The Daily Stoic - Arnold Schwarzenegger's Seven Tools for Life

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder best known for his roles in high-profile action movies. He served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011 and was among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007. Ryan speaks with Arnold Schwarzenegger on how to be useful, the mental, physical and psychological benefits to nurturing the mind and body, their shared love for animals, running for governor and more at the 92NY in New York City.Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life is written with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s uniquely earnest, blunt, powerful voice. It takes readers on an inspirational tour through his toolkit for a meaningful life. Arnold shows us how to put those tools to work, in service of whatever fulfilling future we can dream up for ourselves. He brings his insights to vivid life with compelling personal stories, life-changing successes and life-threatening failures alike—some of them famous, some told here for the first time.🏋️ Sign up for his free daily fitness email: arnoldspumpclub.com✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each weekday we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, a short passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength in insight here in everyday life. And on Wednesdays, we talk to some of our fellow students of ancient philosophy, well-known and obscure, fascinating, and powerful. With them, we discuss the strategies and habits that have helped them become who they are, and also to find peace and wisdom in their actual lives. Kind of stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on,

something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you're happy to be doing. So let's get into it. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily stoic podcast. I told you my story with Arnold Swartz and Iger when I did my earlier episode with him. So we've gotten to know each other a little. He told me this super nice thing that he has a leather

bound copy of the Daily Stoic on his counter which is you know just sort of unreal. A guy who's always been a huge movie star since I was a little kid. It was the governor of the state that I grew up in. While I was growing up there is reading one of my books. It was nuts. But what was crazier was that so we did we did the interview at his office in Santa Monica. I thought it went well. Bumped into ritual while I was there. I really enjoyed the book. If you haven't read these useful, you should. Care at the painting porch. But anyways, I thought that was the end of it. And then I got a note from Arnold's publicist that said, hey, Danny DeVito was supposed to interview Arnold on stage at the 92nd Street Y, but he can't because of some Broadway

commitment. Could you do it? So I guess that's the first time I've been asked to fill in for Danny DeVito. Probably the last, but I was incredibly honored to do it. So I flew to New York for the day at dinner with my sister Amy who lives in New York. And then I got on stage with Arnold. I'll tell you a little story. Arnold had been running from interview to interview, like the last week, all that day in New York City.

And I got there a little early. I wanted to see the venue. I've done a talk at the 92nd Street Y, but they didn't put me in the main theater when I was there. So I wanted to see it. And it's an incredible space. What a cool sort of institution in New York. Anyways, Arnold gets in.

He sort of throws himself in this chair. And you can just tell this dude is bone tired, has been pushed way beyond his limits. And I mean, look, he's in great shape, but he is, you know, 76. And it's hard. I mean, it's hard for me in my 30s to do a media and marketing tour. And I'm not even getting as many asses as he is. Anyways, he is bone tired. And I'm thinking, is he not going to be able to do this? What's it going to be like on stage? And then of course, he gets on stage and as soon as the crowd starts clapping and they go crazy for him, he gets what they call stage medicine. Just all the energy comes back, he lights up. You see

why this dude is who he is. Other small note, Thomas Kaplan, who is on the board at the 92nd Street Wise introduced us. And he's a big fan of stoicism. He's an oil and gas magnate, I guess, billionaire investor. He and Arnold worked together to build a mountain lion sanctuary in Southern California. I happened to have met Thomas many years earlier at Stoacan, and we had a nice conversation about stoicism a couple months later, and lunch on his boat as we circled the Statue of Liberty. All of which to say, it was a very surreal experience, and it led to this conversation, which I'm happy to bring you.

This is the audio of Arnold and I talking at the 90s. Street Y about life, about energy, about walking, about vision, and he tells some great stories. I think I learned a lot during the first interview how to get a better second interview. And I think this is better than the first one, which if you haven't listened to you absolutely should. And again, get it listened to a red Arnold's new book, it's great. I'll link to it in today's show notes. You can grab Be Useful from the painted porch or anywhere books are sold. It's fantastic.

And then Arnold's email list is fantastic too. And of course, on social, he's always great as well. Thanks to Arnold for this opportunity. Thanks, I guess, really to Danny DeVito for the opportunity. And thanks to Arnold's wonderful publisher for setting it all up and making it happen. Enjoy! I told this story before, but the first Airbnb I stayed in was 15 years ago. I was looking for places to live when I wanted to be a writer and we stayed at this house, I think outside Phoenix.

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this is doable. Maybe I could rent my place on Airbnb. And it's really that simple. You can start with a spare room or you can rent your whole place when you're away. You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. Maybe you set up a home office during the pandemic and now you don't need it because you're back at work.

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Well thank you very much. Thank you. This is really fantastic. I mean it's a... I love... it's the only thing I'm hanging out with you. I get this kind of applause. That's really great. Well, as we were saying backstage, you started in a gym, and now you're back in a gym. I started at the YMCA and I'm back at the YMCA. It is absolutely right. Let's see a whole bunch of guys.

You all pumped up. This guy has the baby wall still on. It's like amazing. Look at his tail to it. That's fantastic. This feels like a bodybuilding show. Well, considering we're back here in New York, I thought we'd start when I was in your office a couple of weeks ago, I saw some evidence of your warhol days.

I wonder if you had any warhol stories given that we're here in New York. Well, first of all, let me just say thank you very much for doing the moderating get a really appreciate that Ryan and you've been someone that I've been looking up to. You're such a great author and best selling author not only in America but worldwide. This is where the action is of course in the global economy. And I also want to say thank you very much to Tom for the nice words that he said in the introduction

and having me here. So thank you very much, Tom, and Tio has promised me that he's going to take me around the statue of Liberty with his boat. Yes. You know that everyone can afford a boat or a ship. Then I'll take you around like that. I'm really looking forward to it.

You took that trip already, right? I did. Yeah. They say you should only get a boat if you can afford five boats. Well, we don't have to worry about him. So that's for sure. Anyway, so thank you Tom for being so kind and you know receiving us here with op-mom. So thank you very much. And it's great to be back in New York again and you know to do this

here in New York. It's a kind of I mean I cannot believe how many people there here. This is totally packed and it reminds me a little bit on 1976 when I was doing a demonstration, opposing demonstration, at the Whitney Museum. So someone had that idea. I think it was Bobby Ciarama who was then one of the top publicists in America. And he said we should go to the Whitney Museum because he always talk about the body building being like an art. Like you're sculpting your body. And I think we should invite the top 10 art historians

to the Whitney Museum and to have them discussed and afterwards, is it art, is it not? And how is it done with all the sculptors? And you know, have a discussion about that in the press who we're right it, and they would give body building a lot of publicity. And so the people at the Whitney Museum said, I don't know if anyone would show up to be honest with you.

This is a little bit odd. Even though we do odd things here in the Whitney Museum, but this is a little bit too odd. And, but anyway, so they went ahead and did it. And the evening when we had the event, there was like thousands of people lined up outside to get in, and of course they couldn't get in. But I mean, so they took out all the chairs that they had and everyone was sitting on the floor

so they could cramp in more people. There was in the middle of this space, there was a day-us, a round day-us, and the electric day-us, there was rotating around slowly, and we were hitting a very artistic shots, like sculptures, right? And the artisans had then this discussion and all that. There was very, very successful event. So it was like, pack, this reminds me a little bit of that atmosphere there. It was a really great atmosphere here

and just also a lot, a lot of people. It's wonderful. Anyway, to get back to you. To war off? To war off. I spent a lot of time in the 70s in New York because we were always raising money for the documentary pumping iron.

And it was one of the fundraisers, which was it elains. And the restaurant doesn't exist anymore, sadly, because I really always had a great time and Elaine herself was a great, great fan. And she always introduced me to all the directors that were there, and the actors, and Nuriyev and all these people in her restaurant. And we had this fundraiser there. And I think Jackie Kennedy brought her little son and she was with Andy Wohoe. And so then I started talking to them and that's where I made Andy Woho, and he just loved the whole idea of bodybuilding. And then he invited Lee Down to come down to the factory.

And then Jamie Wyeth, which was another famous artist, and he's still alive and still paints his extraordinary artist. He then ended up painting me. He painted in a morning, Nuryev, and in the afternoon, he painted me, at the factory. Andy Woa was coming in at Outent, doing his thing. And we always had a really great time there, and it was very entertaining. I was there for three weeks when he was doing the painting of me. And during that time, I remember there was just very odd things going down.

I mean, it was like one day I was there. And they prepared, as I was just standing there and doing this posing for a Jamie Weith. And he comes in and they prepare a table, and then all of a sudden there was like 15 guys that were coming in. Good looking guys. And the next thing I noticed, they all were getting naked. So I look over there, then I'm hitting my pose. I say, this is like, and I'm hitting my pose.

I say, this is like, this is the Jamie Wilders. This is really wild, and he says, oh, this is nothing. So the next thing I know is, this guy is now naked, start piling on top of each other on this square table. And one after the other. And so I'm looking over the end, I see this thing. And then he moves the light around and all that stuff. And then all of a sudden, he comes over to me.

And he has this, the camera set up. He always uses polarity. And he says, it looks through the lens. So I went over there and I looked through the lens and he says, can you see what it is? And I said, no, it's really close. It's a very close shot. So what it was was the way he lit it was he then called it landscapes. And he was literally just asses.

But it was so tight. And you didn't see the feet or the legs or anything. It was just hills. And he called it landscapes. And that was the thing. And he painted the whole thing after the photograph. And he became a very famous painting, he sold it. As I think, as landscape,

with the title and stuff like that. But this is the kind of crazy stuff that I saw. And then every time I went out with him, he always had a tape recorder with him. And he recorded everything. And he even put me on the cover of his magazine, the interview magazine, which I've been on as in twice or three times since then.

But it was really fantastic. He became a really big fan and it was really a big believer. And we became really good friends. And he even painted my wife. I remember I called him one day and I said, look, I want to, I'm getting married in the spring. This was in 1986. And I said to him, I'm getting married in April. I said, can you do me a favor?

I said, be just five months away from that. I said, can you do me a favor and do a painting of Maria? And he says, absolutely. And I sent Maria down. She was doing an NBC Morning News show out of New York. So I sent her down to the factory. He took pictures of her and the whole thing like that. And he made this beautiful, beautiful portrait. So for Maria, he did like seven of them.

And one of them gave to her parents, when we got married, and then four of them gave to Maria. And then the rest of them ended up now with the, with the, with the, my two dollars. And so it was really fantastic. He was that kind of a guy. He really, but it was the extraordinary job with the paintings and came to my wedding,

to hang in his spot and didn't do any speeches. And that's not his style. And I said to him, it's coming in. He said, this speech and he said, it here, come here, this speech. And he said, no, it was always very shy and very quiet about everything. But so it was really great to actually watch his documentary that is out there. And it was a series of like I think, eight episodes or something like that, there were six episodes, whatever it was. But it was fantastic because everything that they showed was really true, that the way he lived,

and the way he thought, and how creative he was known and stuff. Wow. That's incredible. I had one other critical question before we get into the book, which is amazing. And I'm excited for everyone to read. But I am a fellow miniature donkey owner, I have two.

And I thought maybe you could tell people why they are the greatest pets. Well, number one, I really don't know if they're the greatest pets. I haven't had every pet in the world, but I mean, I can tell you that I never ever planned on having a donkey. I mean, even. Not because it's really odd, because my daughter,

when she was in the hospital riding, she was like, can you buy me this horse? Let's get it back. And then one of the things she wanted was a miniature pony. And so I bought this miniature pony. And in a few years later, she started dating. And for some reason or the other,

as time went on, she just kind of was not as interested in this pony. And the pony was in the stable right below, or from my house was going down Mandival Canyon. There were a bunch of stables. And so she was down there locked up and they resolved and someone took her out and took her around and walked her in order. So I figured that out and they said, I'm going to have this miniature pony come up to my house. And so I hadn't come up to my house once twice a week and then roam around the grass there and the house.

And I realized that she was wanted to come into the house and I gave her some food, some salary, some carrots. And it was really wonderful. And then I decided that I'm gonna build a stall for her and then I'm gonna bring up permanently to the house. And so there was now whiskey at the house. And now I have this new girlfriend. What at that point she was not doing anybody,

I dated her for a few years, but in any case, she decided that because she grew up in horses and she said, you know, I think she needs a companion. Yes. And so one day, one time, you're exactly. Yeah. So one day I came home and there was this miniature donkey. And together with Whiskey, with the miniature pony. And so they were hanging out together, loving each other. And she says, I knew it.

She needed a companion. Look how they're getting along at all. And I said, this is really great. And I was really happy about the whole thing. And so since then, we have this pony, and we have the donkey. And they come in in the morning, part of the routine, when I get up in the morning, is a feed the dogs, maybe I have three dogs,

and the pig have to feed the pig and the dogs. And then when I fed them, then they all kind of like, you know, are busy with eating. And now I go with the stables and get Lulu and Whiskey. And they now follow me to the house. We go into the kitchen now. And we go and we give them cookies.

So we make special cookies. They're open-air cookies with no sugar in it. Just honey, I mean, as if they're here, right? I mean, but I mean, anyway, they love those cookies. And I just give one that gives it Lulu the cookie, and then they give Whiskey a cookie, and Lulu the cookie, and Whiskey the cookies, and then obviously the dogs come.

And they want to get also cookie. So now, this is down, and I feed them to them. Then the pig comes, and then there's the pig comes in, and the pig is not 50 pounds, it's like this size. And there's a, he wants to have a cookie. So I give him a cookie. And then of course, now Lula gets pissed off because the pig is trying to get one of his,

she thinks one of her cookies. So now she starts trampling the pig. So the pig runs off screaming out, and the dogs run off, and I said, there's all this theatrics and his madness going on in my kitchen just before I even go on my bicycle ride and go and work out in a gym. So all of this happens between 6 and 700 km in the morning.

So we have had a lot of fun with those animals and I wouldn't even know what it would be like life without them because really it is just amazing of how much joy animals can bring to you. If you have the space, if you have an apartment, it maybe just works with a cat or a little dog or something like that. But if you have a house and if you have the property, have like three acres of flat land there and they run around all those animals and then eventually have to lock them up because otherwise there's certain animals like the horses, they just keep eating. Grass all day long until they get really fat.

And the pig is the same way. The pig just wants to eat. So I just, you know, they dig on the ground and all that stuff. So you just have to kind of put them in the area where there is no food so that you kind of protect the body weight a little bit. Yeah. I don't want to have a pig that is too fat. You know, if you want to keep it like around 50 pounds, it's kind of the size. But again, it's unlike anything else, the amount of fun that they provide, and with the

pig wanting to sit on the lap, and then you know, it just crunts away, then you feed it a little bit, and it just sits there. And it just falls asleep in your arms, in all of that, it's just really fantastic. Yeah, I take a lot of lessons on presence and stillness and gratitude for the simple things from my donkey. Yeah, that's a good idea. Why would I? Proud of you. Simple things for the donkey here.

My donkey wouldn't get along with you. Even for you. With simple things, there's nothing simple about that donkey. I take them to my office. So this is a real funny one. So I put the seats down in the back of the Yukon and then I trick them with food with cookies into the Yukon and the back seat.

You know, so they go in there and they have the cookie in front of them. So for the cookie, they chase anything. I mean, they go anywhere. It makes no difference where it is. And then they go in the back of the Yukon, I close the doors, close everything up, and then slowly I drive to the office.

And the office I let them out again, I put them in a leash, they'd run away. And they'd take them upstairs to the office and then they'd just run around loose. And they'd end up, it's a matter of it, still alone, ask me if he can, you know, do some filming for his documentary. And so he kind of come up with the office. I said, yeah, come to the office. So I brought the donkey and the manager Pony brought with me the kind of confusing little bit. He was like Tony Shocked when he came into the office.

And whiskey was on my left side, on my right side, and the noodle on my left side. And they were having carrots, and they were having carrots and they're chopping and eating away under carrots and stuff like that. And the cookies and he came in and he looked and said, hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee I said it acts like I said this is an everyday occurrence here, you know, I literally blew him away

and I was living so that. Hey, I'm Michelle Beetle. And I'm Peter Rosenberg. Hey, Peter, tell the people about our new podcast. Right, it's called Over the Top. And we cover the biggest topics in sports and pop culture using royal rumble rules. That means we'll start with two stories.

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You can listen to how I built this early and add free right now on Wondering Plus. Well, I was going to ask you sort of about your morning routine, but I feel like I just Now on Wondering Plus. because you have to have a routine. So did you get into the day automatically? It's like everything is automatic. So I don't think about should and now feed the animals or it goes to any of that nonsense, right? It just get up, go down to the kitchen and put the coffee machine on, put the music on, open up the doors, and then now the animals get fed. So this is the routine.

Then right after that is over, after the horses cruiser around for half an hour, they put them into the stable. Then I go and drive with my car, with the bikes in the back, in the down the hotel in Santa Monica, they unload the bikes and then we drive to the, we ride to the gym. And we work out for 45 minutes of the gym, then I ride back again and have breakfast,

then I go home and from that point on, I start thinking about and planning and working out the schedule or working on the speech or whatever it may be. And that's when my day begins really. Don't think, just get moving, get after it, don't get sucked into the phone, to email, whatever. Just absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. I would never touch the phone before I feed the animals

and before I go to the gym. And the simple reason is because that's what then the danger comes in that it sidetracks you. So you, you know, because that's assumed for a second your goal is to do your bi-sigling riding or life-sigling riding, a stationary bike writing or exercising every morning. So if you get out of bed and you start thinking about it, it could be that that derails you.

Because you maybe feel like, well, maybe the day I shouldn't, I need to make this phone call and all this kind of stuff. But if you don't think that can't happen. Yes. Because you're all out of bed and you go to your stationary bike and then you go and get to the regular, to your work. So this is why I think that in the morning it's very important that we get all of those

kind of things that show us out of the way. And they're fun. They really get you going. And I tell you that after exercising, I mean it's almost kind of like when I ride to the gym, I ride through a black and white landscape. But when I ride back from the gym after working out, I feel like it's all in color. I feel like the whole world has now become more positive and much more fun. And so this is why I always say to people that working out and exercising doesn't just have the impact

in your body, but it has the impact that glides you through, so how you feel about the day and about everything. And you know, how we all get up in the morning and sometimes that you press and think something going well. But after the workout, everything is just rosy and fine. It's just amazing the kind of impact working out has. We are starting the day with a win. And so you feel useful to yourself.

That's right. And you can go be useful to other people. That's right, exactly. You do have a beautiful ode in the book to walking. You have, you think you quote Nietzsche, he says, only ideas had while walking have any worth. Is the bike ride that kind of for you, it's getting yourself active, getting yourself moving,

starting the wheels turning for the day and then you carry that back to the work you have to do. Yeah, absolutely. So you get great ideas when you work out or when you ride the bike. And it's kind of a form of remediation, except you have to be careful. You have to know how to do that,

because you know when the oversetting think about something and overset the bus comes and hits you and wipes you out, out. So that doesn't work either. So I just, you know, I'm so used to the places where I ride through the traffic and sometimes dangerous. And you know, but I can think and I have visions because I'm a very kind of visual person. And I see my goals and I see the things that I do all the time. Not everything, just some things, obviously that are important to me. I have never seen for myself, for instance, or visualized myself as a great golfer.

And I suck in golf because of that, you know. But I do see, you know, if I have to give a speech, I mean, I always end up getting ideas, when I write about what I should say and how I'm supposed to approach the speech in order to, if I have an environmental conference in Vienna, I start getting ideas. And so this is what happens all the time during writing,

or also when I take a chakuzi. You know, when I sit in a chakuzi but outside our house, just the fireplace is on, and it's burning and the TV is on. And I just sit there by myself, sometimes through the stowings, sometimes with all the one, and I smoke and they always say,

great ideas come into my head. And it's just fantastic. The key thing is just then for me to write it down right away when I get out of the chakuzi, or what would tell my girlfriend, I say, remind me of this, remind me of that, because it's great at this. That's why I always say, when you get away from the phone, when you get away from the iPad or the computer, all of the stuff, and you give yourself time to think while you're doing something, it produces miracles. You know, since I talk about that in the book a lot.

Yeah, the key part, one of the seven strategies, you say is you have to have a vision. How you have to imagine how you can do people, you have to plan out being useful, you have to dream and think big. So don't think when you wake up, and yet also do a lot of thinking about how you can be useful. Yeah, visualizing, I think that the visualizing is to me always the most important thing because

when you see something, then you see it being possible. And you create this energy and this joy to chase this vision. Like, I remember clearly when I was like, in a 15 years old, I wanted to be the world champion in bodybuilding because I saw this guy, Rich Pock being on a big screen as Hercules in the movies. And then I saw this magazine, this bodybuilding magazine, with him on the cover and it said, Mr. Universe becomes Hercules.

And it showed how he trained, how he became Mr. Universe noticed. So as soon as I saw that and I saw the film, I said, I want to be like him and I'm going to be like him. And I saw myself on that stage and that Mr. Universe stage in London where he wanted Mr. Universe kind of, I saw myself on that stage with his body, but with my face on it. And everyone screaming in the whole R-Nort, R-Nort, R-Nort. And I shared this idea with my parents, and they immediately thought that there was insane. So then when I started training, and I started putting this pictures of those bodybuilders on the wall for inspiration, now my mother started getting really concerned.

So she called the doctor, our house doctor. There was only one doctor for everything. So she had him come out to the house and he came out to the house and she showed him the wall. And she says, Dr. Wettich, I go wrong. She says, look at Arnold, he's having all this naked man on the wall. And it was Sonny List and the, there was Yuri Flasov, the weightlifter, the Russian weightlifter, there were pictures of bodybuilders and weightlifters, and powerlifters, and shot-putters, and all of this kind of guys,

all this stuff that gave me energy. And Steve Reeves, Reg Park, those guys would be up there. But they all were with little trunks and just, you know, kind of swearing, all that. And some of the mothers said, look at that, all his people, up to all his man, oiled up naked. I mean, what is going on here? Where did I go wrong? Because his friends all have girls on the wall. And so he then kind of had to talk off the ledge. Because I mean, he kind of said, like this is normal at that age,

boys want to be strong and muscular and the orders of the changing in a different kind of a rhythm. So you have to just understand this whole thing. And this is nothing that you should be concerned about. And my mother was so excited, I mean, she was crying, literally crying, so worried about which direction I mean, she was crying, literally crying, so worried about which direction I'm going to go in order, kind of stuff.

So, anyway, so this is, they didn't believe at all, and any of that, my father was saying, is it, what are you doing? Looking in the mirror, pumping out your muscles and all this stuff, this is crazy stuff. I mean, why don't you just be useful? Why don't you just do something for other people? Why don't you job work? Why don't you just do something for other people? Why don't you just have work? Why don't you call a carry call in for the old lady next door? She needs somebody to help them.

Why don't you just think about yourself? And why don't you just always look in the mirror and look at yourself and say, it was all of this stuff going on. So they didn't believe in anything that I was doing at that time. So you know, that's why it is so important to have a vision because they would encourage you.

Yeah. They would say, no, this is impossible. Why don't you become a skier or a soccer player and you can become a champion in that. Why do you have to pick an American sport? This is stupid. And you know, the flexing muscles and all that stuff. And they said, even a sport. And so this is the kind of stuff that they heard. And so having a clear vision and then I was able to listen to those and not pay any attention

to the naysayers. And so I talk about it. I was saying a book about the importance of having a vision and seeing it clearly in front of you and not to listen to the naysayers, because the bigger your visions are, the bigger your core is, you know, the more people are gonna say to you, this is impossible. You're not gonna be able to do those kind of things.

And to me, it was like, I didn't care what they say, they actually gave me fuel, and they inspired more to get really in and to show that them, that it can be possible possible that someone from Austria can win the Mr. Universe competition and move to America and become the greatest bodybuilder. So it was kind of like, it gave me that energy and I just followed my dreams that all I was doing. And so, when I used this kind of principles for other things then, then I realized I'm

on to something because I realized that it was this vision that had chased, that made me enjoy working out hard in the gym, that made me never ever feel like, oh my god, I have to do another 20 sets or another thousand sit-ups or something like that. It was always kind of like, I'm looking forward to that because it gets me one step closer to achieving that goal. And so then I said, Mr. Void, I do the same thing with show business. And I used the same principles to get into movies. But everyone said it's impossible, we would never be able to do it.

And it worked. And the same thing, the same way it worked also when they ran for governor. So those, that's why I wanted to put those tools together, because those tools really work. And if you follow them exactly the way I talk about it. Well, more than just giving you energy, the sort of doubt and the criticism or the disbelief, you tell a story in the book about how that worked out

for you quite well financially when you wanted to go from action movies to comedy. And they said a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, that won't work. We don't want to fund that. It's maybe tell us that story. Well, I mean, first they said to me that there can never be an action star or a leading man because of my accent.

Sure. And because of my body is overdeveloped and And because my name, that one can pronounce. So there was all those reasons why it was no. It can't be done. And then when I proved to them that I could do it, and all of a sudden I was doing a show with Lucille Ball at TV show, then I was doing Stay Hungry, the movie with Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields.

Then we were doing pumping on and then, you know, Steve San Francisco and the villain with Kirk Douglas and then eventually Conan the Biberian and then all of a sudden, you know, I was taking off as the action hero in the 80s. It was the bang. It was the terminator, then it was Terminator 2, and Erase and Red Heat and on and on and on over this movie. And then of course, when I have arrived and now I am this big action star, this is getting $20 million a movie, I now said, I don't want to just do action movies, my vision expanded,

I wanted to do all the comedy, just like you said. But the studio said, why would we do that? Why would we finance a movie that we don't know if it ever would make money when we have a guarantee with the action movies? Why don't we do a commando number two in a predator number two and a terminator number three and all of those kind of things and keep doing action movies? And I said, because I would like to try to do a comedy and do something different and it wouldn't go for it. And so then Ivan Wrightman, who directed Ghostbusters, came to me and said, look, I see that you have a great sense of humor.

And I think that we can develop something for you. Let me think about it. And he developed twins, and he then came up with that deal with Danny DeVito, and because he was not involved, a comedy director that just released the biggest movie, comedy movie, Ghostbusters, they believed him and they said, okay, we go with it. And so we made a deal with Universal Studio and we said to them, they said, you don't have to go and take much risk because none of us would take a salary.

I would not take my regular salary, they need to be there, would not take a salary, what would I have in right man. But in return, we want to get 37.5% ownership of the movie. And they might find it, they said, great, we don't have any risk, we don't have any risk, it costs us to shoot the movie, 16.5 million dollars, and then we don't have to pay any salaries. So,

yeah, there's very little risk involved. We do it. And they did it. We made it make more money on that movie. I mean, because it was the first movie that ever made over a hundred million dollars in the box office. It made a hundred and twenty eight million dollars domestically. And it made two hundred and eighty80 million in the internationally worldwide. So I mean, so there you imagine now you own 37% and be divided it up according to our salaries. So I made a lot of money on that move.

And it was like, it was fantastic. But I made choices. I was in absolute heaven with them. And then after that, typical Hollywood, they had copy, cats, they immediately, then other students said, well, we want to do, here's a great comedy. And they sent me to kindergarten cop.

And then it was junior. And then after that, it was true lies, which in Cameron, with Jamie Lee Curtis. And thank you. But anyway, so then, all of a sudden, I got office for comedy and for action movies, but it's always like that. You always have to fight, and you always have to kind of

believe in yourself. I could, I totally believed that I could be in a movie and I could be a leading man. I felt that when Dan Manor was doing that, that it could become an action hero and also a leading man in comedies. And I did that. So I was really happy about that.

There was a, but I tell you one thing. The manor, what we talk about here, with all of those principles and everything like that. The bottom line is only in America. I swear to you, only in America. Because every single thing, every single thing that I've ever achieved in my life, it was in bodybuilding or in show business,

or with the government or with the US C. Schwarznäger Institute of Mainland, environmental kind of events that I have worldwide. It is like I'm only being able to do those kind of things by being here in America and building myself up because America is truly, I've seen it firsthand, the number one country with the greatest opportunities, you know, in the world. And I can always, thank you. Applause

And I can tell you all that I travel all over the world. And people come up to me all the time and say, even the day, as much trouble as we have. But people come up to me and say, can you please help me get to America? Please, can you help me write a letter for a migration service so I can get me visa? There's no one ever that came to me and says,

can you help me get into Russia? LAUGHTER Can you help me get into China? Can you help me to get into the Middle East? Can you help me to get to South Africa? Or any of the spaces, every one of them, where I go in the world, still the day they come up to me and says, can you help me get to America? So this is still the most desired place in the world and people know and they still the day that the same opportunity That I had way back 50 years ago when I came over to this country of 55 years ago actually and I see it all at

Time I mean this guy's coming over from France and from England from France and from England or from Germany or from Israel or from ever to come over and they become trainers in Goldschirm and all of a sudden I see them driving away with a Bentley. I say what the hell happened? The two years ago he came to me and he says can he help me get the job? He has a trainer and now the guy is getting $100 an hour. He works 15 hours a day and he's driving around nice, beautiful sports cars. He's a Jaguar and he's a Bentley.

And as I said, this is what is going on here in this country. No else. You can go to Austria and be a trainer all you want. You're never going to train or drive your Bentley. You're never going to drive your Jaguar, that I can guarantee you. So this is a, people should just know because there's so many Americans that don't understand

how an immigrant feels about America and why we love to come over here, because it is the greatest place in the world. Does that opportunity and those privileges does that come back into the idea of being useful, that there's a debt that comes along with everything that it means to be an American and we are obligated to try to be useful back in return. It's a very good question because I think that I write about that in a book because I got

so much help. A company that came over country. I had Joe Weeder, who was the publisher of the Muscle magazines, sent me the ticket, brought me to America. I had people literally when I came to this country and I lived in this apartment, this one bedroom apartment. We had nothing, it was furnished, but it was nothing in it. The Broadway bodybuilders brought me from the gym dishes and silverware. They brought me a black and white TV, the Broadway sheets, pillows,

and all of this kind of stuff. It was absolutely extraordinary, even a radio on the side of my end bed, my bed. It was, it was, it gave me this beautiful radio that I still have today, a man table. And it was just amazing to see that kind of, you know, one reception in the country. It made me feel so good.

And I was like, I remember that they took me, I came away two weeks before Thanksgiving. I didn't even know what Thanksgiving was. And they took me to their home and they fed me and I had this wonderful meal and they were telling me about the history of Thanksgiving and all this. So I realized that I'm getting so much and so many opportunities in America. That eventually you get to that place where you say, I have to give something back. And so I remember I started up with special Olympics to become a trainer. I used what my talent was, which was an interview about training. So I trained special Olympians and helped them to start with powerlifting.

And we started the powerlifting not only in America for special Olympics but worldwide. And so this was a huge, huge hit. And then because of that work that the president pushed us to become the chairman of the president's council on physical fitness, so it traversed all 50 states in the United States to promote health and fitness amongst our youngsters and school in public schools. And that was a very fantastic, and then that's what made me aware of that we need after school programs. And I saw those kids roaming around after three of Gak when the school was over and I realized that between three and six of Gak in the afternoon is the danger zone for

kids because there's no one home. But you know 70% of the kids come from homes. They're both of the parents of working. So there's no one taking care of those kids. So I felt like the only solution is that they to extend the school day and to create after-school programs. And so I started creating a foundation

and an organization, and this was like 30 years ago. And I started really working very hard and then passing an initiative in California to get an extra $500 million for after school programs to help those kids because they said this is the danger zone. We did it between three and six is where true and our crime happens. This is where teenage pregnancy happens where kids get involved with drugs, with gangs, with violence and orders, and it costs society a lot of money, and this kid's getting incarcerated at that age. And so we can do better than that.

So, I think the Rose Institute in California, did a study that said, for every dollar we put in an after-school program, we gained six dollars, we saved six dollars down the line. So, it just shows you. So, I went to the legislature. We sold that idea. We got $500 million in California extra for after school programs.

I'm raising worldwide money for this cause. So I'm like, we had just this last weekend and Saturday. We had October fest in Behauss. It was a fundraiser. It was a poker tournament where we invited 40 poker players with their wives. And they came and paid $50 each, which was like $2 million. And then we auctioned off items, movie items,

ferv mind, and other items that people donated. And we raised $7 million for after-school programs for our children. So to me giving back and you know doing something for your neighborhood, for your city, for your country is always important. That's what led me actually eventually to run for governor and become governor of the state of California. Even though people say that you crazy. I mean, you make 20 million dollars on movie and you're going to turn down this 20 million dollars to movies a year and you're going to be stuck in Sacramento for seven years. This is insane. But you know, I didn't think that way because I said to myself, the money that I've made,

I made because of America. So it was time to give something back and say, didn't bother me at all. Did you take myself out of circulation for seven years and to run the state of California and I felt like honored. Adventure awaits inside the Camp Cue. Laf's prizes and fun are guaranteed. Enjoy this interactive family experience

at CF Sherway Gardens. So what is it? Step inside and find out. Visit the Camp Cube now through January 21st at CF Sherway Gardens. Make it there. And it was one of the things that I talk about that when you recognize that you're not a self-made man

because everyone always says, honor is the perfect example of a self-made man. I was saying that you can call me anything you want, but not self-made man, because just an own the governorship, 5.8 million people voted for me. How can I say I'm a self-made man? I didn't make myself governor. I'd say the dictatorship or something like that. It was, it voted, The people voted for me.

So there's 5.8 million people right there. They'd helped me become who I am. And so the same thing is with everything in bodybuilding and show business. Imagine what would I have done if I wouldn't have had John Millius who did Conan the Biberian or Jim Cameron who did determinate the movies. Or you know, Ivan Rypman that said, okay,

yeah, he would be perfect for comedy. So there's so many directors, I mean, John McTurlan who did the predator and all his movies. I mean, those directors made me, without a great director, you're nothing. And then I have had some bad directors and the movie went right in the toilet, wish.

You know, so I mean, So I can tell you, directors, it's very important script writers, it's very important. The people, all these people on the set, and the movie said, there's 300 people on the movie set, they all help you. One is the electrician, one is the focus puller, one is the camera's together,

one helps you with the water of noise. How can this MS Self-Made Man? It's crazy. So when you realize you're not a self-made man, then you realize also that you have to give something back because everyone is helping you to be where you are. So now it's time for you to help also others. And so that's why I have become kind of like a fanatic about giving something back and doing something for the American people. We have some audience questions, but selfishly before we get into that, I wanted to ask you,

I've got two young kids. How do you think about raising kids to be useful? How do you teach some of these lessons early on? Well, I tell you that we took our kids, Maria and I, we took our kids to the Special Olympic events. And the kids came to the White House when we had the great American workout on the south lawn of the White House.

And they always were there. Or when we go out and hang that food, or when I go, and for instance, to have events where we hand out turkey for the poor people in East Los Angeles, we go to the Harlem Big Center, I take my kids with me. They help me hand out the turkey, then it's in the plastic bag to those people. And they help me organize everything. So I think the key thing is, is to explain the kids that this is a very important part.

My wife is still the day, all the time, takes the kids down the church to feed the homeless people and all this kind of stuff. So I think that you just have to see you do it. And then they will ask question, why do you do that? And I said, well, look at this. There's a poor people. They have no money for food. So it's important that we help them to get food to them

and all of a sudden, I did the same thing. Like for instance, with the children from the after school programs, when we had the pandemic and the schools were closed, I told the kids that said what we're gonna do is, instead of using the money for after school programs, right now since the schools are closed, let's go and put food together for the poor people in Easter lay and in South Central. And let's go and deliver food, organize trucks and just kids were all working to put the

food together for them and the appers, the bananas, the this, the that, and we put those bags together. And it was fantastic to see 20, 30 kids in this room packing up everything, you know, with the little masks on and all the stuff, but packing up everything, jumping into the van, and then some grown-up would then drive them around to these various different homes and deliver food. So this is how kids learn. They see that this is important, that we help one another,

and they always tell people, is it don't ever give me this line. The most common line you always see of it, people, is kind of like, well, I don't have time to work out, which we know is bogus, right? Because we have 24 hours a day. And then also like, well, what can I do? I mean, I don't have anything.

I'm not rich. I cannot donate money to a charity or something like that. And I said, well, have you ever thought about that? Maybe a good reader. Maybe we want to go to an after-school program and to the reading, because what the after-school programs are all about is to help kids after school and to tutor them and to help them with their homework,

and to give them homework assistance. So I said, you can go to any school, and you can help them with the reading, with the writing, maybe in math, or something, you have some skills. I said, you can help people when there is election day to drive them to the polls so that they can vote. It is endless amount of things that we can do, where we can reach out and help.

I said, so get your act together and just do it. You don't have to always say, well, what can I do? Is nonsense. Every single one can participate in that and can do something about it. And they always tell people, don't sit in front of the TV and complain how terrible things are out in the world. Because you always always say to them,

I say, what do you do about it? When my kids go to the ministry, she says, oh, okay, isn't that terrible? Look at this, oh, this homeless, and those anxious. And I said, and what are we gonna do about it? What are you doing about it? I said, I already created 25 homes for homeless veterans, endless antelis that I bought the homes,

that there's miniature homes, so they have a place to live with a bedroom and a place to live. I said, I created 25. I said to help 25 people. I said, what are you doing? And so this is what this is all about. It's like, let's go out and do something.

What can you do? And there was a video, you probably saw it. I was a mandible can in the street because of our house. There's those hores, these potholes for months. And I said to me, a quarter-city, and I said, when you guys fixing that, oh, this is a special service hall, hall, there's still, we need to keep it open, it's bullshit, right? I mean, it's like typical city nonsense. So I said, well,

this is now three months already that we have those halls. When you're going to go and close it up, well, we still, you know, there's a lot of things that are damaged because of the rain and all that stuff, and they had excuses and excuses. So I went out and it just because I used to do construction work with Frank at Colombo, which I read about in the book, you know, that even though I was Mr. Universe in Mr. Olympia,

I was still doing construction work to make a living because in bodybuilding there was no money at that time. So, but in any case, the bottom of my I know how to do construction. So I went out and got asphalt, bought the asphalt, got my friend, got a shovel, and we started paving those hores, filling up those hores. It was five, six huge holes, but basically writers were wiping out. And then all of a sudden the city said, well, it was not done correctly. Then I said, okay, I think it was done totally correctly. I said, and if you want to prove about it, as you come out and fix it, well, they came out the next day, they checked it out, and they realized that it was done perfectly.

They didn't touch it. They didn't touch anything. And here we were paving the things, and we were fixing the roads without going and complaining about it and whining other cities, not doing business. They said, yeah, they are idiots for not doing it. And they're lazy, bombs from not doing it.

But I mean, they're the all kinds of excuses but I mean the and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and What is about? Let's not complain, let's just think about what can we do to change things and make things better. That's what it's all about. What's the worst advice you've ever received? You know, I cannot think of any worst advice that I've ever received. I just remember that I received bad advice with an investment.

There was the first investment that I made when I came to the United States, which was to buy land in the Enderlup Valley where they're supposed to build a supersonic airport. So I said to myself, okay, I saw it here in the papers, that the plan is to build a supersonic airport, which is around 60, 70 miles away from Los Angeles. So you know the end of the valley.

It's in the Alenquesta, in California. And so I bought land there for, I think, was $15,000. So I had $5,000 and I put that down in the rest of it, I paid off. And then over certain two years later they decided that they can, they would never build the supersonic airport because it was against the law to create supersonic booms over land. You can only do it over the ocean. And so this whole idea of supersonic airports and airplanes without the window. And so the guy came to me that told me the land

and said to me, he says, eh, I think that the only way you want to do money on that one is if you keep it free, grandchildren. So I was like, OK, I don't need the money. I don't need the solid. I said, you know, at that point, that was like kind OK, I don't need the money, I don't need to sell it. I said, you know, at that point, that was like kind of like making new money. And so I kept it. And so this $15,000 property is now worth $1.5 million after all of this years.

But it took 55 years. But I can say it is the worst is the worst advice that I've gotten, and I still made money on the whole thing. I never ever lost any money on any investment, then I know for sure. So given that and given the extraordinary success you had, what keeps you motivated to do new stuff, to write books, to start new initiatives, what keeps you motivated to do new stuff, to write books, to start new initiatives?

What keeps you going? Well, it's exactly that. And would you just say to me, it's like, you know, there's a story that I talk about in a book about this guy, Hillary, that the Client Mount Everest. And one of the things that caught my attention was because when he climbed Mount Everest, he was the first human being to climb Mount Everest, he's up there on his peak. And then when he comes back down, he's been asked by everybody. I said, what did you think about when he walked there?

I mean, it wasn't a great feeling in order to... And he said, I looked out and I saw another peak. And I said to myself, I wonder what it would be like to climb that peak. And so that says it all. It's like I have always believed in the philosophy of staying hungry. So to me, as soon as I climb a peak, as soon as I accomplish something, I always feel like, okay, what's the next thing I can do? And so there's always a set goals that have certain visions in front of me that chase this vision. It's like going

in a former Mr. Universe to go to become an action star, to go to comedies, to go to charity events, and to run for governor, and to create environmental conferences, to do the things with the after-school programs. Then I did some commencement speeches, and then all of a sudden people came to me and said, this was the most fantastic thing that this commencement speech, and you gave the students all these tools for success, you should write a book. So, I of course, I ignored that for 10 years, but then eventually, I said to myself, maybe I should do it because I do travel around the world, and I talk about and give success speeches and give speeches about pumping people up and motivating them and letting everyone know

that everyone can be successful and all more successful and happy and fulfilled if you follow certain rules. And so this is exactly what I do is, it's like, then I went after this book, and I said to myself, I got to get help for that, you know, so I said that doing research on it, on self-help books, and the motivational books and all that. Instead of looking for the right publisher, and we started making phone calls and all this. So this was the new goal. I got to have a motivational book.

And all of a sudden, it was the most important thing. I got to go out and help people motivate them, fire them up and let them know that they can do it. It doesn't matter how poor you are, how old you are. If you're a woman or man, this black or white or everyone can be more successful. And then write about that and what are the tools? And so this is, I think, became obsessed about that. And so that's when I said, we're going to book and the book now is out. And now I'm around, you know, there's one chapter in the book

that says, sell, sell, sell. And that's what I'm doing now. You see what I'm saying? That's what I'm doing now. I'm traveling around the world. And publisher, I mean they are very smart people and they know that you have to make the money back because there's a huge investment to the publisher book like that. And so they say, okay, here we give you a publicity schedule

and the marketing schedule and the promotional to a schedule and all of the stuff is, you know, so you work with all of that and then you go around and you start promoting, having autographing sessions for the book and doing publicity, doing interviews and all this kind of stuff. And it's a lot of fun. And I am one of those people that doesn't dislike doing this kind of work because, as I said in this book, you can have the best product in the world, but

if the world doesn't know about it, you have nothing. You have absolutely nothing. So this is why it's important that when we have something that is really good, go and let the world know. And the data is good, go and let the world know. And the data is so many ways of letting the world know. And so that's what I'm doing right now doing the various different interviews and talk shows and new stations and all of this stuff

and talking to you all here. And it's been a lot of fun. And I really enjoy it every moment of it because again, I see everyone in the world having this book in a hand. That's what my vision is. And so therefore I am out there in promoting, I am out there talking about it and all that stuff and it has been a lot of fun because there's a reason you know when you sit down for an interview and you may be exhausted and you're tired that you don't say to yourself I'm after to

another interview. No, I'm looking say to yourself, I have to turn another interview. No, I'm looking forward to it. I can reach with this interview, another few million people, with this interview, another few million people. So it's great enthusiasm and fun and you know, all this people you meet on the road is fun anyway. So I've been having a great time with all of that. Well, you're infectious, the book is amazing,

and thank you so much, and thank you all for coming. I'm absolutely glad. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank off, hopefully get your charcoal lit. Then I would love for you to join us in the 2024 daily stoic New Year New Year Challenge. We did the first New Year New Year Challenge in 2018. Year after year, we've realized that really the community is the biggest part. It's the most important part of the day. It's really what takes you to the next level.

And even me having made the challenge, I'm telling you, hey, here's what I did today. Here's how it went, getting feedback, and encouragement. It keeps me accountable, right? I get something out of it. I know you'll get something out of it. If you want to join us in our version

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Or as I said, sign up for daily stoic life. If you do this to a clay. Get it for free. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to the Daily Stoic Early and Add Free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.