On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Arnold Schwarzenegger ON: How to Make Your Visions a Reality & Stop Having a Limited Mindset

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

What’s stopping you from turning your visions into reality? This is a question that many struggle with and we often spend most of our time finding the answers.  Today, we are happy to welcome Austrian-born bodybuilder, actor, businessman, philanthropist, bestselling author, and politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold served as the thirty-eighth governor of California and his new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, takes readers on an inspirational tour through Arnold’s tool kit for a meaningful life.  We will explore Arnold's early years, growing up with a strict father and his deep yearning for genuine conversations. His experiences in the military taught him invaluable life lessons that would shape his path to success. Arnold shares the pivotal moment when he first arrived in the United States, igniting his passion for bodybuilding, a journey that would ultimately define his legacy. As the conversation deepens, he emphasizes the importance of creating our own paths to happiness and challenges the notion of sacrifice when you truly love what you do. He highlights the significance of having a clear vision for our goals and how compromise plays a vital role in maintaining family unity. Arnold's insights on the art of selling and looking beyond conventional markets shed light on his extraordinary success.  In this interview, you'll learn: How to be resilient in the most difficult situations How to change the trajectory of your life How to be genuinely happy and content The importance of allotting time for your family How to effectively sell your product How to breakthrough any market His journey serves as a testament to the idea that every accomplishment unveils a new purpose, driving us to explore our next chapter in life and an inspiration to us all to reach for greatness and share our stories with the world. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:06 Growing Up with a Strict Father 07:24 How the Military Shaped Me  10:54 Discovering America on My Bodybuilding Quest 17:05 How I Kicked Off My Bodybuilding Journey 23:57 Creating Your Path to Happiness 31:37 Is It Sacrifice If You Love What You Do?  45:26 How to Set Clear Goals and Achieve Your Dreams 49:50 How Compromise Saved Our Family 54:53 Shifting Your Sales Focus to Real Customers, Real Result 01:10:07 Expanding Your Reach Beyond Big Markets 01:15:54 How Arnold Turned Goals into Achievements   01:21:11 Why You're Never Truly Self-Made 01:25:31 Arnold Schwarzenegger on Final Five 01:28:27 Discovering New Purpose Through Achievements 01:32:50 Arnold's Public Speaking on His Success 01:41:24 Finding Calm Amidst Chaos with Meditation Episode Resources: Arnold Schwarzenegger | Twitter Arnold Schwarzenegger | Instagram Arnold Schwarzenegger | Facebook Arnold Schwarzenegger | TikTok Arnold Schwarzenegger | YouTube Netflix: Arnold Arnold’s Pump Club Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am Yom Le Van Zant and I'll be your host for The R Spot. Each week listeners will call me live to discuss their relationship issues. Nothing will tear a relationship down faster than two people with no vision. There's y'all are just floppin' around like fish out of water. Mommy, daddy, your ex, I'll be talking about those things and so much more. Check out the R-Spawn on the iHeart video app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our 20s are often seen as this golden decade.

Our time to be carefree, make mistakes, and figure out our lives. But what can psychology teach us about this time? I'm Jermis Beg, the host of the Psychology of Your 20s. Each week, we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s. From career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money, and much more to explore the science behind our experiences. The Psychology of Your 20s, hosted by me, Gemma Speg. Listen now on the iHeartRad Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever

you get your mind. That's what it feels like. If you don't know where you want to go or who you want to be, you eventually just float around and do eventually crash. I promise the people that they're number one, whether I promise my wife that they're going to be number one. So this is the lemma. Before we jump into this episode,

I'd like to invite you to join this community, to hear more interviews that will help you become happier, healthier and more healed. All I want you to do is click on the subscribe button, I love your support, it's incredible to see all your comments and we're just getting started. I can't wait to go on this journey with you, thank you so much for subscribing, it means the world to me. The best selling author and host? The number one health and wellness podcast. On purpose with Jay Shetty. I mean, embodies health in so many ways, and I can't wait to dive into his mindset, his attitude, his routine, his history and the journeys took to be here. If someone who needs no introduction, please welcome to on-purpose Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It is great to be here with you. I am so thankful that you've invited us into your space. It's fascinating to look around and be here with you. And thank you so much, Arnold. Absolutely. It's nice to have you here. I've been here in this office for the last 33 years. It's a month ago that I built the building in 1984 and then this property was, there was a railroad going through here and then first released it, the property and then the railroad company was willing to sell it so we had embodied and built this building. And first it was kind of a commercial office building with insurance companies and banks

and stuff like that's in here. Then I decided that I want to move in here in 1990, five years later and make it in the entertainment building. Then all of a stone move next door to me and the left, when you come out of the elevator because he's left winged and I am so he had to go to the left. I was my right wing, so I was going to the right, which is this office, and then Rainy Harlem came in here,

and she had a Davis and Johnny Carson who came in here. So everybody, it was like totally like the hip entertainment kind of a building. And so we have enjoyed this building ever since and it's just a great space and I have kind of like moved a lot of my movie memorabilia. You see an alligator here that is for me, Racer. You see bat men from Batman and Rob and me as Mr. Freeze and that's Terminator from Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 and you see the predator and it's you know all kind of and then kind of interesting political leaders from both sides, from the left and the right you know just because I don't really care that much about those things.

So it's a, if John F. Kennedy at the Iferan Reagan, the president Lincoln, the Teddy Roosevelt over here, say you have different leaders, and then we also have those that have been losers, which is Stalin. I got this as a gift from a Russian weightlifter, the Russian wait-lifting Federation. And so I've collected them also. Yeah, I feel like we've entered your mind. That's what it feels like when you enter this room, like all these aspects of yourself, I was wondering, what's your earliest childhood memory that you think defines the person you are today?

I heard somewhere you mentioned your father made you earn your breakfast, and I was thinking, what does that feel like? What does that mean? You know, I really don't know exactly what it was that gave me the drive, or gave me the ability to visualize my goals in order. But I think it was a combination of things of growing up after the Second World War in 1947. I was born and to grow up with no food, with starvation and famine and my mother going around. What they call hamstering, which means begging at the very different farmers for food,

so she had food for the children. So all of that, I think, had an impact and a strict upbringing. My father was very strict. We were hit many times and punished for not doing the things the way they thought we should do things. We had to earn breakfast, like you said. We had to do push-ups and sit-ups and compete, knee-bends and all this stuff running around the other house

in order to be allowed to have breakfast. So I think all of that contributed, you know, and also I think having the military around the British military that was, because they occupied that area of Austria, they came always around with their tanks and with the big trucks and everything. And I think that gave me the fascination of becoming a tank driver myself and I've been into the Austrian army. Ever since then, I have had a fascination with big cars, big trucks, with tanks and stuff like that. And I now have the tank that are drove in the military.

I now have over here in Los Angeles. And it's at the melody ranch where they have a lot of various different military vehicles and they do the upkeep and they drive it like once a month and especially with after school kids that are staying in school in the afternoon and so on. So we have a lot of fun with that. Do you still drive it? Yeah, I drive it every month, so I'm watching it all day. I really enjoy it, but that's why I have hummus, you know, the big military trucks and cars and SUVs and the ash-cars, all of this. It's a certain craziness that never leaves you, you know.

I didn't have boys in their toys right? Yeah, absolutely. You said somewhere as well that you felt like your father was maybe struggling with some post-traumatic stress disorder. He had that energy that kind of came through onto you guys. Well, my father was a very complicated guy. Obviously, I never really got to know him that well. But at the time, I left. It was like I was 18 years old, I mean, the military, then I moved to Munich, then I moved to Munich to America. So it really was not home. I wish the day I could have a conversation with him because I'm much smarter now, I'm much more interested in various different issues like that, what makes tick, would make someone happy and suffer, whatever.

So in those days, we didn't talk about any of that. But he was complicated because he was a victim of the Second World War, meaning that he was dragged into the war, became a soldier, a Nazi officer, you know, was shattered in Stalin grad, or Lenin grad, I should say, and he was, you know, buried down the rubble of buildings that collapsed on top of him for three days, and then he had back surgeries, and then he was shipped back home to Austria, and that actually probably would save him because he got out of Russia

Just on time before the whole thing collapsed and so it Created a certain kind of thing he had malaria So he was suffering from malaria. He was suffering from Shravanos moving around in his body He was depressed obviously that the lost the war in the first place, so that must have had an impact on all this man, because everyone around me, when I grew up, was kind of drinking. And so, people are only drinking, they're really unhappy. Or you drink a gas of wine. Like, I sometimes do, but not to get drunk, but say like they did. So, there was a lot of drinking going on, a lot of violence going on, hitting the kids, not just my dad hitting me,

all my brother, but the neighbor hit his kids and the other neighbor hit it. I mean, it's a matter of fact that a regular, a kind of a parent teaches day will be when the parents come into the classroom, they will go up to the teacher, they talk for a few minutes and then they go, go to their kid in the classroom and smack them. But every parent was like, wow. It was just the wildest kind of a thing. That's insane. It would be great for comedy today, I think. You know, if he goes, now I have to laugh about it because people all kind of like laughing about it because we knew like when my dad came in, you know, he then had this look, you know, first you talk to the teacher, then I always said, he then had this look, first he talked to the teacher, then all

of a sudden this looked towards me. Then he would just come up and boom, we smack you, then we walk out and then some old lady would come in with a walking cane. She was the grandmother of one of the kids that was sitting next to me. And she would go to the teacher, then she would walk over the cane and she'd take a cane, and snack the kid over the head of the cane. And so this was normal. So you know, so this, I was saying, it was such a different way of upbringing than maybe

you had or that the kids have the day or that my kids had, you know, where there was always love and affection for them. Yes, there was discipline, but it was all done in a measured way and not with hitting and stuff like that. So it's a, it's a, I think all of this had an impact on my, the of viewed the world and my drive to get out of the out of Austria and to come to America and to get into the body building and all those kind of things. What was the most intense part of your involvement in the military? What was the most intense experience you had there? Obviously there was this experience at home and at school as you you just said. But I think that the military, even though when I went through it,

it was really tough. But I have to say that when I look back at it, I recommend it very strongly for any young man, or woman as fast as goes, to go through that. Because you learn how to be tough You get up at five in the morning you run for an hour Then you do your basic training You know crawling and all fours and with the gun in your hand and shooting and

Learning how to drive motorcycles and cars and trucks and tanks motorcyclists and cars and trucks and tanks. You learn about leadership, but you also learn simple things like how the iron you shirt, how to sew on buttons, how the iron you pants, how to brush your shoes, how to clean your shoes, clean belt buckles and all this. So become kind of self-sufficient. And it gives you, I think, a certain amount of confidence

that I don't need to be babyed by anybody. I can take care. I can cook, which you learned in the basic foods. As a matter of fact, we made scrambled eggs in top of the tank because the back of the motor will be so hot. So we just put the eggs in top and just scrambledummed it there and ate it off the tank. Dirty as it was, right? So, but I mean, so you feel kind of like I can handle food, I can handle ironing my own

stuff, I can handle washing my own stuff. I don't need anybody to do this kind of, you know, stupid choice. I can do it myself and I feel good doing it myself. So there's a lot of things like that that you learn in the army. It just gives you a certain base where you don't get afraid of anything. You feel like I've gone through all kinds of hell now with the military. You know, they make sure of that. And so I think that's really terrific.

But I remember there were times, they were really tough. Like for instance, if you make a mistake, they would have you open up the hatch that is underneath your seat, the driver's seat is of the tank, and you open up the hatch and it falls out. And then they have you crawled out of that hole, and then crawled out of the tank in a mud, and with your uniform on and everything. And then you have to climb up the back of the tank, up the deterrent, down the turn, back to your driver's seat, and then out that hole again, and it'll do that like 50 times.

So by the time you do it, it's like hours later, and you literally collapse, you're so exhausted for mortars. So there's punishments like that, that were really, really tough. So I would not wish that than anybody to be honest with you. I mean, I could handle it, but I think I could handle it because it was 18 years old,

and you know, you're very, very tough when you're 18. You can handle it just about anything, you know, you very very tough in your 18 years. It's just about anything you know, it's the endurance and the strength. And I was in the middle of my weightlifting and body, but in Korea. So I was also strong, but it was strong welders. So to me it was all kind of, it was good, but it was tough. Yeah, what was your first, I know that you've talked about how like you wanted to get out of Austria, you wanted to get away, but what was your first glimpse of America?

Like what was your first experience of the United States that you had? The first experience was I was competing in Florida in Miami. So to me, Miami was the first experience really, arriving in New York, changing planes and then flying to Miami. I came from London to New York and then and then flying to Miami. I came from London to New York and then from New York to Miami. That to me was the first experience, you know, the high rises, the beautiful hotels, the water, the boats, everyone had a boat there, the service of Jesus. Can you believe that? I mean, everyone, they've had an apartment at the canal, at the

waterway, and then they have a boat. And they're which is all cruising around. We were invited, we bodybuilders that were competing in the competition, we were invited and boat rides, there was just one bodybuilder that had a boat for like 10 people. So we were going around and we saw how much fun they had in how well people lived, how happy they were. To me, there was like a really interesting experience. Unlike the experience when I came to California because I felt like, okay, I'm coming to California and I'm going to see all the things that made me want to come here. Muscle beach. But the muscle beach by that time was closed. The clothes didn't have 60s.

And so there was no muscle beach per se. Then God's gym was not as big as I thought. It's gonna be the buildings. When you look around out here, we're in Venice right now. It's still the day, very no buildings compared to the high rises in New York. So I thought that it would be high rises. He also, Los Angeles, high rises.

And then when my friends took me to Hollywood, they tried to convince me, this is Hollywood. I mean, look at this. And I looked around and that just couldn't see anything, right? So I thought there would be studios left and right of Hollywood, but there would be studios. There would be paramount studios, there would be Sony, and then there would be, you know, Columbia, Disney,

and Warner Brothers. And all of the studios would be lined up left and right with hotels and luxury and I got down the Hollywood port of it It was like a bunch of homeless people running around and weirdos and drug addicts and hippies and that's what I saw and that's in tourists, you know, so I said we said This is Hollywood. You said well,, this is daytime. At night, it really lights up. Then I said, well, why don't you bring me here at night when it really lights up. So they took me at night and it was also very disappointing. There was a few lights and a few billboards. But I just came from London. So, I've been at that point.

I've been several times to London because I was competing in bodybuilding in London. And I started my bodybuilding career there. So I saw Piccadilly Square and I saw lights. I mean, I saw action. I was like staggering. That really blew me away. You know, and then driving out this double deck of buses and the transportation with the subway or the tube, whatever they they call on the ground, they were in the Corridor, England. And all of this to me, the

airport, the Heathrow airport, that really blew me away. But when it came to America, when it came to Los Angeles, I had a vision like it would be like that, but it wasn't. And so I was very, very disappointed in the beginning until I got used to it. And then till I understood that this is earthquake country, that you don't build high rises, you know, because they would collapse.

Later on, as time went on, they figured out the technology to put them on rollers or on major tires, or something like that, so they'd move, so they don't collapse. But I mean, I learned to understand all of that later on, but the first thing was a shock to me in a negative way. But then, I got used to Los Angeles, and then I got used to Los Angeles and then I got used to the gym and used to the

members and the kindness of the American people and the sweetness of the bodybuilders. You know that would invite me on Thanksgiving when I didn't even know what Thanksgiving was. And they would invite me as stranger like me to their home for Thanksgiving dinner. Or they would come and show up at my apartment with silverware because I didn't have any. With dishes, with blankets, pillowcases, bed sheets. And I remember this one girl gave me like a radio, a wooden radio for my aunt, they were next to the bed,

which I still have next to my bed today. Wow. So, you know, because I wanted to keep that because it was like, it's symbolizes, whenever I look at that radio, it symbolizes the generosity of the American people and how it was kind of like included when they moved over here and all of that.

So there was a lot of interesting lessons that I've learned right away when they came over here, the different cultures and all that between Austrians and Germans and British and the Americans and all that. I think a lot of what you just said about first coming to Hollywood, I think it's very common when people go to Hollywood Boulevard and have a very glamorous view of what it might be, but it isn't.

And what you were reminding me of just now is just this idea of how everyone has like dreams and visions of what something might be. And then when you experience it, you get a sense of how you view it through your own eyes. And for me though, what I'm fascinated by is who is your first ever bodybuilding coach? And do you remember your first ever tournament? How did it go? Yeah, no, I've there was a fellow by the name of Quid Manur, who was Mr Austria. Now, if you imagine when you like 14 years old, like I was in 15,

I missed the Austria was like, it's a big star. Yeah. He came out to that lake where I grew up. It was like a lake where there was a weekend, like 3, 4,000 people around that lake lying in the grass and on blankets and then swimming in that lake. And it was kind of a muddy kind of a lake. And he came out there and he looked like God. He was very good friends with the swimming coach, the guy that kind of took care of everything they had to lake and they were working out and they were inviting me to work out with

them. So to do me, that was kind of the first experience where someone kind of tracked me in and inspired me. And I said, oh my God, can you imagine looking like that? And he, if you wanted it or not, happened to be very good. Because he said to me, he says, well, I'm not in five years, you could look like me. And I was saying, I was visualizing right away. Oh my God, can you believe that if I could look like the, and I missed the Austria, and I said, that was like major. And I just felt like this is almost kind of

my new dad. He was 32 years old and he became kind of like a mentor. He invited me then, first of all, he invited, I realized that they invited always these athletes out there to do it like shot putters and chivalens throwers and weightlifters and boxes, bodybuilders. I mean all kinds of athletes, they all work out together. They have a good time and big kids work kind of like hanging out with them and every soft and we work out with them. So I got my real early inspiration that way. And then I went down to the club, to the way lifting club.

I started working out and started really become religious about it. It was like, this was my new life. And I started having visions, very clear visions of being a Mr. Austria, then there were pictures of the Mr. Europe contest, so I visualized myself being in the Mr. Europe contest and winning. And then there's so pictures of Reg Park, which is a British bodybuilder, who then subsequently laid on, moved to South Africa, married a South African woman, but the name of Mary Ann, and they created a family in South Africa. So that way it became kind of my idol,

and there's so pictures of him winning Mr. Universe in London, and so that was my new vision. So I started really creating through this guy's vision, and that vision was so vivid, so clear, that I felt like all I had to do now is just follow through with the work. So let me now find out what needs to be done. And so I read about Reg Park, how did he train?

He trained like four or five hours a day and he didn't so much, he said so many reps. And this is the exercises he did, did the bench press, the inclam press, the bad girl, the shoulders, presses, and the dis and that, and I just wrote everything down and I started following his routine. And I was absolutely convinced

that I will be another rich park. And so that's how I really developed, my first rule that I always talk about to success is you got to have a very clear vision Yes, of where you want to go Because if you don't have that, you're just floating around And so, you know, I was very fortunate that I created that vision I was very fortunate that there was not the site kind of things going on. We didn't have a phone in our house. We didn't have a television in our house. At that time there were no iPhones, so when the iPads, there

was no computer. There was just really, you had all the time in the world to think. And to really just sit quietly and to just visualize. And I always say that I feel sorry for kids today that they're spending hours and hours on the iPhone or an iPad or computer and they don't give themselves their chance to just settle back and to just figure out what do they want to do or who do they want to be. And so this is why I think that I made that kind of

the rule number one is, you know, visualize. Now, always compare it to that you can have the best earplane in the world with the most advanced pilot. But if it doesn't know where to go, it's just gonna fly around and blow the crashes. And that's what happens to your life. If you don't know't have nowhere to go, it's just going to fly around and blow the crashes. And that's what happens to you in life. If you don't know where you want to go and what who you want to be,

you eventually just float around and you eventually crash. And that's why a lot of people are unhappy. Or they take drugs, or they drink, or the suicide raindrops. I think a lot of it has to do because people really don't have as much of a purpose and the mission and the vision and often things. The things that drove me from the time I was like 15 years old, it was very clear which direction I want to go. I couldn't be more excited to share something truly special with all you T-lovers out there. And even if you don't love T, if you love refreshing, rejuvenating, refueling sodas that are good for you, listen to this.

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of have a clear vision because when you hear about your childhood, it's not easy, it's tough, it's rough, it's harsh, there's so many internal challenges at home, there's external challenges, there's limitations that you're in a country that's obviously just survived a world war. It almost looks like there is no space to have vision. Like someone could argue that Arnold Legge, I mean, how are you having a vision in this space?

I think what's really interesting is sometimes we feel helpless because of where we're born, where we're from, our parenting structure, our surroundings. Some people struggle to have a vision because they say, well, how can I have a vision? I'm, look where I am.

And then some other people, they can't have a vision because when they see someone like Reg Park or Mr. Austria and your example, what they see is, oh, envy. I wish I had that, you know, like, oh, why does he have that? Or maybe, you know, I should have that. So I think we live in these two worlds

where we either feel helpless, or sometimes we feel envious and ego-tistical about visions. How did you allow yourself, or how did you develop that ability that even though around you, there wasn't that much success, there was more stress, but you saw Mr. Austrian were able to do that. Have you ever figured out what that was compared to everyone else you grew up around?

I just can tell you I was very unhappy. I was unhappy with the reality of what was around me. The tough parents and the lack of food and others had stakes. We didn't have the money for that. As a matter of fact, we never ate meat during the week. No, the day they would say, oh, this is really good because he will vegan. It's very much more because of the lack of money. So we didn't have anything. So everywhere I looked, so I think to me, the only way really was in order to be happy is to create my own world and to visualize. You know, that's why people sometimes read a lot because they want to escape into another story

on the day they watch movies to go in the sea and then they're escaping to another story and all of a sudden, for me, that wasn't available. In the first movie I was always like, it was like nine or ten years old. It was not the common thing in the village, but I grew up to go to movies. And I remember there was this collapsible kind of a seat. I just fell right down and I've, I know, floor up because I didn't even heard of a collapse.

It was it that you have to fold it down. So I folded it down, then waited a little bit, and then of course it went back up again, and I went right down on the floor. So because of that world, the negative world, I had to kind of create my own world. So I was just always daydreaming of wonderful things. So I developed that art, and it put a smile on my face. So clearly

when I then saw Mr. Austria or Mr. Universe and I saw this guy and so photographs of it and read about it in the magazines, I created my vision and I saw in that vision myself being up on that stage and as all myself, you know, people screaming around me and screaming on or on or on and always crazy stuff. It was all insane crazy stuff. Stuff that I never shit in those days with anybody, just that they would have put me in a mentally institution, right? So I mean, so I just remember that I was sitting in a classroom in school, I was like 13 years old,

14 years old, the teacher will be where you are now in front of me, teaching. And I would just slowly look off to the side out the window, the screen trees, and then I was in there said, seeing things. And I had a smile, it's just this wonderful stuff to this all. And I was in there that a chalk landed on my forehead. So the teacher threw a chalk at me, kind of saying, Hey, I'm here. I'm getting paid to teach you, to teach this class of thirty, why are you looking

out the window? Now, I couldn't even articulate that this, what you're teaching here, doesn't really blow up my skirt. It's not like kind of something that I'm interested in, but I'm interested in what I just saw when I looked out there and I saw myself on that stage in London at the Mr. Universe contest, you know. And it's like, it's things like that. So I think that with me, visualizing became a normal thing. And I never really knew that I had really a very special ability to visualize and to connect the dots to say to myself, well, if I can seed, then it must be a reality. And I can make it the reality. So for me, the vision became a reality. And I can make it a reality.

So for me, the vision became a reality, so it was only then a matter of following through with the work to get there. And this is why in the book, one of the things I talk about is work your ass off because every single time when I had a vision about anything, I had to work my ass off. But it was pleasure. See, that is the great thing when you go to work and you know exactly why you're working, then

it becomes fun, a challenge, and detaining sometimes. And when you read that 78% of the American people hate their jobs, think about that. I mean, that must be so depressing that you go, let's say you're working some car plant, and you do like, you know, kind of the same work, putting a window in your car, over and over, you know, 50 times a day, every day, all year long for 30 years. I mean, it's tough.

And so this is why it's so important. There'd be really half a clear vision so that you know where to go and that wherever it is, if it is to become a great auto mechanic or if it is to become a great teacher or politician or high tech engineer, whatever it is, but to have a vision and then you go after that and you shoot for it because now every step of the way is going to be great. You know, when you pick because now every step of the way is gonna be great. You know, when you pick a doctor, I wanna be a doctor. I wanna be a surgeon.

A kid says to himself, from the age of 15, well, from that point on, he knows, all the classes he has to take, already in high school, and then when he goes to college, which university did he go? What kind of classes is to take? And then how long would he take him? And all of this stuff, so there is a

reason for going to school rather than all my parents told me that I have to go to college and you just go to fulfill this application, but there's no goal. That's what happens to a majority of kids today that don't have to go. That's why they end up being one of the 78% that are unhappy with their jobs and they wish they could change jobs, but then it's too late because now you've created a family and you have to pay for your rent for their apartment and you have to put food on the table, you have to provide money for the kids and for your wife and for the family and all of this stuff.

So it's really tough. So that's why so many people are really always looking for an answer or searching for an answer. How can I improve my life? How can I make it a little bit better and all this stuff? And this is why I did the book and it'll be useful. I'm glad that you put it in that order though because I think for everyone who's listening and watching, a lot of people will say, I do work hard. I'm working my ass off, I'm working my socks off,

I'm like doing everything I can, but I think what's really important is that in the book you start with, have a clear vision. And I agree, I think there are a lot of people who are working really, really hard. And it's almost like if that hard work was channeled toward a clear vision as you say, then that hard work pays off. Right. Because otherwise,

a lot of people are just working hard, getting stressed, putting on pressure, but there is in that vision, have you found what was the greatest sacrifice you ever made in your life? Do you think? And what was the reward that you gained from it? What was the biggest sacrifice? That is really the question is, is it really a sacrifice? Because you love it. Exactly. To me it's also a real question is the word discipline. Because I tell you I felt many times that I'm not a disciplined person. But people insist he says oh, he must take so much discipline Every day to get up and every day you wear an adjim at seven in the morning and you worked at the 9th 30 in the morning And then you went to college after that and then you went there's an adjim and you worked in construction

I was like Looking forward to getting up in the morning and looking forward driving to the gym and Working out to enough hours and then going down to the beach and taking a run in the deep sand and getting some cardio work down in order to, I said, I was looking forward to it. It was not like, oh my God, I have to do another workout. Yes, you do that when, for instance, sometimes people go to the gym and the doctor says, you know, you should go to the gym and you should work out because otherwise, I see some problems coming up, high cholesterol and body fat and this and that, and you're going to go and wipe out.

Ten years younger than you want to, if there's ever the right time to wipe out. But I mean, in any case, so that person you can see in the gym is there and they just they do their reps and they do their sets and they're not really into it. You can see there's not life in the eyes. You know I'm saying, I just like, I really they grabbed the weight and it just took two sets and they get the pump and they feel good. They put the weights down and get the next heavier weight and they're doing a set. And so that's really fun. But that person is kind of like a vegetable in a way.

They just cruise around in the gym. They sit on the life cycle and they just pedal away. And when you say to them, it's just like, why do you work out? They have no answer. Then eventually they say, well, to be honest, we do the doctor told me that I should get in shape. That's better for my health. To bring my blood pressure down and my cholesterol down and my body fat down.

And I was like, so they're not really, so I said to them, I was like, you know what you should do is you should just pick a goal that you can chase. They would say like, what? I said, how much do you weigh? I'm weighing 190 pounds. Then I want to I want to lower my body fat body weight. I said, why don't you pick a corn like you want to go down to 170? And it is now March and by August, when you go to the beach, you're going to have a slimmer waist, less body fat, and you look

leaner, and you can be proud of your body. I said, pick that, go, that's a good idea. You say, write it down, and then write down the sets you have to do to get you there, and the amount of reps you have to do, and the amount of life cycling that you have to run, and regular bicycle, and running the gift to right off this down and then you market of every day you market of that's what I did. The meat it was really that that feedback that I see a line being crossed that means one was said was done.

It was a satisfying kind of a thing. The line was crossed off. The next line was crossed off. And so I tell people that and then they say, oh my god, this is yeah, I'm gonna do that. That is such a great idea. Then they come back to me like a few months later. And they say this worked. It was unbelievable. It worked. It was fantastic. And it really gave me a purpose. You see, so that's what it's so it's important. They have a purpose. They do things. They have a clear vision. because then you don't have to look at it kind of like I have to be really disciplined to do that

or I have to make certain sacrifices to do that because then it just drags you in the dead direction and you just do the work. And so that's what I think is always that, but clearly there were sacrifices. Like for them, let me just give you one example. Yeah, please. What do you think it's like when you go and you run for governor and you promise the people that you are going to be my number one priority. Now you win. Now you have to do the work. But now you come home and your kids are crying

on the dinner table when you come home. And daddy didn't come to my recital on Monday. Daddy didn't come to my football practice on Tuesday. Daddy, you promised me that you'd come into the school and you take me to school. You didn't this week. So that is devastating when the kids are crying and complaining and you say, just, you know, I promised the people that they're number one, but I also promised my family.

I promised my wife, maybe the first child, that they're going to be number one. So there's a dilemma. Now you're in a dilemma and now you have to be number one. So that's the dilemma. Now you're in a dilemma, and now you have to make certain sacrifices. And I had to make certain sacrifices when it comes to spending time with my family, where my wife had to pick up the slacks and she had to do the extra work. So there were sacrifices made that were painful sometimes. When you see your kids crying, that's painful. And then you know it's you fault.

But that's the situation you're in. And you put yourself in this situation. You had a choice to run for governor, or not to run for governor, right? If I would have continued with my movie business, those kids were in heaven because they were in the movie in my makeup trailer. They were watching me getting made up as the terminator.

Uh, finally, of those kind of movies, they were in my motor home and they were doing their homework any afternoon there. They brought their friends with them. So, that was fun. Now, all of a sudden, they go up to Sacramento and everyone is running around with a suit and with a tie. And they come to me and says, that what is this, what did you do?

Why are you having this job? Now they were like 11, 12 years old. And they said, why do you have this job now? I say, everyone has a suit and a tie, and everyone looks really serious. And they all attack you. They say bad things about you. I said, what is the way it's politics?

I said, as soon as you run, first you have like a 80% popularity. And then as soon as you run, first you have like a 80% popularity. And then as soon as you run, the sea of you, you popularity goes down to 50% because 50% of the other side, the other party. So you run as a Republican, since 50% of the Democrats, they hate you. Or they don't like you.

And then the Republicans like you. But they don't even like you, because they say, yeah, you're doing it to social liberal. Whatever. So you say, you say, may a campaign manager always say, this is honored's doing it to social liberal. So they say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, everything behind. My friends, my parents, my relatives, everything that was around me that was kind of like a sure thing. I had a job after the military that it could go to the continuum, the job that it did as

a salesman. I had all of this and I left all this for uncertainty because there was no certainty coming to America. There was Chauvita that said, I'm going to help you, I find your apartment, I find your car. Yes, there were some people that helped a lot. He is the one that gave me the Atlantic

to come to America and all this stuff. Chauvita is the publisher of the Muscle Magazine. He has passed away in the meantime, but I mean, he was like the guru of bodybuilding. He created bodybuilding. The federation was created by his brother Ben Weeder and Joe had the endless amount of magazines and distribution company for weight equipment, for food supplements and all that.

So he brought me here, sir. There was some help like this, but I mean, I walked away from all of this comfort to become the America. So yet there were major, major sacrifices like that, but I've really never looked at it in that way because I just said to myself, I want to go to America, I want to go and be there and work my way up to become the greatest bodybuilder

of all times. And that's, you know, we are talking about one of the other rules. Yes. In my book, which he said, to shoot for big goals. Yeah, never think small. It's just as much energy or as little energy as shooting for a little goal. You know, it's just as much hassle. I mean, if a little goal, let's say, if I would say,

I want to be Mr. Austria. Well, that's as much working out, then working out for Mr. Europe or Mr. Universe. So, I mean, you might as well just continue on and just say, okay, or after the now, the difference really is that you have to become a real professional. You have to know how to pose, you have to have to write tan, you have to take the right foods, supplements,

you have to eat the right food, you have to really fine-tune, you have to get the definition and it's not just the size of the body. So the higher up you go, the more complicated it gets to win. And I said, but I said to myself, to me, to shoot for the goal of being a world champion, it's just as easy as shooting for the goal the Ring Mr. Austria being the Austrian champion. So I was just went all out and not only to win the World Championships in bodybuilding, but to go beyond Rage Park, who won at that point three Mr. Universe titles,

to go beyond that and say, I want to actually become the greatest bodybuilder of all time, all times, that was my goal. And so that's why I had to come to America where there is muscle beach, where there's gold, gym, where all the champions work out together, where there's Joe Wheeler, that can be helpful and publish you and put you on the cover of his magazines. And often, this is the promotion, the campaign, the training, the marketing of bodybuilding and order. So, to me, this was really the only way to go is to come to Los Angeles. And on top of it, Los Angeles is known for Hollywood. And this is my next career.

So I always say to myself, the red red park, I saw him in Hercules movies. So can you believe that this guy won Mr. Universe three times and then he was discovered in Rome in Chinatitta? And I saw him there and he said, oh my god, you are Hercules. We are going to send you to acting classes in the acting school and you're gonna play Hercules And then Steve Reeves did the same thing, who was another Miss Universe from 1940 and 1950. Steve Reeves from 1950, Reg Park 1951. So both of them became Hercules.

Then there was many other bodybuilders that became, they did Hercules movies, authors, pladiator movies and muscle movies and stuff like that. And the Sixth said, well, it became very famous. But I mean, I said myself, if Reg Park could get into movies, or those pladiator movies and muscle movies and stuff like that in the 60s, it became very famous. But I mean, I said myself, if Rich Park could get into movies, maybe when I go to America and I become the world's greatest bodybuilder, then they would ask me to go into movies. And so this is what's the idea.

So to me, it was natural. Oh, I said, I said, there's Hollywood in Los Angeles, there's Muscle Beach in Los Angeles, there's Cold Shim in Los Angeles, there's Chowita here, this is perfect. I have to go there. That was the reason why I went here. Did you ever have a plan B? I never believed in plan B, because I felt kind of like one of the rules we have in the M.A. book is never listened to the Naysayers. To me, I always felt

kind of like every single dream of mine. Of course, I have to say the world rages dreams. So people said this stupid. Well, it's a matter with you. They would never happen. I mean, you dream is to go to America. What do you think they're waiting for you over there? I mean, if plenty of people over there, they've always 300 million in population. They don't need any more. And so that was the kind of thing. You say, you would never make it to America. They don't need you. So no, impossible. And I said, I want to be a world champion in bodybuilding. It was impossible. When I said I wanted to get into movies, that was impossible. So it was always impossible. So I felt that we can go and defend ourselves from that and just not listen to the naysayers. But if I start having a plan B, then always

certain I am becoming in a way, a naysayer to myself. Wow. Yeah, true. So because that means now that I am saying, well, maybe this isn't working out. And if it's not working out, we should have a plan B. So to me, this is the most dangerous of all of the Naysayers is me saying no and it's impossible maybe to myself. So therefore I felt the best way of handling that is is not to have a safety net and not to have a plan B. That I am at risk and therefore I have to be at all times on the edge and at 10. So I don't fall where I would need a safety net. Yeah.

This is the way I dealt with that issue. Never have a plan B always go for go all out with my plan and really put 100% of effort into it in order to really achieve it. And I just always believed in my goals. I mean, I remember when I ran for governor, and people said, you're crazy. I mean, you know, this great Davis is gonna take you out and then if he doesn't, boost the mandate, the lieutenant governor,

there's all season politicians. You know anything about politics and blah, blah, blah. Why don't you run first for mayor and why don't you do this? No. I was very clear with my vision. I could see myself as the governor, because I felt that the people in California were very upset at the regular politicians. I mean, they were always talking about what they know and how smart they are, and how they're going to fix things.

In the meantime, we had a $30 billion deficit. In the meantime, we had blackouts. In the meantime, they were handing out driver's license to illegal immigrants, what they call undocumented immigrants. Everything that the people were against, and and the people didn't like the Indian gaming tribes were gambling and having gambling casinos but not being taxes So they were mad about that so I would just tell people if I become governor, I would change all that and

the ruckus compensation costs for change hold that. And the ruckus compensation costs for businesses in California, I will cut that in half. That's why so many businesses left California because of the cost of doing business. So I say, I will cut that in half. And so this is exactly people bought in because I was talking believable. I mean, there was I could put my hand in the fire for the people to do the things that I promised those things will be done And I said I would do most of those things before breakfast the first day when I'm in office so that always sounded good So in a case so but the people bought in and I remember that when president push and And I remember that when President Bush and the guys called me from the White House, they said, you want the president to come out to campaign for you? I said, no, no, no, no.

I said, because then it becomes kind of a political thing, about the Republicans are helping each other. And then great Davis is going to have out, you know, Bill Clinton and Al Gore and John Kerry and all of those guys. And that's exactly what happened. He had orders people come out, campaign for him. And I told all of my guys, no, don't come out. Because I wanted to be the David and not the collieth.

I want to be the underdog and kind of say, look, this is just between me and the voters. So, there was my vision. Not a political strategy vision, but I mean, there was my vision. I said, I have to be the person that is by himself, that is kind of crawling up there and that is communicating with the voters. I don't need someone to speak for me or anything like that. Yes, you have your communication, direct and all of that stuff, but I didn't need to have President Bush come out and speak for me. I didn't have to have the vice president come out to speak

for anything like this. I wanted this to be between me and the thing and it worked. People figured it out that I'm out there, that I'm promising them and they bought into it and that and and I want and so this is why it is so important that Did you have really A 100% percent believe and not having to go and say my plan B if this doesn't work is I'm gonna go back to movies But they were unfold anyway, you know, so but let's first go all out and not have a plan B. This is the thing and so I've never had a plan B. Listen to comeback stories. I'm Darren Waller. You may know me best as a tie-in for the New York Giants. You may also know me for my

story of overcoming addiction and alcoholism. You may have heard a few of my tracks as an artist or a producer. You may have seen the work that I've done through my foundation. And you may know my friend and co-host Donnie Starkens as well. He's a mindfulness teacher, a yoga instructor, a life coach, a man fully invested in seeing people reach their fullest potential. And we've come to form this platform of comeback stories to really highlight not only our own adversity, but adversity in the lives of well-known guests with amazing stories. Catch us every week on comeback stories on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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And I like what you said, or what really connected with me at least, is this idea of how you can become your own naysayer. Right. Now having a plan B, as you talking yourself out of why you should go all in. Or you're already putting it on kind of shaky grounds. Yes, yes. Yeah, you're already setting yourself up. You already say, well, if you say if that means there's a possibility in your mind, this could fail.

And that is a dangerous road to go. I think. I agree. Where did you go when a few moments ago, you were talking about how the kids are upset when you're a governor. Obviously, public gets upset when someone's in a position of power.

You've got all these people who rely on you personally and professionally. And you even said to yourself, like, I couldn't really talk about it, you can't really, no one can really understand that. What did you do at that time? Where did you go for connection and understanding and even getting to talk to yourself at that time? Well, you just have to find, you know, compromise. So what you then do is you just say, okay, I'm going to go and spend an extra day at home. So because it was the choice being in Los Angeles, a lot of days, or the being Sacramento. So I spent four days a week in Sacramento and three

days a week in Los Angeles. And I decided to spend another day in Los Angeles and to go to this school residing or to go to some kind of a practice sessions of my kid playing football or baseball or something like that. And to go to those things, so to figure out a way, and it didn't take anything away from my public service, but it gave a little bit more time

face time for the kids. And you know, it really is absolutely crucial for the kids, not just to see their mom coming to school, but then he did that also. You know, and so that's exactly what it did. And I totally understood, I talked to my wife about it. But like I said, on the end, she was really the one that was the powerhouse in the family. Because she spent, I would say, 80% of the time with the kids and I did 20% because I was stuck in Sacramento.

And even though she worked also as first lady and she was in Sacramento, but she spent much more time with the kids. Luckily, when you have a good partner, then you can do a lot of those things. A loner couldn't have done it. Yeah, definitely. And you mentioned, I think, in the documentary, too, that if there was an Oscars for Divorce, then you should get one because of how even in that circumstance, you both have found a way

to let the kindness be, even the way you're speaking about the family today. Yeah, because it's kind of, you know, the kind of, the kind of found a way to let the kindness be even the way you're speaking about the family today. Because it's kind of, the most important thing is, it's one thing if you suffer through it. It's another thing if you wife suffer through it. But the kids are really totally innocent by standards, right? So we had to kind of my wife and have a very good working together

So the kids don't really feel a bump in the road and that things are smooth for them and again It's important. I mean I saw it very clearly that it can be done Mm-hmm, and we did it and we were very happy with the outcome We were very very proud of our kids. I mean, they're extraordinary. Yeah, I had the fortune of interviewing Catherine probably a couple of years ago when her book came out. Yeah, yeah. So I got to have some interaction with her and Maria and I've had several interactions too. And Catherine is a carbon copy of Maria. And Maria is a carbon copy of Eunice.

Eunice is a carbon copy of Eunice. And Eunice is a carbon copy of Rose Kennedy. So this is how it goes down to me. It's like they're like clones. They exactly, you know exactly what you get from them. I mean, it's like a captain. I mean, I'm so proud of her of what a woman just become. And so is with Christina with mother daughter. And the boy is just, It's a lot of fun.

I never thought that having kids will be that much fun. I said, because I only, at the beginning, I always thought about the work that we would take to take them to school and to go to their disciples and to the practices and to teach them and to have the swimming coach, you know, you have to just be part of everything. You have to teach them, teach them, you know, from just swimming to running, to football, to water skiing, snow skiing, you know, you have to just be on top of everything.

And also having animals, because one of the most important things with kids is if you have the space that is, if you're in a little tiny apartment, then maybe a cat is good, but the men normally it's kind of like good many of dogs. Or when you have like we have a miniature pony, we had horses, a donkey, in a luro, the miniature donkey, we had pigs. Now I have a pig again. And the kids are not there anymore, but it never stops. But it means so, because the kids grow up with this animals, and you teach them how to take care of them. This is extremely important,

because they have to have a sense of responsibility. You can't just say, oh, I would like to have a rabbit, or I would like to have a pig. Yeah, but you take care of it. So that's what they've learned. One of the lessons in your book is sell, sell, sell. And we just talked about it now when you were talking about almost selling yourself to become governor. There's a certain promotion, marketing, approach to galvanizing people to get behind you. And I think the word sales and selling has a lot of, a lot of people have a negative connotation or a difficulty with selling because it almost feels like

there has to be something fake about it. I've always found that if you're proud of what you're selling, if you really believe in it, then it's easier to sell it. But generally, people have a challenge with, like, the word sell. But you say one of your lessons is sell, sell, sell. So walk us through how you were able to, I mean, obviously, even all the movies, the franchises you've created, it requires promotion, it requires selling. And of course, they were highly entertaining. But tell us what you learned about how to sell effectively, but also authentically.

The first one, I think you're totally right, that the word selling sometimes comes off sleazy. So that's why I can call it promotion or communicating or whatever you call it. And the point of it is that you can have the best product in the world. But if no one knows about it, what's the point of the product? I mean, I would like to know, for instance, if there is someone out there that does a hot surgery or a vial replacement without having to have open- heart surgery. But if I don't know, I would just go to the hospital and say, I won't have an open heart surgery and I'm going to get the valve replacement. But if I know, because they promoted it well, I can go now and call that

expert and then go. So this is why I think it's important. So to me, I learned the art of selling way back when I was 15 years old, when I was in trade school, and when I was working for this lumber yard, kind of construction company, hardware store, it was like a combination of things. We were taught how to sell the merchandise, and then sometimes we were able to follow the guide that is the boss. And he one time said to Mrs. Arnold, when did he help me here? And he would talk to the customer. And I realized quickly that there was something odd going on that always

had in his attention focused on the wife, because his couple, they wanted to have some you know tiles for the bathroom and for the kitchen and They first talked to him and how much money that you want to spend in order said what colors know They're always said and he was like he ended up only talking to the woman So he said what did you learn I say well learned that you were really So he said, what did you learn? I say, well, I learned that you were really very clear about all the advantages and disadvantages of the various different tiles and the various different colors. They said, yeah, that's right, but it's one dimension of it. What else?

I don't know. He said, you see how I shifted and my attention went from the husband to the wife. I said, yeah, what was that all about? And this is, well, I realized that he had really no interest in the tiles. And what color should be what type real tiles, or fake tiles, or what? It was her vision. And it was her desire to have new tiles. And he just went along with it because his the husband is the provider of the family. And there was her desire to have new tiles. And he just went along with it because he's the husband, he's the provider of the family,

he makes the money, she didn't make the money, but she had a very clever vision of what she wanted. So I shifted my focus because I realized that she is the customer, not him. And you got to go and be able to reach the customer. And this is why I started talking to her more. And then he just out of courage, he said him, so what do you think should have delivered on Thursdays? He says, yeah, whenever, he would have just always say whatever. And she says, Friday is better because Friday, my husband is at home in the afternoon, so he can help be carrying all this stuff up to the second floor and plower.

So she was much more precise. So that's why he spent most of his time with that. So those are the things that I've learned when I was selling. And how important it is to actually let the people know that you have this product. I went right after that a few years later, I went to Munich and I, after the military, served there as a trainer in a bodybuilding gym. And we had like, I remember 280 members. And there was another gym in Munich that had 500 members.

And that guy, his name was Reinhard Smolana, he was Mr. Europe. And I was at this point not Mr. Europe yet, I was junior Mr. Europe, but not Mr. Europe yet, and I didn't compete in any other international competitions. So I was training really hard, let's say I'm myself, if I could go to the Mr. Universe Congress and I'd compete and do really well, I could go to the Mr. Universe Condist and I'd compete and it would really well, I could maybe outdo him. And so this is what I did. I trained really hard for months.

And then in September was the Mr. Universe, end of September, Mr. Universe Condist. And I happened to play second, which they called runner up. So this was, my goal at that point was to be in the top six, because it was 19 years old. Here was second place winner. So when I came back from London to Munich, I ran around on a construction site with just a bathing Sudan, like a lunatic.

And everyone was dressed up in their suits and everything. And they said, what is this guy doing? That was walking on the construction side and greeting people in order stuff, hoping that some press will show up because this is crazy guy running around in the cold weather with just a paid little basing suit. And sure enough, newspaper showed up, a photographer showed up, and they asked me, after, it's why you're running on like that? And they said, well, I want to make sure that my gymnasium, University of Jim, is in a newspaper. And they said, that's okay, well, let's take a good shot. When you take this saw over the end,

you help this guy with the construction set, doing some cutting of the wood and stuff. And then we would create some pictures. They're really funny. And they put it in the newspaper the next day. And it says, shawatsunaga just came back from Miss Universe, was run up in the Miss Universe Congress, which makes him the biggest title holder in Germany. Wow. So I made it clear that they know that.

Yeah. Not that the Miss Universe is bigger, Not that the Mr. Europe is bigger, or by the second and the Mr. Universe is the biggest title holder. So I mean, so there was like, I was not that story was in the paper. And we had, we didn't know time. We had beaten him in the gym day, gym days in membership and had over 500. And his was lower. I remember him calling. Some of the people I worked at, he myself and his gym because we worked out together because it's much better when you have a good training partner

that is a champion himself. And we were laughing about it. So then just to show you how important promotion is, so then he started secretly posting posters all over the city on construction sites the small on a gym we train you you become a champion more energy healthier body This isn't that nor is that so when I saw the posters I said I'm gonna go and create posters myself for the gym Yeah, so we created posters and then we went, I followed him with the car and

He was going at 10 o'clock at night on Friday putting the posters up there and then after you put the poster with the glue He then left and then I put my poster on top of his wet glue because I came right after him I didn't wait until it dries when after him include my poster on top of him And so this was kind of like the poster war amongst the gym owners. It was hilarious It was all it was all about selling Memberships because I knew that my salary comes and is getting paid from those monies that are coming in from the members.

And so I wanted to be able to buy food supplements, I wanted to be able to buy myself good food and the trips to those various different competitions. And I was very important that our membership goes up that we are very successful. But it's all about selling. And so when I came to America, there was in my blood now selling and communicating and promoting. So when I did my, I remember my book promotion, I'm not the education of a bodybuilder, Simon and choose the one that they have it in the cell 100,000 copies. So I said, well, I want to have it on the best seller list. I don't know. Nobody building magazine was ever on the best seller list.

Forget about that. I said, well, I said, let's give it a shot. How many cities do we go and promote the book? And he says, well, he has six cities, I would suggest. And so I said to him, I said, why don't we go to 30 cities? And you're crazy. So he was laughing. But then I put together a schedule and for 30 cities in 30 days.

And I was Chris Crossing America. I was going from 90 degree temperature Miami up to Minnesota. There was like in a below zero. So there was literally like a hundred degree temperature differences in the same day. So this is how much I crisscrossed this country and it was absolutely fantastic. We won the best cellar list. We sold you know 250,000 hot covers or whatever it was. And it was like a total smash as a bodybuilding and fitness book. And so this is again, over and over again,

I've seen that not just the willpower to succeed, but to be able to sell and to communicate and to be out and actually talk about it. You know, I think it's important to let people know. You don't have to force the issue into the hot cell where you talk about it all the time, buy my Pokemon, buy it, it's an advantage issue into the hard sell where you talk about all the time, buy my broken batteries, buy this, this is the only way you're gonna stay healthy and all this.

No, you don't have to do that. You just in an indirect way, but the key thing is that when people walk away from the interview, they didn't know about it. And this is also very important, like for instance, when we were doing Johnny Carson show, you know, I was learning at that time about bridging, where you bridge from a specific subject that someone asks you

to then what you want to talk about. It's an art. And so my friend was vice president of Nationwide Insurance. And he taught me about it. He said that he has taken many seminars about the promotion because insurance business is very important. Did you promote and did you communicate

and publicize and notice? And so I asked him about it. And he told me, he says, what bridging is one of the most important things. So he taught me about that. And of course, that was on Johnny Carson's show promoting Conan the Paperian, just to give you an example. And Johnny course, that was a Johnny Kostnichel promoting Conan the barbarian just to give you an example. And Johnny Kostnichel says, so,

no, this is really unbelievable. He says, how long have you been working out? When did you start and why did you start working out? So I said, I'm going to say, okay, if I answer this question, in a thorough way, even in itself, one ticket to go to see Conan. So I said, I got to go and bridge. And so what I did was I answered very briefly because you have to. I was, it sounds stupid if you talk about something else. But I would say, Johnny, the very good question I say, I was 15, but I tell you, at 15, I did not know that one time it is absolutely essential to have this kind of a body. Is it imagine Conan the barbarian, the way Frank Frazzetta painted Conan the

barbarian with the muscles, and the determination of this stuff. And there was no one around to do this character. That's why they've never filmed Conan. I said, now here I come, Mr. Universe body, and now I do Conan the barbarian. And it is now believable because people when they see me handle the sword and killing all this people, I say it's believable because they see the muscles. So I said, nothing more. While the streams with 15 did I think that one day this muscles would be so important in the movies and stuff like that. And so I sold now, I didn't say this question, I said, I'll be 15, but I sold Conan the barbarian, you know, the muscles and the fight scenes and you then would add on. I said, that was just one

scene that the camera punched out the camera and blah, blah, blah. So you then just spiced it up. And so this is what, you know, selling and communicating is all about. I was very fortunate that my head was in that so much because when I was governor, that is the most important thing to communicate to the people because otherwise how do you get their boat? Yeah. Right?

So you need the people. You need to go and say, here's why we need infrastructure. We need to rebuild our roads. We need to build extra freeways, extra highways, extra tunnels and bridges and on ramps and off ramps. I say, why? Because you want to go to your kids school and watch them play football. You don't want to be late to hours. I say, how many people get stuck in traffic? Never be raising their hands. I say, well, let's eliminate it.

Let's terminate this problem. Let's build my roads. Vote yes,, and proposition one A. So I explained it to them, not just talking about infrastructure, which politicians normally do, but people don't know what infrastructure is. I cannot expect them to know what infrastructure is. Is it the electric lines, the power lines, is it the plumbing, is it the sewage, is it the building freeways, is it building high speed rail, what is infrastructure? Well, all of this is infrastructure, but suddenly I have to explain it to people by saying, do you ever get stuck in traffic? Of course, everyone does. So then he said, well, let's build more freeways. Let's go on the boat for this. So they don't get stuck in traffic. So then

they know, ah, it moves the traffic fast, because we get stuck in traffic. So this is why communicating, communicating, communicating, selling, selling, selling. This is what it's about. Oh, those are great stories, great examples. Yeah, I love those. I hope everyone is listening and watching and latch on and get some insights for their own challenges. Those, those are great. And I love that you're going all the way from governor through to the gym and the run,

the story of you running around in your swimsuits brilliant. What's the, there was one story actually that aligns with that selling point that Will Smith tells of meeting you and he said that he walked into a room and it was you, so Vess is still on and John Claude Van Dam and you were the three that inspired him to go international. So he said that when he spoke to you three, you all said to him that the market in the USA is huge, but until you become a global superstar, you're not really a superstar. And so in the same way as you were saying, you were going around the 30 cities of the US, you've done a lot of world touring as well for the movies.

Well, I explained to him that when I got into movies and talked about Conan the Paparian was my first big in the national movie. Again, the studio says we're gonna send you to Khan to the film festivals. And then we're gonna go and send you to London and maybe to Rome and definitely to Japan. So I said, well, why are we only going to four places? They said, well, this is where the big markets are. Germany, but the Germans always come to England,

maybe to the press, China gets in England. So the Germans are taking care of, then we have the Japanese, we go to Japan, and you're gonna do a big promotion there, and then America, those are the three big markets. So I said, okay, if this is the three big markets, I said, when I look at the globe today, I see so many other potential markets.

I said, you don't want to build those. You don't want to create those. So I told Will Smith, it said the story. I said, I told him, I said, I'm going to go to France, I'm going to go to England, to Germany, to Holland, to Finland, to Sweden, to Norway. I want to go all over the place. I want to go to the Middle East. I want to go to Africa.

I want to go to Australia. I want to go all over the place and say, they said you're nuts. I said, so because I was thinking about two things. One is to promote the movie and the other one is I have to promote myself because most people know me as a bodybuilder, not as an actor. So this is a good opportunity for me to go around the world for the next month and to promote myself as well I now I'm doing movies. And this is my first big movie is Conan the Pabarian. So it was like a great opportunity. So I told him that I said so I slowly started building an international market.

And the studios were extremely pleased because every one of my movies started to get bigger and bigger internationally. So it used to be that one third was in the National Park's office and two thirds was domestic. Then with me it started going to be 50-50. So 50% domestic, 50% international, and eventually it became one third domestic and two thirds in the national. So imagine how much more money that it added because of that. And so this was the tremendous power. So I said to them, I said, don't ever assume that everyone would know about the movie. Imagine how much more money that it added because of that. And so this was the tremendous power.

So I said to them, I said, don't ever assume that everyone will know about the movie. I said, you got to go there. You got to show your face. The people, the journalists, like to shake you a hand. They like to sit down on the round table with all of their mics sticking out. The 10 leading radio programs of that country.

They sit there all day on the table, you're the eleventh person that sits there and now you're telling them stories about the movie. I said, and they go back to the radio sessions, I have an exclusive interview with Will Smith and he's coming out with this movie. It is hot. He looks fantastic. Great act, then, or he's like, hey, how can it hurt? But do it. Just promote yourself internationally, and go from country to country. And he said, thank you for this really great advice.

Because the studio would have said that to me, I would have just said, what did you want to use me? But you're saying it, I buy in, I believe it. And he has been thankful ever since because of that. Yeah, yeah, it's great advice. It's great advice. You know, you've got to always let people know that there's nothing sleazy about the marketing

and there's so many actors, always feel like it's beneath them to go out and sell the movie. And I tell them, I said, look, no matter what you do, if you're a painter and you paint great paintings, or if you are a painter and you paint great paintings or if you're a musician and you want to promote an album or if you're a movie actor and you promote the movie, I said, you have to do that because it's the only way people will know about

it. The more you do and the better you do it and to actually say the right things about the movie, that is snappy, that really makes people curious when it goes, that's where it's all about, it's an art by itself. Not just the acting, it's an art, but the selling is an art as well. Yeah, what I love about what you're saying, it's, you know, for me as well, I only moved to LA five years ago and I feel like I can be quite audacious and driven as well.

And so when I'm listening to you, what I always find it's interesting because the most successful people in the world, they have this audacity in that they already see it as reality. And everyone else, because it's so audacious, people are trying to catch up or they can't really see it, they can't figure it out. And you almost have to have that trust that you know where it can go and how big it can get. Having actually achieved all your goals,

becoming the biggest bodybuilder of all time, going further, becoming this huge movie star, you just said that you had to go to educate people at one point that you even were a movie star. I think you've been good at redefining yourself and re-educating people about who you are from bodybuilding to movies to obviously governor of California.

How does it feel to have lived out so many of your visions that you saw so clearly as that young man in Austria? How does that actually feel? My name's Leverene Cox. I'm an actress, producer, fashionista, and host of the Leverein Cock Show. You may remember my work-winning first season? I've been pretty busy, but there's always time to talk to incredible guests about important things. People like me have been screaming for years. We've got to watch the Supreme Court

what they're doing is wrong, what they're doing is evil. They will take things away and I can only hope that dobs is that like Pearl Harbor moment. Girl, you and I both know what it took to just get through the day in New York City and get home in one piece. And so the fact that we're here and what you've achieved and what I've achieved, you know, that's momentous. It's not just sitting around complaining about some bills. The only reason that you might think, as Chase said, that we're always miserable, is because people are constantly attacking us and we're constantly noticing it.

Listen to the Leverand Cox show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to subscribe and share. BELL RINGS Hi, I'm Ellie Kemper. And I'm Scott Eckert. And we're here to talk to you about the things we love to subscribe and share. things that we love. So it's a love fest of sorts. Total love fest and to give you guys some background. We met in our college improv troupe. We were hilarious. And here's a fun little fact, Ellie, when you were filming the movie bridesmaids, you were an actual bridesmaid in my wedding.

I was at the same time. I can tell you about something I loved this week's couple. Oh, lay it on me. FOME ROLERS. For my own mind, you're not talking pool noodle. Oh my gosh! No, thank you for clarifying. Clarified. Listen to Born to Love with Ellie Kemper and Scott Eckerd,

a new podcast from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, to be honest with you, I always say to people, I would never switch my life with anyone's life, no matter who it is, because I think that I am the most privileged person in the world. I mean, it's like to be able to live this many types of lives, to live the life of an athlete, of an amateur, of a professional, to really get the inside scoop, because when you get

the inside scoop of one profession, of one sport, you pretty much because you hang out with the top football players, with Joe Namath, no off the skies in the 70s, I mean, and with George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. So you get to know really the inside of all sports basically. And I think to learn everything about sports, to then learn everything about entertainment, to be now with the greatest of the greatest. I mean, imagine that I still met people like Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope Sammy Davis Jr. Dean Martin and all of those guys the guy that trained me in comedy was Bill Milton Burrell and in the

oldest old-time guys Jimmy Stewart. I, the Liska's on Lucille Ball, the Liska's on and on and on, to meet all of these people, to work with them, to do photo shoots with them, to go to parties with them, to be a dinner with them, a charity event with them. I mean, it's really staggering to have this kind of experience. And then to travel around the world and the meet-orders political leaders from Gorbachev, and you know, every president in the United States from Ronald Reagan to Jimmy Carter to George Bush and to everyone that the list goes on and on and on. Clinton and all those guys, uh, all of it Nixon. I mean, everyone I met and talked to and hung out with and learn from Mandela. It is like, I mean, who has the privilege to do that and to travel around the Middle East and to do the things that people say you can't do, like to go from an Arab country to

Israel or from Israel there, I hop back and forth all over the place, from Iraq to Jordan, to Israel to Kuwait, I mean everywhere, and you know visiting the American soldiers over there and to be there, I mean it's staggering this kind of life. And then to go into the political arena, and then to figure out what makes really a city, or a state, or a country run and tick, and what kind of players do you need, and how do you negotiate with all of those people, and how do you bring Democrats and Republicans together,

and how do you come up with your own vision of how things should work? Because very quickly, you know, I was a hardcore Republican, but very quickly, I realized that that's not where the action is. The action is not with one party. That America is Democrats and Republicans declined to state independence together. And so that's the team. And as a team together, we can do great things. But if you start splitting the team, you start falling apart.

It's like any football team or basketball team. So I say, myself, the actionists are not bringing them together. Don't insult the Democrats. Don't insult anybody bring them together And let's be a public servant rather than a party servant And so there was my new theme. I was so proud of myself as a maybe five thousand other politicians have talked about this But I mean Obama said there's a blue state no Red State is only the United States, but there's a bogus line really. I mean, it sounds good, but I mean, the reality is different.

So you really have to show leadership quality and you really have to kind of make an effort to bring both of them together and to be not afraid to say to the Democrats as a Republican, I need your help. But together, we can solve this problem. I cannot do a lone health carry form as a Republican. I need the Democrats. I need everybody. You know, so this is the kind of things

of building infrastructure, doing anything in this state. It was our best work we did together. So I cannot give any party a credit, I have to give credit to the politicians and to the people. And the people really enjoy that when Democrats and Republicans got together and campaigned together for propositions to vote for certain propositions and order. So I think, so I was very, very privileged to be able to do all of those things and to have millions of people listen to you and vote for you. And then of course goes to another chapter and another subject in a book which is, you know,

give something back to the community, you know, because we are not self-made people. And I talk about this, it's great length in the book, because people so many times call me a self-made man. I know what you're talking about, but I was meant to make clear at the same time, I'm not a self-made man. I was created by my mother and my father. I was created by my teachers, by my coaches, by my bodybuilding champions. There were my idols.

And Joe Weeter, they brought me to America, Eric Morris, who was my acting coach, Chuck Nicholson, that recommended this acting coach. So all of this people had, it's the tremendous amount, my wife did help me in every step of the way, you know, with the kids, to make kids what I really helped for in my career.

So I am a product of all of that. And so I think it's important that they mean, recognize that we have gotten the help. They will be there for give help back. So that's why you have to ask yourself the question, okay, now if everyone helped me to be where I am, how can I not go out and help? Who? Who can I help? What can I help them with? And I talk about it in a book that my father-in-law, Sergeant Shriver, had this great line at the University speech at Yale, where he said, don't look always in a mirror. Don't look at yourself. You know, destroyed a mirror, he will be able to look beyond the mirror and then you will see the millions of people that need your help and so This what is all about is to not just look at yourself or be self-consumed. Yes, you can be but

Don't forget ever that there's a lot of people out there that need your help and ever that there's a lot of people out there that need your help. And even though when people say, well, what can I do? I'm a nobody. I don't have any money. That's focus. It's an excuse right off the top that I don't want to do anything. Because when you see how I burning down to the ground, there's a lot of things that everyone can do, but just taking some food and bringing it to those poor folks, bringing some clothing, going out and going to some fun raising and bringing a few dollars to them.

Whatever it is, you can do something. Or to go into some inner-city school and to help with an after-school program and to help kids learn how to read, especially since in America now we have so many students that are where English is the second language. You know, to help them to learn English and all this stuff. So there's endless amount of things. I just always felt that I have to be all out. I remember when Rudy Giuliani called me when he was mayor of New York.

He said, oh my god, the buildings came down. We'll be creating a twin tower fund. Can you send a million dollars? I said, yeah, you got it tomorrow. In two seconds, they didn't even think about it. You know, I said, that's what you do when we needed masks. When COVID broke out, and Los Angeles, the hospital didn't have any masks. So I immediately put in a million dollars towards the funds that we put together to raise $8 million and then to get masks from all over the world, and especially from Asian countries. And so we can supply them with masks and gowns and with gloves and with vandalators and stuff like that.

It was a company called FlexPort that was within days. Got us the mask, even though the government said there are no masks around, we can get any masks. So, you know, this is things like that. Or, there's a medical center, if you go out and you reach out and that's why I'm involved in after school programs That's why I was involved in special Olympics and being a train and a coach for special Olympians to help them with the winning medals and becoming champions and all this stuff. So that's what it life is all about to receive and to give well said Arnold well said and to receive and to give. Well said, Arnold. Well said.

And yeah, definitely more notes in the book for anyone who wants to dive into some of those stories. But Arnold, we end every episode with a final five. So these are a fast five where you have to answer each question in one word or one sentence maximum. So these are your final five. The first question is, what is the best advice you've ever heard or received? Believe in yourself. Second question, what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received? It can't be done. Good answers. Question number three, you've mastered so many things in your life.

What are you currently trying to master? Bring all of my talents together and the one, the show business, fitness, and the politics all in one, and make that be my new kind of vision and drive to help the world. Wow. Okay. I'm going to scrap the final. What does that look like? That's fascinating.

What does that look like right now in your mind as you develop it? You can use more than one center. I want to be out there and help with environmental issues because I learned about that. To make a government a shape, I want to be out there and help with healthcare issues, with aging issues, with fitness issues, with entertaining issues and because it's important to entertain people. So all of those kind of things, so I have to schwahths the Gain Institute, entertain people. So all of those kind of things. So I have to shwots the institute where we deal with a lot of those various different issues and policies to make it a better world. And I have my environmental conference in Vienna every year where the world comes together 80 90 countries come together and we talk about the environment and how to make this a fast, fulfill free world and reduce pollution. So we don't have seven million people die every year

because of pollution. Beautiful. I can't wait to see the impact you're having that space. Question number four has two parts to it. What is your biggest personal success and what is your biggest personal failure? Well, I think that my biggest personal success and what is your biggest personal failure? Well, I think that my biggest personal success is to be able to do the things that I wanted to do, that I visualized them and turned them into reality.

And I think my biggest failure obviously is my marriage. Think that from a personal point of view and from a professional point of view, I've had many movies going to toilet, I've lost bodybuilding competitions and powerlifting competitions and all that stuff. So I had my plenty of failures. It's always important to bring that up because people should know that you never

will be able to go through life without failures. Failures make us learn, failures make you stronger, pain makes you stronger. So I think all of that is good. Yeah, let's address both of those because it's so true. Like on the outside, like you said, people can say, so privileged, you met the president, you did this, you did that, you've, you know, all the wins,

you know, when I'm looking around this room, like everything's iconically, you know, nothing's unrecognizable across the whole world. It's all recognizable. But did you ever feel the pressure when things started to go well of like, God, the next movie's got to be bigger and the next movie's got to be bigger?

Did you feel that or did you just, kind of, you were just loving it so much that you just kept building and if it went wrong that it didn't hurt you that much? You know, I never really felt that much pressure probably about anything, to be honest with you, because I knew what I wanted, and I never really felt for this thing of what the people expect me to do. So I just, I create my vision, and when everyone says it's impossible, I go after the inventions. It's like I go all out, 100% and it gives me joy. And

it is what is great about it is that every time that you accomplish something really big, you see and become aware of other things that new challenges that you didn't even think about. Yes. I mean, did I ever think about that I would fight for the environment? No. But because of the governorship, you notice, he said, like, the thing I talk about in the book about Hillary, with Times Mount Everest, and he's up there, and obviously, this is another peak to be climbed, right?

And he said, there's the next one. So there's the same thing. I go and win the governorship. I go in there. I start working on the governorship and all the different policies. And I'm meeting all these scientists and experts and talk about, they talk about in the how many people die

here because of pollution. And we can do something about it. And that dive into that, it's a new peak. Oh my God, no one has really explored that. Forget the it's a new peak. Oh my god no one has really explored that forget the 19% of renewable we have to have 50% renewables. Forget about in the reducing greener gases by 5%. We have to reduce it by 25% and we have to do it by 2020 and so you said big course so this is the new peak that you're climbing and you go all out for that. Then when you get there,

then you see another peak beyond that. So this is what is fun and this makes my life rich. You know that is always something new and different. And I tell you that I also learn when I, for instance, listen to you because you come from a totally different world, right? So there's two different spin-on things. So when I listen to this, I say, oh, that's an interesting way of looking at it. And so I think we have to learn from one another. And so I think that you and I have a lot in common anyway, because otherwise you wouldn't

be sitting here. Right? I mean, to think about it here, it's not just that I want to be having one of the most popular podcasts, but you have to be a curious son of a bitch to go and to be really good in what you do. And this is what I noticed about your podcasts. You're really curious, a natural curiosity. Thank you. And I think that is, you have to have it. You have to have curiosity.

It shows in your eyes, it shows in everything when you ask the question on orders. You know, it's like when you see journalists, which I hate. They have like a piece of paper and you say, okay, they're very interested. He says, now let me ask you another question. You want them said this is, and then how do you feel that they, they really don't have the paper? And then when you answer, they don't even look at you in the eyes. They look at the paper for the next question. Right? So I detected, didn't detect any of that from you. I mean, every question came without looking at anything because you're curious.

And so I think I just wanted to mention it. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And it means a lot coming from you. And I am curious because I grew up as a fan who didn't. So that's one thing. But I think I'm even more curious because you chose to write a book

about being useful and life lessons. And I think that that world is what I gravitate towards because I think learning from the greats is all we have. And I think when we ignore to learn from the greats, that's when we make, we have to make our own mistakes for another reason. We can avoid so many. So, no, I am very curious about you. And I think you're also a fantastic storyteller.

So that helps. Well, thank you. You get into so much detail and so many examples and everything, so it's brilliant. I know, thank you. I tell you, it was really fun doing this book because I really had to kind of drill down and think about a lot of the things that comes natural for me, to tell stories about because each one of the rules, you want to be able, even the sub-rules and the sub-sub-rules, you want to be able to tie it to a story. So the people can relate to it like I was talking about

infrastructure. You can talk to people about infrastructure, or you want. They can relate to it, but some of them are tired to getting stuck in traffic, making it to the residling school and you come late an hour because of the traffic in order to say, then they can relate to that. And the same is with any of the rules. I had fun doing it. It was sometimes frustrating because you want to do, in the 10 rules, the publisher then says, no, you can only do seven.

Because his book can only have 268 pages, not 350 pages, and all of this crazy stuff you go through. But it was a really, really great process. And never met wildest dreams. Did I ever think that I would occupy this space at all? And it really happened just totally coincidentally, where more and more people, when you finished with the government of the ship, I was

asked to do public speaking engagements, like ex-presidents and stuff like that and as I'm traveling around I think one time someone said can you pump up our crowd? We have like a thousand you know real estate people We want you to just pump them up. So you do a little bit of success story. Yeah And always ended to go for a wildfire Every one of the public speaking engagements they've had since then, they want to go and have me talk about success,

the rules to success and all of that stuff. So it's like something I didn't even think about because I always was a motivator, you know, if it's a special Olympics, so after school programs, what would just my buddies around in the gym that became my training partners, because I always have this kind of energy, right?

Come on, let's do a sec, you can do another sec. Well, wait a minute, you're stopping me 10 reps. Give me five more reps. Helled it pain. Let it get you pain, you know, and you just pump, pump, pump. So I have this energy. So I never thought that this will be used then for seminars and eventually for a book like this. It's like, it's like crazy.

No, it's fantastic. It's fantastic. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's beautiful to's like crazy. No, it's fantastic. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's beautiful to see it through your eyes and through your lens and for us all to dream as well. And I have one final question for you. And actually, before I ask it, when you said we have a lot in common, there's so many different parallels that I'll tell you later, because when I was listening to you, I've a very different life, but so many similar lessons I've picked up along the way. And I think as humans, that's what brings us together.

We may not have the same life story. We don't grow up in the same places. We don't have the same parents, but you pick up the same messages from the world and the same lessons from the world. So the fifth and final question I want to ask you is, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be? Well, that's an interesting question. Maybe to get our fossil fuels, that we have to use alternative energy. If it is nuclear, with producing energy itself, if it is for cars, electric or hydrogen, I just feel like if we have seven million people die, it is a pollution. I think by having a law like that and eventually make it stick, I think that we could save those lives. And this is like more than any of the wars

that they've fought and any of the other disasters or anything like this is like so many people die because of pollution. So I mean, that's one thing. So I mean, you know, the probably tomorrow morning I call you and say, I have another lock. Great. That's a great answer. We've never had that one though. We've never had that answer. So it's a brilliant answer. But you've been doing so much work in,

I feel like you've been doing so much work in the plant-based space, you know, at the documentaries on game changes, like climate change now, you're talking about, like, it seems like this has been like an immersion for you. Well, you know, it's a crazy, here's another crazy one. Yeah, go ahead.

It's all, my life is so insane. I believe it. No, but I mean, it's like, I'm working with this guy, Jim Cameron. I do terminator one. We become friends. We write the motorcycle together. We hang out together.

And then he does, you know, terminator two two, and he does other movies and the Titanic and Avatine or something. But he is an environment list. But when we determine that, I never knew that. And he never talked about it. So then I become governor and now he goes and he says to me, it says, I want you to make it to make you aware of that the power company is still resisting the reverse metering. He said, reverse metering, what the hell are you talking about? He says, well, it's the thing, you know, when you produce energy from solar and you produce too much, you want to put it back on the grid.

That's reverse metering and you get credit for it. So I walk away and I say, how does Jim Cameron knows about reverse metering? And about that subject, of course it's very clear because he's a genius. And he just has been acknowledged and stuff like that. He's unbeatable. Yeah. So, but true enough, I go into the office the next day in the governor's office and I said, look guys, I want to talk a little bit about reverse metering. I want to get you bring this up because funding power companies are fighting us tooth and nail. They don't want to do reverse meeting,

but we want to pass a law to be telling the legislators to send us a bill so that you can sign it and blah, blah, blah. So this just gives you an example of what impact Jim Cameron had on me with issues that there's, way beyond, you know, movies and stuff like that. Then he goes and says to me, I said to him, I said, my doctor said to me, I should get off meat. And they should only have once a week meat. And he says, well, hello, where have you been? I mean, I've been vegan for five years. So I said, what? And this has been vegan for five years. I mean, any meat for five years, you don't need me to have a, and he goes crazy now, right? And he says, some of it we're doing at that convention right

now, and I think, you know, I'm eating plant-based food. So, all of a sudden, here's the experts. Now I sit down with him, and he's telling me for hours about, you know, plant-based food, and how he can combine and create the right amino acids to create the right protein and over it's how he can get strong. And here's, now he lists the name of the athletes, boxes, wrestlers, weightlifters, UFC fighters, everything that are on plant-based food. Think about that. So now I got into it and I was part of this documentary, right? And now I eat like maybe once a week meat. So I would say 70% at least a cut down my meat intake for health reasons and it happens to be

also for environmental reasons. As he explained, as he honored, what do you think where most of the pollution comes from? More than from transportation comes from breeding life stock. So are you kidding me? He says, no, read up on it. He says, send yourself stuff. So I'm reading up on it, sure enough, 28% of the pollution comes from breeding life stock. So it's if people wouldn't need meat. it's just if it wouldn't have the animals

being kind of like the wholesale, kind of like the vegetable protein goes into the animal, then they didn't have chasing, then you eat the animal, you still get the, you know, the plant-based food, but through the animal now,

it's bullshit. We can do better than that. Let's cut out the meat. It's just amazing how I get exposed to various different things in my life and make me passionate about ways that I couldn't even ever have planned. You know, this kind of relationships and this kind of knowledge you could never plan on. Yeah, and do you also have a meditation practice? Is that right?

I used to. In the 70s, there was a time when I got out of bodybuilding and into show business. And there was all kinds of things happening in the mid 70s. So I was doing my last year of competition in 1975 in South Africa, Miss Olympia. So I was training for that. I was finishing off my movie Stay Hungry with Barbara Eiffrason and Sallie Fields and Chef Bridges, you know, doing that.

And I was at the same time going full-plast in the show business taking acting classes and investing my money in real estate. So I was no matter which way I was turning, I was like scrampering. And at that point, I did not know much about how to isolate and just concentrate on one thing at a time. So I'm hanging out with this guy, the skinny rat, down on the beach.

He's a transcendental meditation teacher, but he never talked about it. So I said, I feel friendly. I mean, it's like everything is a little bit overwhelming for me I'm doing this movie. I'm shooting the documentary pumping out and I'm going to the competition. I'm finishing off stay hungry.

I'm trying to really stay and become a millionaire, I'm all over the places, let me talk to you a little bit, very calmly talks to me about it. And this is when I come up to Westwood and take some transcendental meditation, he says, I cannot be a teacher even though I'm a teacher, I said, you're a teacher, transcendental, yeah, this, but I cannot be a teacher is our rules, whether you have friendship or something, if there's someone else, it's just, but don't worry, I said there'll be the right guy. So I go up there and I do the, I learn now about meditation. And I said, go to do it. I was doing meditation like for months throughout the summer, that hectic summer. I mean, the summer

was over. It wasn't that hectic anymore. So what I learned from meditation was, you know, how to kind of like first of all rejuvenate the mind and to kind of disconnect the mind, but also what I learned was how to focus on one thing at a time and to just look at that with no peripheral vision, so that nothing comes in, solve this and then don't think about anything else and then go over here and solve this and then solve this because he said you can never do all of it in one time anyway. And as soon as you sing aloud things, it becomes much more approachable and much more doable. He said to me, I remember he said, when you drive down and then a spot walk with your bike. He says, you will look sometimes on a busy day and it will be all packed. He says, he would look like he would not be able to go through his crowd.

Because he's looking at the whole shot, the whole Port Walk all the way down a mile than us. So it's overwhelming. It's his butt. If you go now, we get back slowly. He negotiate around the people. And always then you will find spaces where you can go. We don't pump into anybody. And always say, you know, it's the end of it. And it was totally doable.

Because it took like one person at a time, kind of like by seeking around his days and that's the way it is with everything is as if you just look at it one thing at the time you'll be able to solve any problem. And that's why I said you see people like the Pope that has obviously is daily routine, the big daily routine. But as guys, they get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, they've got fun now and a half, very calmly,

get dead out of the way. Then they read newspapers like Pope John Paul, I remember he told me, he read newspapers in six different languages. So they read the newspapers, then he get dead done. Then he go and take a shower, then he go they read the loose papers. Then they get that done. Then they go into the shower, then they go into the first meeting. So this is how they step by step they approach that day. And it says, the people that get done the most, you can load them up with even more responsibilities because they are very organized and very systematic in

their approach. And so I've learned that so now I've never really been that friend again. But if I would become friend, I will go right back into the meditation because I know now how to do it. That's fantastic. I know that everyone has been listening or watching. The book is called Be Useful. Seven Tools for Life.

You can grab it right now. We're going to put the link in the comments and the captions so that you can order it right away as you can tell. Arnold's a phenomenal storyteller inside of it, a lessons, stories. And one of the things I definitely haven't common with Arnold that I appreciate about him is how simple the ideas, how easy they are to digest, they're not complicated. And you don't have to learn something new. You can actually just sit there, take them in, in listen and all of a sudden you start going Wait a minute

Maybe is that easy. Maybe it is that simple and I think that's something that we desperately need in today's world so Arnold I thank you for putting all your lessons into a book for us I thank you for telling so many amazing stories and I signed 17,000 copies Wow, pay because now that this they sent you the pages, you know So I'm getting this boxes with pages each box was a thousand pages And I said I'm afraid of it now, you know first was like 14,000 for the American company And then there was another this three and a half thousand of 4,000 for the

Yes, what they what they do is I Think that the first of the books are all signed. So now people will then they order pre-water, they will wear signed books. I think that was the idea. So in the old days that you would go to the bookstore and you would sign all the books yourself and then you sit there for hours and hours and after an hour you sign a hundred books, right? Because you have to open up the book and it's always slow. Now it pages so I was just like signing signing signing I was for three months I was signing and signing and signing yeah I mean think about it I mean 17,000 yeah I can relate it's crazy yeah it's crazy I never thought that episode there are many signatures. I

Love it. Well, it's available now. Make sure you tag me in our Nord on any social media platforms You're using whether it's TikTok Instagram X or wherever you are I'd love to see what resonated with you what stuck with you keep sharing those posts across social media because I love seeing What is gonna stay with you? What you're gonna practice? What are you gonna try? What are you gonna implement in your life from this episode that will help you become happier, healthier or more healed? Thank you again, Honour. Thank you. Thank you. If you love this episode, you'll love my interview with Will Smith on owning your truth and unlocking the power of manifestation. Anybody who hasn't spoken to their parents or their brother, call them right now.

Don't think you're going to have a chance to call them tomorrow or next week. That opportunity with my father changed every relationship in my life. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds on the planet. Oprah, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Hart, Louis Hamilton, and many, many more. On this podcast, you get to hear the raw, real-life stories behind their journeys and the tools they used, the books they read, and the people that made a difference in their lives so that they can make a difference in hours. Listen to on purpose with Jay Shetty on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Join the journey soon. You know it! Listen to Dave, my Owelita first! Thursdays on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts or whatever you get your podcasts. And remember, don't do anything I wouldn't do. Just do it better! Besitos!