Transcript

#696: Be Useful — Arnold Schwarzenegger on 7 Tools for Life, Thinking Big, Building Resilience, Processing Grief, and More

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4:19 At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. And then also my question. No se... A cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal indoor cellar. So Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show, where it is my job to attempt to deconstruct.

4:50 world class performers of all different types. And my guest today doesn't really need an introduction, but I'll lead into it this way, and I'm gonna keep my preamble short. The world's greatest bodybuilder, the world's highest paid movie star, the leader of the world's sixth largest economy, these are all the same person. Sounds like the setup to a joke, but this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And uh For those who don't know. He is an Austrian born bodybuilder, actor, businessman, philanthropist, bestselling author, and politician. He served as the thirty-eighth governor of California. His new book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, is out October 10th, and his daily newsletter.

5:30 That's email newsletter. Pump club recently passed five hundred thousand subscribers and is growing quickly as a positive corner of the internet. Schwarzenegger has made it his mission to give back. Since his time in the governor's house, he's been working heavily to combat climate change, anti-semitism, ensure fair voting practices, help youth work with veterans, and inspire healthy living, among other things. Now, if you want in addition to all of that, some footage of his incredible accuracy with killing flies. His Shepherding of various animals. Around the property, including pigs, you can go to my YouTube channel. That's youtube.com slash Tim Ferris. You can find him on social at Schwarzenegger, that's on Twitter, Instagram. TikTok is at Arnold Schnitzel,

6:17 on YouTube Arnold Schwarzenegger. The website for the book is BeUsefulbook.com and the newsletter is Arnold's Pump Club. Dot com And without further ado. Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with

6:31 None other than Arnold. Schwarzenegger. We've talked about a lot the last few times that we've spoken, but I'd love to chat maybe about the heart surgery and your recovery from the heart surgery, which I think Might be

6:48 Perhaps a inspiring place to start for a lot of people. Would you mind just describing The heart surgery and what the recovery Has looked like For yourself? Well

6:58 I think that you're referring to the most recent one, which was two thousand eighteen. That was when I Just went into a Routine. Non invasive

7:09 Or the valve replacement. But it goes through your arteries. On your arm, neck, and then your growings. Into your heart. And then they replace your

7:19 Bells. And it's a standard procedure that they have now in the last ten years. And you don't have to perform open heart surgeries anymore because of it. Just happens to be that in my case. They had the difficult time somehow and they poked through the hard wall.

7:36 With the cable. And so I got internal bleeding and they now had to perform an emergency open heart surgery. I of course was not aware of any of that. Because I was out. The next thing I know is I wake up.

7:49 And they're really happy. And this is over. Only to find out that I was having a breathing tube in my throat. And it couldn't talk. And I saw three doctors in front of me, not smiling, but kind of having a concerned look on their face.

8:04 One said don't try to talk because you can't. You still have a breathing tube in your mouth and we're gonna pull that out right away now. So just stay with us. Okay, one So Three.

8:19 Uh I was breathing heavy. And someone ripped the greeting tube out of my mouth. And then

8:26 The second talk to said. We are so sorry. Arnold, but Something went wrong with uh Valve replacement.

8:34 And we had to perform open heart surgery. So it just did all that and also the the breeding the bushes. Ripped out of my kind of throat. And lungs. So I'm still kind of not saying anything. It's just look staring at them.

8:47 And the next doctor says, Yeah, it's like sixteen hours later now. Since you were first put down. So now we are keeping you awake. And everything hopefully will be fine. The most important thing is now for you to make it through the first night. Because that's usually when you can have

9:03 Pneumonia. And the things go south. I'm just Gotten out of uh open heart surgery. where it could have cost my life. And now they're telling me this this next night or two.

9:14 It's very crucial. So I don't lose my life. So I said what the hell is that? What kind of a deal that I go get into here? I had to kind of connect quickly, shift gears.

9:24 and realise what has happened, which takes you a while because you're on drugs and you're on medication. And you're still on the anesthesia somewhat. And you're not with the program. So as I slowly started getting with the program, I had to kind of shift gears and realize that the simplest things were impossible to do. Couldn't go to the bathroom, I couldn't get up, I couldn't do this, couldn't do that. And then slowly I started getting with the program Started pulling out the tubes. during the night and they started adjusting this and adjusting that. And then eventually

9:52 I was able to go and get up a little bit. So now the doctor said is that the key thing is to walk. Because if you walk Then you exercise your lungs and when you exercise your lungs the danger of having pneumon starts really slipping away and you don't have to worry about that. But the key thing that kills you always is the least amount of lung activities that you have can create, you know, uh This problem and you die.

10:17 With mnemonia. And so I was already setting goals for myself. Okay, I'm gonna go and walk around the bed right away, I'm gonna get up. have someone pull along the machines, then after I walked around the bed, they sit down again and relax a little bit. Then I went outside the same and so I gotta make it outside the room and I started going outside the room and back in again and outside the room. Back in again and started like doing exercises like that. Eventually I was walking around the Nurses Station.

10:43 And then eventually Two days later I was walking down the long hallways. Oh we'll do another building and back, which was like Hundreds of yards. So I could really build up

10:54 Strength. and get out of that hospital as quick as possible. And so after six days rather than with this out seven days. After six days I got out of the hospital and I was exercising and I was walking. And I Ask friends of mine.

11:09 that were working out with me to put the pressure on me. And my family, my kids, they were put the pressure on me to make me walk. And then not let me get away with not walking. And so that's exactly what we did. So you've always seemingly been very good at setting goals, having a vision, and then setting these intermediate goals. I'd like to rewind the clock because I was trying to find some aspects of your life that we haven't explored already. And this is gonna go back to H ten. So H ten roughly Is it true that you were selling ice cream at the time? I think there are ice cream pops or some type of ice cream. You can't believe everything you read on the internet, but I did find that and I'm wondering.

11:45 If that was one of your first experiences with entrepreneurship or at least trying to make money by selling something. You're absolutely correct. And it was not that I wanted to become an entrepreneur or anything like this. At that point, what it was was just really a necessity. You know, I felt like I needed a training suit. Friends of mine had training suits in the winter and you know, tennis shoes and my parents refused to buy it. You know, they just would give me my leatherhosen.

12:12 And the pants that they wore day and night and and in the winter and in the summer. And then some high shoes, boots. Just clothes that will work all the time, but nothing fancy. And so that I wanted to have when I go to the soccer field, I don't want to have a training suit. So they said, Well, you go out and make your own money, that's fine. You can buy your own stuff. But they're definitely you're not gonna get it for us because that's not the kind of money that we have. That's exactly what I did. So I went downstairs to the lake. Where I grew up, where I learned how to swim. And they asked there was a ice cream and dessert kiosk in front of the big restaurant.

12:49 Right near the lake. So I asked him, I said, Do you have anything That where I can go and put ice in it and then carry it back there where the people are lying around in the middle of the grass and the bushes and all around the lake that are too lazy maybe to come to the front here and buy the ice cream here. And you know, have it melt on the way back there and it's gone already. So it's that there's some people I think This was maybe the entrepreneurial kind of mentality. Because I felt kind of there is maybe a need. for someone like to deliver the ice cream to those bushes and those different locations around the lake, rather than have them to go have those people go all the way to the front to get the ice cream.

13:29 And so I did not know, but I thought that maybe it would be interesting idea. Let's try it. So I would just take a little box that the guy gave me was like some kind of a container where you normally put water in it. Some of a round kind of a container. And with the handle on it. And he put in

13:47 Ice from the winter that they when they cut the ice in the winter on that lake. They used it in the dress around below for keeping because there was no refrigeration yet. keeping the drinks, the beer and the vegetables and everything cold. So they had broken ice, huge amounts of broken ice in the bottom of that restaurant. And so the guy had in his trunk Yeah, where the ice cream was This ice in it. So he gave me a little bit from my container. And then he put in twenty ice creams. They were like, you know, just icyles.

14:19 So th those bars. And he put those in there's a little bit of cell phone. It's a little kind of paper over it. And so I ran with those around the lake. And I said you know ice cream, ice cream, fresh ice cream, ice cream. Then every so often someone will pop up is Yeah. I want some ice cream. And then I would go over to the bush and there will be three guys like there with a girl. So they says give me four ice cream I'll give four. So then next door four. So by the time I was like a a hundred yards gone. I already was out of ice cream for my pocket. So I had to run back to the front again.

14:50 Get more ice cream and go back out again. Then eventually I just took a hundred with me. You know, and there was enough ice on the knee so to keep it cold in that hot day. was around thirty, thirty five degrees. And so I uh sold this ice cream and then the end of the day I ended up what this guy gave me one shilling for each ice cream. So I sold like a hundred and forty five, hundred and fifty, one hundred and eighty ice creams and somebody a hundred and eighty shilling. So that got me enough.

15:17 Money. To buy myself a training suit. Then the next weekend I will go back and I will buy myself with the money, then some tennis shoes and stuff like that. And so this is kind of how I started to realize that if you work your ass off, you can really accomplish a lot of things. That's why my book, you know, Be Useful, I put in there this is as a main chapter is just work your ass off. Work your ass off.

15:39 We're definitely directly gonna segue to be useful. Seven tools for life. This Title. Be useful. Could you explain? And that's probably ties into

15:52 similar chapters around the story around earning money and working your ass off in your younger years. Where did this title come from? Be useful. It comes from a father, you know, he would always say that. And his whole attitude always was

16:07 Whatever you do. Try to serve the people. Try to do something good for your community or for your family. Don't just think about yourself. That's why my father was so

16:17 heavily kind of against bodybuilding. Because you felt like that what he was called this is substance. Thronum. Self thrown. Which means you kind of

16:27 glorifying and you treating yourself. Rather than worrying about others. And so he just felt like he says, Instead of lifting for yourself, why don't you go out and chop some wood? Why don't you go and shuffle some coal and this way you help some older person that has coal delivered. Shovel Cole in the death. basements that they have coal in the window and they have wood in the window and you help an older person that doesn't that is not able to do those things anymore.

16:52 That's what you should do. Then you get also muscles. Then you also get strong. Then you also can kind of look good. Look at this guy's like Laszlo Pop. Laszlo Pop is a boxer from Hungary. He was the w European champion in boxing.

17:05 How does he train? He there's pictures all over the place where he's chopping wood in the forest. I said that's how he trains. That's how he becomes the wall boxing champion. He doesn't just think about his boxing, he thinks about other people too. So there was this rap. And so He says you gotta be useful, you know, you gotta go and use your talent to help people. And so that's where it kind of came from. And it's something that was really interesting because I think you and I we talked about that in the past.

17:30 that uh sometimes things come to you as a kid. But then later on in life it kind of comes back. It's like kind of your nightbed. Six o'clock in the morning and you want to stay in bed and you say you said, Wait a minute. I heard his voice from my father screaming.

17:45 Be useful. You know, people have never accomplished anything, no country ever was built by people sleeping in You know, Austria was not built by people sleeping in, America was not built by people sleeping in. People struggled, people suffered, people broke their asses off to build this country. So You want to go not and sleep in? So then you start feeling guilty and you just jump out of bed right away.

18:07 Because you hear those sounds. They come back. And it's kind of motivational because it really has driven me my whole life and has pushed me So this just, you know, that's why I call the book Be Useful because it's kind of an overall title. And then within that book I put all the chapters in the never think small or sell, sell, sell and all of those kind of things. Shift gears or whatever it is, you know, I've put this kind of uh lessons together which were very crucial lessons. that I've learned throughout my life and throughout the various careers, but especially in the gym. Most of my lessons are learned in the gym because there's no better place than to learn in the gym because this is where you know the The rubber hits the road, right? I mean this is where

18:50 If you don't do the four strips If you don't work until it burns and until it hurts, and then you go beyond that. And do the four strips. You're not gonna grow. So now you get this message that only through pain you can actually grow.

19:05 Only through pain you can go in discomfort. and misery you can kind of grow as also as a person. Not just physically, not just muscle wise, but as a person. Thro comfort no one ever grows. You know, if you only go can grow through comfort and going through you know things where you have to have discipline and where you struggle. If it's in the military, if it isn't a real good job. Oh if he's he's studying in the university

19:29 The more those kids struggle and study all night and goes through hardship. The further they're gonna go, look at the students that go to medical college. I mean in night the sleepless nights they have and all this so this is what it takes. How did your father say be useful in German?

19:45 What is the way to say that? Properly. Or how would he say to you? Well he would have different versions of it. He would just say a hard arbeiten. Mm-hmm. Right. And they'll work hard. Help Andre.

19:56 Help others. You know, it was always like, you know, help others. You know, don't just uh interest it in yourself. So it was kind of like a combination of all of those things that he was through together. And he would just always, you know, kind of like be very critical of people that didn't do that. My father's job was a police officer.

20:13 He was with the Chandarie which was the country police. It was all about protecting people. And keeping law and order. So that's serving the people. And the same is when when you talk about music. Music is to entertain people.

20:26 So his whole thing about learning to play music And to play six instruments, the trumpet, the fleet one, the saxophone, the clarinet. of those different, you know, instruments. It made him a great performer. He wrote music, he conducted music. So It was all about What can you do for other people? So he will go to the city park.

20:47 out there and he will have concerts, he will play concerts. He would play in funerals, a police officer died, he will always play at the funerals and direct the music, conduct the music and all of that stuff. So he was always interested In serving the people and so He was really into that. Arnold, what I think about you

21:04 The adjective that comes to mind. I was asking myself this question earlier today. The the adjective that comes to mind for me is resilient. And many people have seen the Netflix mini series Arnold, and one of the lines, and I'm not gonna get this perfectly right, that stuck out to me was that your upbringing made you but broke Your brother and I'm probably getting the phras, but I'm wondering if you could Just elaborate on that and speak to What the upbringing was like, and then also what made you different from your brother.

21:35 In that respect. My brother was The nature more fragile. And Yeah, I never really

21:42 realised that when I kind of grew up, but just the very fact Uh certain things that kind of unfolded. Made me then realise that And there was Two things. One of them was

21:54 If he was more fragile. And the other one was And he appeared to be more fragile. And then I appear to be strong. And the reason I'm saying that is because like for instance

22:04 When he was like eleven years old and he was going to school in grads. outside the village and you had to go with the bus there, then they had to be picked up at the bus station a half an hour away from our house. And then was night in the window in the fall. And then he was afraid to go home. He would say, I'm afraid to go home by myself.

22:24 And so my father would turn to me, says Well Arnold Can you pick him up? I give you a shilling every night and you pick him up. So we're gonna end of the week five shilling. Is it because Saturday.

22:34 was only half day school, so he would go home. At the time it was still light. So I said them Oh yeah yeah. I pick him up. No problem, he's just you're not afraid.

22:43 This is You kidding me? No. But in the meantime I was also scared shitless. So I appear

22:50 Tough, uh Then my brother. But I was also afraid. But I was not afraid enough. Not to go.

22:56 Mm-hmm. So I did go. Even though I was afraid my brother refused to go because he was afraid. So there was both. I was a little tougher than him. But that I also pretended to be tougher than him.

23:08 So that kind of unfolded as time went on. So as we were punished and beaten and all of this kind of things that was going on. It was clear that my brother couldn't quite handle the thing because he Ran away. More often from home.

23:23 Well not only Most then ran away because I never ran away. He ran away. And he would know the PSM for a week. My father would have to look for him all over the place. He was scared. Did he get lost? Is he gone?

23:35 What is going on? So it freaked him out. And he treated him for a while when he came back home. He treated him for a while, nicer. And then started getting

23:45 To be again. Too much for him. So What happened was really When I look back was That each time

23:53 А Фада поніштас. It made my brother more vulnerable. And we go. And it made me Strong.

24:01 So I thrived. My mind started gearing up to I'm gonna get back at him. I'm gonna leave this house. As soon as I can.

24:11 I'm gonna be out of here at the age of eighteen. I'm gonna go to the military. And then I'm gonna go and get my passport. And then I'm gonna go to Germany. And then I'm gonna go to America.

24:21 And I'm gonna be out of here. This is it, I'm not gonna take this any longer. And it would make me strong and really set A program and set a goal and a vision. Of what I'm gonna do in life.

24:32 Whereas my brother Crumb. He got week. You started drinking? We started getting involved in alcohol.

24:39 And uh could see in his behavior That you didn't behave well. He was abusive. And eventually he died. Because of a car accident.

24:49 Trunk driving. with the age of he was I think twenty four and I was twenty three. When did happen. I was already in America at that time. But it was like it was really sad.

24:59 'Cause they could see that he just couldn't handle any more the punishment. And I could I was thriving on it. And I used it to my big plus. And as a support system.

25:10 And it was like gave me the motivation, it created the fire in the belly, it made me a create a vision, a a necessary vision. This is what I want to do. I want to get to America. I have to become a bodybuilding champion. I have to get away from home. I had to find my a new father figure. My father was great to be the father, the official father, but there were others

25:32 the trainer in the weightlifting club could ban or a guy that could now that we also knew there was in his forties and fifties, that became a father figure, very smart guy that spoke English and was very worldly. And then there was a Jewish fellow there. that became our kind of mentor and helped us with the weightlifting club. So this wall became kind of my new father figures in the way and then eventually Joe Weeder when I came to America.

26:00 And all of this people I looked up Right over as an idol because they would Treat me. In a better way. And they will educate me and they will really

26:09 Usher me along and Nurture me along. But I never really resented my father because of it. I always kind of felt that he served a really extraordinary purpose for me.

26:21 Not for my brother, but for me. Which means to get me to America. Become a great champion. be able to work

26:29 No matter how many hours it takes. To do no matter what it takes. And do not shy away from misery. Of some pain. from abstracts

26:39 Or from falling down and having to get up again and crawl and all for For nothing. And that was the power. And the strength my father gave me. And so I

26:49 Always kind of appreciated that. And nothing comes in the perfect package. Because I knew that if he would have given me all the love. And if he would have not done none of that. And if I would have had all the money in the world I would have not grown up as tough.

27:02 And I would not have been able to accomplish what I did. Coming to America. And becoming this world bodybuilding champion. And do all the things that I was doing. It was all because of that upbringing.

27:14 And so When I look at for instance my In laws. You know, when I see those kids, they're very smart kids in the Kennedy family. But I always felt kind of like

27:26 They couldn't have grown up. Like Maria or Maria's brothers or anyone around them. They couldn't have grown up Oh my children. couldn't grow up with the same desire, the same hunger. But they can get other qualities.

27:40 So that's the key thing to focus. On that, but I mean You could never have that quality. Of hunger. And desire

27:48 And Deep. inside kind of like reach being able to reach inside. No matter what it takes. So let's talk about one of the rules. Never think small.

27:56 You seem like the walking archetype of not thinking small. You've lived multiple lifetimed to most people. How would you suggest people think of Never Think Small or what stories come to mind that from your life exemplify? That Just the very beginning. I mean for me to go and say

28:17 I want to compete in the junior Mr. Europe competition. Rather than just in the Mr. Austrian competition. I trained just as hard as everyone else in the gym. The goal was just smaller. They said I want to be Mr. Austria.

28:29 And I said I wanna be Mr Europe, so I'm gonna start with Mr Junior Junior Mr Europe, the best built man of Europe. I'm gonna go to this competition. And I was thinking bigger. And I was training as hard as they were. Everything was the same.

28:41 But then when I won that competition because I had a very clear vision That's what I want to win. That immediately launched me. Into getting a Job.

28:50 become a trainer in Munich in a Bodybuilding gymnasium. Imagine. How In heaven is that.

28:57 You're a young bodybuilder, you're eighteen old. You just won your first international competition. You win some local competitions in Austria. You win some power lifting competitions. Some weightlifting competitions.

29:09 But now you uh Junior Mr. Europe. And you have this trophy. And now you're getting a job to train in the second biggest gym in Munich.

29:18 So that was like absolute heaven. So with nineteen I started training. Become the trainer. In the gym.

29:26 So now I had the opportunity. To train Day and night. When I wake up because I was sleeping in the gym. I was waking up and I was training

29:35 I was taking a nap in the afternoon, I was training. before going to sleep at night after dinner, I was training I was training day and night. So this is a dream. But it was all because

29:45 I thought big. They were still stuck. Working for Some bathhouse. in the Austria or for the government.

29:53 Or being a trash collector. or being a teacher or something like that, they were still stuck in the same job. I was already moving on. The Munich. And I was already a trainer.

30:03 In a bodybuilding gymnasium. Making this the launch pad. To America. Which was my ultimate dream. So this is what I'm saying. So it didn't take more work.

30:13 To think big. It's just thinking big. Makes you bigger. And what I'm my point is is it takes just as much effort And then learn the game from bodybuilding.

30:22 Some dead Kind of thing I learned. That don't hold back. So when I went within the age of nineteen I was the youngest Mr Universe competitor

30:31 I competed in a Miss Universe contest. I placed second, I placed runner up. So that a year later I went back with the age of twenty. In one Mr. Universe, the youngest Mr. Universe ever. But this is all because I was thinking big. I wasn't saying, Oh, maybe in a few years from now I go there. Or I shouldn't go there right now.

30:49 Always too early, always And then it's just so thing right away. I'm gonna go for the second Mr. Universe next year. I'm gonna go to America. I'm gonna go and make Joe Weeder aware of me.

30:59 And you know, make sure that they win another competition and all this. So I was driven Bigger and big and bigger. And even when I got into acting. I didn't look at it as kind of like I'm gonna get some character. Rolls. I was not interested in character rules.

31:13 I wanna be another Steve Reeves or Rage Buck. They were the stars of the Hercules movies. CD's but just the star. We always cleaned Eastwood. You know.

31:22 In a fistful of dollars, clean these to In a dollar, few dollars more. See these two. In this movie. Whatever it was, it was like

31:30 That's what I wanted. Charles Bronson. I won't be like Charles Bronson. I wanna be like Warren Beatty, I wanna be like this guy's They were the top stars. And that's what I saw myself.

31:40 And they said well This ladder is very hard to build. Or to climb up to I said, Well then I build my own ladder. I built my own ladder.

31:48 And then I know exactly how to get up there. That's exactly what I did. I created my own way of getting up there. I took five hours. that I learned in bodybuilding. I they took five hours every day

32:00 Of working my ass off. The train and to train and to train and to pose and to pose and And to do all the stuff then they needed to do. I said I'm gonna do the same five hours But I'm gonna go and learn English.

32:12 I'm gonna learn. Acting. Speechless. voice lessons. Accent removed lessons.

32:19 Well, I should get my money back for those. But in many case the But in many case I took all of those lessons one hour every day. And it was grinding it out. And then I remember eventually it happened. People started hiring me. And the great thing was

32:34 That I felt That I should not be financially vulnerable. So I first got into real estate. And I work my ass if in real estate My first million actually

32:45 made in real estate before I really Got into acting. And that helped me because now when they came to me with stupid parts and says, Do you want to play a bouncer? I said fuck no. Why would I play a pouncer?

32:57 You say, Well what about the Nazi officer? You have a great If the German accent does it no, I don't wanna be a Nazi officer. I say I want to be a star. I want to be a leading man. I want to get rich and famous.

33:07 Just looking to use McChaws Bronson. And they said, You're crazy. It would never happen. Well. I applied the other rule which is don't listen to the naysayers.

33:17 So I worked my ass off. I did exactly what it did in the bodybuilding. I did in the movies. Eventually it happened. I started doing the Jane Mansfield story.

33:26 I start doing the with Kirk Douglas. And and Margaret. The villain. I was doing streets of San Francisco. I was doing stay hungry and pumping on.

33:36 Or in the seventies, And even with lose to a ball. Doing happy anniversary and goodbye. So did all of those kind of things And then that led

33:44 The big role. And now I've arrived. Starring role. In Conan the Barbarian. You know, when

33:52 Sean Milliar saw me. He says If we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger. We would have had to build one. So all of a sudden the body

34:02 That everyone said would never ever become famous in the movies because the movies No one is seeing Muslim movies anymore. All of the opposite came true. The accent became very welcome.

34:14 When they determinated they love the German accent. Jim Cameron called Schwarzenegger's talking like a machine. That's why it worked. Thing the terminator. So things like that.

34:24 So always then The things that they said would never make it. In Hollywood. The accent, the name. The body

34:32 All of the things became big pluses. And it made it. So that's my own ladder. That I built. That's why it's important.

34:39 Yeah, don't just worry about climbing Allow it. That someone else just built. No. Build your own ladder.

34:46 You know, just don't wait for anyone else. So that's what I did. I want to s underscore a few things for folks. Number one The building of the ladder was not many ladders was not haphazard. It was systematic. So you had the real estate

35:00 as a financial buffer, which gave you then the ability to pick your shots. And you've been very good at doubling down on betting on yourself in many different areas. But could you speak to twins? And what that looked like with that particular film to bet on yourself. Well, Twins was a kind of like A little bit out of nowhere.

35:23 Because I had certain goals. But comedy was not one of my goals when I got into movies. And I felt like that I can be funny in the movies, you know, in Connor and there were funny moments and all that stuff. But only when I

35:38 Started doing one action movie after the next. You know my hunger. You know, the whole philosophy of staying hungry. Kind of came out. A little bit. Well, I wonder if we ever could sell the idea of me doing a comedy.

35:52 And then all of a sudden I started getting obsessed with the idea. And instead of talking to everyone I'd say Have you ever thought about me doing a comedy and of course every studio executive said Are you crazy, Arnold? I mean, what do you think?

36:04 I'm making now millions of dollars of you being an action hero. We finally build it up to be the this in the national action girl. Not only in America, but all over the world. Why would they go and start spending money on something else? That is not sure.

36:16 I love the actual We're gonna give you all the scripts for action movies. And so I said yeah, but I understand, but what about Me doing an action movie for you and then the next one we do.

36:27 It's a comedy. No, why would I do that? You tell me. I mean, would you do it as a yeah? I say, but here's the thing what we need to do.

36:34 So then when we finally form the partnership, then it divided I'm in right, man. And myself. We got together and we said, You know I can sympathize with the studio.

36:44 Why would they take the risk? For what? Why not we all take a risk? Why don't we go to them and say instead of Usking the big salaries.

36:52 Why don't we just say we do the movie for nothing? Just give us a backhand. You don't have to pay us any salary whatsoever. If the production Cost sixteen and a half million dollars. That's all you use.

37:04 But one penny more for us. Fuck us. Don't worry about us at all. We have plenty of money. And if the movie goes in the toilet.

37:13 We all go in the toilet. Everyone takes the risks. Not just you the studio. Wouldn't be fair. Would it?

37:20 Des set Hey, this is my thinking. So what do you want them to have done? We said all we want is just You give us three

37:28 Thirty seven and a half percent. Of ownership of the movie. And then We all go to the bank together. If the movie goes through the roof, we all make money.

37:37 The movie goes in the toilet, none of us make money. We said Yeah. That's exactly what we did, and it happened to be With Ivan Reitman's genius directing.

37:47 And we didn't need to be the kind of great, great acting. And everyone else around us Kelly Press and everyone else. And me being involved. We made the movie a huge hit.

37:57 As a matter of fact. That movie made more money. than any action movie made up until that point for me. So my action movies range always to like seventy, eighty million dollars. And that movie made a hundred and twenty eight million dollars.

38:12 Domestically. And worldwide. Two hundred and fifty milyen dollars. So now Imagine the budget being sixteen and a half million dollars.

38:20 And you Box of this. is two hundred and fifty million. So now we own thirty seven and a half, almost forty percent.

38:28 Of that chunk. So we all cleaned house. He was so fucking funny. Go around as a matter of fact. Tom Pollard.

38:37 was a fantastic studio leader. Great. Producent. Lawyer. He after the deal he's just basically said

38:45 He went around the desk in his office. And he bent over and pulled out his pockets and he says. You guys fucked me. And Rob be blind. And so

38:55 It's like We were all laughing. Because we're all very good friends. I mean it was right. I mean it like it really because they were so worried about the risk taking. Yeah, we say we take the risk. And sure enough, we did.

39:08 And the risk paid off. And so we just really Clean the house, so I made like I think seventy million dollars in twins. Or something like that and I and

39:17 And then he made a fortune that he bought two houses. Go to houses. So we all got kind of a lot of money. And Ivan Reifman. And there's what deals.

39:25 They did then in the future with kindergarten cop, we did it. With Junior we did it. So it became a model. That no one is gonna do the day anymore. The students got smarter than that.

39:36 But anyways, it was like historic kind of ideals. But I had the confidence that I could pull it off. And Ivan had the confidence and Danny had the confidence. And so together we all did it. And universal student then had the confidence.

39:49 And they promoted it really well. We hired any liberts. To do the photo shoot. And she took us on top of a bus. Against the blue sky.

39:58 And just photograph Dan and me leaning against each other. And that became the poster. And it was like really genius. So everyone kind of worked together. to make this a brilliant movie and a successful movie. Yeah.

40:14 Just a quick thanks to one of our sponsors and we'll be right back to the show. This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront. There is a lot happening in the US and global economies right now. A lot. That's an understatement. Are we in a recession? Is it a bear market? What's going to happen with inflation? So many questions, so few answers. I can't tell the future. Nobody can, but I can tell you about a great place to earn more on your savings. And that's Wealthfront. Wealthfront is an app that helps you save and invest your money. Right now you can earn 4.8 APY, that's the annual percentage yield with the Wealthfront Cash account. That's more than 11 times more interest than if you left your money in a savings account at the average bank, according to FDIC.gov. So

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41:13 and build long term wealth. So why wait? Visit wealthfront.com slash Tim to get started. That's wealthfront.com slash Tim. This was a paid endorsement by Wealthfront. Why have an entire

41:28 Chapter slash rule. Dedicated to sell, sell, sell. Because for a lot of people, they think of selling as a dirty thing. I don't happen to think of it that way, but why is this so critical? that sell sell sell would be uh one of the primary sections in the book. You can imagine.

41:44 The reason why I called it cell, sell, sell is because it does raise eyebrows. But it does make people say, Wait a minute. Selling normally is a no no. I mean If you think about it, most of the actors In his seventies.

41:59 And Adies refuse to sell. The movies. The say this is not my job. I'm an artist. I don't sell

42:06 I'm another salesman out there and all this stuff. And I this was my strength. Because I studied selling. You know, when I was in career education.

42:16 I started to be a salesman. And so I realized then The importance of selling that no matter what you have. If you have a podcast If you have a boobie

42:27 If you have a painting. If you have a car A technology, a medicine, whatever it is. If people don't know about it You have nothing.

42:35 The more people that know about your Products. What about your talent? The more you can go And be successful.

42:43 So therefore The idea of selling Publicising Marketing. Communicating.

42:50 Convincing. All of those kind of things is an art. And there's odd agencies. That make millions and millions of dollars to just pick out What the language should be.

43:01 in order to really sell to the right people and have the right customers. And sell the product the right way. So It's an odd to do that. And I've learned it way back when I was fifteen years old.

43:11 And I learned how to sell. I remember when my boss said to me, Sis now look at watch me carefully. When I saw this this couple coming in. This couple comes in.

43:21 I worked in a store that it had wood products and that was like a lumber yard. Did go. hardware store. It was kind of like a hardware store type of a thing. So this couple comes in and they wanted to have tiles. And so immediately the guy started talking. And then my boss started talking to the guy and said

43:37 What kind of tiles do you want? Do you want the black tiles, the pink tiles, or white towels? And the guy said this is Uh well, I don't know. So women said that uh we want wide tiles. And for the bathroom we want to have Pink tiles.

43:50 And so the guy looked at her and says, Okay, fine, let me take you over there. Is it how much style do you need? Again, the man didn't answer, the woman answered. And she says, Oh, and it's me, I've it written down the measurements here. And it's two meters thick.

44:03 A meter eighty uh tall. And blah blah blah. And so the guy then all of a sudden realized That she's the customer. So He started really paying attention to her.

44:13 Asking all the questions and thinking about But included him also. And then on the end when they were satisfied And we wrote up the order. And we then uh told them that it will be all delivered on Thursday.

44:25 He came to me after they left, they said, So what did you learn? I said, Well, I said, Did you really sold the tiles? Well And the colours and the difference between real tiles and fake tiles and all this. But it was one other thing.

44:38 I switched. Who I thought Was the customer. He says she was the customer, not him. He paid for it. But she was the customer.

44:47 So I had to talk and address her. Because that was the important thing. She needed to be convinced. So I had to sell to her. And so I realized then that selling is an art.

44:58 That you have to improvise in the chest all the time. That if you go in front of a children audience, for instance You have to speak a totally different language. When they talk in the class, in the school in after school programs than they talk in Washington, when I talk to legislators.

45:13 I have to talk to differently. When I talk to a crowd Offens. At the movie theater. Then I talk to a bunch of lobbies.

45:22 So it's always different. So You have to learn the art of selling. And this is why selling is so important. And I remember that But Andy Whoa.

45:31 When there was being painted in his Warehouse. Down in Soho. And Jamie Wise was the

45:38 And and he war was there and that he always talked about That the most important thing is Did you not just sell the art? But you sell yourself. You have to sell yourself, you have to become

45:49 Uh interesting person. We what parties you go to, who you hang out with. The photos that you take, the recordings that you make, the magazine that you publish. And all of this to together is this Makes me a character.

46:01 It makes people fascinated to write about me. And therefore they write about my art. And sure enough. It worked. Because in no time Andy Wall's odd.

46:12 became worth millions and millions of dollars. I used to buy it For Fifty thousand dollars. thirty thousand dollars. А та бій да изхайнієме офіс.

46:22 It is now, you know, ten, fifteen million dollars. About for thirty thousand dollars. So imagine The value that Andy Wahl gained By being just a character, a different character.

46:33 And being just strange to people with a wig on it and the glasses. In all of these different things. He ran around with a little tape recorder. And he, by the way, was a great promoter of mine. What is the significance of shifting gears? I mean, people can think of it, of course, in an automotive capacity.

46:49 But shift gears. What does that mean to you and are there any particular stories that stand out? I talked about it earlier. You wake up from a surgery that you think is two hours. They replace your heart valve and then someone tells you.

47:01 We pokes through your Hard war. And you now have been out for sixteen hours. And now you have to stay here seven days. You're not out of the woods yet.

47:11 You know, we have to do everything we can to keep you alive. And uh you know, you almost died on the operating table. And it could this still happen. Next night. If you're not really good going with the walking.

47:22 And if you get pneumonia. So that you have to shift gears very quickly. I usually the art of improvisation. You know that you have to be very good. And improvising because there's a lot of things that come up

47:33 But you have to be really good in improvising. And this happened to me all the time when I was governor I had to quickly shift gears. It happened also in show business.

47:44 Yeah, you have to shift gears. But it's the unexpected is happening. And you have to be kind of like Ready for that. And confront that. I mean that that's the most important thing.

47:54 It's just so many people get stuck in certain things and the track. And they Then cannot get off the track. I just always thought like I was very good.

48:05 And shifting gears, like going from Bodybuilding the show business. I mean you really had to shift gears. Because all of a sudden certain other things became important. I mean think about it. You go and you do bodybuilding.

48:18 Every athlete always tells you That you got to go and keep the motions out of the way. Because it's the emotions that gonna kill you. You guys go Train and compete.

48:29 And train for a competition for world championship. Or the Olympic games or whatever it is. And be emotionally Involved in whatever it is. Because he can derail you.

48:39 So you do that. That's become a mass standard. I became like s call to stone. But then all of a sudden you go and you start taking acting classes.

48:48 And is that Hearing from the acting teacher. Arnold. You talk like a fucking cold. Fish.

48:56 I mean there's no motions there. I got the cau. And find the emotions. So think about that for a second, all your life longer here now.

49:05 That this is like Bad. And now all of a sudden You hear? You have to be more emotional.

49:11 You have to be in touch. With your emotions. Have you s thought about lately The smell of a rose. I said the self what?

49:21 The rose. So A rose smells a certain way, it's a beautiful smell. So what does this have to do with acting? This is uh

49:30 If you sit there on the scene And you start thinking about that. Smell of a rose. You have a totally different facial expression. Close the eyes.

49:40 You know. Let's assume that you want to compliment the woman the perfume she wears. You can't go and say I like your perfume. Stupid.

49:48 Mm-hmm. But if you go and say Yeah. What are you wearing?

49:54 Mm-hmm. It smells. Wonderful. I mean you have good taste. He says that's a totally different tone. He says it would change your voice.

50:03 If we smell the rose. It will change your voice. But you only can do that if you really smell it. And be in touch with that. So that's what I'm talking about, shifting gears very quickly.

50:13 So for one A year to the next. I had to kind of always hidden Have all the emotions kick in. And make everything work. It didn't really

50:22 Work. In the past. I'm curious to ask you About How that

50:29 Reaccessing of emotion maybe has Informed how you experience Grief. Yourself. You lost Franco Franco Colombo.

50:39 And I'm just wondering what that grief was like for you to experience. I have to say I react a little bit differently to those kind of things. And everyone else. Because To mi it's not so much the shock.

50:52 As it is The ongoing Missing. A person. Because

50:59 There's certain friends. that have become part of you. And so if they pass away And did die. Something dies in you.

51:08 And so when I Imagine every day when I walk into my living room. And I see this chess forward. We are Frank and I played chess in the last Ten years.

51:19 Two, three times a week. And drink wine. Smoke the stogie. And just talked. In the talk like

51:26 Sixty five and seventy year old talk. Rather than The way twenty years or stalk, you know, like in the old days. Yeah, because frankly I've known since I was eighteen years old. So then our conversations were differently than

51:39 They were. as of the last ten years. When we talk about kids, where we talk about family. When we talk about that, we grew up in the butt the past. Any more.

51:48 Kind of like deeper conversations. And more emotional. Conversations. And now all of a sudden you're every day When you w walk into your living room, you see this chest table there in the corner.

52:00 But Franco is not sitting there anymore. And that To me. You know, it's heartbreaking. And when they go to the gym and they drive down with

52:08 The Bicycle. And Frank came on the bicycle ride. He was not good in bicycle ride. It was all over the place. That was funny. And I had people sometimes video type him. You know, just to show how goofy he looks on a bicycle.

52:22 I think the bike seat was maybe too high up or we couldn't load it, but the problem was. It was just hilarious because he was In a five three according to him, I think he was five one or five two the most. But anyway, he's he always said five three. And then working out with him. The fun of working out with him. Then I had him in so many movies.

52:42 I remember when I directed the movie. The switch. The Tales of the Crypt. I hadn't meant uh the barbarian, I hadn't mean that. In terms of

52:53 I had even all those movies in there. So it was just He became, you know, kind of part of me. So to me, it's not just the initial shock. When someone tells you, Oh, Frank has just passed away on the beach.

53:06 In Sardinia. It is also then a daily thing. A weakly thing. Every time I go to the Arnold Classic. And the handouts I have a trophy.

53:16 That is the Franco Colombo posing trophy. Almost masculine man trophy. Maybe hand those out. Maybe Frank's party on it did a good mate, but really great Italian sculptor.

53:28 The double bicep pose. And the double bicep goes intentionally. Because Franco was really not never known for his biceps. Because he was known he had so had such overpowering

53:41 Back. It's nuts. His chest. Is still good. It was so overpowering.

53:48 That people sometimes didn't even see the the arms. So I on purpose wanted to do a double buy suppose. So in the future. You brought us to remember him for his biceps. But it's just

54:00 A great, great sculpture. So to me Franco will live on forever. So it's Joe Weeder. You know, on Ben Weeder. And Dave Draper and Sergio Liver and Bill Pearl.

54:10 And Rich Park. To me, I see them all sitting in front of me. When there's the Arnold Classic. And I see them all sitting there laughing and having a great time. And watching down with Calac.

54:21 And watching how bodybuilding is progressing. Other cash prices are going up. Oh, we have big and biggest sponsors. Oh we have a bigger and bigger Convention.

54:31 And expo. And off this how they enjoy all that. That's what I see out there now. But it's kind of like you know, it's in between kind of like Should I have tears in my eyes?

54:41 When I'm out there and looking at all those faces of those bodybuilding champions and promoters of bodybuilding. Or should I smile? You know, so it's this combination.

54:53 I would love to get your thoughts on Aging and relating to aging because A lot of people struggle with relating or thinking about aging. I for the first time in the last nine months have had chronic pain for the first time due to a spinal issue. It's the first time in my life I've ever experienced that. And I'm wondering if you could share anything about what you've

55:13 learned or decided with respect to Aging, just getting older, as we all do. You know the first time at all I experienced something similar to that. is when I had my open heart surgery. I was not even fifty years old. I was

55:28 It was in April. And in July I'm fifty. So it was just a few months before I was fifty. And it was the first time where I woke up after Two heart surgeries. The first one didn't work, so they did a second one.

55:41 Within uh forty eight hours. And after that I felt like That was damaged goods. I didn't feel any more like Invincible.

55:51 You know I didn't feel like I can handle anything. All of a sudden There were limits. What on me.

55:58 Where the doctor said don't train as heavy You know, every time you force You reps. You put pressure on your valve unnecessarily. We have to replace those valves again.

56:10 In Maybe ten, fifteen years from now. So the more you put pressure on it, the faster we will have to It's like a tire. Thirty thousand miles the tire.

56:20 You can use it up in one year, you can use it up in twenty years. So it's up to you. And those it's that's kind of a thing. So It was the first time where I started thinking about when it did stunts. I remember that right after that.

56:33 Was a stunt. in end of days. Where the woman that was possessed by the devil. Takes the piano and runs it against my chest. Wanted to kill me.

56:44 So Normally. You can run the piano into my chest. Doesn't make any fucking difference, I don't care. Right.

56:51 But because of the heart surgery. And having been now. Cut open a chest. I did not know how vulnerable that webcast is. So I told them to

57:02 Measure out the distance with a rope. And then the rope comes to an end. And it stops And eight.

57:09 Or a quarter of an inch before my chest. So it looks still like it's smashing for him. I still sell it. But It's like You start

57:18 Planning on your vulnerability. And this then continues on. Because all of a sudden. You know, you used to kind of hop up stairs.

57:28 And hop downstairs in a squatting position. To just get out of Breath. So then when you start a scene, you're exhausted. You know, like you're cutting in in the middle of a fight scene.

57:39 So did you. Mm. Yeah. And you have the big breath. So

57:46 All of a sudden you start jumping up and down. And you need start hurting. So now you you realize okay between fifty and sixty It's the knee punishment. So I have to watch my knees.

57:58 Then After you seventy You said for the first time saying, you know, I've I noticed myself walking. Less. Why am I walking this? I always to love hiking.

58:09 Four five hours up the steep mountain. And all of this in love why am I? Walkingless. Then I realized that I got

58:17 Back pain. When they're walk. A long time. I started getting cramps. In my back.

58:23 So it's still walking less. So instead of doing stretching exercises for the back It's just things like that start creeping up. Then you have to start kind of really Be discipline say, Okay, I still have to walk so many miles a day.

58:36 So many steps to take blah blah blah. But now you have to make yourself what came normally natural. So you get kind of like one thing after the next. Then you have shoulder surgeries on both shoulders. And like yesterday.

58:48 I had elbow surgery. Because manuf Had to be kind of relocated. Because where the nerve was

58:58 It created pressure manuf And therefore my little fingers started getting numb. So now That comes in. That's in the late seventies. It's always said there's a bit of nerves.

59:09 And uh someone talks to you about then Neuropathy. About your legs and feet. And this is how it just, you know, creeps up on you. All this stuff.

59:18 And the interesting thing is it's like Weightlifting. It doesn't matter. How old you are? Oh how young you are.

59:25 It doesn't matter how rich you are. It doesn't matter what colour you are. It doesn't matter from where you're from. Two hundred pounds. Is two hundred pounds.

59:34 It's the same fucking thing. For everybody. And the same is also You get older. It makes no fucking difference.

59:42 Who you are. You can be the biggest fucking celebrity in the world. But you still get your back pain. You still get your hip pain. You still get your shoulder pain.

59:51 You still give you elbow pain. So good numb thing is Still have to watch your heart. Still have to watch the diet. You still get fat if you don't watch the diet.

1:00:00 You get fat. If to cut one mil out. All of this kind of stuff. You have to start doing. So it's just that simple.

1:00:09 And this is all kind of so that we stay alive longer. And that we kind of like Because we all are The time you've won. Your time talk is said.

1:00:20 It's six. The only thing that changes it is You. Right. So let's assume I'm set for eighty five.

1:00:27 So I can decide. Do I want to go to ninety? Yeah, I can do that, but then you have to real live really Healthy. Someone else has said for ninety.

1:00:37 We can live to a hundred. But you you can stretch it a little bit. And You can also fuck it up big time. You can be set for eighty five and divide up with seventy.

1:00:47 You know, my dad Well I've done with sixty six. Yeah, it was in pension. For one year and then he wiped out. He died and because of too much smoking and alcohol.

1:00:57 And all of those things. So he cut himself short. Maybe was meant to be eighty. But you definitely wiped that with the six to six. So my mother

1:01:06 You know, she died. With seventy six. Well, she did it herself because I mean she had a Congenital heart disease. Which is what I have.

1:01:16 Which is the valve. But she's the choice to get surgery or not. She says no. If God wants me He should have me.

1:01:24 And so she resisted Any surgery. There's some people when you watch the shows In Sardinia. They've lived a hundred.

1:01:32 Because they've no Problems. What they sleep in the afternoon, to take the naps. They eat well. They walk around for miles and miles every day.

1:01:43 They still walk. Work. The women are still in the kitchen with the age of ninety. Making food for the whole family and all this stuff. So they push it.

1:01:52 They push the envelope beyond of what they were meant for. So this is the way we can do it. But I mean uh I think there is a reason when you get to a certain age To be concerned about it. I don't know if it's the age that you're in now. Is to use the young punk.

1:02:07 With them in uh I can hope. So you have been an athlete, as it was laid out in the three chapters, athlete, actor. American, right? You've had this arc. How do you think of your

1:02:30 self now. What is your identity now and how do you hope to Us the time that you have left. Because of course you have this book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. You have the newsletter, which has done very well. You have more than half a million people for Pump Club. You have the Pump app Yeah, how do you think of yourself now? And and what do you want to focus on?

1:02:50 In the next one Ten years if you have let's say ten years left. Something like that. Well, I d I don't really think of myself. No.

1:03:00 Any different than I thought of myself when I was governor when I thought of myself as an actor as a bodybuilder. You know, um Very rarely in the moment. Of uh just appreciate what I'm doing right now. Because they always think about the future.

1:03:14 You know, I don't like the past. I appreciate the presence, but I really live for the future. I always just live about We don't want to go. There's a lot of things I want to accomplish environmentally.

1:03:26 There's a lot of things they want to accomplish when it comes to public policy. A lot of things I want to accomplish in show business. There's a lot of things that I want to accomplish in the promotion of health and fitness. And bodybuilding. So all of those different worlds I hopefully can manage.

1:03:41 to combine them and create a certain synergy. And what's it that one can help them, the other? So the bodybuilding can help. From the show business, my success in show business. that the show business can get helped with the success of the fitness movement.

1:03:55 Then my newsletter that I have Which is going through the roof. Right now the pump top. All that is kind of like playing into this whole thing. I'm very happy that all of a sudden

1:04:06 Now it's as it's kind of like an unexpected new era for me, which is the era of motivational speeches, the era of motivational books, the era of motivational Newsletters.

1:04:18 I mean Not in my wildest dreams to ever think about that I don't want to create A positive corner in a On the internet. And it was only because there was just so much negativity out there.

1:04:29 I started thinking about well, maybe I should Say some nice things and some positive things and it became a huge hit. Beyond my expectation. And so I now I do speeches every so often if it's the Ukrainian war.

1:04:41 The Russia when Ukraine or The insurrection Of his prejudice. Or whatever the issues are. I tackle those

1:04:50 So As I said to you earlier, I'm the guy that's climbs out Mount Everest and sees a another bunch of peaks. And therefore I say, Oh my God, they didn't even know they were there. And they climbed them.

1:05:01 And so that's what I do. There's just a continuous climb. Nothing changes. I would climb to twenty. I'm climbing now. What do you hope the impact of Be useful.

1:05:11 Will be. Would you hope people to Gain from it. Or Use it for.

1:05:18 Everyone will use it for something else. Helping people. Live a better life. And be able to fulfill their dreams. Whatever those streams are.

1:05:30 You know, it's just simple things like Don't listen to the naysayers. What Create a vision. And I know that because I asked my kids

1:05:38 When you were like eighteen, nineteen years old, what do you want to do? Why do you want to go to college? They couldn't answer me. Well, I could answer that question when it was eighteen nineteen. You know, so I'm concerned about that because the C

1:05:49 They're looking too much in the computer. Too much on the iPhone and on the iPad. And they get ideas from someone else. But it's just their ideas, but not their ideas.

1:05:59 They need to be by themselves. And sit in the Chikus you sit there somewhere in a mountain. Or out there by themselves. You said thanking. Let the dreams come into your mind.

1:06:08 Let you deep inside come out. And give yourself time. Don't always look at the machine. And so I'm trying to tell people There's a simple rules. That I talk about in the book.

1:06:21 Where you kind of learn You know that here's how I create a goal. Because without a goal, without a vision You have nothing. Where are you gonna go?

1:06:30 You know, it's like he does you have an an Way in pilot. That's the way to fly, this is the best airplane. You can fly around, around, around, and it all eventually crash. That's what happens to you in your life.

1:06:41 You crash. You're not gonna go anywhere. So You need to have a direction, you need to have a goal. Why you get up in the morning What are you struggling towards?

1:06:49 What it is Why are you happy to go to bed at night? Did you need some rest? You get up in the next morning and have to then the chicken. All of this has their purpose. There has to be purpose so

1:06:59 This is what I try to do is Kindle a little bit of this light. in my book and say the people in a casual way No have a goal. Here's how you can do it. This is how I did it. You know, and then

1:07:10 Big goals. Don't be afraid of big goals. You know, big goals are just as easy as little goals is. Yeah and By the way. I know that every human being is afraid of failure.

1:07:21 But You can overcome that. You know, by accepting failure. In the we embodybuilding. We go until failure.

1:07:30 With our reps. So every single day when we train We experience failure, we're not afraid of it. Because that Mohammed Ali said, he said, Hey How many reps do you do in sit ups?

1:07:42 This is I don't start counting until It's that's hurting us, that's failing. That's when I start counting. So I mean in lifting

1:07:51 You can only know how But to live to be willing to fail. So Michael Jordan when he talked about his five thousand shots to be missed in basketball. And how many two hundred and eighty some games he missed?

1:08:02 In basketball. And all this stuff. That's what made me great. Well wow, that's an eye opener. You know, when you hear that.

1:08:09 That's really powerful. The greatest basketball player. Talks about failure that made him great. So people should look at that. They should start thinking about that.

1:08:18 Don't start approaching everything with Oh I'm afraid, what is if I fail? What is if he doesn't like it? What if I make a fool of myself? Well, you know, it's people are afraid of speaking, public speaking. There's the biggest fear that people have. Because they've they're worried that they may fail or sound stupid and stuff like that.

1:08:37 Forget all that. Better get rid of all of this. in a worry about failure. And you will be then free. And I'm not saying you will be able to get rid of it completely.

1:08:46 You can never change a hundred percent, but you can change somewhat. So that you're not as afraid anymore, failure. And that you're actually looking forward to that. And that you're saying, Okay I'm gonna go all out and do a fail. You know, that you approach it differently than the way you look at failure.

1:09:01 And look. I've always push myself, What do you think when you run for governor? I mean it's it would be the highest embarrassment if we would have lost. Right.

1:09:09 But I I I took the chance. I was not afraid of failure. I could see my vision very clearly. This is how I'm gonna sell to the California people. What I'm going to do for Californians. And that's how I'm going to approach the governorship of Baba.

1:09:23 And you know. If they buy in, great. If they don't Then they're lost. Then move on with something else.

1:09:30 But I'm not going to freeze now and say, Oh my God, but if I lose but then I would have never run in the first place. I would be afraid to run, right? So you never know. How far it's gonna take you, so I think simple rules like that

1:09:43 I wanted to have those people take away those rules. And uh for instance giving back. As soon as he realized that you're not a self made man And you realise that we all were created by Your parents?

1:09:55 And did you were created by mentors? Teaches Coaches. And many other people that none of us know, but You yourself know

1:10:05 I mean Those are the people that have created me. I mean, it's just the lonely if I wouldn't have had Joe Weer to bring me over to America. How could I come to America? So how can I say it was self made?

1:10:15 How could I have become governor if not Eight point five five point eight million people voted for me. I mean I I'm not a dictator. I was voted in. The democratic process.

1:10:26 So Did I make myself governor? No. So I'm not a self made man, so I have to recognize that that my training, my money Everything comes from a lot of different people.

1:10:36 And therefore That means when you recognize that That you now have the responsibility. Of going out and help others. There's so many people out there that need help.

1:10:47 It's like my father in law said. Sergeant Shriver who was It created the He's called Head start.

1:10:55 Job core and all of these great programs. In the sixties. He said to uh a bunch of Yale students at a Graduation. Cause

1:11:04 Tear down this murder. Did you always look at yourself? Check on this mirror and you will be able to look beyond that mirror. And you will see the millions of people that need your help.

1:11:14 That's exactly right. As soon as we start A minute. Looking at ourselves. Then you will be able to look beyond.

1:11:21 yourself when you see that there are people out there that need There are poor people out there that need help. There are five victims right now. Oh, that did need your help. The earthquake victims out there.

1:11:32 There are homeless people out there. The war veterans out there. There are kids that come from poor. Backgrounds. They need to learn how to speak English, how to write English, how to do math and all of the stuff that's immigrants that they don't speak English. So there's

1:11:47 So many areas where you can be helpful. It takes money or takes no money. Just effort. So never ever think it's all just about you. Someone helped you where you are the day, so now you go out and help someone else.

1:11:59 So this is another one of my lessons, it's just, you know Break that murder. in front of the So this are the different lessons that I teach people. They're really had a profound impact on me and made me successful.

1:12:13 And the no Porsche rules. And anyone can follow it. That's what it is. So people can find the new book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. Anywhere find books. Are sold they can go to Be Useful Book

1:12:27 dot com the newsletter can be found at Arnold's Pump Club. dot com and we'll link to all this in the show notes at tin.blog slash podcast. Arnold, is there anything else that you would Like to say any closing comments or other requests of the audience, suggestions, anything at all that you'd like to add before we Come to a close. No no I just want to say to the people

1:12:47 I want to thank them. for having been such great supporters of mine. You know, without them as I said earlier. I will be nothing. I mean if it wouldn't have been for the bodybuilding fans as I grew up.

1:12:59 They were cheering there and screaming Arnold, Arnold motivated me. I will be nothing. If it wouldn't have been for the movie fans that went to run the C Cone and the Baber and made it the number one box office, that then gave me all the headlines, I would have been nothing. Oh, the Jim Cameron's and the Ivan Reipman's and all of these people and the people that are now following my newsletter, the pump club and all of this, people that are even interested in a book like be useful. And to go to my seminars. And listen to my speeches, my motivational speeches.

1:13:29 I just Really love that have had such such an extraordinary following. And that some of my speeches Have reached like Three five.

1:13:39 and a half six billion people. That's really extraordinary. So I want to say thank you, without them I will be nothing. And thank you to America.

1:13:48 Giving me everything. Thank you, Arnold, for the time yet again. Absolutely. Thank you, Tim. Did a great job. Hey guys, this is Tim again, just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Pulit Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kinda like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcasts.

1:14:38 guests and these strange esoteric things end up in my field and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun again it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out Just go to Tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser. Tim dot blog slash. Friday, drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening. This episode is brought to you by AG1, the daily foundational nutritional supplement that supports whole body health.

1:15:12 I view AG1 as comprehensive nutritional insurance and that is nothing new. I actually recommended AG1 in my 2010 bestseller more than a decade ago, the four hour body, and I did not get paid. To do so. I simply love the product and felt like it was the ultimate. nutritionally dense supplement that you could use conveniently while on the run, which is for me a lot of the time. I have been using it a very, very long time indeed. And I do get asked a lot what I would take if I could only take one supplement. And the true answer is invariably AG1. It simply covers a ton of bases. I usually drink it in the mornings and frequently

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1:16:41 basic requirement, right? That is why things are called supplements. Of course, that's what I focus on, but it is not always possible, it is not always easy. So Part of my routine is using AG1 daily. If I'm on the road, on the run, it just makes it easy to get a lot of nutrients at once and to sleep easy knowing that I am checking a lot of important boxes. So each morning, AG1. That's just

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