Arnold Schwarzenegger: Life Changing Motivational Speech (Very Powerful)

have a vision, thank you big time, ignore the naysayers, work hard and give back and change the world because if not us, then who, if not now, when, what is the secret to success and the long version is that I actually always had five rules and e

very

thing they I always used those five rules and those five rules helped me be successful in several different areas and I believe that those rules can be applied to almost anyone and e

very

one. You don't need to be a bodybuilding champion. You need to want to be governor of California or be a stock here or something if you want to excel at anything you do, those rules are for you, it's that simple, now I have to tell you from the beginning that I always was. very intense since I was a child I was already very intense and I was very hungry I always wanted to be the best I always wanted to be number one I always wanted to get to the top I never believed in just arriving on time now I have nothing against people I just want to get ahead because I think there are many paths to happiness, but I think everyone here likes to be successful and we are motivated, so those rules apply to you, so my first rule is find your vision and follow it.

Look, I think the most important thing is that we have a very clear vision of where we are going, a goal, where we are going, because you can have the best ship in the world, you can have the best cruise, but if the captain doesn't know it. where to go that ship will drift around the world and across the sea and never end up anywhere and that's exactly how it is in real

life

if you don't have a goal if you don't have a vision it just drifts and you're not going to be happy. That is why it is so important to have that Vision now.

I created that Vision in Austria because I grew up after World War II. Austria along with Germany lost World War II thank God. uh, and the problem was that everyone was so depressed because they lost the war that there was alcoholism everywhere, of course, there was depression, there was a terrible economic situation, there was famine, there was famine and all that stuff, and then it was kind of small place. and narrow I felt like I wanted to get out of there, I wanted to escape and I couldn't really see myself to work there and stay there to work in a factory or work on a farm or even follow in My Father's footsteps.

Steps and Becoming a Police Officer I couldn't see that either, in fact that's what my parents wanted me to do, they wanted me to become a police officer and marry a girl named Heidi and have a bunch of kids. and run like the Font Trap family to the sound of music, but that's not what I saw, this was my parents' vision, but not mine, and luckily one day at school I saw a documentary about America and I I found. I knew exactly that's where I wanted to end up I wanted to be in America everything I saw in the documentary I just loved everything it was so big I remember the tall skyscrapers the monster bridges the free giant was full of beautiful cars the huge passenger planes movie stars Muscle Beach and all that stuff.

I couldn't wait to get there. The question was how do I get there. How do I get to the United States? I mean, this wasn't common in the '50s, no one had the money. travel or anything, but one day I was lucky enough to see a magazine and that magazine showed me the way to America and it was a bodybuilding magazine and on the cover was a very muscular guy who was standing there like Hercules in a Hercules suit. , your name. It was re Park, this R Park was on that cover and I remember the cover said Mr Universe becomes the star of Hercules.

I read the article as fast as I could and learned how he grew up among poor leaders in England and how he trained 5 hours a day every day. a single day and he trained and trained and trained and live weights and then he finally became Mr Great Britain and then he became Mr Universe and then he won a second Mr Universe title and the third Mr Universe title and then suddenly He landed in Rome in Chin Jitta doing Hercules movies and there he made millions of dollars and he took this money and bought a chain of gyms in South Africa and became a successful gym owner and as I read I became more and more sure about of my own future.

I read this story, I was so excited, so interested, I knew exactly that I wanted to become another Rich Park, I know he laid out the plan for my

life

, basically, I could see myself, I could clearly visualize myself to be a champion on that very stage. where he. I won Mr Universe and then I moved to the United States, then I got into movies and then I became rich and famous. He had that Vision very clearly laid out. I was so happy to know exactly where I was going from that moment in everything I did, no matter.

How hard I had to work or how much I had to fight, it didn't matter, it was a wonderful and joyful journey because I knew what the purpose was and I found my passion, the simple truth is that if you don't have a vision, if you don't have a goal If you don't see your future in front of you you simply float without a purpose and I think the numbers speak for themselves. This is why so many people around the world are unhappy with their jobs. I mean, in America 74% of people hate their jobs and would like to change jobs, but think about it, that means only a quarter of Americans love their life's work.

I mean, it's a very depressing statistic. He always smiled when he wasn't working. No matter how hard I worked, I always had a great time, no matter what I did, it didn't matter if it was in bodybuilding or if it was in movies or if it was as governor. I remember back in the Pumping Iron days people would ask me at the gym all the time why are you smiling all the time why are you so happy you have to lift 50 tons of weights you have to train 5 hours a day I mean I look at the faces of the other bodybuilders and I lift their faces and they look kind of depressing they look bitter they feel miserable because they have to lift weights you don't look miserable you look happy and I tell them to always say I smile because I know exactly that every rep I do, every series that I do every weight I lift I am one step closer to turning that vision of mine into reality and becoming that Mr.

Universe. I couldn't wait to squat another 500 pounds. I couldn't wait to do another thousand squats. I couldn't wait to bank. spr more bench press and more push ups until I couldn't move my arms anymore because I knew each rep was getting me closer to being on that stage as a champion, in fact when I lifted weights I didn't really feel like I was lifting weights, it felt like I was lifting a trophy over my head every time I lifted and having all these bodybuilders around me and thousands of people screaming and I tell you that this Vision not only helped me in bodybuilding but it helped me with everything I said, I remember that in the In the movie business there were many times stunts I had to do where I got hurt, where I felt pain and agony and I had to do it over and over again.

I remember an incident specifically in Conan the Barbarian there. there I was crawling on all four over rocks on rocks and gravel holding my sword right in front of me and as I was crawling the camera followed me and it was about 30 feet to crawl me over those rocks and this gravel and finally after 10 takes. My elbows and knees started to bleed and hurt and the Dire came up to me timidly and said, "Do you mind if we do another take? I need a close-up of you and I told him no, I don't mind at all.

He said go and do as many takes as you want he says no no no I don't want to do that because I know you're in pain you're bleeding I said no no no I don't feel any pain I said All I see is the finished scene I see the finished scene of me crawling over the four of them. with my sword in front, creeping up and sneaking up behind Thala Doom, the main villain from the Conan movie who killed my parents and rising up behind him and cutting off his head, that's what I see, remember to smash yours. enemies, seeing them led before you and hearing the lament of their women, that's why because I visualized that scene, that's why I didn't feel that pain, I didn't care if I was bleeding in my knees because I know the pain is temporary. but the film is permanent and I explained it to the director, that's why I try to tell you that you always discover your vision and the rest will follow now my second my second rule is never again. think small if you are going to achieve something you have to think big you have to go and shoot for the stars the biggest challenge that most people have is because they think small and the reason why people think small and choose goals small is because they are afraid of failing, they know that if you aim for a big goal, the chances of failing are very high and they are afraid of failing, it is one of the most common reasons why people freeze and cannot take a step in the life. because they are afraid of failing I told myself hey I'm not worried about failing because that's part of life you're not going to win everything and how far can you fall look at this this is the terrain that's like How far can I fall and you know something that the only The only time you really consider failure is if you fall and don't get up, but if you get up you are never considered a failure, so I never considered myself a failure.

I always considered myself a winner even though I fell from time to time but I always got up and always moved forward, this is the important thing. I never had the patience, of course, to think small because in German we say venon Danon and that means that if you do something, then you do your best and you do it well and this was not only the case in bodybuilding. I didn't just want to be a bodybuilding champion. He wanted to be the best bodybuilder of all time. I wanted to have the most muscle. most muscle of all time the greatest definition I wanted to win the most trophies the most world championship titles I just wanted to be the best and the same thing also in movies I didn't just think about being in movies no, I wanted to be a star of cinema that I wanted to have on top of the title building I wanted to become the highest paid artist basically I wanted to be another John Wayne, what's wrong with that and then the same as in politics I didn't just want to go and be in politics and get into a career to the city council I mean, let's be honest, that sounds good, schwarts, not the city council, come on, not even Schwarzenegger and not the mayor, it had to be Schwarzenegger running for governor, but not just any governor, but governor of the largest state in the United States.

States of California, that was the important thing. I gave you an example of how to think big when I became governor. He wanted to rebuild California's aging infrastructure. You see, America has been living off the infrastructure that was built in the '50s and '60s and that drives me completely crazy. that the United States has not begun to rebuild that infrastructure, I mean, we have not invested in new roads or new public transportation or schools or energy or anything like that for decades, the number of cars we have now in the United States is four times larger. a lot of what we had in the '60s, so we should have four times as many highways, four times as many tunnels, four times as many bridges and all this, but we don't, so that's why I wanted to get our act together. and make minimal improvements in California, so when I talk about infrastructure, I didn't really want to just fix roads and fix and close some holes in the roads.

He wanted to build huge highways on top of highways. He wanted to build the first high-speed highway. Speed ​​Rail in the United States wanted to build more bridges and more tunnels plus on ramps and off ramps. I literally wanted to see cranes everywhere. Well, there was no excuse for Californians to get stuck in traffic and there really was no excuse to send their kids. in overcrowded classrooms and schools and there was also no excuse that Los Angeles has a 100 year old sewer system that sucks. I think first, of course, some of the legislators looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when I told them this Vision that they were willing to spend. maybe $5 billion, which of course is petty cash compared to what my vision was, but some politicians of course had a hard time seeing the bigger picture because they never really traveled outside of California, so they didn't really They have seen great infrastructure.

They haven't really seen big infrastructure throughout the United States or maybe in Asia, in China, in Korea, in Brazil, in the European countries or here in Australia, maybe they haven't seen that and then of course there are other politicians who I just don't have a vision for the future beyond the next election, which is a common problem politicians have around the world, so my job as governor was to motivate them, bring them along, and see the traffic champions in Los Angeles. and to see the crowded classrooms and see all the problems we have, they kept pushing and pushing and I encouraged them enough that they eventually saw the bigger picture and finally the Democrats and Republicans came together and we invested $60 billion to rebuild California's infrastructure our state's largest investment in 50 years, so thatIt's what we did because we had a big vision and everyone accepted this big Vision, so remember to never think small over big.

My third rule is to ignore the naysayers. I think it's natural that when you have a big vision and big dreams and you have big goals that people are going to say around you I don't think it can be done I think it's impossible or not I tell you I hear this all the time but I want to tell you that Don't Never let them stop you from dreaming and aiming for the Big Goal because simply eliminate those words, it is not impossible and it cannot be done. I mean, in every one of my careers, when someone said it's impossible, I heard it's possible when someone said it can't be done, I heard it can be done and when someone said no then I heard loud and clear yes, so This is what I think.

I'm a big believer in what Nelson Mandela said. He said it always seems impossible until someone does it and that's exactly what it is and I wanted to be the one to do it. I wanted to break new records and I wanted to do something that no one else has done, so I think that's what you should do, never worry about whether someone hasn't done it, just think about how many times. my career would have stopped my career would have ended if I had listened to the naysayers. I mean, it started right away when I was 15 and I became a bodybuilder right after that I said I wanted to be a world bodybuilding champion.

I want to be Mr Universe, they immediately said: Are you crazy? You are in Austria, in Austria you can become a ski champion or a bike champion or something, but bodybuilding is an American sport, forget it, it's crazy, so when they wanted to move to the United States, I said again it's impossible, never You will be able to do that, you have no money, you are alone and then, when I wanted to enter show business after winning 13 world bodybuilding championship titles, I said I want to be like Re Park, I want to be a Hercules, I want to get into movies, Well, I told you when I met those agents, managers and studio executives, their reaction was oh arold, that's so funny, you want to be a leading man, oh come on, I mean, look. uh uh first of all let's start with your body B look at your body I mean you're overdeveloped you're gigantic you're like a monster are you kidding me?

Do you know what the news is? The new trend is like little boys. Dustin Huffman alberino Woody Allen those are the new sex symbols, don't you understand? And then your accent, oh, it gives me chills just hearing your German, come on, I mean, oh God, I mean, it's scary when you speak, it's amazing. I mean, did Arnold ever? I mean, seriously, have you ever seen an international movie that starts with a German accent? It doesn't happen, forget it and then your name, what's SCH Watson schnitzel or something? Yes, I can see that name. It's already up there on the poster, yeah, and people are going to storm the movie theaters and movie theaters because Schwartz and Schnitz are the stars of the movie, oh yeah, I can see that now, so that's what they said, they told me , he says look, forget it.

Good guy, I mean your bodybuilding champion, why don't you open a gym or a health food store, something like that? We can help you with that and then we help you with some little parts, like maybe playing goalie. I mean, with your perfect body or maybe a fighter oh oh oh. I have a good idea with your Nazi officer accent. That's great for you. I call my friends at Hogan's Heroes. I mean, they'd probably use someone like you, so that's what he said imagine everywhere I turned they said no, it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen and forget it, luckily I didn't listen, I didn't listen because I knew if I worked I would. enough and if I worked as hard as I did in bodybuilding five six hours a day what will I do so I can prove them wrong and I started working really hard.

I started taking acting classes, English classes, speaking classes, dialogue classes, even accent removal classes. I ran all day saying lines like a good wine grows. on a vine because you see that the Austrians and the Germans have difficulties with the V and with the w and with the F we mixed it all together so it was a good wine that grows on a vine or the sink is made of zinc and all those kinds of lines I said oh and no and you know what, I suddenly had a little break in the early 70s. I remember I suddenly got a small role in a TV show, then another small role and then a whole suddenly I got a phone call from Lucil B to be on his special happy anniversary and goodbye, uh, which was with Art Carney.

He had the six-minute scene like an Italian Mur. Now most people don't know the difference between an Italian accent and a German accent, so I got away with my German accent, but I played this Italian M and he was very delighted and right after that I got a guest star role on Streets of San Francisco with Michael Douglas and the Malon car and then lifting weights and staying hungry. and then, of course, I got the big role of Conan the Barbarian, so I finally got the big break and you know, what was so interesting was that as soon as we were done with the Conan movie we were on a promotional tour and The Director He said at the press conference that the director is John Millius.

He said if we hadn't had Schwarzeneger with those muscles, we would have had to develop one. Now think about that before it was this big hurdle to have this body and a whole body. Suddenly, the director says that if he hadn't had Schwarzeneger with his body, we would have had to build one. What a change and then when I did Terminator, James Cameron said he was really great, he said Ali's bottom line became one of the most famous. movie lines in the story because of Arnold's crazy accent because he sounded like a machine when he spoke, so you see, everything that the naysayers said was a liability became an asset and the same thing happened in my political career when I I ran for governor, they immediately said I shouldn't do it, it's a big mistake, it won't happen, I'll lose and all that kind of stuff and the rest, of course, is history.

The bottom line is that if I had listened to Nay Sayers, my career would have ended when I was 15, I would still be singing in Austria, in the Alps, and I wouldn't be talking to you here today and the reason I'm here today and talking to you is Because I didn't listen to you, I can't. It's either impossible or not, so I highly recommend you ignore the Nay Sayers. My fourth rule is to work hard. No one ever became successful by accident, except maybe the guy who struck gold in California, but never think about that. you can be that guy, I mean, you never want to fail because you didn't work hard enough.

I always believed there was no stone left unturned, work hard, that's what I always believed, no matter what you do, work, work, work. I remember Muhammad Ali, one of my Great Heroes had a great line in the 70's when he was asked how many sit-ups do you do. He said: I don't know why I start counting only when it starts to burn, when it starts to burn, that's when it starts to tell you. look that's what makes you a champion, no matter what area you don't suffer in, you won't win, the bottom line is one of my rules which is to work hard if you don't apply that rule, all the other rules won.

It doesn't mean anything, I mean, it drives me completely crazy when people say I don't have time to exercise. Have you heard that many times I don't have time to exercise or I have worked so hard all day that tired I can't exercise anymore or I can't read another book or I can't improve myself or I don't have time or I work so hard that I really can't improve my business or I can't grow as a person or any of those things that Damn, what are we talking about here? I mean, today is 24 hours, you sleep 6 hours, so you have 18 hours left.

I mean, I know there are some of you who say, well, wait a minute, I actually sleep 8 hours, but that's just sleeping faster, okay? Don't I mean we shouldn't bother with these things here? Listen, when I came to the United States, I remember I trained 5 hours a day every day and I was running a construction business and I was a bricklayer and I went to college too and I took acting classes from 8:00 at night until 12:00 at night all that in one day every day I did that I didn't worry about it I knew I had 24 hours and I didn't want to waste them. a single hour because I believe in what Ted Turner, who is one of the great businessmen who founded CNN and so on, said: go to bed early to get up, work like hell and advertise, so that's what I believe, just remember that you can't scale that. ladder of success with your hands in your pockets you must work hard it is that simple and my fifth and last rule is not simply receive give something in return leave your mark on the world I believe that we all have an obligation to do something for our community something for our state something for our country we must serve a cause that is bigger than ourselves because we all know that in the end we will be judged not by how much we earn but by how much we give since America saluted me. with open arms I have had the sense of responsibility and I felt obliged to give something back to the United States because I know that everything I have achieved is thanks to the United States if it is my bodybuilding career if it is my career in show business my career politics The money that has made my great family that I have, all of this is due to America, but I have to recognize the fact that America did not become the land of opportunity in this great country, not on its own. history, people work tirelessly in America, people fought and people died to make it the land of freedom and opportunity and the land of liberty, so now it's our responsibility if we want to keep it as the number one country of the world, work for it and give something back to that country, and it doesn't matter if you're in the United States or if you're in Australia or if you're in China or if you're in Japan or Italy, it's the same, everyone has to give something back. to your country, no matter where you are from I love the words of my father-in-law, Sergeant Shria, who started the Peace Corps, the main work of legal assistance to the poor during the Kennedy and Johnson administration, was the number public servant one and always inspired. me to become a public servant he was one of my heroes said at Yale University in a graduation

speech

he told the students take down that mirror, take down that mirror that makes you always look at yourself and you will be able to look beyond that .

Mirror and you will see the millions and millions of people who need your help and I saw those millions and millions of people and that is why I try to take advantage of every opportunity I can to give something back. I started training Special Olympians, people with intellectual disabilities. To help them with weightlifting and powerlifting, I became the international weightlifting coach and torch beer for the Special Olympics and then joined the Simon Wendall Center to fight prejudice so they wouldn't Things like during the second World Cup will happen again. war during the Nazi Reich and also joined the President's Fitness Council.

I became president under President Bush from 1990 to 1993 to be president and promote health and fitness in all 50 states. I traveled to all 50 states. I started extracurricular programs. for the most vulnerable children for the children of Innoc City so that they can say no to drugs, no to gangs and no to violence and say yes to education and yes to life and I, every time I reached out and said something in return, I felt fantastic, nothing made me happier. I'd rather play chess with an 8-year-old at an after-school program or play golf with a Special Olympian and then walk down to another movie premiere red carpet, and I have nothing against it. movies, but giving back to myself is more important than just thinking about myself.

In the end, the joy of giving back was so great that I decided to become a full-time public servant and turn my back on it, in fact, walk away from my acting career afterwards. I finished promoting Terminator 3, I jumped into the race for governor of California and I ran for governor and although my friends advised me not to do it, they told me: are you crazy, Arnold, don't you understand that you would lose now this 20th? 30 million dollars per movie they pay you and they will only pay you 178,000 dollars a year as governor. Well, I didn't care because I knew that all the money I had made and being in that position in the first place making this money was because of America, it was time to give something back, so I became governor and I didn't even take the $178,000.

I returned them to the taxpayers because it was petty cash, it's the last thing I needed and I can tell you. that those seven years were the most exciting, fulfilling and fulfilling of my life, working all day to solve problems and serve people was absolutely heaven, it was the best job I have ever had, but I also knew that it was going to end eventually and after two terms it was finished but when it was finished the only thing that was not finished and was not finished was my desire to be a public servant and to serve the people and that is why I continued working for Special Olympics, that is why I kept working on wrestling on my Fitness Crusade andtraveling around the world to promote health and fitness and that is why I continue to support after-school programs and even started the Schwarz Institute at the University of Southern California to continue inspiring students and leaders around the world to find solutions to complicated problems and to contribute to making the world a better place, so thank you, but I tell you that I was very lucky. that I had great heroes, I had great heroes that I could look up to and I mentioned two of them, Muhammad Ali and my father-in-law, but there are other great heroes like Gorbachev, Reagan Mandela, great leaders like Mother Teresa, Chancellor Cole and Churchill and The list goes on and on.

I mean, those people alone had such an impact on the world that they have changed the world. I mean, if you think about Gach, I mean this man, every time I meet him, I'm amazed, I mean he grew up. under communism and rose from the bottom of the rank to the top, he became president of the Soviet Union, one of the most

powerful

people in the world and he was the leader of the Communist Party and when he was in the highest position I realized that the system was broken, now what do you do? what to do when you are the top leader of the Communist Party and you realize that the system, communism does not work well, you know what he did, he dismantled communism, think about the courage that that requires, I mean the guts it takes to do that, think about Gorbachev completely transforming his glass nose country to give freedom to his people for the first time and then through bar stoer reforming Russia's economy he didn't wait to the next president he didn't complain he just said yes no me who and yes No now so I firmly believe that we should all have a uh Embrace that kind of spirit.

We can all create change, whether in our neighborhood or in our local schools or in our country. It may be big but it can also. be as simple as going to school for a child who has trouble reading and teaching children how to read or how to do math, we don't have to work on just me, we should also work on ourselves, not just me, but also We remember that. To live a truly fulfilling life you must give back you must leave the world a better place than you found it because the bottom line is that it is up to us.

I mean, those rules I've given you are important rules, but giving back is one of them. of the most important rules, I guarantee that if you follow all those rules you will have many victories to celebrate and you will know your job and you will have an extraordinary record and you will leave a legacy that you can be proud of that, so I want you to remember those rules, have a vision , think big, ignore the na Sayers, work hard and give back and change the world, because if not us, who else now?