trapp
family in Sound of Music that’s what my
family had in mind for me but something
else burned inside me something burned
inside me I wanted to be different I was
determined to be unique I was driven to
think big in the dream big
everyone else thought that I was crazy
my friend said if you want to be a
champion in the sport why don’t he go
and become a bicycle champion or skiing
champion or soccer champion those are
the Austrian sports 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 of course for extra
motivation I read books on strongmen and
the bodybuilding and looked at magazines
and one of the things that it was a
decorated my bedroom window of my
bedroom wall right next to my bed it was
this big wall that had decorated all
with pictures hung up pictures of
strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers
and boxers and so on this rule number
one I wanted to become a champion I
wanted I was on a mission so rule number
one is of course trust yourself no
matter how and what anyone else thinks
don’t be afraid to fail
because if you’re afraid to fail then
you’re always holding yourself back
because you’re afraid that if you go all
out you may fail well in weightlifting
we learned it very quickly it’s the only
way you could break a record is if
you’re willing to fail that’s when you
put on more weight you try it sometimes
you maybe don’t you would not be able to
lift it we just happened to me many
times but eventually when you train hard
enough you will lift it so don’t be
afraid to fail you I mean how far can
you fall that just shows you again so
much for it can’t be done this is why I
try to tell you anything and everything
can be done if you can visualize it and
if you believe in yourself it was the
same thing again when I ran for governor
you can imagine when I went on at the
night show and I announced that I’m
gonna run for governor of the great
state of California people came to me
afterwards and says you’re crazy you
don’t announce something like this under
tonight’s show you have an official
press conference at the State Capitol
plus you don’t start with governorship
you go start first with mayor or with
state senator and I said I don’t want to
be senator I don’t want to be mayor I
want to be governor don’t you understand
that well the rest is history I won in
2003 and they won also in 2006 let me
tell you you’re going to find the
naysayers in every turn that you make
don’t listen
just visualize your goal know exactly
where you want to go trust yourself
get out there and work like hell and
break some of the rules and never ever
be afraid of failure and of course rule
number two is break the rules we have so
many rules in life about everything I
said break the rules not the law but
break the rules it is impossible to be a
maverick or 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 like to everyone in
avoid trouble the only way that ever got
any place was the breaking some of the
rules after all I remember that after
was finished with my bodybuilding career
I wanted to get into acting you don’t
want to be a star in films you can
imagine what the agent said when I went
to meet all those agents everyone has
the same line that it can’t be done the
rules are different here just look at
your body have this huge monstrous body
and openly developed that doesn’t fit
into the movies you don’t understand
this was 20 years ago the Hercules
movies now there is the little guys that
ain’t Dustin Hoffman Woody Allen Chuck
Nicholson before he gained weight of
course that is but anyway those are the
guys that win and the agent also
complained about Max and he says no one
ever became a star with an accent like
that especially not with the German
accent in yes I can imagine with your
name Arnold Schwarzenegger or whatever
the name is on a billboard yeah that’s
gonna draw a lot of tickets and sell a
lot of tickets you’re right so this is
the kind of negative attitude they had
but I didn’t listen and listen to those
rules even though they were very nice
and they said look we can get you some
big parts be kingmaker get you to be a
you know playing a wrestler or a bouncer
or maybe be the German accent we can get
you to be
that’s the officer in Hogan’s Heroes or
something like that but you know I
didn’t listen to all this this was their
rules not my rules I was convinced that
could do it that if I worked as hard as
I didn’t bodybuilding five hours a day
only I throat through I broke through
and I started getting the first parts in
TB streets of San Francisco Lucille Ball
hired me and made pumping I’ll stay
hungry and then I got the big break in
Conan the Barbarian and there the
director said if people wouldn’t have
Schwarzenegger we would have to build
one now think about that and then when I
did Terminator I’ll be back became most
of one of the most famous lines in a
movie history all because of my crazy
accent now think about it the things
that the agent said will be totally a
detriment and will be impossible for me
to get a job all of a sudden became an
asset for me all of the things my accent
and body and everything so it just shows
do you never listen that you can’t do
something pay attention to the rules and
I think it’s the most important thing
that we have a very clear vision of
where we go a goal well where do we go
because you can have the best ship in
the world you can have the best cruise
liner but if the captain does not know
where to go that ship will drift around
the world and out there that sea and
we’ll never end up anywhere and this is
exactly the way it is in real life if
you don’t have a core if you don’t have
a vision you just drift around you’re
not gonna be happy this is why it is so
important to have that vision now I
created that vision in Austria because I
grew up after the Second World War
Austria right along with Germany lost
the Second World War
thank God and the problem was that
everyone was so depressed because they
lost the war that there was alcoholism
everywhere there was of course
depression there was a terrible economic
situation there was famine there was
starvation and all those things and also
it was kind of a little place and narrow
I felt kind of I wanted to get out of
there I wanted to escape and I couldn’t
see myself really do work there in the
stadia to work in the factory of the
work on the farm although even to follow
my father’s footsteps and to become a
police officer I couldn’t see that
either Sam I think that’s what my
parents wanted me to do they wanted me
to become a police officer and to marry
a girl by the name of Heidi and to have
a bunch of children and to run around
like the fun trap family in The Sound of
Music but that’s not what I saw this was
the vision of my parents but not mine
and luckily one day in school I watched
a documentary about America and I found
myself I knew exactly that is where I
wanted to end up I wanted to be in
America the rule number three 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 they didn’t work and the
movie goes in the toilet now we have
seen my movies I’m in Red Sonja
Hercules in New York last action heroes
those movies went in the toilet but
that’s okay because they’re the same
time they 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 failure
or you will never push yourself you keep
pushing because you believe in yourself
and in your vision and you know that
it’s the right thing to do and success
will come so don’t be afraid to fail
that I was very fortunate that I had
great heroes I great heroes that I could
look up to and I mentioned two of them
Muhammad Ali and Sargent Shriver my
father-in-law but there’s other great
heroes like Gorbachev Reagan Mandela
great leaders like Mother Teresa
Chancellor Kohl and Churchill and the
list goes on and on I mean those people
had such an impact in the world
single-handedly they’ve changed the
world we all can create change whether
it is now neighborhood or in our local
schools or in our country they can’t be
big but it can also be as little as just
going to a school kid that is problems
reading and teaching that kids are the
read or how to do math we don’t have to
just work on me we should also work on
we not just me but also we remember that
to lead a truly full life you must give
back you must leave the world a better
place than you found it because the
bottom line is it is up to us I mean
those rules that have given you
important rules but giving back is one
of the most important rules don’t listen
to the naysayers I mean how many times
have you heard that you can’t do this
and you can’t do that and it has never
been done before just imagine if Bill
Gates had quit when people say it can’t
be done I heard this all the time some
effect I love it when someone says that
never no one has ever done this before
because
when I do it that means that I’m the
first one I understand it so pay no
attention to the people who say he can’t
be done
I remember my mother-in-law eunice
Kennedy Shriver when she started Special
Olympics in 1968 people said that it
would not work the experts the doctors
that specialized in mental disabilities
and mental retardation said it can’t be
done you can’t bring people out of the
institution you can’t make them
participate in sports and jumping and
swimming and in running they will hurt
themselves that were hurting each other
they were drowned in the pool but let me
tell you something now 40 years later
Special Olympics is one of the greatest
organizations in 164 countries dedicated
to people with mental disabilities and
with intellectual challenge and
intellectual challenge and she did not
take no for an answer and the same as
men you look at Barack Obama I mean
imagine if he would’ve listened if he
would have listened to the naysayers he
would have never run for president
people say that couldn’t be done that he
couldn’t get elected that he couldn’t
beat Hillary Clinton that he would never
win the general election but he followed
his own heart he didn’t listen to the
you can’t and you changed the course of
American history so I went over you see
that if I would have listened to the
naysayers I would still be in the
Austrian Alps yodeling I would never
have come to America I would have never
met my wonderful wife Maria Shriver I
would have never had the wonderful four
kids that would have never done
terminated and there wouldn’t be
standing in front of you today as
governor of the greatest state of the
greatest country in the world so I never
listened that you can’t I always
who’s your power of potential and make
this nation in this world a better place
it worked for this immigrant that came
over here to this country with $20 in
the pocket and I know and I guarantee
[Music]
work your butt off you never want to
fail because he didn’t work hard enough
I never wanted to lose a competition or
lose an election because they didn’t
work hard enough I always believed
leaving no stone unturned
Muhammad Ali one of my great heroes had
a great line in the seventies when he
was asked how many sit-ups do you do he
said I don’t count my sit-ups I only
start counting when it starts hurting
and I feel pain that’s when I start
counting because that’s when it really
counts that’s what makes you a champion
that’s the way it is made everything no
pain no gain
so many of those lessons that I apply in
life I’ve learned from sports let me
tell you and especially that one and let
me tell you it is important to have fun
in life of course but when you’re out
there partying horsing around someone
out there at the same time is working
hard someone is getting smarter and
someone is winning just remember that
now if you want the coast through life
don’t pay any attention to any of those
rules but if you want the win there’s
absolutely no way around hard hard work
none of my rules by the way of success
will work unless you do I’ve always
figured out that there’s 24 hours a day
you sleep six hours and if 18 hours left
I know there’s some of you out there now
and says well wait a minute I sleep
eight hours or nine hours where they
all of those liabilities that they
talked about started turning into assets
when it had Conan the Barbarian the
director came to me and he said if we
wouldn’t have you people don’t have to
build one and then Terminator the
director said I couldn’t imagine to have
anyone played terminated it wouldn’t
have an accent and they wouldn’t have
your body I cannot imagine the line I’ll
be back with a normal American accent it
works so perfectly than you have this
German accent so all of those things
that they say the liabilities became an
asset the moment as moment went on they
grew and grew and I went from one movie
to the next so they’re making more and
more money and then on the end ended up
being the highest-paid actor with 30
million dollars and Terminator 3 just
remember you can’t climb the ladder of
so I had always this desire that felt
like that the only way I ever would get
the America because in those days it was
in common that you buy yourself a ticket
that no one could afford that so yeah I
had to kind of accomplish something big
that takes me to America and then when I
read about this guy reg Park who won mr.
universe three times and then became a
star in Hercules movies and then was in
Italy filming and then in Hollywood
filming I felt that it could be the
ticket I should become mr. universe as
you become kind of a second rich Park of
course no one really bought into that my
parents thought I was totally insane I
think that my parents really thought
that there was something terribly wrong
of being dead driven you know because I
would come home at lunchtime and instead
of having lunch over 200 sit-ups and
they went night I would go to the
stadium and there would be lifting
weights I would come home at 10 o’clock
at night and there would be continue
lifting weights so it was like one of
this insanity in a military I will
continue lifting weights no matter how
the training was and how tough the basic
training was I would always then lift
weights afterwards and as a tank driver
would have on the side of the tank in
the toolbox I would have my weights my
barbells and dumbbells and my exercise
bench and everything there in order to
be at any given time if we stopped
driving the tank and maneuvers at 2:00
in the morning I would be able to pull
out my weights and again lift for two
hours my weights just I was really a
fanatic about the whole thing but that’s
the only way you really get where the
way I succeeded because I became at the
age of 20 at the youngest mr. universe
in London in the history of bodybuilding
because the youngest before then was a
rich Park the guy was talking about with
the age of 24 but I became the youngest
me 20 but it was because I was like so
serious about the whole thing and it
worked with the age of 21 after one by
second mr. Universe title I got an
invitation from Joe Weider
who was the publisher of all the muscle
magazines in America and also the person
that had the biggest wee hours of weight
training equipment and
at food supplement companies and auras
and he brought me the America and so
there was I mean six years after my
dream started I was in America that
takes me the rule number six
which is a very important or it’s about
giving back
whatever path did 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 and my
father-in-law Sacha Shriver who is a
great American truly great American who
started the Peace Corps
the Job Corps legal aid to the poor he
said that Yale University to the
students at the 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
mural and you will see the millions of
people didn’t need your help and let me
tell you something reaching out and
helping people will bring you more
satisfaction than anything else you have
ever done let me tell you as you prepare
to go off into the world
remember those six rules trust yourself
break some rules don’t be afraid to fail
ignore the naysayers work like hell and give something back
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