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10:01
Arnold Schwarzenegger Leaves the Audience SPEECHLESS | One of the Best Motivational Speeches Ever
MotivationHub
·
May 12, 2026
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Transcript
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i'm here to talk about success
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[Music]
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the first rule of success is to have a
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vision
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you see if you don't have a vision of
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where you go and if you don't have a
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goal where you go
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you drift around and you never end up
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anywhere
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i mean as you know i was born in 1947 in
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austria after the second world war
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so i was very fortunate
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that i stumbled under my vision
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and i didn't really like austria when i
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grew up
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i couldn't wait to get out of there
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i couldn't see myself becoming a farmer
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or a worker in a factory
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0:42
or anything like that
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even though my parents wanted me to stay
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there and have a normal life
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but that was their vision not mine
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my vision was totally different i felt
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that i was born for something special
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for something unique for something big
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then one day i went to school i remember
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was 11 years old
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and they showed a documentary about
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america
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there they showed this documentary the
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huge skyscrapers
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the high rises
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the huge bridges
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the six lane freeways
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and all of this stuff in this emissive
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that's where i want to be
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[Music]
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i don't want to be around here with
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these little farm houses and these
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little buildings i want to be in america
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one day after school i walked by a store
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in graz
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so i went inside and i looked around and
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then i saw a magazine
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there's a bodybuilding magazine that had
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reg park on the cover
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reg park was then a three-time mr
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universe
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and i saw him on the big screen as
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hercules
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i read that and i said to myself wow
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this is the blueprint for my life
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this is exactly what i want to do
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i want to become a bodybuilding champion
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just like rage park
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i want to get into movies just like rich
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park
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and i want to make millions of dollars
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and be rich and famous
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just like reg park
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do you know how great it felt
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that i knew where i was going
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imagine the majority of people don't
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know where they're going
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i knew where i was going
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that i'm going to become this
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bodybuilding champion just like him
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so it was just a question of how do you
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do it
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i was so relieved
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because when you have a goal when you
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have a vision everything becomes
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easy so people always ask me when they
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saw me in the gym in the pumping iron
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days
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they say why is it that you're working
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out so hard
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five hours a day six hours a day and you
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have always a smile on your face
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and i told people all the time i said
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because to me
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i'm shooting for gold
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in front of me is the mr universe title
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so every rep that i do gets me closer to
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accomplishing that chord to make this
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core this vision turn into reality
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every single set that i do
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every repetition every weight that i
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lift will get me a step closer to turn
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the score in the reality
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so i couldn't wait to do another 500
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pound squat i couldn't wait to do
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another 500 pound bench press i couldn't
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wait to do another 2 000 reps of sit-ups
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i couldn't wait for the next exercise
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with the age of 20 i went to london and
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i wanted to miss the universe contest as
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the youngest mr universe ever
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and it was because
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i had a goal
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[Applause]
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so let me tell you something visualizing
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your goal and going after it makes it
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fun you've got to have a purpose no
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matter what you do in life you've got to
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have a purpose
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[Music]
3:57
74 percent
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hate their job in america
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now there's not much different when you
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come to europe
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the majority of people don't like what
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they're doing
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because they're really not doing it
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because they didn't have a goal and they
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followed the score they just aimlessly
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drift around and then all of a sudden if
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there's a job opening so they get their
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job because you have to work
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but then when you work it's a chore
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it's work
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it's not fun so if you think about only
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a quarter of the people really enjoy
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what they're doing in life
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that is unbelievable if you think about
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it so i felt so blessed that i knew what
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i was doing
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it's like a medical student that studies
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and knows he wants to become a doctor
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you know where to go
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and the same thing is also in politics
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i remember that in politics i had a very
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clear vision
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[Music]
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that i will be the leader of california
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this is as far as i could go because i
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was not born in america so i could not
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run for president
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so being the governor of the fifth
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largest state
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of i should say the largest state the
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fifth largest economy in the world
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was for me really
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the ultimate title the ultimate
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accomplishment in politics
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so even though people came up to me and
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says why don't you go
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and run for something smaller you're
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never gonna make it
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i ran for governor and then two months
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later i became governor of the state of
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california
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again because i had a very clear vision
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what i'm gonna do with california
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[Applause]
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so that's rule number one
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have a vision
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rule number two is
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don't listen to the naysayers
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don't listen to the naysayers
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everything i ever did
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the thing that they heard out of
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people's mouth was that's impossible
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[Music]
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that can't be done
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or no
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that is exactly what i heard and of
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course i proved to the people that it
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can't be done
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so whenever someone said to me
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it can't be done i heard it can be done
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when they said no i heard yes
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and when they said it's impossible i
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heard it is possible
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i'm a strong believer what nelson
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mandela said
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that everything is always impossible
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until someone does it
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well i'm gonna be the one who said to
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myself i'm gonna do it and i'm gonna
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show it to them maybe it has never been
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done before
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that's perfectly fine with me
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but i'm gonna do it
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and i did not listen to the naysayers
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it's all about the hard work that you
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put in
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i said i must have been bodybuilding i
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worked
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out five six hours a day i'm gonna do
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the same thing now for acting
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and of course i went to college to study
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english
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i studied the
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accent removal
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acting classes
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and all of this stuff
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all day long
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i worked and i worked in the work
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[Music]
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and within a short period of time i made
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one movie called hercules in new york
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which of course went right into the
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toilet
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but it didn't discourage me i still had
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the same vision
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and then all of a sudden i did streets
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of san francisco
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i did stay hungry and pumping on
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and the villain and then all of a sudden
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i was asked by dino de laurentiis at the
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universal studio to star in conan the
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barbarian
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and after i did conan the barbarian the
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director at the press conference said to
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the press
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the director was john millius
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he said to the press if we wouldn't have
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had arnold we would have had to build
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one
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so think about that
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the very body
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that they said
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can never be sold because the time is
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wrong
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a few years later
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i'm doing conan the barbarian and it was
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the number one hit at the box office
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when it came out
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in the summer of 82.
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think about that and the director says
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if we wouldn't have had his body we
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would have had to build one
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so all of a sudden
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my body became an asset not a liability
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and the same thing was with terminator
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after we were finished filming
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terminator jim cameron said to the press
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if arnold wouldn't have had that accent
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and talked like a machine
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i think the movie wouldn't have
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worked so think about that
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the body and the accent that they
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attacked was an asset
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but i didn't listen to those losers
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i didn't listen to them at all it's just
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the reality of it is that you cannot
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listen to the naysayers so this is a
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very important lesson for all of you so
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when someone says no this is a stupid
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idea
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you in your mind you don't have to say
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but your mind to say this of you you saw
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what do you know
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
9:35
[Music]
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[Music]
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you
— end of transcript —
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