Arnold Schwarzenegger Is The Influencer We Need Right Now | Rich Roll Podcast

This is simply to improve people and make them recognize that they don't have to stay stuck where they are but that they can change because every day is an opportunity for change. Today is big because my guest is Arnold Schwarzenegger See you baby this conversation that Arnold graciously hosted in his office slash Museum of spectacular artifacts collected throughout his storied life covers the principles he leveraged to achieve stratospheric success in three distinct careers, bodybuilding, movie stardom and politics, all of which are eloquently distilled in his new book The Helpful Arnold also shares his thoughts on confidence, ego and ambition, we

need

to get stronger, we

need

to get tougher, we have to be willing to go through the difficulties, the suffering, the pain, we talked about her commitment to the environment, her relationship with James Cameron and also this very interesting fourth act that she is in now, which is about serving, giving back, being a positive voice and Take advantage of your influence for the betterment of others.

This was very exciting, so enjoy Arnold like you may have never seen him before. or hurt him when I think about your life and your journey, this young man who knew early and often that he belonged in America had a vision, visualized it, and transformed that Vision into goals that you relentlessly pursued and achieved to the point where you exceeded the expectations of anyone about your capabilities and you reach the absolute pinnacle of success in three separate prominent sectors of society and this makes you on some level this iconic generational emblem or exemplar of the American dream, so I'm interested in your relationship. with your own ambition and how you've been able to maintain a deep-rooted ego because you're very much a people person you like to stay connected with people, you care about people, but for a different version of Arnold, that ego might have run rampant and imploded his life so I could have done it yeah you're absolutely

right

I could have done it the only thing is I think maybe it would help the news is they never really felt like I've come to be honest with you not in bodybuilding, not in I mean, I fake it and I do the big speech well and I'm the best.

I do all that, yeah, but I mean, I actually feel like when I work, for example, on the movie, I don't really feel like it's any different. I have to be a plumber and I go to work, they put all the nonsense and makeup on me and I'm sitting there like an idiot at five in the morning to be ready at eight o'clock and then they come out and you do your job, you do your scenes, then you go to lunch and you know it's the same thing, it's like going to Brook, yeah, and then coming home.

I don't see myself as a star, I just see myself as a runner. and uh, when people can say you're so nice, you eat with the team, I feel like I'm the team, I'm just one of them,

right

, we're all trying to make a good movie, so it's like I never really feel . Out there it's like when I was governor, no matter where, yeah, I have moments where I feel like I'm always a man, it shows how cool I am and stuff like that, but reality sets in in the way I put myself back together. the place and even when I remember it, I have to make myself feel like I'm Mr.

Olympia, but when I look in the mirror I see so many flaws, yes, you say that in the documentary it's you. You are very self-critical. There are many defects and it is easier. The deltoids are never big enough. The thighs are commas. You know how I'm going to fake my way here? You know, that's how I talk to myself, but then when I go out. He says oh I'm going to show you the day and the best part of the world I've ever seen blah I don't get it but I mean the reality is I always felt lucky to be able to do it.

I'm in this situation and, but I don't act like a big head, that's why, yeah, I don't know if in his private moments Muhammad Ali thought, yeah, I'm not as good as I say, like I think he really believed. That's interesting to hear you say or be honest about vulnerabilities or insecurities. I think it's surprising. Well, I think even more so in the midst of Muhammad Ali. I'm sure he had his own moments of reality because he lost. and I know when he lost he knew why he lost and, but you know, it was like he was a showman, yeah, and Muhammad Ali was just an extraordinary showman who really enjoyed his sport, which is extremely important to finding joy in everything. of the torch and the training of the heart and uh and also being able to entertain people that way and having a mind that can remember all these things, I mean his poetry and all the things that he did, he never made a mistake, it's not So. like he was bubbling and always and stumbling or something uh, you know, none of that, so he was great and he had great vision and he always saw himself like you know he was done with injustice and, um, I think that motivated him.

He eventually took the lead in all of that and I hung out with him a lot in the '70s. I traveled around the United States with him, we went to several different television studios, did interviews there, you know, he was always there first out. and doing his interview and all this, we always talked about it, we hung out with the same people a lot, he invited me to different events, it was really good when I think about those quiet moments where when you ask yourself or or you have those insecurities , you know where that comes from.

I mean, you grew up in difficult circumstances, no running water, no working bathroom in your house, a father with PTSD who was abusive and drank too much. These experiences were obviously formative and made you who you are and I know you feel a lot of gratitude for them, but what is the other side of that? What is the pain point? Like when you look back? What is your relationship with that past when it is not you? I know through a microphone and there are cameras. I know that many things we do not choose. I mean, I don't choose how I feel.

I'm lucky that I don't have even an ounce of negative thoughts about my past. more and I don't know why you know it's just not there, yeah, I just have, you know, I remember the hard times, but I also remember very clearly the sweet moments, the kind moments that my father showed, that my mother showed. Know? how wonderful they were and how supportive they were to me in schools and on the sports field in everything, although they were not like American parents, it's so different that my parents never saw me at a football game, they never saw me at a game of basketball. game or athletics shooting with championships travel throwing championships anything like this we did at school never because no one did it there were no parents going around and saying oh, let's take care of our children like we do here yes, and the documentary there is the one where they actually show up at that body, but at a construction competition and you were confused, well, they showed up because my friend Freddie Grossel, who I knew from the beginning, invited them and he was a very respected kind of guy in town and, um, they I did it for him, I think because you know, because he invited them and they took it seriously.

Oh, this must be something special and then when they saw me on stage, I mean, it's like they couldn't believe it, you know? although I have to say that my mother sold me the swimsuit because I found some things that were too big and I wanted to cut it all off so she was sewing with the sewing machine the day before the competition, I told her I'm going to go to the competition and I need a little swimsuit and she was sewing it and I was trying it on and she was trying it on and all that, so it was really sweet of her, I mean, how many mothers.

I did that, but I mean, there's that side, but it just wasn't the style going into uh watch kids. The only competition my parents saw was that competition in Grads and then a competition in Essendon, Germany, when I won. Olympia for the third time and then right after that my father passed away so I was lucky that you saw that there is this resistance or just refusal on your part to be in any way a victim and now we are in a culture where we are victimhood. , we have a different relationship with victimhood. I'm sure that drives you crazy and this book really talks about that on some level, like positivity as an antidote to the lack of agency that a lot of people feel or indulgence in an identity around victimhood as helplessness, right, and It's about calling people to action to take responsibility for their lives and giving them tools on a road map.

It's simple advice in this book, but it's very direct and, because it comes from you, it's so palpable. so I guess what I'm asking is, do you know how you think about the way our culture now thinks about mental health and our relationship to this idea of ​​helplessness? I think overall, I think it's the book. What I try to do is tell people that you need to work on yourself if you're just trying to be pampered and if you're trying to be soft and if you're trying to be the victim you're not going to get anywhere. we need to get stronger we need to have balls here we need to be tougher we need to not be afraid of failure we have to dedicate ourselves to the work we have to face adversity adversity breeds character its strength and struggle and endurance not only make the muscles grow, but it also makes your head grow, it makes you a stronger person, we have to be willing to go through difficulties, through suffering, through pain, through periods of crying, all of that, don't shy away from any of that because you just want to. makes it stronger and I think a lot of times our youth is so interested in oh, let's make it feel good oh no, let's be more sensitive.

Well, I totally agree with you about being sensitive about things, but I mean there is also a sweet spot, can we go too? Now you know, it's like when someone says "well, today I just need to sleep in," I said, yeah, you don't need to sleep in, this country wasn't built for sleeping in, so let's get up in the morning, let's get on that bike. and Do some exercise and don't even think about it, don't check email or anything, let's get going, boom, boom, boom, let's go, that's the building, so that's the idea, just don't be too soft or too kind. of being sensitive and everyone is some kind of victim.

I just don't believe in that, but you have to understand that each person has to be approached differently too, it's like the mind is like the body. I can't give you exactly the same training routine that I had because your body is different, you're a much leaner person, you need to do maybe Melissa reps and stuff, you have to have a different diet if you want to bulk up and all this, so I have to keep in mind that even within my family, one of my daughters had to be approached differently than my other daughter, one son had to be approached differently than the other son, so you have to be sensitive with that kind of thing, but in general it was discipline in the house you don't turn off that light I will unscrew these light bulbs and you will go to the dark room when you are three years old and you will be scared so you better start learning the turn of the slides you have to Someone else will hurt you, okay, I'll take the mattress and throw it on the balcony and then you'll take it upstairs and make your own bed again, that's how my kids mess up, you know?

And it was like they were crying. there or when I burned her shoes when she left my daughter left her shoes three times in front of the fireplace I said the third time it caught fire the third time she went into the fire right in front of it she was crying all night yeah those things they pass but now she does the same thing to her daughter and now she says it was great that you did it, you see what I'm saying, so now my kids were crying on the ski slopes, I don't want to. to go in I want to go out there will be a hot chocolate, you know, the typical kindergarten police, something like hot chocolate, they said we are going to ski four slopes and then there is a hot chocolate, there is enough after the first run, yeah, but they call me to say: Me too, and what, what, what, now, let's be cold and then let's go skiing.

Said. The more we ski the bombs and the more we ski the powder, the hotter we get and the hotter we get, she says. let's go and so now the day you come to Sun Valley with your friends to get up after dinner with glasses of wine you want the toast dad because he made us good skiers and that's why we are here today that's why I enjoy skiing with all of you know how to do that in others but you know it's not easy I'm not a psychologist I'm not an expert in this but one thing I'm sure I can help anyone go and be a little better, right?

And I think that's what we want to ask for. We cannot ask everyone to be geniuses, that is, ask everyone to be the strongest man in the world to order things, but to be better because when you are better, when you improve then you feel good when we improve we feel good when we have Once we have achieved something we feel good and that then spreads to everything that was beautifully planned and is a kind of example of this new role in which you have matured as this social media

influencer

and when I think about the other three chapters of your life , are largely a product of having this Vision attached to it, blinding everything as you move towards actualizing that Vision, but this isIt feels a little different, it doesn't feel so much like a product of a goal you've set for yourself but rather something that happened or it's a byproduct of who you are and all the things you've done.

In the course of your life you come across this huge platform and you think how can I use this influence forever, to be useful and serve as a Governor. You're doing it as an elected representative of the citizens of California, but this. It presents a new opportunity to connect directly with people, so I'm curious about your relationship with social media and this new kind of role that you've taken on in being a voice for actions, you know, positive things that people can do to improve themselves. their lives I don't really have any focus on what that feels like Arena, what that feels like, even though you're doing it for the act of doing it, it's just for other people instead of being, it's just that sometimes there's something in the US . which is so powerful that you have to communicate it, you know, I remember when the nine when it happened on January 6th it just stayed with me the thought and the thought and the thoughts and it didn't go away they just started writing things that were I was passing by. my mind and I was writing and writing and then I sat in the jacuzzi and some other idea came to my mind and then I wrote it down when I got out and then I sat there and then it was just you.

I know they finally, you know, told my guys. I said look, I guess I think we should talk about that. I said maybe it's my responsibility maybe not. I said but I feel like it is. I said it because I am a Republican and I think it is important for people to know that my president is Biden there were no shenanigans with that election there was no corruption with this election there was no one stealing and leaving with suitcases of votes and there is an election none of this is true these They're lies and the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I should say something, so we put together a speech that I wasn't thinking anymore about being an

influencer

or any kind of stuff, you know, I was just saying I want to talk to the American people that It became what it became.

I had no idea that life was covered throughout the speech and CNN. I know they're going to do that. Which was covered all over the world that way. the world cared about January 6th didn't know, you know, so those things we don't know, that's always said, you know, five and a half billion people have noticed this speech. Isaiah said, oh my God, this is like crazy, so then I also realized at the same time that it was necessary to say that, obviously, and then those things come up from time to time when I see, you know, with a certain prejudice growing up and, um, people walking around with Nazi flags and stuff like that, yeah, maybe I should say, you know, say something about that because it also has to be organically linked to me and with that I said to myself, okay, I think My dad went through that with the Nazi period.

I can speak with authority here about where he was taken, what misery he went through because of it, how there are never winners among the haters and there are always only losers and also the pernicious nature of misinformation and yes, exactly what that can reap. yeah, anyway, so I was motivated by that and I'm in the Ukraine war, the Russians attacked Ukraine without provocation. I felt like you knew I should speak up because I love Russia and I've been there many times and I really care. The Russian people, what happened here in the midst of the corporations, Jeff, a wonderful man, realized that they had gone in the wrong direction and wanted to fix things.

He couldn't do it, but in any case, I felt like you know. the weightlifters that I met in Russia and the people that I met when we opened Planet Hollywood in Moscow with wonderful people and partners that we had there, all these types of citizens, you know, this is not Russia, I mean, this is Putin, like this that just Talk about it here, you know, this is what I was trying to achieve. There is a bust of Lenin here in the corner of your office. Can you tell the story of how it ended up here? Yes, in the early 90s, when communism fell.

I saw an article in the New York Times where they tore down a statue of Lenin and that was happening all over the country in government buildings where they tore down Stalin and Lenin and this and that and various different leaders and they said "ok this." The pass didn't work for us look what happened and we want you to know we regroup here so it was just peace in the New York Times how to take down the statue so I said to myself I wish I had one of those . This is their story, there is some kind of revolution and they tear down statues and the Co-op says, "You know this is not the time for change," so I contacted my weightlifting friends in Russia, in Moscow, and I told them, guys, they are tearing down. all the sculptures, he says this is different and we have to go in a different direction, yes, I said, put them in what are you going to do with the sculptures, well, let's go there and throw them in a garbage can somewhere and from time to time from time to time. just to melt them I said I said don't melt them I said you know save one for me do you want one yes so I said I think this would be told in an incredible story to have a sculpture did you tear it down so I can keep it? which is amazing I think it's going to be fantastic I'd like to get it right let me look into it how I'll feel afterwards it's the Arnold Classic Bodybuilding Championships in Columbus Ohio and the Russians come every year with the weightlifting equipment and the bodybuilders and so on and so forth.

Next thing I know is that now we're going to have to sell out the after party for the big post-competition celebration with thousands of people in the room and they

roll

ed out this table that was on wheels with a covered sculpture that I don't even know. what was on it, the new nervous sculpture that is covered could have been a cake from somewhere, he forgot about the sculpture, he didn't connect the dots at the time, so the next thing I know they took it out. that the guy goes up there he gives a speech and he leaves and there's Lenin and I was so surprised it's pretty incredible where the statue was where it was it was in St.

Petersburg at the Department of Agriculture I think they taught me wow and um Anyway, We sent him home to Los Angeles and we went out and met by my pool. Now there was the sculpture of Lenin and my wife says why do we have London here? I say I love it, I think it's funny, I think they've done it. I landed here and had it there for a while and then the next year the same guy now

roll

s out the same table again and now he takes this cover off and it was Stalin so now it looked smaller, it wasn't exactly the same size but a a little smaller, but now it's Stalin, he's not here, although the story disappears the following year, then it was Khrushchev and then they left him and it went on and on Putin, uh, I have a sculpture of Putin that is part of my Russian collection, where do you keep all these?

Every one of the leaders that led the Soviet Union that I have in my collection, so he had them all over the pool and every one of my natural things on the fence that was there. a column so I put them on top of the column and finally my wife went crazy yeah what is this female? She especially she was a little bit around, but now I have her saved and, in any case, then I decided that it was okay. I'm going to bring this one here because it's really cool to have it in the office and remember it, then I found this great painting that's in the background of Lenin, yeah, I think at the end there was something like that or something like that.

Anyway, I thought it was a great story, but also you talked about using your social media platform to talk about January 6th and Ukraine, etc., but you also use it to talk to everyday people, empower them and talk Over the things. what you talk about in this book and what's interesting about this role that you have as a kind of motivational guru, you know, of self-help, for lack of I hate that word, but on some level, as a source of inspiration for people, is that. On paper, you're very unrelatable, like you've accomplished things that are very difficult for the average person to understand or connect to emotionally, and yet what you share in the way you share it is so authentic that it really resonates. and it's connected with people all over the world like it's really powerful what you're doing so I guess that gets to what we were talking about earlier about the fact that you're really somebody you know you ride your bike around this neighborhood. go to Golds, you'll be happy to talk to everyone you can easily.

Retreat to your home and live a quiet private life or isolate yourself. You know with um, you know the fancy people you know and the resources you have, etc., but you. I've made a very different decision in terms of how to use your energy, your experience, your wisdom in a way where you share it freely with people, people respond to it and there's something really beautiful about that, you know, there's a lot of things. what can we do. take responsibility and there are many things that we cannot. I mean, I don't make that decision, it just makes me happy to be with people.

I'm a people person so I don't say: you know I should go to the public gym I think it's better than staying at home and yet during the undercover time I stayed at home in a trained gym Image at home but I was in pain I was in agony I need people I need to go out with people I like to train with people I'm a company queen, yeah, you know, that's what they call me because I love being in company. I don't like going to soccer games alone. I don't like going to dinner alone. I don't like working alone I don't like going to the gym and working out alone I love that people do it with people and have a good time, so it's just me, so what you see is me, it's totally organic, nothing is programmed or something, I'm just very happy to be able to live the life that I really want to live.

You know they go to the gym and I want to go to the gym or on my back when I want to ride. I ride it to the beach, I go through all the thousands and thousands of people on the boardwalk and Venice with all the tourists there and I ride my bike to Venice Beach with the weightlifting platform and all that, so just go and go to the usual restaurant to eat with all the people there at the restaurant where I always eat every morning and you know, I love that, yeah, I hate it when someone makes a reservation for me and leaves.

Tell The Palm restaurant, they come in and say we have a table in the corner. Yes, we have a table for you. We receive on the corner. I say I don't want to be in the corner. I said they sent me to the corner. when I was in school you know you go to the corner you kneel in the corner like it's a punishment I said I don't want to be punished I feel like I'm being punished they go to the corner I say I want to sit there in the middle of your older people he said what?

It happens to that table over there if you want to sit there and I said yes I said well there are a lot of people walking around here and it's okay I can handle it when someone comes to my table and talks to them that's what makes you energized yeah , yes, a lot has been said and written about the three acts that you have these three acts of your career that you are in now. This fourth act is super interesting and I want to tell you about it, but I have a different perspective on it, particularly after reading the book and watching the Netflix series, which to me now feels less like three separate acts. a fourth and more like this Evolution, a gradual Evolution over time of this person who went from sort of through sheer force of will, discipline and hard work and all these things that you, all these principles that you elucidated in the book of being very selfish and a kind of self, you know, uh, it's a selfish pursuit, you know, pursuing goals on that level, on some level, it's a kind of self-reflection, your mirror was your thing to then grow into in this person who is really all about service, like breaking the Mirror, the Mirror, going from like me to us, everything is one for me, everything is a Great Arc and the book is called being useful, but in reality it is a call to service, you are basically telling the best way to improve your life.

Feeling good about who you are and finding purpose, meaning and fulfillment is about finding ways to give back, so it's not a question, it's more of a reflection that I don't know how that comes to you, yes, I know you absolutely are. true, but we must not forget that when you start you don't have much to give, so first you have to build yourself and it became clear to me that the more I build myself and the bigger I become, the more I can give back. So when I became Mr Olympia seven six times and Special Olympics he called me and said could you come and train our Special Olympians?

And now children with intellectual challenges do not have the best coordination and have trouble playing sports. of times and I would like to do a study on what effect weight training would have. They called me to do that because it was Mr. Olympia who was someone. I was the number one authority on bodybuilding, so I was calm and if I did it. If I couldn't have inspired those little kids, there were 10 kids there and we did this study for three days and that trained them and all kinds of wonderful things happened, they got motivated and that's what launched the idea with the International Special Olympic Committee When I finally met my mother-in-law, uh, Eunice KennedyShriver, who created the Special Olympics.

I told him about that experience. It happened before I met her and I told her I try to understand kids and they really liked this weightlifting and they loved it especially when they were given the confidence that they could do it first, some of them were scared. and they were screaming and they were really worried about the weight on their heads and all those things I said, but we finally got rid of that fear and we were able to see Breakthrough and all this. I think it could be very popular. She says why. Don't do it in Baltimore?

We have a meeting coming up, let's try it in Baltimore, so we did it and it was a huge success. We did it in Washington. A great success. We did it in Miami. A great success. Then they adopted it in The next meeting at the international level became an international phenomenon, so suddenly it no longer became something that I was negotiating or aiming for or there was never my goal. Then I became the national coach, the world coach for specials and a great strength. Training with that to now travel the country and the world to promote the Special Olympics, not just weightlifting, but of course, you know, eventually, being an everyday celebrity instead of making movies, mind you, I started to travel to start talking about equal opportunities. talking about issues about we have to get Special Olympic athletes also the right to have a job the right to have healthcare the right to have a place to stay in life and there are equal rights basically equal rights that they don't have people. son was prejudiced, so I start talking about those topics that even during the broadcasts, they once thought that's what I would do in my life, but I was able to do it because I was a star in movies back then and in bodybuilding and so on, so I think the more I gained, you know, building myself, the more I was able to give back in a bigger way right when I was.

I campaigned for President Bush in 1988, you know, and I also talked to him at Effos about training and about the President's Fitness Council and how to get our kids back in the schools to train and exercise every day and He made me president of the President's Fitness Council, so now I'm running around. 50 states promote health and fitness in our public schools, so this is like one thing after another happening and that's why I mentioned in my book that everything I've done up to that point and I listened to Sergeant Shriver, my father-in-law . in a law talk at Yale University in a commencement speech, he told the students to break that mural that they always look at, break that mirror that makes them always look at themselves and he will be able to look beyond that mirror and see the millions of people who I need your help, you heard me right, I need your help, have you ever thought about going out and helping and wondering that is exactly what is happening to me?

So this was a long answer, but you were right when he said it was an evolution, so it begins. with me, me, and then little by little it becomes not just me, but us, we are right, and this is what happened to me and then, as happens with everything, I have an addictive personality, I started to get addicted to give something in return and it made me feel. well and I felt so

rich

and so good about myself that I was able to have this impact and help kids get, you know, in schools to exercise special Olympic athletes to train and do weightlifting and live 500 pounds, something that They never did.

I dreamed of getting up and going and starting after school programs and eventually running for governor, yes the seeds were there all along because it was your dad who said to be useful in the beginning, it was my dad who said to be useful and It was a guy I grew up with and later, when I was 15, we met and who helped us with bodybuilding and weightlifting. Freddie Grossel, who I talked about, became a very famous politician in Austria and he turned out to be I love children and for him this was the biggest investment, so even in his political career he specialized in building sports facilities for children and everything for children and paid a lot of attention to us.

The other son did too and he invited me. about this house to train and he always talked about, you know, giving back, he talked about becoming smart, just remember, Arnold, don't just train your body, but also drain your mind, remember what Plato said with a healthy mind, healthy body and he always talked about it. I wanted to run around with books under my arms and that was just weights and bubbles and all that stuff, so all this influence that I had as a kid was helpful, but especially my dad always said to be helpful, but that gentleman, I mean, He was an incredible mentor to you, uh, and he was the guy who instilled in you the importance of developing your mindset, of cultivating curiosity, of asking questions and listening, which makes you know, that brings me back to this whole thing. of

podcast

ing.

I've been doing this for 11 years and it's an expression of everything you talk about in the last part of the book about making the world your classroom, finding and spending time with people who inspire you, who you can learn from and learn the practice. to not just interact with them but listen to them and learn, so it's been an incredible experience for me to continue that curiosity and that education in my life and that's how you approach everything you do, you like the fact that you actively sought out so many interesting and compelling people who could learn and treat the world like your classroom and continue to do so.

I mean, we're in your office. You look around. There are photos of you with all these people. We were listening to stories you know. Do you know what? I've learned from this person and you're kind of like a Forrest Gump character who always finds himself, you know, in the right place at the right time, with the most fascinating individual and a great story to boot, so maybe let's talk a little bit. about it. How You Know, How You Know really made that a priority and a fundamental part of Who You Are. I think one of the things you learn in sports is that if you stayed stuck in your own training routine and didn't learn from other people, you would never become a champion and open-mindedness was very important to me and I think like I said In my book, I learned a lot of my lessons from sports and for me that kind of taste and having people like Freddie Grossel. uh, that Mentor who talked about open-mindedness and learning from others and uh, where you start as you get older, you start to think about all those things because you get wiser first, it doesn't mean anything when he told me this is what that The Nazis did Arnold, they took my brother's head and crushed it with a rock, they stoned him to death and I was lucky to escape and blah, blah, blah, so you hear it didn't mean anything, you know, uh, I said that is.

Really sad, but it's those kinds of stories as you grow up, yes, and as you grow up they mean something to you and suddenly you find yourself fighting for inclusion and against prejudice and you wonder when that comes from desire. He said it comes from stories like that, you know you remember from a long time ago when people tell you that kind of stuff, so for me it was always like learning new things and being able to turn the kid into a celebrity. Able to use that power of celebrity for something positive, for something good, and that's how I learned that the more I opened my mind, the better it was that there was a guy named Vince Giranda.

Maybe you've heard about him since You're a fitness fanatic, uh, he had a gym at the valley gym, Vince's gym, and I saw him doing a triceps exercise and I looked at him and said, what are you doing? ? I just said this is for the outer triceps split. the other one's head backs that's all, it looks like some kind of Mickey Mouse exercise, Jesus Christ, and it doesn't look like heavy lifting of any kind and he says, we'll just try it, so I said to myself, well, The way how you try it The way I tried it in those days was I did a 20 rep 40 cent exercise, so I was lying on the bench on my back, digging this dumbbell and doing like this 20 times and bringing it to this side.

Do the same thing here, the same thing with this arm back and forth, back and forth, so the next day, this muscle here was just jumping all over the place, so I realized he was absolutely right. I never thought that there is actually a specific muscle that we have. I always know about sculpting your body that you add my chest or more serratus muscles. I'll say m obliques or some biceps, but then you can dissect them into a specific part of the three muscles, that's why it's called the triceps, the three muscles there and one separates the biceps from the triceps and makes it look like it's not that measurement.

It's bigger but it makes it look a lot bigger so I was doing that and that exists from that moment on and that's how it was, I told myself I wouldn't have listened. For him I would never have learned that exercise, but I listened to him. First I said they ignored it. I said Mickey Mouse eggs, let's try it before we jump to the conclusion and she wouldn't have said, so you learn from. In those types of experiences, he applied this rule with everything and that's why I was always more hungry for more information, more hungry to listen instead of talking, to let go of prejudices and judgments and replace them with curiosity and, basically, try it yourself correctly. like being an experimenter, being open, yes, exactly, so imagine I'm speaking at Great Longitudes.

It was in the book about how the capital, Sacramento, even though it was a place where I thought the people who worked there had no quality because they ran and stayed. the ground in 2003. and we were bankrupt and the huge deficits 30 40 billion dollars of deficit and all that and all that they had blackouts and everyone was unhappy but when I got there I realized that there are a lot of things that I can learn because there are so many political issues that I don't know and that's why it became the best university for me every day I learned, imagine you are sitting there and you always say that nurses come to the nurses union and talk About the ratio of patients and nurses, I had never heard about it.

I said what are they talking about and they explained that right now it's six to one, but you know one nurse can't take care of six patients, especially if you have to lift them. because they just had surgery and you have to pick them up and help them get to the bathroom and there was a nurse alone who can't do that, except you have a weightlifting champion who is a nurse or something, that's not the case at all hospital, so they were explaining that and suddenly they said, "Oh my God, it's like I've never thought about that, these are really interesting and fascinating things, so if the budget, we should do something about it in the next meeting, an hour later ".

The prison guards come in and talk about overtime, that they are tired because they don't have enough. You know the people who work in these prisons and the system is designed for a hundred thousand prisons, but at that time we had 170,000. prisoners, so we are overpopulated, overloaded. I had no idea about that so I learned and then after the meeting I got my reports on what options we can do about it and then the teachers came and then the authorities came and told everything. Every day was a learning experience, so for me the things that I learned in Sacramento were just amazing and I felt that not only was I happy to be able to serve 40 million people and be a public servant, be governor, but I also realized Realize how complicated the topics are and how complicated they can be and how much thinking and listening it takes to put all the different ideas together and come to a good conclusion for those types of topics and problems, yes.

I mean, I think it was surprising to a lot of people that there was a sensibility that you're great in front of the camera, you know how, come forward, shake hands, smile and do all that kind of direct stuff. winning the governorship, but governing is a completely different job. What happens when Arnold is sitting in the chair behind the desk and he really has to do the work and get worked up over political issues? How do you know that? How is it going to work with this action star? who's an adrenaline junkie, etc., and the fact that you really embraced that and were excited about what you were learning every day about how things really work and then trying to identify solutions was unexpected for a lot of people and I think Reflect on that by thinking about what makes Arnold different and special, there are a lot of answers to those questions, but I think one kind of framework that makes sense to me is this interesting combination of two different Arnolds, on the one hand, you are and you.

I said this in the book, much like Julius and the Twins, you have this wide-eyed, almost childlike sense of wonder and awe and you wonder where the world is full of possibilities and people are good and anything is possible, but you combine That, I think, is talent. is where you combine it with this doer who understands having a vision,understands goal setting, work ethic, discipline, reps like all the practical aspects of translating dream into reality and most people fall, it's on a spectrum, but most people fall, you know, on one. side of either of those two things and somehow you discover that you found a way to marry them and I think that's what's so powerful and unique.

Interestingly, even my wife and she knew me very well, she told her that after she won, she says that now I do. I'm starting to worry, yeah, because you would come home and say, I can't believe what I learned, yeah, but I mean, it's like I said, what are you worried about being someone? She says what she says, that seems to me to depend more on you. In the alley, you find an enemy, you go after them with a vengeance, like you're doing bodybuilding and then acting and all that kind of stuff I said and you go after them and it's like a competition, so I get it, so you were really good in that and you could change course into politics and you could paint this perfect picture of California when you run it and all that, so I said, but now you have to make policy, politics is now being pushed aside and if they make policy, then I don't know.

How many hours can you really sit there and listen to these really boring things that are really subtle and maybe not your personality? So she was questioning it and, as time went on, she told me, "I can't believe it." that you really like these things because I don't even like them, she told me, I don't even like them, Jesus, but there you sit there for hours and hours and then you have follow-up questions and then you meet people at night. There are still hours to learn more about it. She says: I don't understand. I told. Somehow you know.

I love the idea of ​​solving those problems and trying to figure out why in Austria everyone is insured and in California, the

rich

est state. In the Union not everyone is insured. What's going on here? I mean, can't we create a system similar to Austria's but with the private sector involved and not the government running everything? There must be a way, so we started moving forward. and I started tackling this very complicated topic out of nowhere, no one asked me to do it, I was just trying to figure out how we create health care in California for everyone, being the first state, along with Massachusetts, to have health care reform and where everyone is. insured and then it's just my curiosity was there and I asked myself questions about education why our education is declining why there are children who don't take exams also why their reading ability is lower than 10 years ago so you understand, you are interested because only when you understand it and only when you listen to the different opinions, from the right path to the left path, do you need to listen to orders, that's why I never looked at anyone as an enemy when I was.

Governor I looked at the Democrats as Justice partners like I did with the Republicans, do you agree with sometimes you disagree with other times and things like that, but I always felt like we all have to work together because together we can find the sweet spot. ? you know, he says this, he says this, let's figure out the sweet spot where we can, you know, something from both sides comes together here and that's the way I try to solve problems and I was fascinated by all these details. his governorship was really defined by his ability to reach across the aisle and build consensus with both parties.

This, you know, has a kind of allergy to being a party pirate and, instead, he knows how to hire a chief of staff who was a Democrat and appoint a diversity of judges. and doing all the things you did makes me wonder. I mean, it's really a question about leadership and problem solving because right now, in 2023, it feels pretty divided, people are more interested in arguing with each other than solving problems. the hallway is seen as a weakness and as a result the problems are not solved, so when you look at the world, California, the nation, what are you seeing right now in terms of the leadership that we have, the leadership that we deserve, that maybe we have ?

First of all, let me tell you that I didn't experience any of that every time I went to Washington. I mean, everyone talks about it, but every president after Clinton Clinton put $1.3 billion into 21st century after-school money. After that, every president wanted to take it out of the budget, so because I was the big deal guy in the after-school movement, they asked me to come help them from the National Association of After-School Programs. in Washington, so we went back there to put pressure on the Bush administration and everyone's talking about you're going to unite them, they're fighting over it, you know the Republicans want to get rid of it and the Democrats want to keep it and blah, blah, blah.

Notice if and I asked them, I said I found friends and Californians and they said, can you help me get three Democratic senators and three Republican senators together and talk about after-school programs? I just want to talk to them, have a meeting and They did it and the same thing happened in the house that they gave them, you know, people in Congress, men and women, they gathered a bunch of Democrats and Republicans interspersed with them. I presented my case to them and told them how important it is to maintain these extracurricular programs. Because? It was wise to show them the statistics and the studies that when they said that for every dollar we spend on an after-school program we save three to six dollars in the future and blah, blah, blah, everyone shook hands so that when the bill came up and when The debate arises that they will fight and tell their colleagues to also fight to keep it in the budget.

I walked away and said the first place is supposed to be so divided and they are fighting all the time. I don't see that fight, I don't understand it, not in the house, then we go back to the Obama administration, he wanted to get the money, we go back again because he formed a team, totally different people, now again, the Democrats and the Republicans work together and do it we kept. So every time a president, every time I went back there, I didn't see that the Democrats and the Republicans didn't want to work together. I begged them to work together for the good of the children.

I said I'm a Republican. I said, but this has nothing to do with Democrat Republicans, Democrat kids, and Republican kids. I said yeah, Republicans say this is like the government is babysitting and all this. I understand that I totally agree with you. I said, but when it comes to being outside. on the streets and it doesn't really work that way because 80 percent of the kids come from homes where both parents are working, so there couldn't be anyone at home. I just said "let's go" and they both had their eyes wide open. the first time they actually heard about someone talking passionately about it and they voted for it and kept it in the budget and even the day it's in a budget um so everything's fine in Washington so no I'm just saying that It needs an approach in which villainy is not done.

I didn't go in there to villainize Democrats as a Republican. I'm saying we Republicans here have to respond to that, but you guys are always voting on this, so no, it wasn't that approach. So that's the approach that you have to take and I'm talking about, and if you ask about leadership, you need the kind of leadership that has the energy to not worry so much about the specific policy but to first get the team together, this is what someone have to do in Washington for those members to bring them together, yes, there will be different ways of thinking and all that, but you have to bring them together and again say this is why and make the case for where the United States should go and what we should do . achieve everything from immigration reform to health care reform to get rid of the debt, get rid of the debt deficit that we have and solve and build infrastructure to be able to talk about this, they added and have a strong military that they can support. "it's up to the Chinese and the Russians to do it all and that's the only thing we can do with the Democrats and the Republicans together, we can't do it alone, the Republicans can't do it alone, so you have a total up in the that it is an executive order like theirs." What we have done and then Biden runs off with his executive orders that the next president deletes again.

It is false, the only thing that remains is that Democrats and Republicans unite and meet in the middle and that the answer is for the people and not for special interests. and then you need someone to bring them together and that's what I'm talking about, that's what it takes because I was there with my friend Kevin McCarthy and he asked me to talk to his environmentalists. Now, of course, you'll laugh because they're Republicans. and say where the environmentalists are, well there they are, maybe they don't buy this climate change, so we don't talk about climate change to these guys, you talk to them about pollution because no one can deny pollution to all the Republicans they have been with spoken.

I said you love pollution and I said no, are you kidding? I said you want to fight pollution, of course we want to get rid of pollution, I said, but then we have to get rid of oil and all that and just build my nuclear plants and more renewable energy, yes, I'm important, with that it depends on the However you approach it, you have to find a way to communicate effectively, you have to understand the needs and wants of the people you are trying to build consensus with. and the context of the after-school program meant approaching the Republicans with an economic argument that this will save money and the Democrats with the idea that it is important to know from a democratic sensitivity that the government participates in supporting these young people in the context environmental what you're saying is that you can't go for a confusing trope that won't connect with those people, you have to find something that matters to them, address that and craft your narrative and your argument around that strategically so that you can build that consensus and that team comes together to solve a problem, that's what you're saying and there are people who are supposed to be smart people, they don't understand it, they keep asking them to sell, they say this story that's what is communicated because we are in California , we comply with all those environmental laws because we communicated with people in the right way when we told people that when there is a hot date, do not lower the thermostat to 68, they put it at 74. and that they were helpful during my Administration there was no no blackouts the blackouts were in the previous administration of the blackouts so we communicated with the people who were on our side and we told them I said and we have to build renewable energies now we have 19 renewable energies by the time I finish I will have 50 renewable energies no one said no nor nothing like that because they realized there was somewhere we would have to go and when the oil companies and the coal companies tried to derail us, we fought them with the help of the American Lung Association to show the people of California , what happens if you keep using oil, that children in the Central Valley and throughout California have asthma by the age of three. and they're very, very sick and they're dying is that what we wanted to do with our children and they said oh my God, I didn't know that instead of talking about climate change in 20 years or something like that it's you. and I believe in it, but most people don't understand what it means, so let's talk about pollution like Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan established the air resources board in California that actually makes every law we pass a reality, so if I say there's a law that is a 50% reduction in fossil fuels, they make it happen, so we said 25 in 10 years, they made it happen, so this is what Ronald Reagan established under the auspices of We Gotta Fight Pollution, which he didn't talk about. climate change you know, that's why I say it, it's just that we have to sell, we have to communicate, we have to include people, we have to attract them, we have to explain it to them and often not everyone speaks in a different way. address and you know, Biden makes his speeches on the day I want to talk about the climate, I said, but wouldn't the day I want to talk to you about how we can get rid of pollution be much better? he knows this is what I'm talking about, I think that's what when we talk about leadership, that's what we need in Washington right now is just bringing people together, communicating in the right way, not stepping on someone's toe and make them scream, no, just come on.

Let's discover things we can do together. I mean, I went to Sacramento. The first thing we did was try to figure out what we can do together and then we worried about the harder things, that we're going in different directions and things like that. I want to talk a little about your passion for the environment. I imagine Jim Cameron has been part of that journey for you and one of the interesting things is an interesting aspect of this journey that you're on is that you've gone out and advocated for people to eat less meat, to have a style of more plant-oriented life.

You weretoday, including links and resources related to everything discussed today. Visit the episode page on richroll.com, where you can find the full

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archive, as well as podcast products, my books Finding Ultra voice changing and Plant Power Away, as well as the Plant Power meal planner at meals.richeral.com . If you want to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts on Spotify and YouTube. Leaving a review or comment supporting the sponsors who support the show is also important and appreciated, and sharing the show or your favorite episode with friends or on social media is of course amazing and very helpful and finally to get updates from podcasts, special offers on books, the meal planner and other topics, subscribe to our newsletter which can be found in the footer of any page on ritual.com.

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