Be Useful Seven Tools for Life

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the principles and the tools that are used in bodybuilding I use the very same tools in show business and they use the very same tools when I ran for governor and then to become governor and then to be governor

it was like you know having a great vision and just chasing that vision go after it relentlessly and work your ass off don't listen to the naysayers you know just shoot for higher course rather than low course and just go all out you know because this is German saying venture intention and talk about it in the book

so if you do something just you know go all the way and so and then and give something back because we have to kind of and you mentioned that briefly that you know that I never felt that I was a self-made man that I had I was very fortunate that I had so much help along the way that I felt that I have to give something back now too

I think I write about that very effectively in the book and you know it has been really great to see the book be successful and be number one and the best civilist and all of those kind of things and selling really well internationally

that's what the book be useful is all about yeah be useful seven tools for life which is amazing

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And so I want to make sure that people, you know, kind of can read about the seven tools that I used, how to be more successful and how do you really feel good about the stuff that I do and where you feel like you know you marching in the right direction.

Well I think that the vision I put this number one in my book, be useful because I think that vision is the most important thing.

If you don't have a very clear vision of what you want to accomplish in life, and if you don't have a very clear vision where you want to go, you don't have anything.

Another one that I think is very important is, you know, not to listen to the naysayers, because you could have a very clear vision.

One thing was always clear, they'd be respected each other.

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Arnold served as the thirty-eighth governor of California and his new book, *Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life*, takes readers on an inspirational tour through Arnold's tool kit for a meaningful life.

And so this is why I did the book

I'm glad that you put it in that order because I think for everyone who is listening and watching a lot of people will say I do work hard I'm working my ass off I'm doing everything I can but I think what's really important is that in the book you start with have a clear vision and I agree I think there are a lot of people who are working really really hard and if you have a clear vision as you say then that hard work pays off because otherwise a lot of people are just working hard getting stressed putting on pressure but there isn't that vision

I've always found that if you're proud of what you're selling, if you really believe in it, then it's easier to sell it. But generally people have a challenge with like the word sell. But you say one of your lessons is sell, sell, sell. So walk us through how you were able to, I mean, obviously even all the movies the franchises you've created, it requires promotion, it requires selling. And of course they were highly entertaining. But tell us what you learned about how to sell effectively but also authentically

I tell you, it was really fun doing this book because I really had to kind of drill down and think about a lot of the things that comes natural for me to tell stories about. Because each one of the rules, you want to be able, even the sub-rules and the sub-sub-rules, you want to be able to tie it to a story so that people can relate to it. Like I was talking about infrastructure. You can talk to people about infrastructure all you want. They can relate to it. But as soon as you tie it to getting stuck in traffic, making it to the recital in the school and you come late an hour because of the traffic and all this, then they can relate to that. And the same is with any of the rules. I kind of had fun doing it. It was sometimes frustrating because you want to do 10 rules and the publisher then says, no, you can only do seven because this book should only have 268 pages rather than 350 pages and all of this crazy stuff you go through. But it was a really, really great process and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would occupy this space at all. And it really happened just totally coincidentally where more and more people, you know, when you finish with the governorship, I was asked to do public speaking engagements like ex-presidents and stuff like that. And so I'm traveling around. I think one time someone said, can you pump up our crowd? We have like a thousand real estate people. We want you to just pump them up. So you do a little bit of success story. And all of a sudden it took off like wildfire. Every one of the public speaking engagements they've had since then, they want to go and have me talk about success, the rules to success and all of that stuff. So it's like something I didn't even think about because I always was a motivator. You know, if it's the Special Olympics or for after-school programs or to be just my buddies around in the gym that became my training partners because I always have this kind of energy, right? Come on, let's do a set. You can do another set. But wait a minute, you're stopping me 10 reps. Give me five more reps and let it pain. Let it give pain, you know, and you just pump, pump, pump. So I have this energy. So I never thought that this would be used then for seminars and eventually for a book like this. It's like crazy where life takes you.

The book is called *Be Useful*, 7 Tools for Life.

Arnold's a phenomenal storyteller.

I signed 17,000 copies.

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He's got a book out with a lot of great, very interesting stories. Yeah, Be Useful. And we talk about- Very positive thinking.

Go toward the pain and that's where all the good stuff is. With pain, you get stronger.

And the way he articulates, it's not his accent or anything anymore. It's just, he makes things very clean and very simple.

Oh, you have the book. Oh, fuck yeah, I do. I got questions, I got books.

The book is a lot about positivity, pretty much overall.

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he references how inspired he was by meditations in the final chapter of his new book Be Useful

I have been the creation of hundreds of people. He said thousands of people.

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if you haven't read these useful you should carry it to painting porch

Arnold's new book it's great I'll link to it in today's show notes you can grab be useful from the painted porch or anywhere books are sold it's fantastic

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I think at the end of this conversation where people didn't have to really start thinking about and some people say what a doctor told me that I'm now 55 years old my cholesterol is high and my blood pressure is high and they thought instead of just going on drugs and you're describing me medication I should try vigorous exercising every day for a little bit not too long but just every day something and so they do that but I always tell them as it look if this is specific goal that you have where you say okay by Christmas I want to have 20 pounds less now you're shooting for specific goal and now you weigh yourself every day now you watch what you eat because you always know that you're stepping on this scale and you want the way less and less and less every day and by Christmas you want to have 20 pounds less so you can afford a little bit picking out right at the Christmas time or whatever because maybe feel overweight or whatever so when we said specific goals like that or I sometimes talk about it then when I was a kid 15 years old I wanted to go the next year to the lake where I grew up and I wanted to be more muscular and impress the girls and people say you you were actually saying that I said no I was not saying that to anybody I said but it was my goal and I dealt with it sure I said I dealt with it and it motivated me to go into train every day and all of a sudden I said and it's of course a stupid motivation but it works yeah I said so I'm telling people as in no matter how stupid your motivation is it doesn't matter how silly it is it doesn't matter but pick a goal and then go after that goal have a specific reason for it because for everything it gives us more motivation when we have a reason it's no different than a kid that is coming out of high school and he now goes to college and he wants to be a doctor but that's a goal yeah well that's a big goal and now all these classes that he would take will be specific classes that would get him to do that goal to make that goal a reality there's so many that go to university just because they're here always this always the American way and I got to have a university I've never degree and all this stuff but they don't know for what right so they go in there and what did they do they go in the joint at the university they go and stay in some flat house and they get drunk they eat junk food they gain weight and all this and they're drunk more than they're really studying and all this so because they are aimlessly kind of like going through university for as long as they're finished and they don't earn more money because they haven't really shot that they study American history something that's a they were not used like don't except if you become an educator of some sort then you can use those things or say college to study or English to study yeah we can use this but if that's used for something specifically so I think it's always good if you say I want to be a businessman I want to start a real estate business and so therefore all of this that you study is like you studied a micro economics macroeconomics study accounting get really good in math and the algebra geometry and all of those kind of things and you're really good in writing business letters and then communicating and then marketing and the publicizing products and all of this stuff so all of the stuff that is important to be a good businessman because no matter what business you're in you have to be able to sell the market to communicate the product whatever you're dealing with so then you can take classes for that yeah so this is why it's more fun when we have a goal and this is why I stress this in my book about have a vision have a clear goal like I had when I was 15 years old I wanted to be the world champion in bodybuilding I wanted to be another rich park and five years later after that dream and that vision that I had five years later I was standing on that very same stage in London where red park one is mr. universe contest in 1951 in 1958 and in 1965 he won three mr. universe titles and at the very same stage I stood there in 1966 and then in 1967 I won the mr. universe title in that stage so I saw firsthand how that vision drove me to the gym hours a day where the normal amateur bodybuilder didn't train three four hours a day they trained an hour and a half but I did the weightlifting I did the powerlifting I did the bodybuilding I did the reps and the heavy weights and everything like this and then by the time after hours and hours of training and torturing myself and going through this I started winning competitions and junior mr. europe then mr europe best buildman of europe and then second mr. universe then mr. universe with the age of 20 so it was amazing so now I knew ah this is what I have to do for the rest of my life I have to have a very clear vision and so then of course the vision expands you say I want to be not just mr. universe I got the goal become the greatest bodybuilder four times so that becomes you new goal the year after one win that many mr. universe titles as a rich park win I have to win as many mr. Olympia titles as Sergio Lever and Larry Scott won and so I have to just go after those titles and so eventually I became the greatest bodybuilder of all times in 1975 after winning the sixth 1980 the seventh mr. Olympia competition and the thirteenths world bodybuilding title and so it was like so and that same idea went into acting again I had a very clear vision to become another clean these two the child's bronze does something like this so every one of my goals uh approached it way well it's when you have the goal you have the motivation which is key but then something that's really interesting about your career you also know what to say no to that might be exciting or lucrative or interesting or standard but it takes you further away from where you're going right so the path so I think someone who has a strong idea of what they're trying to accomplish clear vision as you call it um strong sense of who they're trying to help or what they want to accomplish then they also know how to pass on things that are coming their way they know how to pass on distractions they know how to pass on temptations they also know how to pass on you know doing the same thing over and over again because the next part of their vision actually requires them to go over here you have to have that clarity

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Arnold Schwarzenegger has a great new book called Be Useful 7 Tools for Life

I really enjoyed the book

When I read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, I was struck by the fact that the first book...was basically a 2000-year-old journey...nothing more than a list of people in Marcus's life who helped him or taught him something valuable.

I said to my team, I said guys, maybe you think I have a little bit of a hang-up about all this stuff, maybe I do, but let's look at this. I said, you know, I'm a Republican, but Republicans as we get this list of judges that are supposed to be appointed now, I said the natural thing is that you guys are going to look for a Republican judge, I said but I'm not going to look for that. I said here is what I'm looking for, I'm looking for to put in more women as judges in California than any other governor.

I don't hate Democrats, I don't hate black people, I don't hate Jews, I don't hate anybody. I said to me they're all the same, they're equal.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger's new book called Be Useful which is great that episode will come out in a little bit so stay tuned for that