Your Seat At The Table With Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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You're listening to Business Lunch with Roland Fraser. This is your seat at the table. Hello and welcome to Business Lunch with Roland Fraser. Thanks for everyone who has recently followed the show on Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate the support and we're loving the reviews and shares after episode 250 with Richard Branson. But let me tell you, today's episode 251 is just as good. At a special live edition of Business Lunch, Roland Fraser had the honour of talking with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has so much to offer anyone looking to realize their dreams and goals. But before I hand you over, there's still time to enter our contest@businesslunchpodcast.com contest if you want to win some really cool Apple prizes, because we love our listeners. Okay, let's begin.

We're doing a special live edition of our business launch podcast here and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be here with us and we're going to get to ask him some really fun questions. One of the most amazing people, when I read his autobiography, I was just blown away. I had no idea that he'd done all the things that he's done. So the official bio is Austrian American, actor, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and former politician who served in as the 38th governor of the great state of California from 2003 to 2011. I'd like to welcome Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Governor Schwarzenegger, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is really wonderful.

I just couldn't believe I'm going to ask this in a question, but I just couldn't believe all the people who crossed your life. It's just, it's just amazing. I'm going to hop straight in because I want to use the most of our time. You came from a family with no money in a remote town in Austria, and then you rose to the top of not one, but three different fields. Bodybuilding, acting, politics. What advice would you give to anybody in this audience that feels that they have too many disadvantages and just too much to overcome to be able to realize their dreams and goals?

Well, first of all, I have to say that whenever you want to accomplish anything great, you have to overcome a lot of obstacles. So it's not just them. I had to overcome a lot of obstacles. I mean, just think about it. I grew up in a little farm community outside of the town graz. There were 800 people living in their community and I was right next to a farm where I got the milk every morning for my family and I had to milk the cow there and then to somehow make it out of there through five hours of working out in bodybuilding every day and convincing people that I was doing the right thing and, and then trying to win a bodybuilding competition and then convincing them to come over to the United States that they want to come over here. You know, I mean, there was so many obstacles, but I, at the same time I have to say that if you have a big vision, then nothing is too difficult, you know, because you then overcome anything and you do it with great pleasure. I mean, I always believed in six principles. You know, if, if you have a great vision, number one, then you know, break the rules. Because if someone says, well, that never has happened before, well, that's the old rule, you don't have to stick to that, you can still break that rule and you can do something unusual that no one has ever done before. And then also don't be afraid to fail was one of my rules always that I had. And don't listen to the naysayers and work your off and give something back to the community when you finally made it to give something back to the community. So I applied those principles and I think this, there's a really, these were the ones that really helped me. But there's a lot of obstacles that overcome. And the other thing that I always say is, you know, that because a lot of people call me a self made man and that I'm the perfect example of a self made man. I'm not a self made man. I don't like that description because the fact is that I only was able to overcome all of those obstacles with a lot of help. I mean, if it was my parents in the beginning, if it was my teachers, my coaches, my training partners, even the people that voted for me in California to become governor without boats, I wouldn't have been governor of the great state of California. So you need a lot, a lot of help in order to get where you are and to really accomplish your goals. And, and you have to recognize that and always thank everybody for helping you to go along and to achieve those goals you mentioned.

That's really awesome. And speaking of goals, you've mentioned several times that you have written goals. Actually you write them down and then you visualize yourself achieving them. Like standing on top of the platform is the winner in the bodybuilding competition, for example. What is your goal setting process? So you've got the six principles. How do you go about actually setting and monitoring those goals?

Well, I Think that the important thing is that you really think very clearly and give yourself the time to think about what is your goal. Because if without the vision, we don't have anything. I mean, it's without a plan or without knowing where you're going to go. I mean, imagine you can have the best airplane in the world and the best ship in the world, but if the pilot or the captain does not know where to go, you just drift around. And this is exactly what happens to people in life. They drift around because they don't have really a specific goal. I mean, I many times ask people, I remember in the early days in the gym, why do you work out? And they would say, well, I, I like to look a little bit better. And the doctor told me that. So this is not really a goal, this is not really a vision. You got to have a vision. As stupid as it is. You know, some I would tell someone, I said, just imagine, in three months now is again season to be on a beach. Maybe your goal should be just to look terrific on the beach, that you can show off your body. Maybe that's a great motivation. And then they came back the next day and says, yes, that's what I'm training for. And from that point on, that person really trained very hard because now they had a specific goal in mind. And so if you pick a goal, let's say losing 20 pounds, that is a specific goal, a specific vision that you can go after. But if you just drift around, you're not going to get anywhere. And so I was very fortunate to that I always kind of was able to visualize very clearly to become kind of like my idol, Reg park. It was Mr. Universe and he did Hercules movies. And I said to myself, I want to be exactly like him. I want to be like Reg Park. I want to win the Mr. Universe contest. He came out of Leeds in England, in the factory town, and he worked his way up. He worked, trained five hours a day. And that's exactly what I did. I mapped out a plan then, how do I get to that goal? And, and then I followed that. But the great thing was when having a vision, you just have so much excitement when you go and struggle. When I trained five hours, I knew why I was training five hours. When I lifted weights, I couldn't wait to do another rep in chin ups or another rep, you know, in squats and stuff like that, because I knew that would get me one step closer to becoming the world champion in bodybuilding.

That you said again and again in lots of different places. And I think it's just so powerful to keep motivated that it's not. This is hard. This tough thing I'm doing right now is getting me one step closer, one step closer, one step closer. I think that's really brilliant.

I think it's a key thing because so many people always complain about how hard it is and how tough it is to study and all that stuff. It's all a bunch of nonsense. Because I think that if you have a goal, then it is not tough. If you have a goal to become a doctor, well then you know that you're in for a 16 year haul and that you have to go and do the school and all this. But it's fun because then it's fun to take a science class that maybe is not as exciting if you just don't have any goal, but it's fun then to do it and to study the medicine, to study that, take the classes and work your way up until you're a doctor. And then maybe you have to go for two years into a hospital and practice there to go into, do surgeries and so on. So if your goal is there, it makes it easier and, and it makes it more fun because you have a purpose why you're doing all this.

So what are some of your current goals?

Well, you know, to me I've now since I've been in three fields, so my goal is still to promote bodybuilding and to promote fitness and to have, we organize every year the Arnold Sports and Fitness Festival in five different continents in order to promote fitness worldwide. Because that was always my mission, not to just lift for myself, but I wanted to become an inspiration to, to millions of people to also exercise and to get healthy and fit. And so that's one of the things that I'm really doing all the time, that my goal is to make America to make the world fitter. And then so we have those conventions and then I'm involved in public policy situations with the institute, with the Schwarzenegger Institute at USC where we deal with, you know, public policy. If it's environmental issues, health care issues, good government practice, you know, political reform issues, voting rights issues, equality issues and so on and so forth. So that makes it makes it a lot of fun for me to go from one to the next to promote one day bodybuilding, the next day to do policy stuff and then the next day do shoot a scene in a movie again and stuff. So it makes life interesting or be involved in investments or something like that. So I have a very, very Kind of interesting life being involved in so many things and I just have the greatest time doing all of this. So people always ask me, when are you going to retire? I would never retire because I can retire when I'm six feet outer. That's when I retire. Then it's over. Yes, yes.

I love that your parents, they were good, hard working people, but your goals were really unique in that small town in Graz where you, where you grew up and your dreams weren't readily supported. As a matter of fact, your mother even called in a doctor to be sure that the things that were on your wall made you okay. Right. The posters of the bodybuilders in Reading Total Recall. I was surprised that you knew how to use the tool of visualizing really very early on to visualize those early successes even without family support, which a lot of us find challenges, particularly as entrepreneurs or a goal driven mentor. So where did you come up with the idea to do that?

Well, I just, you know, had like I said, the talent to visualize. And you're absolutely correct. You did a lot of research, I can tell because you know the specifics about my career. My parents were very much against everything that I did. Yeah, I mean when I lifting weights, they hated it. They said this is stupid. Why are you struggling so much? I will come home during this, the lunch break and I would do 200 sit ups on the sit up board at home. And she says, Arnold, this couldn't be healthy. You can't do that, you're ruining yourself, you're destroying your body and all this stuff. And my father, of course, he was a police officer who old fashioned, may I remind you. And he always just said, why do you work out? Why do you stand in front of the mirror and just look at yourself? That's stupid. You know, why don't you go and shuffle some coal or you know, chop some wood or something like that. That will get your muscles. And so, so there was a lot of obstacles. That's why I said if you have a clear vision, you can overcome those. And there's one of the rules that I told you about is, is don't listen to the naysayers. Everyone in the beginning when I started out said this is impossible. You can never be a world champion in bodybuilding, this is an American sport and all that stuff, or you will never be able to get to America or you will never get into movies and be a leading man or you would never become governor. This is, you have to start out as a mayor. So all of these naysayers were always around. And I think the people sitting out there and watching this, I just want you to know, don't be surprised because the higher your goals are, the bigger your goals are, the more people will come around and say, you're crazy. It will never happen. No one has ever done this. And all this stuff. It's very difficult. They try to discourage you. And I just never listen to the naysayers.

It's kind of interesting, too, because the most impactful naysayers are the people usually who are closest to you, who really are. They're trying to give you advice that they think will help you, right? But. But it's really not helpful. But they think you're going to fail. There's a movie called Walk Hard where the guy's wife is constantly saying, you know, I believe in you, but you just ain't never gonna make it. Right? It's. That's. They think they're doing the good thing, but you gotta get past that. That's great.

I think also, when you read about very successful people, you will see there's a commonality there. I mean, that where they. They all have witnessed the same kind of problems where people said, it's impossible. Don't even try it. You know, you will get discouraged. You just let yourself down. And all this kind of stuff. I just. I think everyone always says I never listen to the naysayers. And I think this is one of the main things of the rules to success is don't listen to those people. There's. First of all, there's jealousy going on. And second of all, they're giving you advice based on their little bird brain. And so you want to be bigger than they. You want to emerge as a winner. And so this is why you have to just go right by them. And I think it's great to have a lot of stupid people around, because otherwise we all will be in trouble. So, I mean, I think the only way you can be smart is if other people are stupid. So I love it.

So your life's been really strategic, and you've done a really impressive job of making a plan and keeping on track. And repeatedly, you ask yourself if opportunities moved you forward towards the goal, and you made your decisions in your life based on that answer. What was the most significant opportunity that you had to sacrifice that you had to say no to during this process?

Well, you know, the interesting thing is when you have a very clear goal, then there will be opportunities coming up that are not fitting into that goal or into that vision. And you have to turn them down if you're really serious about your goal. But there was one incident, for instance, I remember in the 70s, I studied in school business. And so I was always savvy in business. And so a friend of mine that I worked out with every so often, who ran the European health spa spas here in California, he said to me, says, arnold, you're good in business, you're really motivational, you're great in fitness. If this body, why don't you go and become the manager of our European health spas? And I would say to him, I said, that sounds very interesting. I like to motivate people and come in here every so often, have a seminar and stuff. No, no, he says, I want you to manage it. I give you $250,000 a year. And so I said to him, I said, it's not a money thing. You don't understand. If I do that full day, eight, ten hours a day, I couldn't train, I couldn't educate myself, I couldn't go to college. And the way I want to go and I cannot do the things that I really want to do. I want to become the greatest bodybuilder of all times, and I want to become a leading man. And this would not take me into that path. And so he was like totally blown away by it, that that would turn him down. But those are the kind of. At that time, may I remind you, I had very little money. I just made my first few investments at that time. I maybe had $27,000 to my name, which I then used for buying a six unit apartment building. And they started my kind of real estate investments. So he could not understand that at all. But I understood it well and I walked away from that feeling good that I knew where I wanted to go. And of course, that was the right decision to make.

Are, are you speaking of real estate? Are you still thinking real estate is good right now?

I think real estate is good. The key thing is, always is you got to be very good in improvising. You know, every so often there's great opportunities there. In the 70s, it was like, for instance, Jimmy Carter was president. There was a huge inflation. So we knew that because of that inflation, that if you invested in real estate and you got something, an apartment building like the one that I bought for $240,000, within one year it was $340,000 and then it was $500,000. So it went really up because of the inflation, enormous inflation. So I took advantage of that and that's why I never really complained too much about Jimmy Carter, even though, you know, he was not the greatest president in town. But. But I mean, the fact of the matter is he really helped me get my beginning in real estate investments and become a millionaire way before I ever really got into the movies.

You also had some land, was it out in Nevada, near Nellis Air Force Base, that you had for a long time?

Yeah, it was in the Antelope Valley. You're absolutely right. Where they were supposed to build the supersonic airport.

Right.

And then they didn't. I invested my first, the $2,000 that I had that I say from seminars and traveling around doing posing exhibitions. I took that money and put the down payment down for buying some raw land out there that seem as if that would be a great investment. But sure enough, then I think they killed it because of the noise pollution of supersonic airplanes. And then internationally, they made kind of a treaty that they will ban those kind of planes, except you can fly over the ocean, supersonic speed, but not on land. And. And I think it was the wise decision to make, except that for me, it was terrible. The guy came to me and he says, arnold, I wouldn't sell you investment. He says, your grandchildren will benefit from it eventually. But the land was. I think it was like, I bought it for $5,000 or something like that, and now it is worth over a million dollars. So I kept it. I paid it off and off that stuff, and I kept it for my grandchildren. Exactly what the guy recommended.

That's awesome. I loved it. When you went to the bodybuilding competition, I thought, I think it was your first Mr. Olympia to participate in, and you realized that you could have won, but your goal wasn't to win. Exactly. At that time, if your goal had been different, you said, I think I could have won. So do you catch yourself ever thinking too small today?

No. Well, first of all, that's my rule, is to think big and not to set small goals. It was not the Mr. Olympia, it was the Mr. Universe competition. I was 19 years old, and it was the first time I went to the Mr. Universe competition. I said to myself, you know, my plan is to the first year to just go there, test the waters. And because I was really just 19 years old, I was very, very young, and the others were much more experienced. So I said, if I get in the top six this first year, I mean, I would be so happy.

Right?

And what happened was, all of a sudden I'm standing there with this American guy with Chet Yorton who just came from America, that won the Mr. America competition. And I was always called out to have a pose off with him. So I said to myself, this is so hard. The other guys are not being called out. I'm called out. What is that all about? So I posed and I did my pose off with the guy. And then on the end he won and I came runner up. And I was like, so blown away that I came second in the Mr. Universe contest with the age of 19. And then the following year, of course, now I had all the excitement and the energy and believed in myself, I can do it, I'm on the right track. I was already, with the age of 19, you know, second place winner. So then the next year, with the age of 20, I became the youngest Mr. Universe ever. And then the following year, with 21, I won the second Mr. Universe. And then it just continued on because, like I said, I didn't just want to win the Mr. Universe title. I wanted to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time. That was my big, big vision. So I won Mr. Universe after Mr. Universe, Mr. World, Mr. Olympia, seven times, 13 World Bodybuilding Championships, all together. And then on the end, people said, this guy is literally the greatest bodybuilder that we have ever had. No one has ever won that many titles, and I don't think anyone ever will. And so I was hailed as the greatest bodybuilder and that finally accomplished my goal.

I don't remember if it was the Mr. Olympia or universe, so help me if you would. But what was amazing to me and I think would be really helpful for the people here to know, because I had no idea. I thought you trained really hard and you won, but you actually got all of the posing. You noticed that in one of those things that your competitor would pose and hold for a certain period of time. So you got all of the films of him doing that, and then you said, I can do three power poses that counter each of the muscles that he's showing in each of those poses. And you watch those and did your routine and had your timing just down, and then that pushed you over. That's amazing. Like, that's crazy.

I knew in order to really win and to stick out, because, you know, most of those bodybuilders pretty much are on the same level. Yeah, I would say it's very. It's only very trained eyes that can really see the difference between one or the other. But this all the top. You have to be a Mr. Universe to go and enter the Mr. Olympia competition. And in the first place. And so I. I used. I hired a woman who was a trainer for ballet, and I asked her if she can help me so that I can outpost the other guys. Because there was a category in the judging sheet. For posing, you got 20 points, and for muscularity, 20 points, and for size, 20 points. And so I wanted to make sure that I get the 20 points in posing, because that makes it sure that you can win. And. And so that's exactly what I did. I studied and studied and studied with her. The posing and the fluidity and of the horsing, the movements, the hands, that. The look of the eyes and with the. In order. And so I outposted everybody, especially that guy that was Mr. Olympia, then Sergio Liver. I outpost him on the stage, and then I put a little trick on him. I said to him, okay, I think it's enough. Let's just walk off the stage. And he walked off the stage, and I stayed on the stage, and I went kind of with my hands like this. Well, look at this guy is maybe too tired. He shouldn't be the champion. So it was all kind of about the psychology also how to psych someone out and how to go maneuvers through posing and convincing the judges basically that I am the champion. And that particular year, then I beat this guy that was already three times Mr. Olympia.

I love it. One thing that comes to mind too, as you said, that I didn't know about the ballet person for the posing, but I do know that you had a language coach to help you smooth out the Austrian accent so people could understand you more.

You get my money back?

No, it worked great.

But, but.

So you've invested along the way in having other people who were experts help you get to wherever you wanted. You feel that is a. Is a really good, solid investment, much like real estate, since you're investing in yourself.

Well, you know, it's. It's so difficult when you're German speaking, and there's so many kind of things that in the English language, that is very hard to do with the tongue.

Yeah.

You know, like the. Th. You know, like we say three with like a S.3.

Right.

And so this coach had me go and say 3333 and 1/3. So. Th. Th. Hgh. So, I mean, that was the idea to just train myself. So I ran around all day long with this. 3, 3, 3. And. And this and that and those and all of those things. Now, remember, the other one was like a fine wine grows on a vine. So there's A F, a W, and the V, a fine wine. So we don't have that sound wine. So we just say vine with, like, a bit of V. And so I say, so I practice that fine wine grows on a vine and the sink is made out of zinc and all of this. So I was practicing and practicing for hours every day. That's the way to do it. If you want to go to a country and this country already receives you with open arms, which I was received in America and got all the opportunities, I felt like I should really get into it. And especially since I wanted to become an actor and the leading man, that I should really work on my dictionary and on my enunciations and all those kind of things.

So what's the thing with contractions? Because I know you had a spirited debate with James Cameron on Terminator about the contraction I'll and I'll be back. What is it about that that kind of makes it seem weird?

It just sounded to me feminine, as if. Jim, this is. This sounds weak. It sounds weird, as if for a movie where you're the Terminator and you're a machine. So it was that. It was. If it would have been some other movie, that wouldn't have mattered to me, but just because it was a machine, I felt kind of like, I will be back. And he says, no, no, no. And he says, look, I don't tell you how to act. Don't you tell me how to write? You know, because I wrote I'll. And this is what we say here. And so then. And luckily he convinced me, as with so many other things, you know, he's a dear, dear friend of mine, and he convinced me to say I'll be back. And he says, look, I roll the camera and we do 10 takes, any way you pronounce it, any way you want to announce it and say the Al. I don't care. Then we pick the best one together. And so I did exactly that. I'll be back. And I'll be back. And I'll be back. He says, no, that's too slow. I'll be back. And there's a perfect. Okay, that's the one, you know. So then. And then we looked at it, and he picked the best one.

So you ultimately felt that it did seem like it fit, or was it still kind of? I don't know.

I felt absolutely. That he did the right move. He made the right decision. It just was because I'm not that familiar with these contractions and that the will and I'll and all Those things, I just didn't feel as comfortable with it. And especially for that character, Terminator. And Jim Cameron was right, 100% right.

That's awesome. He's going to make something himself if he keeps at that. He's, he's going to be a successful. Going back to the thinking big. So what would you, what would you advise people who want to think bigger? Like just because it's easy to say think big, but so if somebody goes.

Well, how, because I don't even know.

What I should be thinking I'm capable of. What advice would you give those folks?

Folks, you have to go and get in touch with yourself, with your inner self. What is your biggest desire? Because so many people are afraid to make a big goal, to create a big vision because they feel like it's too big. I would never get there, I may fail and all of those kind of things. And you know, I, I, I just, I think that this being scared of picking a big goal is one of the main things. People are afraid. People are people a lot of times throughout the whole day and in their life, they're scared of things and they're afraid of things. And so I always tell people, I said, look, don't be afraid to fail anyway. Because I said the bottom line is I said even the biggest people have failed. I mean, if you just think about, you know, Michael Jordan, I remember he said he missed like 9,000 shots.

That's the best commercial I've ever seen.

Yeah, isn't it amazing? He had 9,000 shots and he lost 300 games and he missed 26 times the game winning shot. And all of the sudden is this because I missed and because I failed, I became the greatest basketball player. So think about that. And this is exactly what I believe, that the only way that you can really push ahead and go big is if you're not afraid to fail. And it's okay to fail. It's okay because I remember, you know, try to lift £500 in the bench press. I failed 10 times before I could ever bench press in the £500. But I kept it up and I kept it. I didn't consider myself a failure because I couldn't do it. I just felt like going from 475 to 500 was a big jump. But I'm going to make it. By the time the German championships comes up for the powerlifting, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. And I tried it 10 times. The 11th time I did it. And so, you know, people shouldn't think of themselves as failures. I think a loser is someone that stays down. Yeah, but when you failed something, you're not a failure, you just failed on this. And now let's, you know, get up and dust yourself off and continue on. I think that's the attitude I always said I, I only always felt like you can only fall so far. I mean, this is six feet and you fall to the ground. That's as far as I can fall. So what, I get up again? That makes no difference to me, you know, and you have to understand that when you are in the public, then it really is painful when you fail. Because even now a big bodybuilding champion. I remember coming over to America and I have already been two times Mr. Universe. And then all of a sudden I lost against this American bodybuilder by the name of Frank Zane. And I was devastated. I was devastated because I felt like it was so embarrassing. The whole bodybuilding world is now witnessed that Arnold Schwarzenegger got beaten by this Frank Zane guy. I mean, oh, my God. So that's worse because in most cases, when you fail, no one would know about it, just you. But in the public eye, if you're a politician, I remember that there was a governor for two years, and in 2005, I had like four propositions on the ballot and I wanted them to win. There was a special election. I called and they all four lost, all four. But the next year I came back and I won the governorship again. And I had the 57%, you know, with the 57% of the votes and all this I've said. So you always come back, you know, you just have to accept the failure.

I love it. One of my business partners, Kent Clothier, says that he moves forward through fear by saying, this is where my competition stops. This is where mediocrity sits. And I've got to push by that. I love that.

Exactly. That's also in training with the pain barrier, you know, the people that really can push beyond the limit, the ones that are really able to accept the pain when you train, when you do your 10 reps on a curl, let's say, and the bicep is burning, that you put it down, but never put it on the ground. You just hold it and catch your breath and then do 11th time. Now, these are the four straps and it's the forced reps that make you grow. That is the key thing. I'm mentioning only the bodybuilding, because that is kind of like an example, because it's everything else in life is exactly like that. The more you tenacious, the more you force your way and force and force and force. The more you go through pain periods, the further you can go.

I love it's the forced reps that's really great. Rather than working your way up and paying your dues, you said that you like to just start at the top. Great. I like that that's what you did. And guys, you did so many cool things with the Australian army, with the tank thing, bodybuilding. Moving quickly into Those competitions for Mr. Universe and Olympia and even you were on the frickin Lucille Ball show as a masseur. That's you've been like with everybody.

It's crazy how many people were able to say that they massaged Lucille Ball, right? I mean I was right in front of everyone, live audience. And we shot this show, this special anniversary and goodbye it was called with Art Carney, Lucille Ball. And it was fantastic. I mean, I have to say I was a little at a stage fright because when no one told me what that means live, right? So I thought it taped. I walked into that door when the green light lit up, I walked in and there was like 2,000 people sitting out there applauding when they saw my body and with the tank top on us. And I realized there's an actual audience there. So I was like freaking out and she covered me and she says, all right, all right, so you're the messenger, so set up the table now, let's get going here. And I snapped out of this kind of staring around like this and then set up the table instead of massaging and doing the scene with her and Odd Connie, that's awesome.

What did you and do you think then to allow you to skip that working your way up part?

Well, it's the give you an example. The tradition is to work your way up. But I think that sometimes, you know, it's not necessary. Like for instance, when I ran for governor, you know, people said to me, you can't run for governor. You have to be first a legislator, state legislator, state senator or assembly person or something like that. And I said to myself, no, no, I don't want need to be that. I said, California right now is in trouble. We have certain problems. I have the solutions to those problems and I'm going to run for governor and I'm going to convince because I'm absolutely passionate about it and convinced that I have the solutions and I'm going to go and sell this to the Californian people. That's exactly what I Did. I went out there and I did not know anything about much about politics and something, but, I mean, not that much. But I went out there and I just campaigned and talked to the people. Even though the Democrats had everyone from Bill Clinton come out and Al Gore and John Kerry and Jesse Jackson, they all came out for Governor Davis. But I said, I don't need anybody. It's just me and the California people. I'm going to talk to the California people. And I won. And because my day, they understood my message and what I wanted to do and how I was passionate to give something back to this estate and to this country.

That's, it's. And you gave back a lot.

Mayorship and all this other little stuff. I mean, I go for the big stuff.

Go for the big stuff. So what would you, what advice would you give to somebody that wants to be at the top to get to their goals faster, to like, how do they, Is there any advice that you have in how to do that?

The vision is the most important thing.

Yeah.

And those rules that I told you about that not, not listening to the naysayers and to work your ass off.

Right.

And they don't ever, ever shy away from working hard.

Yeah.

Because this is what it is. It's like grinding it out. I remember the days when I was competing in bodybuilding and I was doing bricklaying jobs. At the same time I was going to school. At the same time I was taking acting lessons. At the same time I was, I was doing all of that and I only slept six hours because that's all the time I had available to sleep. And so it's just like all out kind of war in a way against myself and to just kind of say I'm going to fight it out no matter what it takes, I would do it because I'm absolutely convinced I have the clear goal, I have the clear vision. I see it. So therefore, see it, believe it, achieve it. That's what they say. Right. And this is exactly what I did.

I love it.

So I think that being convinced that you're on the right track is the most important thing. And so, so many young people today come out of college and I feel sorry for them because I said to them, I said, so what do you want to do? And he said, I don't really know. I said, well, let's, let's assume for a second that there's a genie coming out of the bottle and the genie asks you, what is your wish? What do you want to be a billionaire or the Greatest this, the greatest what, whatever it is, or astronaut or whatever. And they still stand there and says, I have to think about that. Well, wait a minute. At the age of 22, you have to think about it. What you want to do in life and what you're passionate about. There must be something. And I think they're afraid to make a commitment, so they're dancing around. So I feel sorry for people like that. So this is why I say, before you do anything, sit down and find out what is it that you're passionate about. And then it makes it so much easier when you pick something, no matter how crazy it is that you pick, pick it and then go for it. 100%.

Absolutely.

So you're.

I found, as I was studying more and more about you, that you're basically like a modern day Forrest Gump, which is the character diamond for our company digital Marketer. Interestingly enough, you've been in so many really cool places with so many iconic people, people. I had no idea. You used to hang out with Jack, Nick Nicholson and Warren Beatty. Andy Warhol did a painting of your wife for, I think it was an anniversary present or a wedding present or something. You're on Air Force One with President Bush. And you even knew this was cool to me, just the ultimate cool. You even knew about the Desert Storm initiative one day before everyone else in the world because you were hanging out at Camp David. What the heck is the secret to networking yourself into so many high profile and important people's lives?

Well, you know, some people have to network their way in to be with great people like that. But I never really had to do that, to be honest with you, because it was all natural. I mean, I met President Bush when he was then vice president in the, in the Reagan administration. And I was invited frequently to the White House. And that's where I met him. And I started great conversations with him. And then he asked me to campaign for him, and I campaigned for him when he ran for president in 1988. And then after he won, he was the first one to come to my world premiere for Twins at the Kennedy center in Washington. So he came and gave a speech there, which was a special event for Special Olympics also. And we had the premiere of twins. Danny DeVito was there, Ivan Reitman and all the people from the movie. And so after that, then he was sworn in. I went to the swearing in ceremony. And then after that, he invited me to Camp David. Pretty much like every third, fourth weekend I was up at Camp David, I mean, up with Maria. And we had a great time. Then when Catherine was born, she. She went up there with us to Camp David. And so we were hanging out there many, many times. But it said it was organic, you know. So then he made me the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and so on. But that was also the case with other people that I met, like Gorbachev, you know, I mean, I met President Gorbachev because I was a big fan of his. Because someone that has grown up with communism and then decided when he's President of Russia, of the Soviet Union, then that the system doesn't work and then to go and throw out the system, I mean, it's like absolutely incredible, the courage that it takes. So I've then rained into mb. We did an event together in Germany, a charity event. And because I'm in the charities and he's in the charity, so. So we were together and then I remember he came over to Los Angeles and Ted Turner had this huge gala for him. And I was sitting on his table right next to him. So these are all natural things, or if it is. For instance, I remember Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela, I never networked to get into seeing him, but because he wanted to promote Special Olympics and I was then the national coach for Special Olympics. So he invited me down to South Africa to promote Special Olympics in South Africa. So he took me to that cell where he was kept for 27 years and in Robben Island. And, you know, so I was kind of one of the very unique few people that were able to step into the cell. So there's people like that. I remember also Dalai Lama, you know, when I was governor, he came to the women's conference that we organized every year. And then I hung out with him for an hour and talked about spiritual stuff and all this. So Mallon Brando, the Chinese leader, I remember Cheng Siming In 2000, we were over there promoting Special Olympics in China. And he was a big fan of movies. So these are all the people that I met throughout my life. It was because it was organic, never networking to get in there and to meet them, really.

Okay, so basically you were a shut in. Now you've met so many interesting people. What would you say? Well, actually, that movie Twins. Are you going to do triplets?

Yes, as a matter of fact, right now the script is being written.

Really?

And finalized? Yes. And we want Eddie Murphy. We want Eddie Murphy to play the other triplet. To play the other. That we did not know about. Kind of brother of ours. As a matter of fact, I just was with Danny DeVito yesterday hosting something online about our heroes out there that keep us going during this pandemic. If it's the grocery workers or the firefighters, the first responders, the hospital people, there's nurses, doctors and all this kind of stuff. So we did something together to acknowledge the great work and their courageous work that they're doing. But Danny and I, we have been good friends. Danny DeVito is one of the funniest people I've ever met. And one time we were in the middle of shooting, I think it was Junior, a movie that we did together. And for lunch he always invites me to his trailer. So. Because he loves to make pasta. And he made this beautiful pasta. And then afterwards we had the coffee and the dessert, the Italian dessert and all this stuff. And then he gave me a joint. And so I think during the days, smoking a joint, I don't think it's good. We have to go back to the set. He said, no, no, just a little hit. Don't worry about it. So I had that little hit with him. Yeah, I went back to the set. I totally forgot my lines. So we just finished the scene just before lunch. We finished this scene and we didn't finish it. We finished a master shot, but then we had to get tighter and do close ups and orders. And when I came back, the director said, action. And I said, what are we doing? He says, well, we continue on with the scene that we did before. And I said, what are the lines? And then the script supervisor came to me and showed it was a disaster. We had to do for three hours just on Danny. And I was standing behind the camera to do his lines, reading it off the script. Then finally it all came back again and we continued the filming with the close up and all this stuff. So he pulls tricks also. He's a prankster.

That's awesome. When do we get to expect that? That might come out in the theaters.

That's questionable if anything ever comes out in the theater again, right? Yeah, but we will go. I think the first thing is we have to get the script in the beginning of the year. And then we're going to go into the post pre production and then maybe by the end of the year or after summer, we can. We then will be ready to shoot it. But we are all looking forward to it. I think it's one of the movies that was the. My first movie that made over $100 million in the United States. Made $128 million in the United States. And it was my first movie that made internationally also over $120 million. So it was a huge success. And it was. The funny thing was that Hollywood didn't want to hire me for a comedy. They only wanted me to, to do action movies because they were making a lot of money. Right. And so then when we, we. I said, I literally took no salary. When they said to me, well, how much do you want? I said nothing. I said, just give me 20% of the back end. I said, I don't want no cash in front at all. I'm not cash poor. I have money. So they said, well, that helps a lot. So that's how they did it, the movie. And they ended up making so much money because the movie was so successful. We were also selling it to the network and airplane and online and all this. I mean, it just keep making money and money. It's fantastic. It's one of the great decisions I made. Yeah.

What are some, just this will be my last question. What are some of the best resources in terms of books or blogs or other media that you recommend that people read or consume to help them move forward? What, what, what are some of your favorite, most inspiring, most motivational, most impactful books or other things, Documentaries, whatever?

Well, I think the most influential book that I've ever read is just a simple book by Milton Friedman, Free to choose. And the reason why it was so important in a way was because I was a big believer in Richard Nixon when he was elected, when he was campaigning. It just came over a month before he won the election against Humphrey. And so I just. From a socialistic country, from Austria. It was socialist country then, not anymore, but then it was. And so when Humphrey talked, it sounded very much like, I'm back in Austria. And when Nixon told Humphrey fair, everything was kind of like, government is the answer. And when Nixon talked, it was like, get government off your back, lower the taxes, strong military, strong law enforcement and all this kind of stuff and let the world be the marketplace. I mean, very visionary, really great. I said, oh, this is great. He just wanted to protect the consumer so that the consumer can go anywhere in the world without having to pay this extraordinary kind of import duties notice. But to be able to shop anyway, if you get a better car in Japan, so be it. If you get a better kind France or better clothes in Italy, so be it. That's how you make America competitive. Now, of course, the Republicans have flipped everything around. Now they're into protectionism all of a sudden. I don't know what the hell happened here. But in any case, the bottom line is it was very refreshing listening. So then when I met kind of someone that was believing in that conservative, more conservative approach to economics and Milton Friedman, I started seeing his TV shows, I started reading his books and everything like this. But that book was kind of a simple book that laid it all out of why it is so important to go in a certain direction with the marketing and with your principles, economic principles, then to go where government is just the answer to everything. And so there was one book, the other one, of course is Sergeant Shriver just recently wrote a book. Oh, not recently actually he, I just found it recently and I, I, I read it many years ago back in the, in the late 90s, which was really terrific. And then also there was a book that I saw at, in London when I checked in at the hotel that Boris Johnson, then he was mayor of London, sent me over about the Winston Churchill. And that was also a very interesting read. While I was over there, I, I read it. So there was a few good books, but I would say that in general I read the things that have to do with economics and with politics and the autobiographies and stuff like that.

Sergeant Shriver, do you know what the name of that book was?

It's called the Point of the Lands.

Okay, I'm going to read it.

Perfect. No, Sergeant Shriver was about his life in the Peace Corps and about the public service and all of this stuff. It's really fantastic.

Yeah. And you had the chance, I think it was your father in law. Right. For a while.

Right.

Brilliant, brilliant guy. Great idea.

And I have to, I have to remind you that a lot of great ideas about public service I got from him. And I think that he also motivated me. When I met him in 1977, when I met my wife, it was really great listening to him about giving something back to your community and not only always just thinking about yourself. And I think that's why I got involved then, you know, in Special Olympics and then started getting involved in the President's Council on Fitness and started after school programs for young kids because 70% of the kids come from homes where both of the parents are working. And that eventually led to then me running for governor because more and more I got excited over the fact of how wonderful it feels to give something back. I mean, the way it really started was when I went to a special seminar for Special Olympians. They asked me if I could coach them and teach them how to do weight training. And so I went there for a Day and I taught them and I was working with them and it was, it was complicated, you know, to communicate with them and all this stuff. And there was this one kid that was kind of freaking out when I put the bar with his chest and he was doing a bench press, he was just screaming and jumped up. So then I said, okay, the next one. And I put this 20 pound barbell on them and they did the bench press. And then eventually he stood in line again. And then I said, you want to try it? And he says, all right. All right. And he laid down again. I just put the empty bar on top of him. And he did the empty bar then three reps. And he said he was then smiling and I could see, okay, put the 10 pound plates on it, on each side. And we had it on his chest. And then he did a few more reps. We did a few as he put another ten pounds on. And then after that we just took the weight off and I said, let's give him a big hand. This guy, just unbelievable. He just bench pressed £55 10 times and we were applauding and he was so excited.

That's so awesome.

And so that night I went home to the hotel, I remember, and I felt so happy and I said to myself, why are you feeling so happy, Arnold? And I realized that I didn't make any money, I didn't make a career move, I didn't break any records, nothing. It was because I made this child happy and I gave him confidence that he doesn't have to be scared about under this weight, that he actually can do it right. And we broke through this barrier that he was afraid of and we got it. And that's what made me feel so good. So I realized that actually the greatest feeling comes not just from winning or making another million or something like this, but also giving something back and doing something where you help an individual or a bunch of kids. And so that's what got me really into it because I was so happy with the way I felt about that great little success story. And then I wanted to just keep doing it and doing it and then it gets very addictive. And then eventually, you know, I wanted to run for governor and that's why I'm still involved, like in public policy ideas and all those kind of things.

That's awesome. What could we do to support you as we leave here today? And the things that you're doing. Is there a foundation or a cause or a charity or just doing something in particular to help other people? What action could all of us take that would give back and say thanks for all the stuff that you've done to help make our and other people's lives better?

Well, thank you for asking. But I mean, you know, I'm involved in a lot of different foundations. Like I said, you know, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, which is a big, I'm very passionate about, I am involved in for the last 30 years with the after school programs. After School All Stars is the name of it. And we are raising money for that all the time because that's important, especially now with the pandemic where we're feeding also poor families, not only providing after school programs. I think that those kind of things are just very, very important to reach out and to help. And then also just like for instance, recently I put money in and invested in opening up polling places because there is, there were a certain amount of polling places in the south that were closed that enabled minorities to vote.

Oh, wow.

And I was very upset about that because I believe in equality. And so this is why I then put money in there and raised money for it. And we were able to open up a whole bunch of polling places in Texas and then Georgia and then, you know, North Carolina and other places. So it was really fantastic, very successful. And we got more and more people to come out and vote and be able to vote and to do exactly what every American should do is vote and pick your leaders.

That's awesome. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate you hanging out.

It was fun doing it. So thank you very much.

You've been listening to Business Lunch with Roland Fraser. If you're enjoying the show, let us know by subscribing and leaving a review. And for more information, go to businesslunchpodcast.com thank you for listening.

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