How many times have you heard that you can't do this, you can't do that,
and it's never been done before? Just imagine if Bill Gates had quit when people said it
can't be done. I hear this all the time. As a matter of fact, I love it when someone says
that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I'm
the first one that has done it and I said to my family I want
to be a bodybuilding champion." Now, you can imagine how that went over in my
home in Austria. My parents, they couldn't believe it. They would have been
just happy if I would have become a police officer like my father, or married
someone like Heidi, had a bunch of kids and ran around like
the von Trapp family in Sound of Music. That's what my family had in mind for me,
but something else burned inside me. Something burned inside me. I wanted to
be different; I was determined to be unique. I was driven to think big and to
dream big. Everyone else thought that I was crazy. My friends said, "If you want to
be a champion in a sport, why don't you go and become a bicycle champion or a skiing
champion or a soccer champion? Those are the Austrian sports." But I didn't care. I
wanted to be a bodybuilding champion and use that to come to America, and use that to
go into the movies and make millions of dollars.
So pay no attention to the people that say it can't be done.
After all, I remember that after I was finished with my bodybuilding career I
wanted to get into acting and I wanted to be a star in films. You can imagine what the
agents said when I went to meet all those agents. Everyone had the same line, that
it can't be done, the rules are different here. They said, "Look at your body. You have
this huge monstrous body, overly developed. That doesn't fit into the
movies. You don't understand. This was 20 years ago, the Hercules
movies. Now the little guys are in, Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, Jack
Nicholson." And the agents also complained about my accent. They said, "No one ever became a
star with an accent like that, especially not with a German accent. And yes,
I can imagine with your name, Arnold Schwartzenschnitzel, or whatever the name, is
on a billboard. Yeah, that's going to draw a lot of tickets and sell a lot of
tickets. Yeah, right." So this is the kind of negative attitude they had. But I
didn't listen to those rules, even though they were very nice and they said, "Look, we can
get you some bit parts. We can get you to be playing a wrestler or
a bouncer. Oh, maybe with your German accent we can get you to be a Nazi officer in
Hogan's Heroes or something like that." But I didn't listen to all this.
hose were their rules, not my rules. I was convinced I could do it if
I worked as hard as I did in bodybuilding, five hours a day. And I started getting to work,
I started taking acting classes. I took English classes, took speech classes,
dialogue classes. Accent removal classes I even took.
And finally I broke through. I broke through and I started getting the first
parts in TV; Streets of San Francisco, Lucille Ball hired me, I made Pumping
Iron, Stay Hungry. And then I got the big break in Conan the Barbarian.
And there the director said, "If we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger, we would have to
build one." Now, think about that. And then, when I did Terminator, "I'll be back,"
became one of the most famous lines in movie history, all because of
my crazy accent. Now, think about it. The things that the agents said would be
totally a detriment and would make it impossible for me to get a job, all of a
sudden became an asset for me, all of those things, my accent, my body and everything.
So it just shows to you, never listen to that you can't do something. And, "You have to
work your way up, of course, run for something else first." I mean, it was
he same when I ran for governor, the same lines, that you have to work your way up, it
can't be done. And then, of course, I ran for governor and the rest, of course, is
history. They said you have to start with a small job as mayor and then
as assemblyman and then as lieutenant governor and then as governor. And they said
that's the way it works in a political career. I said, "I'm not interested in a
political career. I want to be a public servant. I want to fix California's
problems and bring people together and bring the parties together. So, like I said, I
said, I decided to run, I didn't pay attention to the rules. And I made it and
the rest is history.
People ask me all the time, they say to me, "What is the secret to success?"
so many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from their
teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep
down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who.
And I'm talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. I’m
talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no
matter how crazy it may sound to other people. I spent a lot of time by myself, so I
I could figure out and listen to what is inside my heart and inside my head. Something
burned inside me. I wanted to be different; I was determined to be unique. I was
driven to think big and to dream big. I always wanted to be very intense, I always
wanted to be number one. I took it very seriously, my career and so this
intensity always paid off for me, this commitment always paid off for me.
I didn't want to just be a bodybuilding champion, I wanted to be the best bodybuilder
of all time. The same was in the movies. I didn't want to just be a movie star; I wanted to be a great
movie star that is the highest paid movie star and have above-the-title billing. I
many times have you heard that you can't do this and you can't do that and
it's never been done before? I hear this all the time.
was told that to my face... You are nothing but a giant muscle,
you can't act and you have no future and you have an accent that is laughable. it just shows you
again so much for it can't be done. This is why I try to tell you, anything and
everything can be done if you can visualize it and if you believe in yourself.
You are going to find the naysayers in every turn that you make… Don’t listen!
Just visualize your goal, know exactly where you want to go. Trust yourself.
So pay no attention to the people who say it can’t be done.
trust yourself, no matter how and what anyone else thinks. What is the point of being
on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble? We have
so many rules in life about everything. The only way that I ever got
anyplace was by breaking some of the rules.
It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved
and don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. Now, of course,
this journey is not going to be without any setbacks, failures or
disappointments. That's just the way life is. Don't be afraid to fail. You can't
always win, but don't afraid of making decisions. You can't be paralyzed by fear
of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in
yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success
will come. So don't be afraid to fail.
I always believed leaving no stone unturned. That's what makes you a
champion. But when you're out there partying, horsing
around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting
smarter and someone is winning. You never want to fail because you didn't work hard
enough. But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work.
No pain, no gain.
Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give
something back, something back to your community, give something back to your
state or to your country. ear down that mirror. Tear down 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.
Reaching out and helping people will bring you more satisfaction than
anything else you have ever done.
Trust yourself, Break some rules, Don't be afraid to fail, Ignore the naysayers, Work
like hell and give something back, I
remember my mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, when she started Special Olympics
in 1968 people said that it would not work. The experts, the doctors that
specialized in mental disabilities and mental retardation said, "It can't be done.
You can't bring people out of their institutions. You can't make them
participate in sports, in jumping and swimming and in running. They will hurt
themselves, they will hurt each other, they will drown in the pool."
Now, 40 years later, Special Olympics is one of the greatest
in 164 countries, dedicated to people with mental
disabilities and that are intellectually challenged. And she did
not take no for an answer. And the same is when you look at Barack Obama. I mean,
imagine, if he would have listened. If he would have listened to the naysayers he
would have never run for president. People said it couldn't be done, that he
couldn't get elected, that he couldn’t beat Hillary Clinton, that he would never
win the general election. But he followed his own heart, he didn’t listen to the
"You can't," and he changed the course of American history. So over and over you see
that. If I would have listened to the naysayers I would still be in the
Austrian Alps yodeling. I would never have come to America. I would have never
met my wonderful wife Maria Shriver, I would have never had the wonderful four
kids, I would have never done Terminator, and I wouldn't be standing here in
front of you today as governor of the greatest state of the greatest country
in the world. So I never listen that, "You can't."
I always listen to myself and say, "Yes, you can."