Tapping Into The Wisdom of The Governator
9 Key Ideas From Total Recall By Arnold Schwarzenegger
Happy Monday from Henderson, Nevada ☀️
Before reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biography, I knew of him as a bodybuilder, actor, and governor, and didn’t think much of it. He was a successful guy with cool labels—good for him 👍.
After reading his biography and learning the intense strategies, mindset, and (possibly exaggerated) backstories, I earned a new appreciation for these titles.
This week, I share my favorite quotes, ideas, and lessons from his book, Total Recall.
Enjoy!
Total Recall — Big Takeaways
1) Vision ⇛ Purpose ⇛ Easier Execution
At every step of his journey, Arnold oriented himself with a clearly defined North Star broken down into intermediate steps.
“In weeks that followed, I refined this vision until it was very specific. I was going to go for the Mr. Universe title; I was going to break records in power lifting; I was going to Hollywood; I was going to be like Reg Park” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
His plan (simplified)
Become good enough at bodybuilding to get to the USA.
Use bodybuilding success to become an actor
Become financially independent through real estate investing
Become a “leading man” (only accept career-enhancing roles)
Because Arnold had a clear goal that he was committed to achieving, he found it easier to maintain the lifestyle required to achieve excellence.
“…my mission in America was clear. I was on a path. I needed to train like hell, diet like hell, eat well, and win more major titles the following fall.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
It would have been very easy to slip into the temptations of a fun life in SoCal, but that wouldn’t lead to reaching his goals. Jordan Peterson gives similar advice for how to quit drinking.
“you wanna figure out something that you're doing with your life that's worth not getting drunk and screwing up” — Jordan Peterson
When you have a serious enough goal, your desire to do stupid things weakens because you have something you care enough about to protect. At that point, when the desire to “misbehave” or “cheat” is absent, it does not take much discipline to make the right decision.
Finally, Arnold was totally committed to his visions and psyched himself up with absolute confidence.
“The vision became so clear in my mind that I felt like it had to happen. There was no alternative; it was this or nothing.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
2) Deliberate Serendipity
The Bigger Pockets Real Estate Podcast Hosts constantly repeat that if you want to get into real estate, buy a rental, flip a house, etc, the first step is to start telling people!
This is an obvious technique that so many people miss. When you tell people that you intend to get into real estate, all of a sudden people mention to you that they have a family friend who could be helpful, a neighbor with a distressed lot, or some other “serendipitous” coincidence.
When you have a habit of sharing your goals, visions, or plans, you are inviting people to help you.
As a kid, Arnold told everyone in his small town that he had a dream of going to America. While he was often laughed at for expressing this desire, it didn’t matter. Eventually, everyone came to know him as the person who wanted to go to America. If and when there was an opportunity, he’d be the first one people would share it with.
In this sense, he attracted luck.
Sharing your biggest ambitions also acts as a filter for who you should be spending time with. When you share a goal, someone can react in any of the following ways:
Laugh in your face (a**holes)
List reasons that it couldn’t be done (discouragement and negative energy)
Offer encouragement and ways to help
Spend more time with the people who react positively. Spend less time with the people who discourage you.
3) Knowing vs. Doing and Being a Critical Thinker
When Arnold took business classes, he was confused that his professor drove a cheap car. Why did the people teaching him about how to make money seem to not have very much money?
Thinking it through, he concluded:
“Knowing it all is not really the answer, because this guy is not making the money to have a bigger car. He should be driving a Mercedes.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
There are two lessons here.
First, bias toward action.
Just get started. You’ll realize what you need to learn along the way. The person who spends all of their time researching and learning proactively typically loses to the person who spends all of their time doing.
This contradicts my advice about anticipating obstacles, so I recommend an arbitrary 10% research heuristic. Borrowing the idea from learning expert Scott Young, if you plan to spend 30 days on a project, spend at most 3 days on planning and research.
A little bit of research will cover most of the important things to know, but it very quickly will reach diminishing returns. Ironically, economics-trained business professors miss this obvious phenomenon all the time.
Instead of waiting, Arnold started businesses before graduating and learned enough to out-earn his professors after not too long.
The second lesson is to be a critical thinker.
If you see an incongruity, think it through. Do your own logical reasoning. When your gut suggests that something isn’t right, something is probably not right.
In mid pandemic when everything was semi/loosely enforced, the incongruities drove me bonkers.
Why did I have to wear a mask at a Chipotle ordering counter, but not when I ate 3 ft away? Logically, only one of two things could be true.
It didn’t matter to wear one at the table, so it didn’t matter to wear one at all.
It did matter. Food should have been takeout only.
So often we are confronted with blatant logical contradictions and don’t spend enough time trusting our ability to think it through.
Banish the broke financial advisors and overweight doctors from your life.
Think for yourself.
4) Say No So You Can Eventually Say Yes
Arnold’s vision was to be a leading man in the movies.
Because he was clear about what he wanted, he said no to a lot of good short-term opportunities because they did not advance his long-term aim.
They wanted me to play a Nazi officer, a wrestler, a football player, a prisoner. I never took jobs like that because I would say to myself, “This isn’t going to convince anybody that you’re here to be a star.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
Don’t let a clear path to a small goal disrupt the ambiguous path to your meaningful, big goals.
5) Win The Morning, Win The Day
I’ve suggested this in a number of these emails by now.
If you aren’t winning the morning by knocking out your most important tasks first, you are missing massive opportunities for improved efficiency and psychological edge.
“Reg would wake me up at five o’clock each morning; by five thirty we’d be at his gym at 42 Kirk Street working out. I never even got up at that hour, but now I learned the advantage of training early, before the day starts, when there are no other responsibilities and nobody else is asking anything of you.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
This is the easiest time to be uninterrupted. These are the most predictable hours you have.
Get what matters most done first, before the world is even awake.
Win the morning, win the day.
6) It Is Not a Goal Unless You Write It Down
A goal in your head is just a dream.
It wasn’t sufficient just to tell myself something like “My New Year’s resolution is to lose twenty pounds and learn better English and read a little bit more.” No. That was only a start. Now I had to make it very specific so that all those fine intentions were not just floating around. I would take out index cards and write that I was going to:
• get twelve more units in college;
• earn enough money to save $5,000;
• work out five hours a day;
• gain seven pounds of solid muscle weight
• find an apartment building to buy and move into.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
Make it specific. Write it down. Get ideas out of your head and into the world.
7) Learn From The Best
“When I wanted to know more about business and politics, I used the same approach I did when I wanted to learn about acting: I got to know as many people as I could who were really good at it.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
An hour with an expert saves 10+ hours of independent struggling.
Ask people a few steps ahead of you for advice. Some of the best knowledge and techniques are not formally cataloged in books. Apprenticeships and even informal mentorships can be mind-bogglingly beneficial. Ask for help!
If someone politely came to you, shared how much they admire your accomplishments, and asked a few thoughtful questions about your field, would you turn them away without any advice? Of course not.
8) Think Long Term and See The Big Picture
When Arnold first partnered with Dino De Laurentiis for a film, Arnold accepted a much smaller compensation than he had expected. Why?
Dino was a legend in the industry.
“He’d been involved in more than 500 movies since 1942 and had officially produced something like 130. Learning from him was much more important than making back that stupid 5 percent.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold understood that the long-term benefit of a good partnership would drastically outweigh a few percentage points on their first deal.
Think 5-10 years out.
9) Gratitude & Patriotism (America vs. The World)
Arnold made a party of earning his American citizenship.
“photographers tracked me down and took pictures of me showing off my naturalization certificate, with Maria beside me, both of us grinning. I told the reporters, “I always believed in shooting for the top, and to become an American is like becoming a member of the winning team.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold’s pride can give us all a bit of perspective on the freedoms we enjoy in the USA.
The accessibility of business formation, education, property ownership and so much more allowed Arnold to come here with nothing and become a mega-success.
Things are far from perfect, but there are an abundance of reasons to look around and be grateful.
Thank You For Reading!
Set some clear goals for July and have a fun celebration of the fourth.
All the best,
Louis
Hyperlinks To Various Things
Podcast Updates 🎧
LK #73 with Cole Schafer: Romance poetry and lucrative copywriting adventures
LK #72 with Dr. Richard Schatz: An Invention That Saved 100+ Million Lives
LK #71 with Colton Sakamoto: Helping People Get Jobs In Crypto
LK Content Coming Soon 📅
Rita Singer (my Grandma!)
David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine and organizer of BTC 2021
Peter McCormack, Host of What Bitcoin Did & Nassim Taleb heckler
Scott Rieckens, Financial Independence, Retire Early filmmaker
Joel Runyon from Impossible HQ
Quick Clicks
(1) 📝Fantastic Easy Reading 📝: Ryan Holiday Lessons from 34 (34 mistakes)
Ryan Holiday’s annual reflection is consistently one of my favorite articles each year. This year, he shares 34 mistakes and the lessons learned from each of them. I’d also recommend digging through the archives, there is wisdom from each year.
(2) 💰 If You Like Numbers/ Finance 💰: Insider Trading Transactions
See when people like Zuckerberg (Facebook), Yuan (Zoom), The Walton family (Walmart), and many, many more buy or sell big positions of their company stocks. Apparently, this is public info 🤷♀️
Photo of the week — Resorts World Grand Opening
Yesterday, my family and I joined the mass of tourists checking out Vegas’ newest mega-casino. It is a humongous, beautiful facility.
We made the mistake of showing up after lunch, so we’ll have to return soon and try some of the exciting spots at their MEGA food court. Updates to come (eventually).