Arnold Schwarzenegger Is The Influencer We Need Right Now | Rich Roll Podcast

This is simply to make people better and to make them recognize that they don't have to get stuck where they are but they can change because every every day is an opportunity of change it's a big one today because my guest is Arnold Schwarzenegger hasta la vista baby this conversation which Arnold graciously hosted in his office slash Museum of spectacular artifacts collected over the course of his storied life covers the Principles he leveraged to stratospheric success in three distinct careers bodybuilding movie stardom and politics all of which are eloquently distilled in his new book The

useful Arnold also shares his thoughts on confidence ego and ambition we need to get stronger we need to get tougher we have to be willing to go through hardship through suffering through pain we talk about his commitment to the environment his Relationship with James Cameron and also this very interesting fourth act that he now finds himself in which is all about service giving back being a voice of positivity and leveraging his influence for the betterment of others this one was quite the thrill so please enjoy Arnold as perhaps you have never before seen or hurt

him when I think about your life and and your journey this young person who who knew early and often that he belonged in America had a vision for it visualized it architected that Vision into goals that you pursued and achieved relentlessly to the point where you you surpass anybody's expectations of your capabilities and and reach the absolute Pinnacle of success in three separate prominent sectors of society and this makes you on some level like this iconic generational uh emblem or example of the American dream so I'm interested in in Your relationship with your own ambition

and how you've been able to maintain a grounded ego because you're very much a person of the people you like staying connected with people you're all about people but for a different version of Arnold that ego could have run rampant and imploded your life so it could have yeah you're absolutely right it could have the only thing is that I think maybe would help news is that they never really felt that I have arrived to be Honest with you not in bodybuilding not in I mean I pretend and I do the big Spiel right and

I'm the greatest I do all of that yes but I mean in reality I feel like when I work for instance in the movie I really don't feel like I it's any different than being a plumber and I go to work they put all the schmutes on and the makeup and I'm Sitting there like an idiot at five in the morning so that I'm ready at eight o'clock and and then they go out and you you do your work do your scenes then you go and have your lunch and you know it's it's like the

same it's like going to Brook yeah and then going back home I don't see myself as a star I just see myself as a broker and uh so when people can say you're so nice you eat with the crew I feel like I'm the crew I'm just one of them right we are all trying to make a good movie and so it's like I never really feel out there kind of like even when I was governor it no matter where yes I have my moments where I feel like I always man that just shows how

great I am and stuff like that but the reality settles in by the way I I put myself back in the place and uh even when I've I remember where I have to make myself kind of feel Like I'm the Mr Olympia but when I look in the mirror I see so many flaws yeah you say that in the documentary you're you're very self-critical so many flaws and it's easier delts are never the big enough the thighs are comma you know how am I gonna fake my way through here you know so that's the way

I talk to myself but then when I go out it says oh I'm going to show them the day and the the best Part in the world that has ever seen blah I don't understand but I mean the the reality of it is I just always kind of like felt you know fortunate that I'm in this situation and but I don't get like a big head it's because of it yeah I don't know if in his private moments Muhammad Ali thought yeah I'm not as good as I say like I think he really believed that

so it's Interesting to hear you say or to to you know be honest about vulnerabilities or or insecurities I think that's surprising well I think that even more mid Muhammad Ali I'm sure that he had his own moments of reality because he lost you know and I know that when he lost he knew why he lost and uh but you know he was like he was a showman yeah and Muhammad Ali was just an extraordinary showman that had so Much joy in his sport which is extremely important to find joy in all of the torch

and heart training and uh and also to be able to kind of entertain people in that way and to have a mind that can remember all this stuff I mean his poetry and all the stuff that he did he never made a mistake it's not like he bubbled away and always and he tripped or something like that uh you know none of that so it was just uh great and he had a great Vision and he always saw himself like you know that he was done Injustice and um I think that motivated him to eventually

get the upper hand of all of that and I hung out with him a lot in the 70s I traveled around the United States with him we went into various different TV studios did interviews there you know he was always there first going out there and doing his interview and all this we Always talked about it hung out with the same people a lot of times he invited me to different events he just was really really good when I think about those Quiet Moments where when you're questioning yourself or or you have those insecurities you

know where does that come from I mean you grew up in challenging circumstances um Without running water without a working toilet in your home father with PTSD who was abusive and drank too much these experiences obviously were formative and and made you who you are and I know you have a lot of gratitude for them but what's the other side of that what is the what is the the the pain Point like when you look back on that What is your relationship with that past when you're not you know on a microphone and there's cameras

I you know a lot of things we don't choose I mean I don't choose how I feel I happen to be fortunate that I don't have one ounce of negative thinking about my past not one else and I don't know why you know it's just not there yeah I just I just have you know I remember the the tough times but I also remember very clearly the sweet times the gentle times that my father showed that my mother showed you know how wonderful they were and how supportive they were in the schools and the sports

field with everything even though they were not kind of like the American parents It's so different my parents have never ever watched me on a soccer game never ever watched me in a basketball game or track and field shot with championships traveling throwing championships anything like this that we did in school never ever because no one did there was no parents hanging around and saying oh let's watch our kids like we do over here yeah and the documentary there's the one where they actually do show up at that one body but building Competition and and

you were confused well they showed up because my friend Freddie grossel that I met very early on invited them and he was a very respected kind of a man in town and um they did it for him I I think because because you know because because he invited them and so they took it seriously oh this must be something special and then when they saw me up down the stage I mean it's just like they Couldn't believe it you know even though I have to say my mother sold for me my bathing suit because I

found some things that was just too big and I wanted to have it all cut down so she was sewing with the sewing machine the day before the competition I told her I'm gonna go in the competition and I need a small bathing suit and so she was sewing it And I was trying it on for her and it was doing the fitting and all that stuff so it was very sweet of her I mean how many mothers did that but I mean so there's that side but they just it was not the the style

then to go into uh watch kids the only competition that my parents ever watched was that one competition in grads and then one competition in essendon Germany when I won Mr Olympia for the Third time and then right after them my father passed away so I was fortunate that you saw that there's this resistance or just refusal on your part to to in any way be a victim and we're in a culture right now where we're victimhood we have a different relationship with victimhood I'm sure that drives you insane and this book is really speaking

to that on some level Like positivity as an antidote for the lack of agency that a lot of people feel or the Indulgence with an identity around victimhood as as powerlessness right and this is all about calling people to action to take responsibility for their lives and giving them Tools in a road map that it's it's straightforward advice in this book right but it's very direct and because it's from you it's so palpable so I guess what I'm asking is you know how Do you think about the way that our culture now uh thinks about

mental health uh and and our relationship with this idea of of powerlessness I think that in general I think what the book is trying to do is to say to people you need to work on yourself If you just try to be pampered and if you're trying to be soft and if you're trying to be the victim and also you're not going to go anywhere we need to get stronger we need to get balls here we need to get tougher we need to not be afraid of failure we got to go into the work we

got to face adversity adversity breeds character their strength and fighting and resistance does not only make the muscle Grow but it makes also your head grow makes you a stronger person we have to be willing to go through hardship through suffering through pain through crying periods all of that stuff don't shy away from any of that because it just makes you stronger and I think the day a lot of times our youth is so into kind of oh let's make him feel good oh no let's be more sensitive well I totally agree with you to

be sensitive about things but I mean there's also a Sweet spot can we go too far you know it's like when someone says well today I just need to sleep in I said yeah you don't need to sleep in this country was not built on sleeping in so let's get up in the morning and let's get on that bike and let's do some exercise and don't even think about it don't look at the email or anything like This let's just get going boom boom boom let's get going that's the building and so that's the idea

is just not to be overly soft and overly kind of like sensitive and everyone is in the victim kind of a thing I just don't buy into that but you have to understand that every person has to be approached also differently it's like the mind is just like the body I cannot give you exactly the same Training routine that I had because your body is different you're a much leaner person you need kind of to do maybe Melissa reps and what this you have to have a different diet if you want the bulk up and

all this so I have to be aware of that that even within my family one of my daughters had to be approached differently than my other daughter one son had to be approached differently than the other son so you have to be sensitive about those kind of Things but overall it was discipline in the house you don't turn out that light I will unscrew this light bulbs and you will be going in the dark room with the age of three and you'll be scared so you better start learning the turn of the little slides you

have someone else make you bad okay I'm gonna take the mattress and throw it on the balcony and then you carry it upstairs and you make your own bed again so this is the way The my kids screw up you know and it was like there was crying there or when I burned their shoes when she left my daughter left her shoes for the three times in front of the fireplace I said the third time it goes in fire the third time he did go in the fire right in front of him she was crying

the whole night yeah those things happen but now she does the same to her daughter and now she says that was great that you Did that you see what I'm saying so now now my kids were crying on the ski slopes I don't want to go in I want to go outside there will be in a hot chocolate you know the usual Kindergarten Cop kind of a thing hot chocolate they said we're gonna ski four runs and then there's a hot chocolate there's enough after the first run yeah but I'm called to say so am

I so what So what so now let's go be cold and then go skiing I said The more we ski the pumps and the more we ski the powder the warmer we get and the more we warm up it says let's get going and so now the day when they come up to Sun Valley with their friends to get up after the dinner with the wine glasses they want the toast Daddy because he made us good skiers and that's why we're here today that's why We enjoy skiing with all of you you know how to

do that in others but you know it's it it's it's it's it's not easy I'm not a psychologist I'm not an expert with this but one thing I know for sure I can help anyone to go and be a little bit better right and I think that's what we want to ask we cannot ask everyone to be a genius that's asking everyone to be the world's strongest man in order stuff but to be better because when you're better when you get better Then you feel good when we improve we feel good when we have accomplished

something we feel good and that then rubs off on everything that was beautifully put and it's sort of an example of this this new role that you've matured into as this social media influencer and when I think about the other three chapters of your life they're very much a product of having this vision adhering to it blinding out everything As you as you worked your way towards actualizing that Vision but this feels a little bit different it doesn't feel as much a product of a goal that you've set for yourself as much as this um

thing that occurred or is a byproduct of who you are and all of the things that you've done over the course of your life You find yourself with this enormous platform and you think yourself how can I utilize this leverage this for good to be useful to be of service as Governor you're doing that as an elected representative of the citizens of California but this presents a new opportunity to connect with people directly so I'm curious around your relationship to social media and this new kind of role that you've shouldered around being A voice of

actionable uh you know positive uh things that people can do to improve their lives I have really no goal in the how does that feel Arena how does that feel though like you're doing it for the for the act of doing it it's just for other people as opposed to being it's just sometimes there's something in US that is so powerful that you have to Communicate it you know I remember when nine when when January 6th happened it just stayed on me stayed with me the thought and the thought and the thoughts and it didn't

go away they just started writing things down what was going through my mind and it was writing and writing and then sitting in the jacuzzi and some other Idea came into my mind and then I wrote it down when I got out and then I was sitting there and then so it was just it was just you know they they finally you know told my guys I said look I think that we I feel like I should speak up about that I said maybe it's my responsibility maybe not I said but I feel like it

is I said because I'm a Republican and I think it is important for people To know that my president is Biden there were no shenanigans with that election there was no corruption with this election there was no one stealing and walking out with suitcases of votes and there's election none of this is true these are lies and and so the more I thought about it the More I felt like I should say something and so we put together a speech that was not thinking more about like being an influencer or any of those kind of

things you know I was just saying I want to talk to the American people that it became what it became I had no idea that it was covered life for the whole speech and CNN I know that they're gonna do that that it was covered all over the world like that that even the world cared about January 6th I did not know You know so that those things we don't know that always said you know five and a half six billion people have become aware of this speech Isaiah was oh my God this is like

wild so then I realized also at the same time that there was a need for that obviously to say that and so you know so then those things come up every so often when I see you know with a certain the Prejudice growing And um people walking around with Nazi flags and stuff like that yeah maybe I should say you know say something about that because so it it also has to be tied together organically with me and so with that I said to myself okay I think my dad went through that with the Nazi

period I can I can speak with authority here of where did they take him what misery did He go through because of that how there are no winners ever amongst the haters and there's always just losers and also just the pernicious nature of bad information and yeah exactly what that can reap yeah so anyway so so then I was motivated about that and I'm in the Ukrainian War the Russians unprovoked attack Ukraine I felt like you know I should speak up because I love Russia and I've been there many times and I Really care for

the Russian people what has happened here right amid corporate Jeff wonderful man and he has realized that they have gone in the wrong direction there and wanted to straighten it out couldn't do it um but in any case so I felt kind of like you know the weightlifters that I met from Russia and the people that I met when we opened up Planet Hollywood in Moscow with wonderful people and partners we had there all of this kind Of citizens you know this is not Russia I mean this is Putin and so let's just talk about

that here you know so that this is what I was trying to accomplish there's a bust of Lenin over here in the corner of your office can you tell the story of how that ended up here yes um in the early 90s when communism fell I saw a piece in the New York Times Where they ripped down a statue of Lenin and and that was going on all over the country in government buildings where they ripped down Stalin and Lenin and this and that and various different leaders and kind of saying okay this pass didn't

work for us look what happened and we want to you know kind of reorganize here and so It was just peace in the New York Times how to tear down the statue so I said to myself I would like to have one of those this is history of them there's a revolution kind of and them tearing down statues and Cooperative saying you know this is the time not for Change and so I got in touch with my weightlifting friends in Russia in Moscow and I said guys You're tearing down all the sculptures he says this

is a different and we have to go in a different direction yeah I said put them in what are you going to do with the sculptures well we're gonna go there and throw them in a dump somewhere and now and just to melt them I said I said don't melt them I said you know save one for me you want one yeah so I said I think this Would be said in unbelievable history to have a sculpture did you guys tore down for me to keep that it's unbelievable I think it will be fantastic I

would like to have it okay let me look into it so how I feel later it's the Arnold's classic bodybuilding championships in Columbus Ohio and the Russians come every year with the weightlifting team and the bodybuilders and so on And the next thing I know is that we are having now to sell up the the after party at the after competition party big celebration with thousands of people in the hall and they roll out this table that was on wheels with a covered sculpture I didn't even know what was in it the new nervous sculpture

it's covered could have been a cake from from somewhere he's forgotten about the sculpture thing It didn't connect the dots at all at that point so the next thing I know is they pulled it that the guy goes up there gives a speech and pourses off and there's Lenin and I was like so shocked it's pretty unbelievable where what was the statue where was it it was in Saint Petersburg at the Department of Agriculture I think it was taught wow and um so anyway so we then shipped it home To Los Angeles and there was

out and met by my swimming pool was now the sculpture of Lenin and my wife says why are we having London here I say I love it I think it's funny I think they have land in here and so I had it there for a while and then the following year the same guy now rolls out the same table again and now he pulls off this cover and it was Stalin so now it looked Smaller was not exactly the same size but a little smaller but now it's Stalin not in here though the story goes

away the following year after that it was Khrushchev and then it was on drop off and it went on and on and on like that Putin uh I have a sculpture of Putin that's part of my Russian collection where do you keep all of these every single leader that was leading the Soviet Union I have in my collection so I had them all over the swimming pool and every one of my kind of like natural things about the fence was there was a column so I put them on top of the column so then eventually

my wife went nuts yeah what is this female especially it was a little bit over there but now I have it in storage and but in any case so then I decided okay I'm gonna bring this one in here uh because it's really great uh to have him in the office and To remember then then I found this great painting that's in the background of Lenin yeah uh there was I think in the end or something like that um so anyway so I thought it was a great story but in in addition you you talked

about using your social media platform to talk about January 6 and and Ukraine Etc but you also use it to speak to Ordinary People and to empower them and talk about the things that you Talk about in this book and what's interesting about this this role that you have as sort of a motivational uh you know self-help Guru for lack of a I hate that word but on some level like a a source of inspiration for people is that on on paper you're very unrelatable like you've achieved things that are very difficult for the average

person to understand or connect with emotionally and yet what you're sharing in the way that you're sharing it Is so authentic it really resonates and has connected with people all over the world like it's really powerful what you're doing so I guess that gets to what we were talking about earlier about the fact that that you really are some you know you you ride your bike around this neighborhood you go to Golds you're happy to talk to everyone you could easily Retreat to your home and live a Quiet private life or insulate yourself you know

with um you know the the fancy people that you know and the resources that you have Etc but you've made a very different choice to how to use your energy your experience your wisdom in a way where you're sharing it freely with people people are responding to it and there's something really beautiful about that You know there's a lot of things that we can take responsibility for and there's a lot of things we can't I mean I don't make that choice it just it makes me happy to be with people I'm a people person so

I don't say you know I should go to the public gym I think it's cooler than staying at home and yet during covert I stayed at home in a trained Image gym at home but I was In pain I was in agony I need people I need to be out with the people I like to train with the people I'm a company Queen yeah you know that's what they call myself because I just love being with company I don't like to go to football games by myself I don't like to go for dinner by myself

I don't like to work by myself I don't like to go to the gym and work out by myself I just love People doing it with people and having a good time so that's just me so what you see is me is totally organic nothing is programmed or anything like that I just I just I'm really happy that I can live the life that I really want to live you know that they go to the gym and I want to go to the gym or at my back when I want to ride it I ride

it to the beach it's through all of the thousands and Thousands of people on the boardwalk and Venice with all the tourists there and it ride my bike through it down to the Venice Beach with the weightlifting platform is and all that stuff so I just go and go to the regular restaurant to eat with uh all the people there at the restaurant where I always eat every morning and um you know that I just I just love that yeah I hate when someone makes a reservation for me and they go let's say to The

Palm Restaurant they walk in and they say we have a table in the corner yeah we have a table for you we received in the corner I say I don't want to be in the corner I said I was sent in the corner when I was in school you know you're going to Corner you kneel in the corner as if a punishment I said I don't want to be punished I feel like I'm being punished they're going in the corner I say I want to sit right there in the middle of your oldest People said

what's wrong with that table right over there if you want to sit right there and I said yeah I said well there's a lot of people walking in here and it's okay I can handle it when someone comes over to my table and talk to them so it's that's that I just it makes you have energy yeah yeah a lot has been said and has been written about the three acts you have these three acts of your career you're now in This fourth act which is super interesting and I want to talk to you about

um but I have a different sort of perspective on it particularly after reading the book and and watching the Netflix series which is to me it feels less like three separate acts now and a fourth and more like this Evolution a gradual Evolution over time of this person who went from A very kind of through through sheer force of will and discipline and hard work and all these things that you all these principles that you you elucidate in the book of being very self-oriented and sort of self you know uh it's a selfish Pursuit you

know to pursue goals at that level right on some level it's it's sort of self-reflective your mirror was your thing to then kind of grow into this person Who's really all about service like breaking the Mirror Mirror going from like me to we it's all one to me it's all one Big Arc and the book is called be useful but really it's a call to service you're basically saying the best way to improve your life to feel good about who you are and to find purpose meaning and fulfillment is to find ways to give back

so it's not a question it's more just a reflection that I don't know how does That land for you yeah I know you're absolutely right but one should not forget that when you start out you don't have much to give back so you first have to build yourself and it became clear to me that the more I built myself and the bigger I become the more I can give back so when I um um became Mr Olympia seven six times And um and Special Olympics called me and said could you come and uh train our

special Olympians and now kids that intellectually challenged they don't have the best coordination they have problems doing sports a lot of times and be like to do a study on what effect weight training would have well I was called to do that because it was Mr Olympia That was somebody I was the number one Authority in bodybuilding that's why I was calm and so if I wouldn't have had that I wouldn't have been able to inspire those young kids there was 10 kids there and we did this study for three days and that trained them

and all kinds of great things happened they got motivated and that's what launched then with the international special Olympic Committee the idea When and then eventually met my mother-in-law uh Eunice Kennedy Shriver who created Special Olympics I told her about that experience that happened before I met her and um I told her I said that I try to understand kids and they were really into this powerlifting and they loved it especially when they gave them the confidence that they can do it first there were some of them that were scared and they were screaming and

they were Kind of really worried about the weight over their head and all this stuff I said but then eventually we stripped away that fear and we could see the Breakthrough and all this I think it could be very popular she says why don't you do it in Baltimore it's we have a meet coming up let's try it in Baltimore so we did it and it was a huge success we did it in Washington huge success we did it in Miami huge success then that they adopted it in the next meeting Internationally then it became

an international phenomenon so I all of a sudden became now not something that I was bargaining for or or or shooting for or there was never my goal became then the national coach the world coach for special and a big strength training with that for me to go around now the country and the world to promote Special Olympics not just powerlifting but of course you know being a celebrity eventually every Day instead of doing movies notice I started traveling around to just start talking about equal opportunities I started talking about issues about we got to

get the special Olympians also the right to have a job the right to have health care the right to have a place to stay in the live and there's equal rights basically equal rights that they don't have people are prejudiced so I start talking about those issues that even while the streams did they ever Think about that's what I would do in my life but I was able to do that because I was a star in movies then and and in bodybuilding and so on so I think the more I gained of uh you know

building myself the more I was able to give back in a bigger way right by the time I was I I campaigned for President Bush in 1988 uh you know and I talked to him on effos too about training and about the president's Council of fitness and about we got to get our kids to get back into Schools back to training and exercising every day and I was he appointed me to be the chairman of the president's Council of Fitness so now I'm going around over 50 States promoting Health and Fitness in our Public Schools

so this is like one thing to the next happened and that's why I mentioned in my book that everything that I've done uh up under that point and I heard Sergeant Shriver My father-in-law talk at Yale University at a commencement speech he said to the students break that mural that you always look at break that mirror that makes you always look at yourself and he will be able to look beyond that mirror and to see the millions of people that need your help you heard me right that need your help have you ever thought about

going out and helping and asking himself that's exactly what's happening to me So this was a long answer but you were right when he said it was an evolution so it starts out with me me me and then slowly it becomes not just me me but we we right and so this is what happened to me and then as with everything I have an addictive personality I started getting addicted to it to give something back and it made me feel good and I felt so rich and so good about myself that I was Able to

have this impact and to help kids to get them you know in schools to to exercise special Olympians to train and to do power lifting and to live 500 pounds which they never dreamed of lifting and and to to go around and start after school programs then eventually run for governor yeah the seeds were there all along though because it was your dad who said be useful way back in the beginning it was my dad that said be useful and it was a Guy that I that I grew up with that later on in when

I was 15 years old we met that helped us with bodybuilding and with weightlifting Freddie grossel that I talked about it became then a very famous politician in Austria and he happened to love kids and to him this was the greatest investment so in even in his political career he specialized in building you know the sports facilities for kids and everything for kids kids and he paid a Lot of attention to us the other son also and he invited me over this house for training and he always talked about you know giving back he talked

about getting smart just remember Arnold don't just train your body but drain also your mind remember what Plato said in a sound mind sound body and always talked about that I wanted to run around with books underneath your arms and that just dumbbells and Bubbles and all of this Stuff and so all of this influence that I had as a young kid was helpful but especially my father always saying be useful but that gentleman I mean he was an incredible mentor to you uh and he was the guy who impressed upon you the importance of

developing your mindset of of cultivating curiosity of asking questions and listening which bring you know that brings me back to this whole podcasting thing right like for me I've Been doing this 11 years it is an expression of everything you talk about in the latter part of the book about making the world your classroom about seeking out and spending time with people who inspire you that you can learn from and learning the practice of not just engaging with them but listening learning so this has been an incredible experience for me to continue that Curiosity and

That education into my life and it's really how you approach everything that you do like the fact that you actively sought out so many interesting compelling people that you could learn from and and treated the world as your classroom and you continue to do that I mean we're in your office you look around there's pictures of you with like all these people we were hearing stories that you know about uh you know what You've learned from this person and you're this sort of Forrest Gump character that always finds himself you know at the right place

at the right time with the most fascinating individual and a great story to boot from that so maybe talk a little bit about how you how you you know really made that a priority and a fundamental part of Who You Are I think that one of the things that you learn in sports is that if you just get Stuck in your own training routine and not learn from other people that you would never become a champion and uh so open-mindedness was very important to me and so I think like I said in my book I

learned a lot of my lessons from Sports and to me that kind of like and having people like a Freddie grossel uh that Mentor that talked about open-mindedness and learning from others and uh where you start as you get older you start thinking about all of those Things because you become wiser first it doesn't mean anything when he told me that this is what the Nazis did Arnold they took my brother's head and they smashed it in with a stone they stoned him to death and I was lucky to be able to escape and blah

blah blah so you hear that it didn't mean anything you know uh I said that's really sad but then it it's those kind of stories As you grow up yeah and as you get older they mean something to you and all of a sudden you find yourself fighting for inclusion and against prejudice and you ask yourself when does that come from the desire of he said it comes from stories like that you know that you remember from way back when people tell you those kind of things so to me it was always kind of like

learning new things And uh being able to uh the boy become a celebrity to be able to use that celebrity power for something positive for something good and so to me it was I learned the more I opened up my mind the better it was there was a guy by the name of Vince giranda you maybe have heard of him since you're a fitness fanatic yourself uh that it he had a gym over in the valley Vince's gym and I saw him doing an exercise a Triceps exercise and I I looked at him I said

what are you doing I just said this is for the outside tricep that splits the one head from the other endorse that's it this looks like a kind of a Mickey Mouse exercise Jesus Christ and it doesn't look like some heavy lift of some sort and he says we'll just try it so I said to myself well the way you try it the way I tried it in those days was I would do an exercise 40 cents of 20 reps so I was lying there on the bench on my back digging this dumbbell and going

like this 20 times and take it over to this side do the same thing over here same to this arm back and forth back and forth like this the next day this muscle here was just jumping all over the place so I realized he was absolutely correct I never ever thought of that there's actually a specific muscle we always know about sculpting your body that you You add my chest or more serratus muscles I'll say m obliques or some biceps but then you can actually dissect it to a specific part of the three muscles that's

why it's called triceps the three muscles there and one separates the bicep from the tricep and makes it appear not that measurement Wise It's bigger but makes it appear much larger so I was doing that and that exists from that point on and it just it was I said to myself I wouldn't have Listened to him I would have never learned that exercise but I listened to him I first said them brushed it off I said Mickey Mouse eggs let's just try it before we kind of like come to the conclusion and she wouldn't have

said so you learn from those kind of experiences he did then apply this rule with everything and so that's why I was always uh rather more hungry for more information More hungry for listening rather than talking setting aside bias and judgment and replacing it with curiosity and basically uh trying it yourself right like being an experimenter being open yeah exactly yeah and so imagine I talk at Great Lengths I was in the book about how the capital Sacramento even though it was a place that I thought The people that worked there had no quality because

they ran they stayed into the ground by 2003. and we were bankrupt and the huge deficits 30 40 billion dollar deficit and all of that stuff and every everything they had blackouts and everyone was unhappy but when I got there I realized that there's a lot of things that I can learn because there's so many Issues policy issues I'm not aware of and so it actually became kind of the greatest University for me every day I was learning imagine you're sitting there and always said that the nurses come in the nurse's Union and they talk

about the patient nurses ratio I've never even heard of that I said what are they talking about so they were explaining that it's right now six to one But you know one nurse cannot take care of six patients especially if you have to lift the patient because they just had surgery and you have to lift them and help them up to get to the bathroom and there was a one nurse alone cannot do that except you have a power lifting Champion is a nurse or something like that that's not the case in every hospital so

they were explaining that and it all of a sudden they said oh my God this Is like I never thought about that that is really interesting and fascinating things so if the budget uh we should actually do something about that the next meeting an hour later the prison guards come in and they talk about the overtime that they're tired because they don't have enough you know people working in this prisons and that the the system is meant for a hundred thousand prisons but at that point we had 170 000 prisoners So we are overcrowded overloaded

I had no idea about that so I learned and then after the meeting I got my briefings of what could what are the options that we can do about it and then the teachers came and then law enforcement came and said all day long every day was a learning experience so to me the things that I learned in Sacramento was just staggering and so I just felt like Not only was I happy that I was able to serve 40 million people and be a public servant be the governor but also I became aware of how

complicated issues are and how complicated they can be and how much thinking it takes and how much listening that it takes to bring all the different ideas together to come up with a good conclusion to those kind of issues and problems yeah I mean I think that was surprising for a lot of people there was a sensibility that you're great in front of the camera you know How to you know get out in front and shake hands and smile and do all of that kind of upfront stuff to win the governorship but governing is a

different job altogether what happens when Arnold's sitting in the chair behind the desk and actually has to do the work and get wonky with the policy stuff how does that you know how's that going to work with this action star who's an adrenaline junkie Etc and the fact that you actually embrace that and Were enthusiastic about what you were learning every single day about how things actually work and then trying to identify Solutions was unexpected for a lot of people and I think kind of reflecting on that thinking about like what is it that makes

Arnold different special there's lots of answers to that questions to that question but I think one one kind of frame that makes sense to me is this interesting combination of two Different Arnolds on the one hand you are and you say this in the book like very much like Julius and twins you have this wide-eyed almost childlike um sense of awe and wonder where the world is just overflowing with possibility and people are good and anything is possible but you pair that I think the talent is where you pair that with this doer who understands

having a vision understands setting goals work ethic discipline reps Like all the Practical aspects of translating the dream into reality and most people fall it's on a spectrum but most people kind of fall you know far on one side of either of those two things and somehow you find you found a way to like marry those and I think that's what is so potent and and unique well interestingly enough even my wife and she knew me really well she said after I won She says now I'm starting to get concerned yeah because you would come

home and say I can't believe what I learned yeah but I mean it's like I said what are you concerned about being one she says what she says that that seems to me is more up your alley you found an enemy you go after him with vengeance like you're doing bodybuilding and then acting and all this kind of stuff I said and you go after them and it's like a competition So I get that so you were really good at that and you could shift gears into politics and you could paint this perfect picture of

California when you run it and all that stuff so I said but now you have to do policy politics is now being put aside and if they do policy so I don't know how many hours you can actually sit there and listen to this most boring stuff That is really subtle stuff that you maybe it's not your personality and so she was questioning it and so as time went on she said to me she said I can't believe that you actually like this stuff because I don't even like it she said to me I don't

even like it Jesus but there you sit there for hours and hours and then you have follow-up questions then you meet people at night after hours still to learn more about it she says I Don't understand it I said I somehow you know I I just love the idea of solving those problems and trying to figure out why is it that in Austria everyone is insured and in California the richest state in the Union not everyone is insured what's going on here I mean can we not create a system that is similar to the one

in Austria But with the private sector involved and not government running the whole thing there must be a way so we started going on and started tackling this very complicated issue out of nowhere no one asked me to do that just trying to figure out how do we create Health Care in California for everyone be the first state kind of like along with Massachusetts that has Healthcare reform and where everyone is insured and so it's it's it's just my Curiosity was just there and I asked myself questions about education why is it that our education

is slipping why are there are kids not testing as well why is their reading ability less than it was 10 years ago so you you get it you get interest in it because only when you understand it and only when you hear the various different opinions something from the way right to the way left you need to hear orders that's why I never looked at Anyone as the enemy when I was governor I looked at the Democrats Justice like Partners as I did with the Republicans did they agree with sometimes they disagree with other times

and stuff like that but I always felt kind of we have to all work together because together we can figure out the sweet spot you know he says this he says this let's figure out the sweet spot where we can you know have something of both of those sides come together here and so that's the the Way I try to solve the problems and uh I got fascinated by all these details your governorship was really defined by your ability to reach across the aisle and consensus build with both parties this this you know sort of

allergy to being a a party hack and instead you know hiring a chief of staff who was a Democrat and appointing A diversity of judges and and doing all the things that you did leads me to wonder I mean it's really a It's really a question around leadership and problem solving because right now in 2023 feels pretty divided people are more interested in in bickering with each other than solving problems Reaching Across the aisle is seen as a weakness and as a result problems don't get solved so when you look out upon the world California

the nation what are you seeing right now in terms Of the leadership that we have the leadership that we deserve that perhaps we're lacking first of all let me tell you that I did not experience any of that whenever I went to Washington I mean they all talk about it but every president after Clinton Clinton put 1.3 billion dollars into the 21st century money which is for after school Programs and after that every president wanted to take it out of the budget so since I was like the kind of the big deal in the after-school

program movement they asked me the the national after school program Association asked me to go and help them Lobby in Washington so we went back there to Lobby the Bush Administration and everyone's talking About that is you're gonna bring them together they fight over that you know the Republicans want to take it out and the Democrats want to keep it in and blah blah blah notice if and I asked them I said I found friends and Californians and they said can you help me bring three Senators together from the Democrats and three from the Republicans

and to talk about after school programs I want to just talk to them have a Meeting and they did and the same was in the house they got from you know Congress people men and women they got together a whole bunch of them Democrats and Republicans intermed with them I presented my case told them how important it is to keep this after school programs why it was wise showed them the statistics and the studies that when they said for every Dollar we spent on an after school program we saved three to six dollars down the

line and blah blah blah they all shook hands that when the bill comes up and when the debate comes up that they will fight and they would tell their colleagues to also fight to keep it in the budget I walked away and I said the first place that is supposed to be so split and that they're fighting all the time I didn't See that fight not understand it not in the house we then went back in the Obama Administration he wanted to take out the money we went back again because he gained a team together

totally different people now again Democrats and Republicans work together and we kept it in so every single time a president every time I went back there I did not see that the Democrats and the Republicans Didn't want to work together I begged them to work together for the sake of the kids I said I'm a Republican I said but this is nothing to do with Republican democrators Democratic kids and Republican kids I said yes the Republicans say that this is like the government is babysitting and all this stuff I understand that I totally agree with

you I said but when it comes to being out on the streets And uh being in reality it doesn't work that way because 80 percent of the kids come from homes for both parents are working so therefore there couldn't be anyone at home I just said let's and they both right eyes did they the first time they really heard about someone talking passionately about it and they voted for it and it kept it in the budget and even still the day it's in a budget um so all is well in Washington so no I'm just

saying it needs an approach where you don't villainize I didn't go in there to villainize the Democrats as a Republican I says we Republicans here the setting we have to answer to that but you guys are always voting now on this so no it was not that approach so it's it's the approach that you have to take and I'm talking about and you ask about leadership it needs the kind of leadership that has the energy to not Worry so much about the specific policy but to First bring the team together this is what someone has

to do in Washington to those members rally them together yes there will be different ways of thinking and all this stuff but you got to Rally it and again says here's why and make the case of where America needs to go and what we need to accomplish from immigration reform to Health Care Reform to uh getting rid of the debt getting rid of the of the debt deficit that we have and to solve and to build infrastructure in order to talk about this they added and to have a strong military they can stand up to

the Chinese and to the Russians and do the whole world and that that the only can do with Democrats and Republicans together we cannot do it alone Republicans cannot do it alone then you have a total up where this Is some executive order like they've done and then Biden runs off with his executive orders which the next president wipes out again it's bogus the only thing that sticks is if Democrats and Republicans come together and they meet in the middle and that the answer to the people rather than the special interests and so you need

someone that rallies them up and that's what I'm talking about that's what it needs because I was Back there with my friend Kevin McCarthy he asked me to talk to his environmentalists now of course you will laugh because they're Republicans and say where are the environmentalists well there are they maybe don't buy into this climate change so we don't talk about climate change to these guys you talk to them about pollution because No one can deny pollution every Republican they've talked to said you love pollution and said no are you kidding me I said you

want to fight pollution of course we want to get rid of pollution I said but then we have to get rid of oil and all of this stuff and just build my nuclear plants and more renewable energies yeah I'm important that with that so it's it's the way you approach it you Have to find a way in you have to communicate effectively you have to understand the needs and desires of the people that you're trying to build consensus with and the after school program context it meant approaching Republicans with an economic argument that this is

going to save money and the Democrats with the idea that it's important you know from a democratic sensibility to have government involved in supporting these Youths in the environmental context what you're saying is you can't go with some muddled Trope that is not going to connect with those people you have to find something that they're that they care about address that and craft your narrative and your argument around that strategically so that you can build that consensus and that team comes comes together to actually solve a problem that's what you're saying and the there's people

that's supposed to be the Smart people they don't get it they keep asking back to sell sell they're telling this story that's that's what it is it's communicating because we're in California we accomplished all of those environmental laws because we communicated with the people the right way when we said to the people when it's a hot date don't put the thermostat down At 68 put it on 74. and that they were helpful during my Administration there was no blackout the blackouts were in the previous administration of the blackouts so we communicated with the people they

were on our side and we said to them I said and we have to build renewable we have now 19 renewable by the time I'm finished I'm gonna have 50 renewable was no one saying no or anything like this because they they realized that There would be anywhere we need to go and when the oil companies and the coal companies tried to derail us we fought them with the help of the American Lung Association to show that the people of California what happens if you keep using oil that the kids in the Central Valley and

all over California are getting asthma at the age of three and they're very very sick and they're dying is that what we wanted to do with Our kids and they said oh my God I didn't know that instead of talking about climate change 20 years from now or something like that it's you and I believe in it but the majority of people don't understand what it means so therefore let's talk about pollution like Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan established the air resources board in California that actually makes every law that we pass become a reality so

if I say there is a law that is 50 Reduction of of of fossil fuels they make it happen so we said 25 in 10 years they made it happen so this is what Ronald Reagan established under the auspices of we got to fight pollution he didn't talk about climate change you know so this is why I say it it is just that we have to sell we have to communicate we have to include people we have to bring them in we have to explain it to them and often and not everyone talking in a

different direction and and You know Biden's does its speeches the day I want to talk about climate I said but what wouldn't it be much better the day I want to talk with you about how we can get rid of pollution hit the nail in the head he knows that this is what I'm talking about I think that's what when we talk about leadership that's what we need in Washington now is just to bring people together communicate the right way not Step in someone's toe and and make them scream no just let's let's figure out

things that we can do together I mean I went to Sacramento the first thing we did was we try to figure out what we can do together and then we worried about the more difficult stuff that that we are in different directions and stuff like that I want to talk a little bit about your passion uh for for the environment um I imagine that Jim Cameron Has been uh part of that Journey for you and one of the things that's interesting it is interesting about an aspect of this this journey that you're on with this

is that you uh have come out and advocated for people to eat less meat uh to have a more plant-based oriented lifestyle you were involved with the game changers movie um so I'm curious around and I'm sure the the bodybuilding Community had an interesting reaction to that I've been Plant-based for 16 years at this point and I'm friends with a lot of the people in that movie and very much a part of that movement so I'm curious around how you got involved in in that film and what your diet looks like now well I got

involved because of Jim Cameron yeah and the other people that were involved and they asked me if I wanted to talk about it because they knew that I have mentioned it Through Jim Cameron in the past that I've cut back on my meat intake because of uh in the medical profession it's very clear that you get away with this for so long and then eventually it starts backfiring and so they thought that I'm at an age now where I should just cut back because my cholesterol level should come down a little bit and blood pressure

and all that and that's exactly what I did you know so I started Cutting out so my diet is pretty much I would if I put the percentage on it then I'm pretty good at that I would say around 70 percent I cut down my middle intake and the other 30 percent is on it because of my um every so often I once a month maybe I make a steak at home when we watch the UFC fights it somehow fits together with all the mid up to the screen yeah even though there is a lot

of UFC Fighters out there that also vegetable based uh but in any case so it's it's someone fits together and I like to do it it's just the process also to actually barbecue so this is why I said 30 knot and 70 cut down yeah yeah yeah um but Jim had a big impact on you Jimmy in many ways but Jim is a big impact on me because he not only confirmed what I told him about health-wise how much better it is health-wise But he confirmed that but he also said that and don't forget Arnold

that 25 or 28 percent of all the pollution comes from Raising livestock and it's as if we just would cut that out we would have much less pollution so from an environmental point of view it's better and from a you know personal point of view health-wise so it's healthier for your body and it's Healthier for you for our Earth answer there was his message and so Jim has never that I'm aware of ever said anything to me about anything that wasn't true when I was governor and I went and as we usually go in our

motorcycle rides and we were sitting over there at the rock store and he said he says Um someone to bring out the reverse metering he says pay attention to that I found out when I went to Sacramento yeshu enough that if someone puts solar on their building let's say of a huge warehouse and you produce so much electricity because of all this solar that you covered the whole top of the warehouse that you have spear electricity that you want to send it back to the grid so Other people can use it and you get paid

for it or get credit for it from the power companies that the power companies just doesn't want that they don't like that no they want to produce their own which means more fossil fuels and more damage to our Earth so I then started fighting and started really working in that direction so that they do accept reverse metering so it's things like that that no one would even know What Jim Cameron is talking about and uh and I've immediately picked up on it but it just shows to you also how smart is I mean especially with

the technological things and technology and with little details and he reads a lot and all itself just so experienced so you know he was always a great guy to talk to and I always learned from him a lot I mean the other day he came to me oh what the other day the other month he came to me and he said And I had this stomach problem and uh the doctor says just don't eat for a few days and I say okay so is there the need for a few days so yeah the normal wisdom

would tell us we run out of energy he says would you believe that they had more energy on the set he says and as soon as they ate my first meal he says my energy dropped he says of course Eventually we have to eat we can't live without food he says but the bottom line is that eating lunch when you're on a set does not make you become more energetic it robs you of energy because the blood or rushes you get tired and he says that's why we have French hours on a set which means

you can eat throughout the day but there was No more lunch break because this is a waste of two hours of people's performance and he's right is absolutely right when I don't eat in the morning I go to the gym I work out and I don't have breakfast and everything like this comes 12 o'clock at one o'clock when I do something I'm us I'm so energetic but as soon as you eat at nine o'clock after my workout and after my bike ride I go home and I sit Down and I start reading something like this

I kind of like doze off right this is It's amazing so he again he was right so I I just think that so many things that he has taught me and told me Jim was always right well to say he's a detail-oriented person is to understate it you know um he's a somebody who who meets you in that place where uh nothing is going to Get in the way of of basically achieving your goal at the level that you aspire to achieve it right right um but most people are not wired that way no you

know you're walking the Earth with a certain like sort of default operating system that other people lack which maybe makes it easier for you to accomplish your goals but also perhaps might be frustrating because it's hard not to like want people to kind of be operating On your level and now you have this book where you're sharing like here's how I did it here's what you can learn from my experience here are the principles that um kind of created the the playing field for me to do all of these things what is the process from

your perspective of trying to get people to to grab onto these things and take responsibility because you can't willingness you can't engender willingness in another person right they Either they either like want to achieve a goal or they don't and you can give them all the tools and say do this but what you can't do is actually instigate them into action or maybe you can then how do you think about that no no you can I know what you're saying but it is interesting how sometimes people listen to you and an interview or they talk

to you in person and there's something you say Maybe not even intentional where did they say that's what did it that's what triggered something in me that I want to go now and set the goal for myself and do x y and z so it it can be the hardest thing I myself get motivated a lot of times when they watch something big coincidence or watch a documentary or I hear something um it triggers something and then it motivates you to go in a certain Direction so I think to disregard that it would be a

mistake I think that we have to do everything that we can and since I by accident fell into this thing here becoming a motivational speaker because yeah ten years ago it was an accident totally accident yeah 10 years ago when I was doing uh or or more than that uh 15 years ago when I was doing a commencement speech At USC and they talked about dma just to to motivate the kids when they graduate uh here's my sixth in the points by six rules to success from that point on people kept asking me to finally

do a book why don't you do a book why don't you do a book and I just said I'm not this is not the business I'm in but then all of a sudden people that I got in the speaker speaker circuit yeah you know the president's usually on Um or ex-presidents I should say and um and all of a sudden I'm traveling around and I'm doing speeches with Clinton somewhere in Africa and then yeah and uh with various different leaders and everyone is asking me to do a motivational speech not to talk about policy not

about the environment not about the governorship or anything or about bodybuilding no a motivational speech they want to have the six rules so the Seven rules so the ten rules whatever it takes they want to know that they always say this look we're having five thousand people from Real Estate there pumped them up we got together and get more sales and power and so that's obviously and I fell into this groove of of kind of where people say you know this is so motivational what you're saying this is so great this is exactly what we

needed through a book and then the family I did the book hmm what is your Relationship with it like in terms of of how it makes you feel like compared to being the biggest movie star in the world compared to being Governor compared to uh you know winning all those titles as a bodybuilder um you spoke earlier about how you can become addicted to that um feeling that you get when you're helping somebody else right and this is this is a very palpable powerful way of you reaching out to people directly and Having that impact

on them does it feel different than what it felt like when you were Governor or when you were you know doing the big movies is it the same like the gratification that you get from um from it all I think it all feels good yeah you know but I mean it's also a big change I'm a different person sitting here the day than I was when I was 20 years old and won my first Mr Universe contest can Imagine so to me that was the most important thing in my life this was like unbelievable but

then came with a day Where I Stood on that stage and then one Mr Olympia even a bigger title than Mr Universe I didn't mean anything I said that these guys that I just beat they would be much happy with the title than I am so I'm out of here And that was it I quit and I went into acting so then all of a sudden that becomes the most important thing to go in the ring a big box office to have a successful movie to go from action to comedian from Comedy to action and

it isn't that into two all those kind of things that becomes the most important thing but then in 2003 when I finished my promotion to for pump for for Terminator Three and they had the recall election here I said to myself this is what I should do I should run for governor what the hell is this is this isn't the same thing am I going to go now for the Terminator you know 4 and 16 and 20 and Conan 14 or something yeah what life is about and there must be more than that so all

of a suddenly is that looking for the in a To what they're called the PPD right the big and bigger better deal and decides I started looking for something more spicy that's more risky and that it is bigger for me and to me as him as a policy that's that's something that is a new challenge that could be really great and I stepped into that Arena so it's we changed and we changed and so what was one time to me the most important thing and the most exciting thing you know the day's not and so

this is Now exciting to be able to motivate people to be better and um to go and to fight for the environment and to uh you know promote uh democracy and uh to terminate gerrymandering and the oldest kind of issues in the do to run the Schwarzenegger Institute and to make students you know kind of learn firsthand of what it's about to become a leader and all that stuff at the University so those are the kind of things the day that means something to me so it it's an evolution as I get older and as

I get wiser and as I get better and smarter and all of that stuff things change I want to be conscious of your time I gotta let you go but perhaps thank God yeah yeah I'm gonna get you out of here are you bored no no I want to give you a little like last last opportunity for a little schmei you know like what is it that you want People to get out of this book what do you think is holding people back the most how are you messaging these people lighting a fire under their

ass trying to get them pumped up and on a new better trajectory you know this is simply to make people better and to make them recognize that they don't have to get stuck where they are but they can change because every every day is an opportunity of change and so I want them To look at this book and just say maybe there's something in that they will motivate me to change and to get better to improve myself and I have to get stuck in this I can shoot for big course I want people to be

aware of it that you don't have to shoot for little goals but you can shoot for big cores that it is just as difficult to shoot for a little goal than to shoot for a big goal and I want them to know that they shouldn't be afraid of failure that this comes Naturally in life there will be failure and there will be successes the important thing is that we learn from that but not to be Frozen and to be the fear that I want them to know that they have to create a vision of where

they want to go without a vision there is just nowhere to go you use it's it's just the way it is in life you were just wander around without a mission without the joy of chasing something how much fun it is to chase something so I want Them to learn those basic lessons that make you just more successful and better hmm you're speaking my language thank you for that uh that was beautifully put you're an international Treasurer it uh meant a lot to me for you to spend time today so I thank you for that

thank you appreciate it keep up all your athletic activities yeah it's like amazing the guy that can at any given time walk From my office over to the beach and swim to Hawaii I wish how many people can do that I wish I mean that's that's unbelievable anyway um you did a great job yeah thank you keep up the good work okay appreciate it be useful available everywhere it's going to be impossible to avoid you I think probably in coming weeks uh so it's going to be uh the book is going to be everywhere it's

going to be it thank you I loved it and I appreciate You thank you cheers it was fun writing thanks thank you [Music] that's it for today thank you for listening I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation to learn more about today's guest including links and resources related to everything discussed today visit the episode page at richroll.com where you can find the entire podcast archive as well as podcast merch my books Finding Ultra voicing change and The plant power away as well as the plant power meal planner at meals.richeral.com if you'd like to support the

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and engineered by Jason camiolo with additional audio engineering by Kale Curtis the video edition of the podcast was created by Blake Curtis with assistance by our creative director Dan Drake portraits by Davey Greenberg graphic and social media assets courtesy of Daniel Solis thank you Georgia Whaley for copywriting and website management and of course our theme music was created by Tyler Pyatt Trapper piatt and Harry Mathis appreciate the love love the support see you back here soon peace plants [Music] thank you [Music]