Arnold Schwarzenegger
I’m here to talk about success you see, if you don’t have a vision of where you are going and if you don’t have a goal, where you are going, you will wander and end up nowhere. I mean, as you know, I was born in 1947 in Austria after World War II.
So I was very lucky to stumble upon my vision and I really didn’t like Austria when I was growing up I couldn’t see myself becoming a farmer or a factory worker or something like that, even though my parents wanted me to stay there and live a normal life. But that was their view, not mine.
My view was completely different. I felt like I was born into something special, something great. Then one day I went to school. I remember I was 11 years old and they showed a documentary about America and they showed this documentary about the big skyscrapers, the skyscrapers, the big bridges, the 6th freeway and all these things.
And they said to each other, this is where I want to be. I don’t want to be here with these little farm houses and these little buildings. I want to be in America One day after school, I passed by a store in Gratz. So I went inside and looked around and then I saw a magazine. I saw a construction magazine that had Reg Park on the cover. Reg Park was then three times Mr. Universe and I saw Hercules on the big screen.
I read it and thought wow, this is my life plan I want to be a bodybuilding champion, like Rich Park. I want to be in movies like Rich Park and I want to make millions of dollars and be rich and famous like Rich Park. Do you know how great it is that I know where I’m going?
Guess most people don’t know where they are going. I knew where I was going, that I was going to be a bodybuilding champion like him. So it was a question of how do you do it? I am very relieved because when you have a goal, when you have a vision, everything becomes easier. So people always ask me when they see me at the gym about my days pumping iron.
They said, why are you working hard for 5 hours a day, six hours a day and always smiling. And they told people all the time. I said because I am shooting for a goal, in front of me is the name of Mr. Universe. So every MP I do brings me closer to accomplishing that goal, to achieve this goal, this vision turns into reality.
Every position I do, every repetition, every weight they lift will take me a step closer to turning this goal into a reality I couldn’t wait to bench press another 500 pounds. I couldn’t wait to do 2000 reps of sit ups. I couldn’t wait for the next workout. At the age of 20, I went to London and won Mr.
The youngest Mr. Lottery in the world. Universe forever. And it was because I had a goal. So let me tell you something you must have a purpose. Whatever you do in life, you must have a purpose. 74% hate their job in America. Now, this is not much different when you come to Europe, most people do not like what they are doing because they are not really doing it because they did not have a goal and they followed this goal.
They are wandering aimlessly and then suddenly if there is a job opening, to get their job because you have to work. But when you work, it’s hard work. It’s work, not fun. So if you think about only 1/4 of people are really enjoying what they are doing in life, that’s unbelievable if you think about it.
It’s like a medical student who knows he wants to be a doctor, you know where to go. It’s the same in politics. because he was not born in America, therefore he cannot run for president.
So as the governor of the 5th largest state, I must say, the largest state, the 5th largest economy in the world was really the last title, the last victory in politics. So even though people came to me and they said to me why don’t you go and run less? You’ll never do it in California.
So that’s rule 1, see a vision Rule 2 is don’t listen to naysayers Everything I do, what people hear from their mouths is impossible That can’t be done Or no, that’s what I heard Of course I told people it couldn’t be done. So every time someone told me it couldn’t be done, I heard it could be done. When they said no, I heard yes.
And when they say it’s impossible, I heard it’s possible. I’m a believer in what Nelson Mandela said, that everything is always impossible until someone does it well. I’ll be one of them. I said to myself, I’m going to do it and I’m going to show it. Maybe it hasn’t been done before. That’s fine with me, but I’m going to do it, and I don’t listen to the naysayers. I said, bodybuilding, I used to work 5-6 hours a day.
