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 and 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 an 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
something to make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so this is 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 2 or 3 or 4 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 the guts to go in and
just say I go through and I don’t care
what happens you know it aches and if I
fall down 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 the day is 24
hours and we sleep 6 now I know there’s
some out there that say I need 8 but I
say just sleep a little faster because
the bottom line is we have 6 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 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 at the time and I don’t
have time for this now that you have
time you make the time of course people
ask me all the time they say to me what
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 I want to
be number one and want to be successful
that’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 have the
buff the title building and so this
intensity always paid off for me this
commitment always paid off for me so
here’s 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 do you want
to be not what but who and I’m talking
about not with your parents and teachers
wanted 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 computers in the iPods and of
course Twitter was then something that
birds did outside the window
but didn’t enough all the 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 and
want to be part of something big the
United States of America a powerful
nation the place where 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 I 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
had a bunch of them had a bunch of kids
and ran around like the fun trap 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 friends 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 strong men and a bodybuilding
and looked at magazines and one of the
things that it was I decorated my
bedroom we
I’m a bedroom wall right next to my bed
it was this big wall that are decorated
all with pictures hung up pictures of
strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers
and boxes 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
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
it 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
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 liked by 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 and 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
they aim 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 Yeah 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 a Nazi 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 TV streets of San
Francisco Lucille Ball hired me and made
pumping I’ll stay hungry and then I got
the big break in Kona
Berrien and there the director said if
people wouldn’t have Schwarzenegger he
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 made it in
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 into
stadia to work in the factory of the
work and a 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 it 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 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’s the right thing to do and
success will come so don’t be afraid to
that I was very fortunate that I had
great heroes I’d 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 has problems
reading and teaching that kids how to
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 they mean 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 say 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
swim
and in running they will hurt themselves
to reward each other they were drowned
in the pool but let me tell you
something now 40 years later Special
Olympic 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
when you look at Barack Obama I mean
imagine if he would have 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 a window where you
see that if I would have listened to the
naysayers I will 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 it
[Music]
work your butt off you never want the
film 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 isn’t with 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 to
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 well then just sleep
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 then 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 thirty
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
then 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 I
should become kind of a second reg Park
of course no one really bought into that
my parents thought it 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 to 200 sit-ups and
they went night I would go to the
stadium and I will be lifting weights I
will 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 it’s
the only way you really get where the
way I succeeded because I became at the
age of 20 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 my
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 had food
supplement companies and orders and he
brought me the America and Saudi I was I
mean six years after my dream started I
was in America that takes me to 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 Sargent 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 mural
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 and 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 an 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
something to make a lot of sacrifices
notice if you’re not willing to work
hard forget about it so this is 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 2 or 3 or 4 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 the guts to go in and
just say I go through and I don’t care
what happens you know it aches and if I
fall down 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 the day is 24
hours and we sleep 6 now I know there’s
some out there that say I need 8 but I
say just sleep a little faster because
the bottom line is we have 6 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 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 at the time and I don’t
have time for this now that you have
time you make the time of course people
ask me all the time they say to me what
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 I want to
be number one and want to be successful
that’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 have the
buff the title building and so this
intensity always paid off for me this
commitment always paid off for me so
here’s 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 do you want
to be not what but who and I’m talking
about not with your parents and teachers
wanted 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 computers in the iPods and of
course Twitter was then something that
birds did outside the window
but didn’t enough all the 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 and
want to be part of something big the
United States of America a powerful
nation the place where 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 I 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
had a bunch of them had a bunch of kids
and ran around like the fun trap 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 friends 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 strong men and a bodybuilding
and looked at magazines and one of the
things that it was I decorated my
bedroom we
I’m a bedroom wall right next to my bed
it was this big wall that are decorated
all with pictures hung up pictures of
strongmen and bodybuilders and wrestlers
and boxes 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
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
it 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
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 liked by 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 and 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
they aim 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 Yeah 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 a Nazi 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 TV streets of San
Francisco Lucille Ball hired me and made
pumping I’ll stay hungry and then I got
the big break in Kona
Berrien and there the director said if
people wouldn’t have Schwarzenegger he
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 made it in
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 into
stadia to work in the factory of the
work and a 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 it 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 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’s the right thing to do and
success will come so don’t be afraid to
that I was very fortunate that I had
great heroes I’d 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 has problems
reading and teaching that kids how to
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 they mean 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 say 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
swim
and in running they will hurt themselves
to reward each other they were drowned
in the pool but let me tell you
something now 40 years later Special
Olympic 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
when you look at Barack Obama I mean
imagine if he would have 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 a window where you
see that if I would have listened to the
naysayers I will 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 it
[Music]
work your butt off you never want the
film 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 isn’t with 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 to
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 well then just sleep
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 then 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 thirty
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
then 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 I
should become kind of a second reg Park
of course no one really bought into that
my parents thought it 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 to 200 sit-ups and
they went night I would go to the
stadium and I will be lifting weights I
will 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 it’s
the only way you really get where the
way I succeeded because I became at the
age of 20 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 my
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 had food
supplement companies and orders and he
brought me the America and Saudi I was I
mean six years after my dream started I
was in America that takes me to 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 Sargent 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 mural
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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