Arnold Schwarzenegger success motivational speech


Here is one of the most inspiring speeches from Schwarzenegger about success. Personally, this speech was very touching and challenged my work ethic, drive, ambition, vision and diligence. I decided to share it with you and hope his life story and words will also fuel your light of hope, hard work and determination.
We all need inspiration at a point, you can never go the whole distance by yourself.

Arnold Schwarzenegger full success inspirational speech


I am here to talk about success.
I went to college, I went and worked out 5 hours a day and  I was working in construction because in those  days there was no money. I didn't have money for food supplements or anything so I had to go to work.

I worked in construction, I went to college, I worked out in the gym and at night. From 8 o'clock to 12  midnight i went to acting class four times a week. So I did all that. There wasn't one single minute that I wasted.

And this is why I am standing here today. At the age of 20 I went to London and won the Mr Universe contest as the youngest Mr Universe ever. It was because I had a goal. If you don't have a goal of where you are going you drift around and you never end up anywhere.

74% hate their jobs in America. The majority of people don't like what they are doing. because they are really not doing it because they didn't have a goal and found this goal. 
They just aimlessly drift around and all the sudden there is a job opening and so they get the job. Because you have to work to earn a living. 

But then when you work its a chore. Its work. its not fun. So people always ask me, "why is it that you work so hard and you always have a smile on your face? Others work just as hard as you do but they look sour in the face."

I told people all the time that it is because to me I am shooting for a goal. In front of me is the Mr Universe title. So every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal to make this vision a reality. Every set that i do, every repetition gets me closer to getting this goal into reality. So I couldn't wait to do another 500 pound squats, I couldn't wait to do another 500 pound bench press. I couldn't wait to do another 2000 reps of sit-ups. I couldn't wait for the next exercise.

So let me tell you something, visualizing a goal and going after it makes it fun. you've got to have a purpose no matter what you do in life, you've got to have a purpose.

Mohammad Ali worked his butt off and I saw it first hand. I remember there was a sportswriter in the gym while he was doing sit-ups. The writer asked him, "how many sit-ups do you do?"
and he replied, "i don't start counting until it hurts."

Think about that, he doesn't start counting his sit-ups until he feels pain. That is working hard. So you can't get around the hard work it does not matter who you are. Work your ass off. there is no magic pill. There is no magic out there. 

You cannot get around, you have to work. And it drives me crazy when people say they don't have enough time to go to the gym for 45 minutes a day to workout. Or to do something for 45 minutes to an hour a day to improve.  

Imagine if you read 1 hour a day about history. how much you will learn after 365 hours in one year. Think about if you study about the history of musicians and composers, how much you would know. Imagine if you could work on the business you want to develop everyday for an hour. Imagine how much further you could get. So it drives me nuts when people say we don't have the time. You have 24 hours a day. You sleep 6 hours a day leaving you with 18 hours a day. Someone might be shaking his head and thinking, "I don't sleep 6 hours, I sleep 8 hours a day."

Well just sleep faster! So with 18 hours a day, the average person works around 8 to 10 hours. Assuming its 10 hours, you have 8 hours left. And you travel around an hour a day, maybe 2 hours a day. Still, you have 6 hours left. So what do you do with the 6 hours? Maybe eat a little bit, maybe shmooze a little bit, talk a little bit to people. But you can see how much time is available if you organise your day. So you have to work hard.

I hate plan B and i will tell you why. Because we have so many doubters (the no sayers) and people people who say you can't do it, that's impossible etc. That is okay because we just turn off our ears to them and let the no be a yes and tell yourself you can do it. 

It is possible to do that with all the negative people around you. But when you start doubting yourself that is very dangerous. Because now what you are basically saying is that if my plan does not work i have a fall back plan, a plan B. 
That means you start thinking about plan B and every thought that you put into plan B you are taking away that energy from plan A. It is very important to understand that we function better if there is no safety net. Because plan B becomes a safety net. It says that "if I fail and fall then i'll get picked up and have something that will protect me."

That is not good. Because people perform better when there is no safety net. I have never had a plan B. I made a full commitment that I was going to be body building champion, I made a full commitment that I was going to be in America. 
I made a full commitment that I was going to be in show business and I was going to be the leading man. No matter what it takes I will do the work over and over until i get it. 

For me its very dangerous to have a plan B because you are cutting yourself off from the chance of really succeeding. The reason people want to have a plan B is because they are worried about failing. "What if  I fail then I don't have anything else."

Don't be afraid of failing because there is nothing wrong with failing. you have to fail in order to climb that ladder. There is no one who does not fail.   
(Reporters talking to Michael Jordan) When they said you are unbelievable, you are one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan replied in one of his interviews; "You have just mentioned the successes, but for me to become one of the great basketball player I missed 9000 shots when I was playing basketball at the NBA games."

So during these games that he was so successful, he missed 9000 shots. Does that make him a failure? No, he is one of the greatest basketball players of all time but he failed 9000 times do you get it? 

We all fail, its okay. What is not okay is staying down after you fail. Whoever stays down is a loser. Winners fail and get up. you always get up, that is a winner. I failed in body building. I lost body building competitions, I lost power lifting competitions, I lost weightlifting competitions. I had movies that went to the toilet because they were terrible and got the worst reviews. In politics i remember i had many of the initiatives on the ballot and we lost. My approval rating in Carlifornia went down to 28%. And then it went back up again and I won the governorship. Hey, we all lose and this is why I said don't be worried about losing because when you are afraid of losing you become frozen. You get stiff because you are not relaxed. In order to perform well in anything whether be in boxing, your job or your thinking you have to be relaxed.

Relax, its okay to fail. Let's just go all out and give it everything that you got that what it's all about so don't be afraid to fail.

Comments