Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most successful people in the U.S coming from a humble background. His life is a real indication of best lives despite the prevailing one’s financial state. On many occasions, he is motivating the public with the spirit of focus, hard work and discipline. We’ll be sharing the ‘rules of success’ as the ex-Governor depicts.
Before we get into the topic, let’s begin with the short history behind the famous Commando star.
Arnold was born on July 30, 1947, in Thal Austria to Gustav Schwarzenegger (military officer) and Aurelia.
He was an Austrian-born American bodybuilder, film actor, producer, businessman, and politician who served as Governor of California between 2003-2011 with the Republican Party.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger married to Maria Shriver (Reporter for NBC) in 1986. Unfortunately, in May 2011 they announced they were separating after she identified that Arnold fathered a 14-year-old child with the housekeeper.
How many titles did Arnold Schwarzenegger win?
The talented bodybuilder moved to United State to train and compete in bigger events across United State where he first won the amateur, Mr. Universe, in 1967 and hold the title three more times.
In addition, he also holds the professional Mr. Olympia title for six conservative years (1970- 1975).
The energetic man also become the staring of various top-performing movies to date.
How many movies has Arnold Schwarzenegger been in?
Throughout his career, Schwarzenegger managed to produce many movies that got the attention of the world. It is undebatable that some of his movies didn’t sell well particularly during the early years of his career. Therefore, here are some of the best-sold movies by the prolific star actor.
1. Hercules In New York (1970)
2. Pumping Iron (1977)
3. Conan The Barbarian (1982)
4. The Terminator (1984) Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003) Terminator Genisys (2015) and 5. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
6. Kindergarten Cop (1990)
7. Total Recall (1990)
8. True Lies (1994)
9. Red Heat (1988)
10. Thriller Escape Plan with Sylvester Stallone. (2013)
11. Commando
And the long list continues.
How rich is Arnold Schwarzenegger?
He is one of the handsomely paid actors ever since his career started pocketing millions of dollars per film produced. He also had external income sources such as real estate investors alongside the gubernatorial seat that pay him millions of dollars.
As at 2021, sources reveal that his net worth is approximately $400 million.
The talented movie star wouldn’t hesitate to document the career;
Is Arnold Schwarzenegger an author?
Throughout his lucrative career, Arnold published a series of books mainly related to bodybuilding and fitness.
Just like the film trend, it is no wonder for authors to publish their work that fails to sell in the markets.
This might not be the case for the talented bodybuilder as he managed to publish at least 57 books and we still expect more.
The Education Of The Bodybuilder, written with Douglas Kent Hall. (1977)
The New Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding, written with Bill Dobbins. (1998)
Developing Mr. Universe Physique. (1977)
Arnold body shopping for women, Douglas Kent Hall. (1979)
Rules Of Success by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Have a Vision
" If you don't have a vision of where you are going, if you don't have a goal of where you go. You will drift around and never end up anywhere"
" As you know I was born in 1947 in Austria after the Second World War. So, I was very fortunate that I stumbled onto my vision. And I didn't really like Austria when I was growing up. I couldn't wait to get out of there."I couldn’t see myself becoming a farmer or a worker in a factory or anything like that even though my parents wanted me to stay there and have a normal life.
But that was their vision and not mine, my vision was different, I felt that I was born for something SPECIAL, something UNIQUE, and something BIG.
Then one day I went to school, I remember I was eleven (11) years old, and they showed a documentary about America. There, they showed in this documentary;
a. The huge skyscrapers
b. The high-rises
c. The huge bridge
d. The six-lane freeways
And all in this stuff I said to myself
‘THAT’S WHERE I WANT TO BE’
I don’t want to be in the little farmhouses and these little buildings, I want to be in America.
One day after school I was walking by store Craz. So, I went inside and looked around then I saw a magazine, I saw a bodybuilding magazine that had Reg Park on the cover. (Reg Park was then a three times Mr. Universe) I read it and said to myself “WOW”! This is the BLUE-PRINTER for my life. This is exactly what I want to do.
I wanted to be a body-building champion just like Reg Park. I want to get into movies just like Reg Park, make millions of dollars and be rich and famous just like Reg Park.
Do you know how great it felt that I knew where I was going?. Imagine the majority of people don’t know where they are going. I knew where I was going, that I was going to become a body-building champion just like him. So, it was not a question of how to do it.
I was so relieved because if you have a goal when you have a vision, everything becomes easy. So people always ask me when they saw me in the gym in the pumping iron days, they say
“Why is it that you are working out so hard; 5 hours a day, 6 hours a day and you always have a smile on your face”
And I told people that was because to me “I am shooting for a goal” In front of me is the Mr. Universe title.
So every repetition that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal. To make this goal,,, this vision turn into reality, every single set that I do, every repetition on every weight that I lift will get me a step closure to turn this goal into reality.
So I couldn’t wait to do another 500-down squat, I couldn’t wait to do another 500-bench press, I couldn’t wait to do another 2000 repetitions of push-ups and I couldn’t wait for the next exercise.
By the age of 20, I went to London and I work. The Mr. Universe contest as the youngest Mr. Universe ever.
And it was because I had a goal. Let me tell you something, visualizing your goal and going after it makes it fun. You’ve got to have purpose over what you want.
74% hate their job in America, but this is not much different when you come to Europe. The majority of people don’t like what they are doing even though they aren’t school dropouts or never attended the school.
This is aimless drift they got a job because they are broke. However, if you’re broke it’s chorus endurance, it’s not fun.
So if you think a quarter of people really enjoy what they are doing in life, that’s unbelievable to think about. So, I felt more blessed since I knew what I was doing.
It is like a medical student who studies and know he wants to become a doctor, you know where you go. The same is also in politics, I remember then in politics I had a very clear vision that I would be the leader of California.
Don’t listen to the nay-sayers
This far I could go because I was not born in America so I couldn’t run for president. So, being the governor of the fifth largest economy in the world was to me really the ultimate title, the ultimate accomplishment in politics.
However, people came to ask me,
“Mr. why don’t you go and run for something smaller, you never gonna make it.”
I contested for Governorship and two months later became the Governor of the state of California. Again, since I had a very clear vision of what I gonna do with California.
Don’t listen to the nay-sayers, everything I ever did I heard out people’s mouths was that’s impossible, that can’t be done or no. That was exactly what I heard and proved to the people that it can be done.
So whenever someone said to me IT CAN’T BE DONE I heard IT CAN VE DONE. When they say NO I heard YES and when they say IT IS IMPOSSIBLE I heard IT IS POSSIBLE.
I am a strong believer in what NELSON MANDELA said,
' IT'S ALWAYS SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT'S DONE 'I’m going to be the one to say to myself I am going to do it. I’m going to show it to them that maybe it has never been done before, that’s perfectly fine with me but am gonna do it and never listen to the nay-sayers.
It is all about the hard work that you put in. I said to myself in bodybuilding I worked out 5-6 hours a day and I gonna do the same before acting.
And of course, I went to college to study English, I studied the accent removal and acting classes, all these stuff all day long.
I worked, worked and worked, within a short period I made one movie called Hercules In New York which went right to the toilet, it didn’t disturb me.
I still had the same vision and suddenly, I released ‘STAY HUNGRY AND PUMPING IRON’.
Later, I proceeded to star ‘CONAN THE BARBARIAN’ after which the Director at the Press Conference said to the press,
"If we wouldn't have Arnold, we would have to build one."Now, the very body that they said can never be sold because the time is long, a few years later did CONAN THE BARBARIAN and it was the number one hit when it came out in December of 82.
Think about that and the director said if we wouldn’t have Arnold, we would have to build one. So, fortunately, my body became an asset, not a liability.
As well as with ‘THE TERMINATOR’, after we finished filming THE TERMINATOR, the Team Terminator said to the press,
‘ Arnold wouldn’t have the accent and talked like a machine, I think the movie would never have rocked’.
So thanks about that body and the accent that they attacked was an asset.
I didn’t listen to those losers, I didn’t listen to them at all. This is just a reality of it that you cannot listen to the nay-sayers. So, that very important lesson for all of you.
Therefore, when somebody says NO-this is a stupid idea. In your mind, you don’t have to say it but in your mind just say these are failed souls.
You just read to the end;
Who is your favorite motivational speaker? Illustrate.
Or,
What is the quote that keeps you moving?
