Success – Why 2% Succeed And 98% Don’t.

This speech on his success by Arnold Schwarzenegger is a bit difficult to follow as his accent is still strong and his sentence structure is a little off, but the message is still clear.

There are only two things that stop you getting everything you want in life.

Enjoy the speech, it may help you change your life.

I’m here to talk about success. 

The first rule of success is to have a vision. 

You see, even if you don’t have a vision of where you go, and if you don’t have a goal where you go, you drift around and you never end up anywhere. 

I mean, as you know, I was born in 1947 in Austria after the second world war. 

So I was very fortunate that I stumbled on the, my vision and I didn’t really like Austria. 

When I grew up, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. 

I couldn’t see myself becoming a farmer or a worker in a factory or anything like that. 

Even though my parents wanted me to stay there and have a normal life, but that was their vision. 

Not mine. 

My vision was totally different. 

I felt that that I was one for something special, for something unique for something big.

Then one day I went to school. 

I remember I was 11 years old. 

And they show that documentary about America. 

The other shows in this documentary, the huge skyscrapers, the high rises, the huge bridges, the six lane freeways, all of this stuff and then saying to myself. 

That’s where I want to be. 

I don’t want to be around here with the little farm houses and these little buildings. 

I want to be at America. 

Success in discovering how to reach the goal.

One day after school, I walked by a store in Graz. 

So went inside and I looked around and then I saw a magazine. 

It’s a body building magazine that had Reg Park on the cover. 

Reg Park was then a three time Mr. Universe. 

And I saw him on the big screen as Hercules. I read that and I said to myself, wow, this is the blueprint for my life. This is exactly what I want to do.

I wanted to become a bodybuilding champion, just like Reg Park. 

I wanted to get into movies, just like Reg Park. 

And I wanted to make millions of dollars and be rich and famous, just like Reg Park. 

You know how great it felt that I knew where I was going. 

Imagine, the majority of people don’t know where they’re going. 

I knew where I was going. 

That I’m going to become this bodybuilding champion, just like him. 

So it was just a question of how do you do it? 

I was so relieved because when you have a goal, when you have a vision, everything becomes easy. 

So people always ask me when there’s so many in the gym, in the pumping iron days, they said, why is it that you’re working out so hard, five hours a day, six hours a day and you have always a smile on your face.

And I told people all the time, is it because to me, I am shooting for goal in front of Mr. Universe title. 

So every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal to make this goal, this vision journey the reality, every single set that I do, every repetition, every weight that I lift will get me step closer to turn this goal into reality. 

So I couldn’t wait to do another 500 pound squat. 

I couldn’t wait to another 500 pounds bench press. 

I couldn’t wait to do another 2000 reps of sit-ups. 

I couldn’t wait for the next exercise. 

The first success at 20 years old.

With the age of 20, I went to London and I won the Mr. Universe contest as the youngest Mr. Universe ever. 

And it was because I had a goal.

So let me tell you something, visualizing your 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. 

74% hate their job in America. 

Now there’s not much different when you come to Europe, the majority of people don’t like what they’re doing, because they’re really not doing it because they didn’t have a goal didn’t follow this goal. 

They just aimlessly drift around and then all of a sudden there’s a job opening. 

So they get the job because you have to work. 

But then when you work, it’s a chore. It’s work. 

It’s not fun. 

If you think about only a quarter of the people really enjoy what they’re doing in life. 

That is unbelievable if you think about it. So I felt so blessed that I knew what I was doing.

It’s like a medical student that studies and knows he wants to become a doctor you know where to go. And the same thing is also in politics. 

Success in leveraging fame into politics.

I remember that in politics, I had a very clear vision that I will be the leader of California. 

This is far as I could go because I was not born in America so I could not run for President. 

So being the governor of the fifth largest state of, I should say the largest state, the fifth largest economy in the world was for me, really the ultimate title, the ultimate accomplishment in politics. 

So even though people came up to me, says, why don’t you go and run for something smaller? 

You never gonna make it. 

I ran for Governor. 

And then two months later, I became Governor of the state of California. 

Again, because I had a very clear vision what I’m going to do with California.

So that’s rule number one, have a vision. 

Rule number two is don’t listen to the naysayers. 

Don’t listen to the naysayers, everything I ever did. 

The thing that I heard out of people’s mouths was that’s impossible that can’t be done or no. 

That is exactly what I heard. 

And of course I proved to the people that it can be done. So whenever someone said to me, it can’t be done. 

I heard it can be done when they say, no, I heard. Yes. 

And when they said, it’s impossible. I heard it is possible. 

I’m a strong believer in what Nelson Mandela said that everything is always impossible until someone does it. 

Well, I’m going to be the one that said to myself, I’m going to do it. 

And I’m going to show it to them. 

Maybe it has never been done before. 

That’s perfectly fine with me, but I’m going to do it. 

And I did not listen to the naysayers.

It’s all about the hard work that you put in. 

Putting in the work to become a success as an actor.

I said to myself with bodybuilding I worked out five, six hours a day, I’m going to do the same thing now for acting. 

And of course, I went to college to study English. 

I studied the accent removal, acting classes and all of this stuff all day long. 

I worked in a work in the Brooks and been in a short period of time. 

I made one movie called Hercules in New York, which of course went right into the toilet, but it didn’t discourage me. 

I still had the same vision. 

And then all of a sudden they did Streets of San Francisco. 

I did stay hungry and pumping iron and to building. 

And then all of a sudden I was asked by Dino De Laurentiis and the Universal Studio, to star in Conan, the Barbarian and after they did Conan, the Barbarian, the director at the press conference said to the press, the director was John Milius.

He said to the press, if we wouldn’t have had Arnold, we would have had to build one. 

So think about that, the very body that they said can never be sold because the time is wrong. 

A few years later, I’m doing Conan the barbarian and it was the number one hit at the box office when it came out in December of 82, think about that. 

And the director says if he wouldn’t have had his body, we would have had to build one. 

So all of a sudden my body became an asset, not a liability. 

And the same thing with Terminator. 

After we were finished filming Terminator, Jim Cameron said to the press, if Arnold wouldn’t have had that accent and talk like a machine, I think the movie wouldn’t have worked. 

So think about the body and the accent that they attacked was an asset, but I didn’t listen to those losers. 

I didn’t listen to them at all. 

It’s just the reality of it is that you cannot listen to the naysayers. 

So this is a very important lesson for all of you. 

So when someone says, no, this is a stupid idea. 

You in your mind, you don’t have to say, but in your mind, just say to yourself you arsehole, what do you know?

He makes success sound so simple, and it is. It’s the execution and persistence that’s harder.

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