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