I finally got around to reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography, Total Recall, and was blown away by the way he thinks and by what's he managed to accomplish in a very short time.
Some of the quick bullet points are as follows:
Goal-Setter
Every year, he writes down his resolutions on index cards. They're always precise and ambitious, like "Win Mr. Olympia" or "Earn 30 college credits" etc. Then, he uses his tunnel-vision-like focus to zero in until he accomplishes them.
Grind Your Way to Success (It's All About the Reps)
He compares everything he does in life to working out. The analogies are always fitting. Success is a matter of just doing the reps day-in and day-out to him. Before he gave speeches as governor, he rehearsed it not once or twice but sometimes 20-30 times. Each time he does, he leaves a tick mark on the page. Not unlike checking off each set you complete during a workout.
If You Don't Know, Ask
Arnold knew he wasn't the smartest person in the room. So when he didn't know something, he tracked down experts and practically bathed in their wisdom. He started several successful businesses, which included a mail-order catalogue business, real estate, and bricklaying/construction. He didn't know much about any of these fields when he got in. With the mail order business, he was trained by his boss until he was practically running the business by himself. With bricklaying, he relied heavily on his buddy Frank Columbu who used to be a bricklayer in Italy, but as for Arnold, he himself had no knowledge/experience in it whatsoever before agreeing to the venture. All profits he earned from his ventures he shoveled into his real estate venture, which succeeded because he persuaded an experience industry vet to help him. 30 years later, he's still in business with the majority of these people.
Time Management is the Key.
Arnold had many goals. We all do. But the difference is that he was fantastic at time management. This meant he was also very good at compartmentalizing. Almost like he had separate drawers in his head for all of his different projects that he could open and shut or turn on or off like a light switch. A UC Berkeley student once complained to him that tuition was too high and so he'd like for more government funding to go towards financial aid. But this was 2008, when California, and the rest of the world, was in the beginning stages of the financial meltdown. So he challenged the student, asking him how many hours he worked to pay his way through school. (It came out to no more than 3-4 hours/day.) Then, Arnold explained how in his early 20's, he trained 5-6 hours each day for his bodybuilding competitions, spent 3-4 hours in class, another 3-4 hours for homework and language studies because he had weak English skills, and another 3-4 hours at his bricklaying/construction business. And Arnold still managed to go out, meet girls, and carry relationships. Just imagine how much money you could make/how far you can go just grinding it out like that everyday while still feeling like you have plenty of time to meet girls.
Start Only If You Intend On Finishing
This is perhaps my own biggest sticking point and the biggest takeaway for me from his book. Looking back, it might seem like Arnold was involved in a lot of different things. But the truth is, he is still involved in them today. They weren't spur-of-the-moment ventures or projects to him...everything was something he wanted to pursue all the way through to completion. At age 10, he wanted to go to America. At age 15, he wanted to be like his local bodybuilding hero, who had all the girls, cars, and money. At age 21, he wanted to become financially independent through business. At age 23, he wanted to become the highest-paid movie star in the world. And after marrying Maria Shriver and becoming a member of the Kennedy family, he wanted to become a politician. There was no project or venture he pursued that did not fit into one of these goals. (BTW, he accomplished all of these goals.)
Once You Set a Goal, Don't Change It.
Many of us do this. We want to make $10,000/month but will settle for 5 if the work involved for the extra 5 doesn't seem worth it. We go out planning on bringing home a 9 or 10, but settle for the less hot but still cute 7 who is making things much easier than the 9 is. We plan to stick to the Warrior/Paleo/Caveman/Whatever diet and then modify it because "come on, this is real life, it's impossible to stick to those diets 100% in today's society..." But what I was impressed that Arnold did (and it must've bothered him at times or made him anxious to do this) was he didn't budge from his goals. Hollywood originally wanted him in villainous roles that didn't require much speaking. When he first started out, he was adamant that he only wanted leading man roles with speaking parts and always the good guy (of his 50+ movies, he's only played the villain 2 or 3 times.). When he won his first bodybuilding competition, he made it his goal to become the winningest bodybuilder in history, even though it meant beating his close friends and mentors and straining relationships. And when he decided to become a politician, everybody encouraged him to run for a local position first, but he didn't want to wait and ran for governor with zero experience, as an immigrant, strange accent, and in a crowded field that included 135 candidates (because California has some of the strangest laws ever). Don't compromise on your goals. If you lose, take the hit like a man. Don't be that guy who chooses the more traveled road just so he can pat himself on the back when the more ambitious guy fails.
Conclusion
There's obviously a whole lot more than just that in his book. I'm cherry-picking the ones that were most insightful for me and hopefully, by extension, the RVF crew. I hope it was insighftul for you guys too.
Some of the quick bullet points are as follows:
- His ambitious goal at the young age of 10 was to go to America.
- He started bodybuilding at 14.
- He won his first international competition at age 19.
- He made $1 million (presumably net worth) before he turned 30 and before he became a movie star.
Goal-Setter
Every year, he writes down his resolutions on index cards. They're always precise and ambitious, like "Win Mr. Olympia" or "Earn 30 college credits" etc. Then, he uses his tunnel-vision-like focus to zero in until he accomplishes them.
Grind Your Way to Success (It's All About the Reps)
He compares everything he does in life to working out. The analogies are always fitting. Success is a matter of just doing the reps day-in and day-out to him. Before he gave speeches as governor, he rehearsed it not once or twice but sometimes 20-30 times. Each time he does, he leaves a tick mark on the page. Not unlike checking off each set you complete during a workout.
If You Don't Know, Ask
Arnold knew he wasn't the smartest person in the room. So when he didn't know something, he tracked down experts and practically bathed in their wisdom. He started several successful businesses, which included a mail-order catalogue business, real estate, and bricklaying/construction. He didn't know much about any of these fields when he got in. With the mail order business, he was trained by his boss until he was practically running the business by himself. With bricklaying, he relied heavily on his buddy Frank Columbu who used to be a bricklayer in Italy, but as for Arnold, he himself had no knowledge/experience in it whatsoever before agreeing to the venture. All profits he earned from his ventures he shoveled into his real estate venture, which succeeded because he persuaded an experience industry vet to help him. 30 years later, he's still in business with the majority of these people.
Time Management is the Key.
Arnold had many goals. We all do. But the difference is that he was fantastic at time management. This meant he was also very good at compartmentalizing. Almost like he had separate drawers in his head for all of his different projects that he could open and shut or turn on or off like a light switch. A UC Berkeley student once complained to him that tuition was too high and so he'd like for more government funding to go towards financial aid. But this was 2008, when California, and the rest of the world, was in the beginning stages of the financial meltdown. So he challenged the student, asking him how many hours he worked to pay his way through school. (It came out to no more than 3-4 hours/day.) Then, Arnold explained how in his early 20's, he trained 5-6 hours each day for his bodybuilding competitions, spent 3-4 hours in class, another 3-4 hours for homework and language studies because he had weak English skills, and another 3-4 hours at his bricklaying/construction business. And Arnold still managed to go out, meet girls, and carry relationships. Just imagine how much money you could make/how far you can go just grinding it out like that everyday while still feeling like you have plenty of time to meet girls.
Start Only If You Intend On Finishing
This is perhaps my own biggest sticking point and the biggest takeaway for me from his book. Looking back, it might seem like Arnold was involved in a lot of different things. But the truth is, he is still involved in them today. They weren't spur-of-the-moment ventures or projects to him...everything was something he wanted to pursue all the way through to completion. At age 10, he wanted to go to America. At age 15, he wanted to be like his local bodybuilding hero, who had all the girls, cars, and money. At age 21, he wanted to become financially independent through business. At age 23, he wanted to become the highest-paid movie star in the world. And after marrying Maria Shriver and becoming a member of the Kennedy family, he wanted to become a politician. There was no project or venture he pursued that did not fit into one of these goals. (BTW, he accomplished all of these goals.)
Once You Set a Goal, Don't Change It.
Many of us do this. We want to make $10,000/month but will settle for 5 if the work involved for the extra 5 doesn't seem worth it. We go out planning on bringing home a 9 or 10, but settle for the less hot but still cute 7 who is making things much easier than the 9 is. We plan to stick to the Warrior/Paleo/Caveman/Whatever diet and then modify it because "come on, this is real life, it's impossible to stick to those diets 100% in today's society..." But what I was impressed that Arnold did (and it must've bothered him at times or made him anxious to do this) was he didn't budge from his goals. Hollywood originally wanted him in villainous roles that didn't require much speaking. When he first started out, he was adamant that he only wanted leading man roles with speaking parts and always the good guy (of his 50+ movies, he's only played the villain 2 or 3 times.). When he won his first bodybuilding competition, he made it his goal to become the winningest bodybuilder in history, even though it meant beating his close friends and mentors and straining relationships. And when he decided to become a politician, everybody encouraged him to run for a local position first, but he didn't want to wait and ran for governor with zero experience, as an immigrant, strange accent, and in a crowded field that included 135 candidates (because California has some of the strangest laws ever). Don't compromise on your goals. If you lose, take the hit like a man. Don't be that guy who chooses the more traveled road just so he can pat himself on the back when the more ambitious guy fails.
Conclusion
There's obviously a whole lot more than just that in his book. I'm cherry-picking the ones that were most insightful for me and hopefully, by extension, the RVF crew. I hope it was insighftul for you guys too.
