Arnold Schwarzenegger: ‘You don’t need discipline if you find joy in what you do’ (E254)

0:28Watch it early on the High Performance App. That's what they call high performance. It can be academically, it can be inventing something, it can be in sports, it could be in anything, but just give it everything. Life is exciting because we only have one. This is it, this is not a dress rehearsal. When you lose, you lose, and you're down on the ground, but you get up again. The loser stays down, but the winner when he fails he gets up again you dust yourself off you get up again and you march forward and you see a vision and you go forward and you go forward so that's that's how i always felt that is arnold schwarzenegger and this is high performance the show that unlocks the minds of some of the most fascinating people on the planet i'm jake humphrey and on this show we learn from the stories, struggles and successes of our guests, allowing us all to explore, be challenged and to grow.

1:31And today we're going to explore the life of a man who's been voted one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. In his heyday, he was the highest paid actor in the world, three times Mr. Universe. As the governor of California, he was responsible for the world's fifth largest economy. How has he done it? What's he learned? And what's next for the one and only Arnie. I hope you enjoy this conversation recorded live at the London Palladium in front of a packed crowd. Thank you Fane for your hard work on our behalf and for you at home, enjoy this incredible conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2:09But first, a quick word from our brilliant sponsors.

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3:32With Opera Air, mindfulness is built right in. You'll find free breathing exercises, guided meditations, and soundscapes with ambient sounds, lo-fi music, and binaural beats, all designed to help you focus, relax, and even spark creativity while you browse. It gives me incredible pleasure to welcome to London, to welcome to the Palladium, and to welcome to all of you, the one, the only, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

4:17great great energy in here I love it I love it so I just want to say right off the top and a thank you to the publishers Penguin to organize this event here. And thank you, Jake, for, you know, giving us your evening and interviewing me here. You are a very, very successful podcaster and sport broadcaster, and you've done so many wonderful things in your life, so I really appreciate your time that you're giving us here today, so thank you very much. Let's give him a big hand for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

5:06That's incredibly kind of you. You know, I was reminded just when we heard Arnold, Arnold, ringing around the Palladium. You know, all those years after you would have sat in your bedroom and dreamed of being the world's greatest bodybuilder with a crowd chanting your name. Here we are all these years later and the same thing is still happening. It has been some journey, hasn't it? Well, it has been, and the interesting thing is it reminds me somewhat here this evening of 1966. When I came to London the first time as a 19-year-old boy to compete in the Mr. Universe competition at the Victoria Palace, which is a theater that still exists.

5:50It was packed, and people were screaming. I mean, I was 19 years old, but I was the only one in the competition that had like a 20-inch arm. And so they never saw a 19-year-old kid having 20-inch arms. And so when I hit my double bicep pose, people were just standing up and screaming, Arnold, Arnold, Arnold. And it was like really unbelievable for a 19-year-old kid to go, you know, kind of like abroad and to go to England. It's the first time that I was on an airplane, flying, coming over here. It was like really my bodybuilding career started really in England. And this is where I won the first big, big competitions like that, and that's what got me to America to fulfill one of my dreams besides being a bodybuilding champion and all that.

6:40So I have fond memories of England and of London and of the kind of reception that I got here. So it's great to be back here again after all this time and over and over. Wonderful. Let's talk then about Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life, your new book. Everyone in the auditorium this evening has a copy of the new book. So we're looking forward to you all leaving here tonight, being very useful for the rest of your lives, taking on Arnie's advice. What inspired you to write this book? It was something that I never dreamt of. and I never ever thought that I'm going to do motivational speeches or write a motivational book or anything like that.

7:24My dreams were to be a bodybuilding champion, become the greatest bodybuilder of all times and kind of emulate my idol Reg Park, who was from Leeds, England, who was on a big screen playing Hercules. So I saw that as a kid. So that's what I wanted to be another Reg Park. and, you know, to go to America, get into movies, and be rich and famous. And, you know, becoming governor of the great state of California, that was not a dream of mine. But then there was a recall election, and I jumped in, and I became governor of California. And, you know, to fight for the environment was not something that I was ever dreaming of doing, right?

8:14And so then I became governor, and all of a sudden I found out that there is a tremendous danger in the world that we have this unbelievable increase in pollution. And that pollution kills 7 million people a year. So I said to myself, oh, my God. Well, we are the fifth largest economy in the world. I think that we are a powerful state. We can do something about it and have an impact. And so I became really passionate about that subject and kind of fanatic about it. So this is not something that I dreamt of doing, but I did. I started getting into it. And the same is with this. It's like, you know, more and more people started coming to me for advice.

8:55And more and more universities started asking me to give commencement speeches after the kids graduate. And I always thought that I should give them like a few points of what makes you successful. when you go out in the world after college. And they became huge hits. And people said, you should do a book. And so that's what I did. I sat down and I started writing it down and started writing and writing and writing and writing. And, you know, and here it is. It was like, I said to myself, the things that I've learned, I mean, you have to imagine the kind of things that I've done and the things that you do in the gym when you work out and the things that you learn in sports alone and lifting.

9:41You know, just to give you an example, to have a vision. When I look back and say, how did I get so fanatic about bodybuilding? And how did I end up training five hours a day? And why did I enjoy working out and torturing myself? Why did I look forward to the next thousand reps of sit-ups? Why did I look forward to doing more reps with 600 pounds in a squat? And then I realized it was because I had a goal. I had a vision. It was right in front of me. It was fantastic. I saw myself as another Reg Park, my idol, on that stage in London at the Mr. Universe contest and also winning just like him. And that, seeing that very clearly in front of me and having that goal motivated me.

10:34I didn't even need discipline. I tell people always, I don't have that much discipline. It's just that I had such joy chasing that. And so I couldn't wait to do another rep. I couldn't wait to do another set and to lift another weight to get to that and to turn that vision into reality. And then when I was 20 years old, I did. So I wrote about that in the first chapter in the book about how important it is that you can have the best airplane in the world, but if the pilot does not know where to go, you're going to eventually crash. You're going to run out of fuel and you crash. And this is what happens to a lot of people's life.

11:09Their life ends up crashing and they're depressed and they're down because they don't know really what they're chasing. And so this is why I'm a big believer in having a goal that you're chasing, whatever that goal may be. It doesn't matter. It's like a medical student that says, I want to become a doctor. It's much more fun for him to go to university then and to study and take chemistry lessons and math lessons and English lessons and, you know, kind of pre-med classes because he knows what he's going after. He's going to become a doctor maybe 14 years from now, but still he's going to become a doctor eventually.

11:46When I got into movies, I had a very clear vision to be another Clint Eastwood. Yeah, I said to myself, well, wait a minute. Charles Bronson, this is in the 70s now. Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood made a million dollars a movie. I said to myself, that sounds good. Right? I said, why shouldn't I make a million dollars? So, of course, I went and I tried to convince Hollywood. I said, look, I'm a bodybuilding champion. I just did the movie Pumping Iron. I want to get into movies. And they said, you're crazy. he says I know you want to do Hercules movies or something like that you talked about Reg Park Steve Reeves well the 60s are over this is the 70s in the 70s you're way too big right and they try to convince me that I'm too big that Dustin Hoffman

12:50and Al Pacino and Woody Allen, these are the new sex symbols. So, I said to myself, okay, I understand that that particular ladder is very hard to climb. But I saw it for me to become a leading man in movies and be a movie star. I saw it. So I created my own ladder. Because of that vision, I was able to do another thing that I talk about in the book, which is don't listen to the naysayers. How many people are saying no?

13:32You can't do this. This is impossible. No. So this is what I heard. And I said to myself, I'm not going to pay any attention to these guys. They're fucking idiots. I mean, you know, I'm just, what does he know about my goal? I want to be a leading man. And the guy said to me, he says, yeah, but look at your accent. We barely can understand you. I said, I know. I should get my money back for my speech coach, for my accent removal coach. But he said to me, this doesn't work. So there was all the excuses. My name is too long. Schwartzen Schnitzel or whatever his name is. You know, what the hell? We're not going to go and be able to sell you.

14:16He says, forget about this course. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that I went through. But because I had a clear vision, it worked. And because I didn't listen to the naysayers, it worked. And so those are the kind of things I experienced. And this is how I climbed up to the top. How do you create the time and the space to find what your vision is? Because we should all have one. Whether it's having huge ambitions like being an actor, or whether it's just waking up in the morning happier. It's a vision, right? Well, I think the most important thing is that vision is connected with passion. So you have to find your passion.

14:48Turn off the phone. Turn off the computer, the iPad, all of those things. Because too many people today, not just young people, but people in general, they are too long, too many hours, and those what I call machines. I say machines because having done the Terminator movie.

15:16but they are glued to those machines I said screw everyone else's story I said you got to find you a story what is your story that is what you have to look for what is your story what do you want to be known for what impact are you going to make on yourself and on the world and so this is what I'm talking about here in this book is find the time I found it because I didn't have any of those things. We didn't even have a phone at home. We didn't have a television at home. We had nothing. So I had time to think about, and I've realized that I'm really passionate about being an athlete. I was always very active.

15:54And then I realized that my talent is in weightlifting, in Olympic lifting, and then in bodybuilding and powerlifting and all those things. So I found my passion. And then because of that interest, then I saw the Hercules movies, And that really turned me on. And now I saw it in front of me. I said, that's what I want to be. So it's something that has to do with directly related with passion. And then when you see that, seeing, believing, achieving. Remember that. When you see that, you believe in it. So I had always that faith, 100 % faith that I'm going to get there. No matter what anyone said.

16:34Of course, my parents said, you're sick in the head. What's the matter with our son? You know, my mother thought I was gay. I mean, what the hell? She came into my bedroom and she says, why are all these naked men hanging on a wall above your bed? Look at them all, and they are oiled up.

16:56All you friends, Arnold, have girls hanging above their bed, and you have men. What is going on here? So she called the doctor. Our house doctor. No. Yeah, because our house doctor, you know how it is in those little villages. There's no psychiatrist or anything like that. So you called a house doctor. So she called a house doctor. He came home to our house and he looked at the wall. And he finally told my mother, he says, no, this is quite normal. When kids get to be 14, 15 years old, they want to look at idols and they want to emulate and they want to kind of copy them and all this stuff. You know, the testosterone is shooting in there and they want to grow and they want to get strong and they want to get tough and all that stuff.

17:38So it's quite normal. Don't worry about it. And my mother finally stopped crying, you know, because she thought I'm going totally south on this whole thing. So I had to convince my parents. My father said, what are you doing with this weightlifting? Are you crazy? This is when he said, be useful. Sei nützlich. Sei nützlich, Arnold. Geh raus. Screamed at me. He said, what he was telling me was that in order to get muscles, I should go and chop wood for the old lady next door to us that was 80 years old. He says, chop wood, and then you're helping her, and then you're useful, and then you get muscles at the same time.

18:22That's what you should do, not just thinking about yourself and looking in a mirror, looking at yourself all the time, and just, you know, what he called selbstverheerlichung, you know, like you're kind of idolizing yourself. You're looking in the mirror, you're a narcissist. So this is what I went through just to show you. It was not that easy, the path. But I did find people, a trainer that believed in me and, you know, mentors and coaches and stuff like that. And training partners that helped me. And that's why I'm here today, because they helped me. But my parents were not supportive at all.

18:54And people around me, there were a lot of people that were very negative about my bodybuilding career, about my going to America. And even when I ran for governor, they said, Arnold, are you nuts? Running for governor, why don't you run first for mayor? I said, because I don't want to be mayor. Why would I be running for mayor? I don't want to go into a political career. I want to go and be governor because there's a recall election. They're recalling the governor because he has done a terrible job. and I think I can do a better job. No, no, you have to start little. I said, little? Are you kidding me?

19:33I never do anything little. I say, I start big. I have big dreams. I say, I'm going to run this state. I don't know for sure. I'm going to win. Well, the rest is history. So how did you not get derailed by the naysayers and the doubters? Why weren't you daunted by becoming governor of California? Why weren't you full of self-doubt when you went for auditions for movies? What was different about you? Well, it's just when you have a clear vision and a goal and you have faith in it, just imagine or just think about for a second when you have faith in a religion and you hold on to that faith. It really is tremendously helpful, especially when you're down.

20:20And when you have faith in yourself, on top of all that, It is unbelievably powerful. Because, of course, and I talk about it in the book, this is not a rosy road. I tell you, the amount of times that I fell, the amount of times that I lost weightlifting competitions, the times that I lost bodybuilding competitions, the amount of times that I had political setbacks, when I was governor and I wanted to do kind of like initiatives, I wanted to pass initiatives. Oh man, all four of them lost. And they called me a loser. In show business, I had movies that went through the roof. And then after that, there was a movie that went right in the toilet.

21:12It was like I got belittled by the press. The worst is when someone says that Stallone is more successful. Oh man. Hell broke loose when they say that. Because we had a tremendous amount of competition going on in the 80s, as you know. It was like, you know, we were, I mean, like little children. I mean, we were so stupid. We were competing, who is making more money at the box office? So that's understandable, we all compete about that. Who is getting better reviews? All right, understandable. But who has less body fat?

21:57Who is using bigger guns? Who is killing more people on the screen? I mean, stupid stuff like that. That's what we were competing. And it was like, I would call him and say, hey, did you see the machine gun I used? It only can be used off of a helicopter. and I carried it with one arm and pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa and he says, wait when I do Rambo number 16 I'm gonna use a bigger gun, I'm gonna use something much bigger than you, and this is how it went, it's crazy insane, and so yeah we had those competitions and all that stuff so I had my down periods where I fell and movies went out and then politics in my personal life, you know, with my marriage and all this But I always felt, and I talk about that, you can lose.

22:51And there's no one that doesn't lose. Even Michael Jordan will write about his 5 ,000 shots that he missed in basketball. And he will talk about the amount of games he missed because of him in the playoffs. And all of that stuff. And he says, because of those losses, I became the greatest basketball player. Well, this is exactly how I felt That when you lose, you lose And you're down on the ground But you get up again The loser stays down But the winner, when he fails, he gets up again You dust yourself off, you get up again And you march forward And you see a vision And you go forward and you go forward So that's how I always felt And so there were really tremendous times.

23:44I remember, and I talk about this also in a book, I just won a second Mr. Universe contest here in London in 1968. A week later, I go over to America, and they have their own Mr. Universe contest, the IFBB Mr. Universe contest, International Federation of Partybuilding. I lose against a guy that I thought was a scrawny little kid. I said, this contest was fixed. And I cried all night because I was in a strange country and I was by myself. I missed my home. And I just now went for the first time to America and I lost. I felt like a loser. And like I said, I literally cried for hours. But the next morning I pulled myself together and I said, this is what I'm going to do.

24:41I'm going to train my ass off all year long and I'm going to go after that guy that beat me and I'm going to win the competition and that's exactly what I did it's the most important thing when you fail that you take responsibility for the failure and you don't blame anyone else learn from the mistakes that is the most important thing there there's something else that's very important which is work your ass off You say work your ass off much better than I say work your ass off. But that's what you believe. And two workouts a day was one of the things that you put into your life and the way that you lived to work your ass off.

25:21So should we talk about hard work? Yeah, well, first of all, in training, I know a lot of people are always looking for a shortcut. And they buy into their orders kind of programs, Sometimes 20 minutes a day this, and you eat this three meals a day, and then you're perfect and all that stuff. There's no such thing as a shortcut. It's just that you have to work your ass off. And in those days in bodybuilding, there was no money. So I worked on construction also, several hours every day. and I went to college several hours every day. And I was thinking about my next career as an actor and I went to acting class several hours a week.

26:20So think about that. I really literally just slept six hours a day and there were 18 hours left. And I used this 18 hours to work out, to work, to train for my acting, to do all of those things. And I worked and I worked and I worked to make money. And in 1974, I saved up enough money to buy my first apartment building. So this is important to know because I bought this apartment building for$240 ,000. This is back in the 70s. And then two years later, someone offered me$400 ,000, and I sold it, but I didn't take the money. I traded up to a 12-unit apartment building, from a 6-unit to 12-unit, and then to a 36-unit apartment building.

27:14And this is how I went up and up and up. That before I made really the first big movie, I was already a millionaire. You see, think about it, because I was working my ass off. I don't believe in shortcuts. I don't believe getting around all of that or finding the easy way. You've got to confront things straight on, and you've got to struggle through it. And I found out that the more I struggle, the stronger I get inside. Because remember that the brain, your head, is just like a muscle. The muscle grows when you give it resistance. When I put a dumbbell in my arm and I curl it up, it's the resistance that makes the bicep grow.

28:01But the same thing is also with your head. The more resistance you give it, the more you let yourself struggle, the more you go through pain and through kind of suffering sometimes. The more you endure that, the tougher you get. And the reason why I'm saying that is specifically is because so many people today want to be comfortable. I know for my children, I say to them, I say, what are you doing in bed at seven o 'clock in the morning? I say, are you to your mind? What do you think, America was built on people sleeping in? Or was America or England as far as they go? So Germany, Austria, do you think those countries were built by people that struggled and that worked their asses off?

28:53So we have to tell this to our kids, there is no sleeping in. We have to work. We have to work.

29:08We have to study, go to school. And you know, forget to say I want to be comfortable today. What are we talking about, comfortable? Let's just struggle a little bit. It's fun when you shoot after a certain goal and you struggle. he goes through pain. That's okay. You mentioned in your book, rest and relaxation, and you've got a great line for who rest is for and who relaxation is for. I think the audience would love to hear that. Well, you rest, you rust. Right? This is the old saying, you rest, you rust. And so I never rest. You know, I just keep going. You know, let me just tell you an example.

29:47I happened to read that one day. There's this guy, Hillary, who was the first man that climbed Mount Everest. I'm reading this story. I found it fascinating because it said that when he was up there and he looked around, then it cut. Then it talked about when he came back down again, how the journalists were asking, he said, what was it like being up there? This must have been unbelievable. In the highest mountain in the world. What was going through your mind? So he said, I looked around. And all of a sudden, I saw another peak.

30:31And I looked at that peak and I said to myself, I have to figure out how to get up there. How to climb that peak. I mean, think about that. He didn't sit on his laurels. He didn't enjoy it. He didn't just say, oh, I was celebrating that I was the first person to go and to climb up there. Because a lot of people do that. But he said, I saw another peak. And I only could see that because I was on the tallest and the highest mountain. And then he planned on climbing that peak. And this is exactly what it is in life. That's the difference between living and existing. See, so many people exist, but they don't live.

31:16And what I want to encourage people to do through this book is to make you live and to feel kind of enriched that life is exciting because we only have one. This is it. This is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. This is the real thing. You write in the book about sell, sell, sell. You write about shifting gears. but I'd love to talk to you about one of your lessons, which is to pass it on. You call the world a classroom. Well, I learned a lot of things in college and in school. But I always felt kind of like, if you open your mind, and they call this open your mind and shut your mouth, I always felt that I could learn more if I shut up and if I listen.

32:07I remember when I ran for governor. All these people came to my house. They were teaching me about various different issues because you don't know. You know about gun control and about nursing homes and about hospitals and doctors and prison guards and police officers and teachers and all of this. there's so many issues to think about. And where do you stand on those issues? I mean, I knew I was a Republican, but did that mean that I was conservative about everything? I found that not really, right? So, I mean, so you go through all of those things. And so I was just listening for two months, listening and listening and listening, so that when I then had a debate with the other candidates, I knew as much as I could grasp in these two months.

33:06And I had enough information that I won the debate by 60%. That's what made me win. So it was the listening and just to shut up because I felt kind of God gave us one mouth but two ears. Gave us two ears and therefore let's listen twice as much as we talk. And so that was the idea. And so when I went into the Capitol after I won, I was sitting there and I tell you, the amount of information that came my way, it was staggering. So to me, what I have learned in these seven years sitting in that Capitol in Sacramento, I tell you, it was the most valuable information that now I understand of how complicated it really is to run a city or to run a state or to run a country.

34:04How sometimes simple things that appear very simple are very, very complicated. They're complicated because there's policy involved. They're complicated because there's politics involved. And there's the parties involved. And everyone has their own opinion. I mean, I had 120 legislators. Now, as you know, in your own home, it's very hard to agree to something. Now imagine you have 120 legislators, Democrats and Republicans, and declined to state and independence, and all of those people, and they all have their own opinion. But that was an enormous learning experience, and that's why I always say to people, I say, you've got to have your mind open to let things come in like a sponge, absorb things like a sponge, rather than talking all the time.

34:51And when you go to a meeting or something like that, and then you don't learn anything.

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36:52The final lesson in your book is break your mirrors. Why is break your mirrors an important way to end your book? Well, break your mirrors means basically that we don't just look at ourselves. And this is a saying that comes from my father-in-law, Sergeant Shriver.

37:16Maria's father was one of the most extraordinary men that I met he created the Peace Corps during the Johnson administration and Kennedy administration he created the Job Corps legal aid to the poor he was the president of Special Olympics for years and he became kind of like when I dated Maria I talked to him a lot of times and I learned a lot from him about policy. And one day I listened to his speech that he gave at Yale University. And then at the end he said to the students, he says, break your mirror. Break that mirror that makes you always look at yourself. And you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help.

38:13And I said to myself, that is one of the most profound things that I've heard. We shouldn't just think about ourselves, but we should think also about the people around us that maybe need our help. And this is one of the reasons why I talk in my book about that you can call me anything you want, but don't call me a self-made man. Because I believe there is no such thing as a self-made man. And a lot of times people do stories and articles about me and say, Schwarzenegger is the perfect example of the self-made man. He drove himself to victory and he drove himself to all the successes. And I said, no, this is totally wrong.

38:58Because we all have somebody or a lot of people that helped us get where we are today. And so I had my parents, I had the teachers, I had the trainers, and I had Joe Weider that brought me to America. I had Joe Gould that let me train in his gymnasium for free. I had like Frank Zane who was my training partner and Frank of Colombo. And the list goes on and on and on. And when you think about how did I become governor of California? I became governor because 5.8 million people voted for me. I didn't make myself governor. So how can I call myself a self-made man when 5.8 million people helped me become governor of the state of California?

39:45How did I become a movie star? By having millions and millions of people go to see the movies. Not just in America, but worldwide. The movie houses were packed. That's what made me a successful actor and a leading man. Imagine that I would be sitting here today In this hall With none of you here And you would not be here Correct Now imagine that I would be sitting here by myself So am I a self-made man? No This place is soared out. It is soared out because of you. Because of you came here to listen to me. And I tell you, I know that. I don't take this for granted. I know that. And I want to thank you for that, for making the effort to come here and to be here.

41:08So why people are going to say this was a successful event, it was packed, it was because of you. And when they say it was a great interview, we loved what was going on, it was because of you. Not because of me alone sitting here, because I'm not talking by myself alone. So you have to think about that. Do you see what I'm saying? That we need everyone's help. And now when you recognize that, when you recognize the fact that we are all being helped to where we are today, that's when you start thinking about, ah, then who am I helping? You see what I'm saying? So whenever I saw the success in bodybuilding, and I saw the packed halls, and I saw people paying and buying the magazines when I was undercover, And they bought the weights that I was endorsing, the proteins that I was endorsing.

42:01These were people. They were helping me. So I started getting involved in giving back, you know, by doing seminars and bodybuilding for free, going to aircraft carriers and training the sailors and the Marines and the military in various different areas all over the world, training them. That's why I got involved in Special Olympics and started creating the powerlifting championships in Special Olympics. The people that are intellectually challenged, helping them, motivating them, giving them medals, cheering them up in the competitions, traveling all over the world. And promoting Special Olympics to make sure that people are not prejudiced towards these people because they are maybe intellectually challenged.

42:50maybe because they sometimes look different or act different but to have the same rights that we all have choose any apartment, have a job, have healthcare have education and all of this stuff but I mean it was all about giving back giving back to my community, giving back to my state and giving back to my country that was important to me and this is why I encourage people in the book you know break that mural Don't just always think about yourself, but think about what you can do. And I talk about that also, the excuses that people use. What do I have? I don't have no money. I cannot donate anything.

43:30I barely make it myself. It has nothing to do with money. Everyone has something to offer. There's no excuse why not. You know, so I just always say, know that you are not self-made and know that someone else needs your help at the same time. That's what this is about. Wonderful.

43:56The power of making sure you break your mirrors. Right, we're about to go for a quick break. Before we do, on my podcast, I have some quickfire questions. Quickfire, okay? and I think the audience would really like to hear the answer to some of these. So the first one, Arnold, what is your version of high performance? To give you everything. To give 100%. That's what I call high performance. It can be academically, it can be inventing something, it can be in sports, it could be in anything, but just give it everything. What are the three non-negotiable behaviours that you and the people around you should buy into?

44:33well i think the number one and most important thing is to be tolerant and inclusive yeah which means don't be prejudiced because there's too many wars going on and too many battles going on all over the world because of religion because of prejudice colors and this and that man against women, women against men, young against men. Everyone is fighting. I am a strong believer, and I've learned this also in sports and bodybuilding. When we stood up on the stage, everyone was equal. It didn't matter what color you were or where you were from. And so I learned that everyone is equal, and everyone should be treated equally.

45:19And like I said, with Special Olympians, it doesn't matter if you're physically handicapped, intellectually challenged, if you're from whatever continent you're from, from whatever area you're from, everyone is equal and everyone should be equally treated and everyone should have the same rights to go and get to enjoy success and prosperity and all of those things. This is one of the things. Any others? I think that I have no tolerance for laziness. I think we've spotted that suddenly enough. I think that we should also work our butt off and do whatever we can. And then we should take responsibility and have courage.

46:02You know, because in them now talking more to politicians, because politicians a lot of times say, oh, isn't it great, those firefighters, they're risking their lives and all this. And those police officers, they're risking their lives. All those military people, they risk their lives. But them, they themselves, don't want to even risk their position. They will not vote a certain way because they're afraid of losing their position. And so for them, it's all about getting reelected. And they will sometimes lie to you. They will not tell you the truth. And I just think this is a certain kind of a lack of guts that is amongst politicians that makes me really sad and sickens me that they cannot really be a public servant and they stay in the ideological corners and can't get along and all of those things.

46:57What's your biggest strength and your greatest weakness? Well, my greatest weakness is definitely sweets. I'm glad you've got one. And your biggest strength? My biggest strength is to have tremendous determination and fire in my belly. Yeah. I thought you were going to say your biceps. What advice would you give to a teenage Arnold just starting out? Keep going. Keep believing in yourself. A lot of people always ask me, what would you change? I said, there's not much to change. I mean, there's a lot of things that I learned later on that I wish I would have known earlier, but it doesn't matter because, I mean, the key thing is to have an open mind and to learn and to have great mentors that you can look up to and that you can follow.

47:46What would you say and what would you leave our audience thinking about for the interval? Your one golden rule for living a high-performance life. one golden rule is vision, I think. To me, the most important thing is that we know what we are chasing because then it creates that fire in the belly. Yes, we can do the technical stuff to perform better. All of that is important, the know-how. And this is what you do in order to perform better. But you first have to have the energy and the vision that you're interested in learning about in the first place. So to me, it all comes from here and our head controls our body.

48:33So to me, that is the most important thing is to be motivated. You got to have a certain purpose, a passion, a vision, and then you can go after it and go all out. I love that. Listen, thank you so much for the last hour giving us such an interesting insight. Absolutely. Into your life, into your mindset, into your behaviours, into your beliefs. And I really do believe, having read that book over the last few days and passed on some of the message to my kids who are here this evening, that that really will be very, very useful for so many people. So thank you. Thank you so much for your time. I think really, there's probably only one way, isn't there, to finish the first half of this show.

49:19Yeah. I think we'll allow you to end the show with the most famous catchphrase of all. I'll be back.

49:39Damien. Jake. I mean, what a legendary figure to invite onto the high performance show. And it was a personal honor to sit in here the way that he spoke. And I think, you know, of course it isn't for everyone. But if this podcast exists for one thing and one thing only, it's to offer up someone's view of the world and say, you don't have to agree with it all, but that's their view and that's okay for them to have that view. So was there any bits then that really jumped out for you where you thought, I don't agree with it, but I'm interested in exploring it? There's bits that were sort of like on the edge, right?

50:13So, you know the bit where he says, do you think America was built from people laying in bed? Like we all know, because we've spoken about it loads, that you do have to rest sometimes. And I thought that was really interesting that, you know, I think sequela he probably knows that as well, but he also knows that there's a power in kind of playing the role of Arnie, right? What I did definitely disagree with is that idea that rest is when you're retired and sleep is for when you're dead. I think it's all about balance. But also I wonder whether, and I'd like to get your thoughts on this, whether we talk too much now about the soft stuff and the careful stuff and the things that are good for us.

50:47And actually, maybe we don't talk often enough about the fact that life has to be hard work. And you do have to make sacrifices. And you do have to do things you don't want to do. And you do have to go places that are hard. Like, you've got to do hard stuff in life. That's really what he's saying. Yeah, I agree with you. I think when we first started this podcast, do you remember when we sat in that cafe near Ben Ainsley's Ineos, Boat HQ, and we were anticipating, we were going to hear pretty much every guest tell us some of those messages We've heard Arnie talk about the hard work, the sacrifice, the willingness to scrape and claw your way forward.

51:21And I think we've come to revise our view over the years, haven't we, that that isn't always high performance. But I do think it is one definition. And sometimes it is high performance, though. Sometimes it is high performance to do the hard, nasty graft. When we went to Mark Webber, the motor racing driver's house, who said average is easy, that's why it's popular. you know he was somebody that reminded me of some of the messages that Arnie offered of that willingness to go to your edge of your comfort zone and see how long you could stay there Matt Fraser the six times world CrossFit champion the title of his book was called Hard Work Pays Off so I do think there's a room to have this discussion that you've had with Arnie I totally agree and I think that maybe one of the reasons why people don't like talking about hard work right is that hard work is available to everyone and it's much nicer for people to think it must be another reason they've been successful other than hard work because actually the truth is they know they could do the hard work if they wanted to so instead they go oh circumstance luck parenting um the some investments and rich friends whatever the reason is that's why you've been successful i think sometimes we have to say do you know what for some people in this earth hard work is the reason they got where they got to therefore it's available to anyone and actually if you're going to be a bodybuilder go to hollywood rewrite the rules of acting of course there's elements of luck but i would say in his case hard work probably trumps everything else and that's fine yeah it reminds me of um i remember there was a fact there was a book a few years ago called the last lecture by a guy that had a terminal illness i think he was called dr randy portion somebody asked him about how did he get to be a professor so young and he said well come to my office at 10 o 'clock on Friday night and I'll tell you.

53:05And the point he was making was, it's in the shadows. I think that's what Arnie is shining a light on for us in this brilliant interview. I thought you did great with it, mate. Thank you, Damien. Well, look, thank you so much once again for tuning into an episode of High Performance. There's only one thing that makes a huge difference to us and that is to subscribe, whether it's here where you get your podcasts, whether it's on our ever-expanding YouTube channel. It's really simple, okay? The more subscribers we get, the bigger the channels become, the bigger the channels become, the greater the people we can attract and the more incredible the conversations that we can have.

53:40Look, thank you so much for continuing to support High Performance, for growing and sharing this podcast among your community. Please continue to do that. Keep spreading the learnings you're taking from these conversations. And remember, there is no secret. It is all there for you. So chase world-class basics. don't get high on your own supply remain humble curious and empathetic and i'll be back

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