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Arnold Schwarzenegger
We hold 89 passages that may be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. We do not publish them until we can confirm who spoke. See the correction.
On the record 2018–2023
podcast
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“People. That's really extraordinary. So I want to say thank you without them, I will be nothing. And thank you to America for giving me everything.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“No, I just want to say to the people, I want to thank them for having been such great supporters of mine. Without them, as I said earlier, I will be nothing. I mean, if it wouldn't have been for the bodybuilding fans as I grew up that were cheering there and screaming, Arnold, Arnold motivated me, I will be nothing. If it wouldn't have been for the movie fans that went to run to see Conan the Barbarian and made it the number one box office that then gave me all the headlines, I would have been nothing. Oh, that Jim Cameron's and the Ivan Reitmanns and all of these people and the people that are now following my newsletter, the pump club and all of these people that are even interested in a book like be useful and they go to my seminars and listen to my speeches, my motivational speeches. I just really love that I have had such an extraordinary following and that some of my speeches have reached like 35 and a half six billion”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Lessons that I teach people that really had a profound impact on me and made me successful. And the no bullshit rules and anyone can follow it. That's what it is.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And you will see the millions of people that need your help. That's exactly right. As soon as we start for a minute looking at ourselves, then you will be able to look beyond yourself when you see that there are people out there that need help, that there are poor people out there that need help, there are fire victims right now out there that need your help, there are earthquake victims out there, there are homeless people out there, the war veterans out there, there are kids that come from poor backgrounds that need to learn how to speak English rather write English, how to do math and all the stuff that are immigrants that don't even speak English. So there's so many areas where you can be helpful that takes money or takes no money, just effort. So never ever think it's all just about you. Someone helped you where you are today. So now you go out and help someone else. So this is another one of my lessons. It's just, you know, break that mural in front of you. So those are the different lessons.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Become governor, if not 8.5.8 million people voted for me. I mean, I'm not a dictator. I was voted in through the democratic process. So did I make myself governor? No. So I'm not a self-made man. So I have to recognize that my training, my money, everything comes from a lot of different people. And therefore, that means when you recognize that you now have the responsibility of going out and help others. There are so many people out there that need help. It's like my father-in-law said, Sergeant Shriver, who created the Peace Corps Head Start, Job Corps, and all of this great programs in the 60s. He said to a bunch of young students at a graduation class, he said, tear down this mural that you always look at yourself. Tear down this mural and you will be able to look beyond that mirror.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“That's how I'm going to approach the governorship and blah blah blah. And, you know, if they buy in, great. If they don't, then they're lost. Then they move on with something else. But I'm not going to freeze now and say, oh my God, but if I lose, but then I would have never run in the first place if I would be afraid to run, right? So you never know how far it's going to take you. So I think simple rules like that, I wanted to have those people take away those rules. And or, for instance, giving back. As soon as you realize that you're not a self-made man and you realize that we all were created by your parents and that you were created by mentors, teachers, coaches, and many other people that none of us know, but you yourself know. I mean, those are the people that have created me. I mean, just alone, if I wouldn't have had Joe Wheeler to bring me over to America, how could I have come to America? So how can I say I was self-made? How could I...”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Just how I did it, you know, and then big cores don't be afraid of big gourse. You know, big course are just as easy as little courses. And by the way, I know that every human being is afraid of failure, but you can overcome that by accepting failure. We embodybuilding, we go until failure with our reps. So every single day when we train, we experience failure. We are not afraid of it. Muhammad Ali said, hey, how many reps do you do in situps? He says, I don't start counting until it starts hurting, I start failing. That's when I start counting. So, I mean, in lifting, you can only know how much you lift if you're willing to fail. So Michael Jordan, when he talked about his 5,000 shots that he missed in basketball,”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Always look at the machine. And so I'm trying to tell people these are simple rules that I talk about in the book where you kind of learn that here is how I create a goal. Because without a goal, without a vision, you have nothing. Where are you going to go? You know, it's like you have an airplane pilot that does not know where to fly. Here's the best airplane. He can fly around and it'll eventually crash. That's what happens to you in your life. You crash. You're not going to go anywhere. So you need to have a direction. You need to have a goal. Why you get up in the morning? What are you struggling towards? What it is, why you're happy to go to bed at night? You need some rest. You get up in the next morning and have that energy again. All of this has to have purpose. There has to be purpose. So this is what I try to do is kindle a little bit of this light in my book and say to people in a casual way, have a goal. Here's how you can do it.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Everyone will use it for something else. I think that the whole thing is about helping people live a better life and be able to fulfill their dreams, whatever those dreams are. You know, it's just simple things like don't listen to the naysayers or create a vision. And I know that because I ask my kids when they were like 18, 19 years old, what do you want to do? Why do I want to go to college? They couldn't answer me. Well, I could answer that question when I was 18, 19. I'm concerned about that because I said to myself that looking too much in the computer, too much on the iPhone and on the iPad and they get ideas from someone else, but this is their ideas, but not their ideas that my kids' ideas, they need to be by themselves and sit in the jhikuz or sit somewhere on the mountain or out there by themselves and start thanking. Let the dreams come into your mind. Let you deep inside come out and give yourself time.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Prejudice, or whatever the issues are, I tackle those. So, as I said to you earlier, I'm the guy that climbs out Mount Everest and sees another bunch of peaks. And therefore I say, oh my God, I didn't even know they were there. And I climbed them. And so that's what I do. There's just a continuous climb. Nothing changes. I climb to 20. I'm climbing now.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“That the show business can get help with the success of the fitness movement. Then my newsletter that I have, which is going through the roof right now, the pump club, all that is kind of like playing into this whole thing. I'm very happy that all of a sudden now it's kind of like an unexpected new era for me, which is the era of motivational speeches, the era of motivational books, the era of motivational newsletters. I mean, not in my wildest dreams to ever think about that I don't want to create a positive corner in an internet. And that was only because there was just so much negativity out there. I started thinking about, well, maybe I should say some nice things and some positive things. And it became a huge hit beyond my expectation. And so I now do speeches every so often if it's the Ukrainian war, the Russia war in Ukraine, or if it's the insurrection, or if it is...”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Well, I don't really think of myself now any different than I thought of myself when I was governor when I thought of myself as an actor, as a bodybuilder. You know, I'm very rarely in the moment of where I just appreciate what I'm doing right now because I always think about the future. You know, I don't like the past. I appreciate the presence, but I really live for the future. I always just live about where I want to go. There's a lot of things I want to accomplish environmentally. There's a lot of things I want to accomplish when it comes to public policy. There's a lot of things I want to accomplish in show business. There's a lot of things that I want to accomplish in the promotion of health and fitness and bodybuilding. So all of those different worlds I hopefully can manage to combine them and create a certain synergy. So what was it that one can help from the other so the bodybuilding can help from the show business, my success in show business?”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“They sleep in the afternoon, they take the naps, they eat well, they walk around for miles and miles every day, they still walk and work. The women are still in the kitchen with the age of ninety, making food for the whole family and all this stuff. So they push it. They push the envelope beyond of what they were meant for. So this is the way we can do it. But I mean, I think there is a reason when you get to a certain age to be concerned about it. I don't know if it's the age that you're in now. You're still young punk.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And you can also fuck it up big time. You can be set for 85 and wipe up with 70. You know, my dad wiped out with 66. He was in pension for one year and then he wiped out. He died because of too much smoking and alcohol and all of those things. So he cut himself short. He maybe was meant to be 80, but he definitely wiped up with the 66. So my mother, you know, she died with 76. or she did it herself because I mean she had a congenital heart disease which is what I have which is the valve but she has the choice that gets surgery or not she says no if God wants me he should have me and so she resisted any surgery there are some people when you watch those shows in Sardinia they live to a hundred because they have no problems for”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“You still have to watch your heart, you still have to watch the diet, you still get fat if you don't watch the diet. If you eat three times a day a full meal, you get fat, you have to cut one meal out, all of this kind of stuff, you have to start doing. So it's just that simple. And this is all kind of so that we stay alive longer and that we kind of like, because we all are the time you're born, your time got this set. It's set. The only thing that changes it is you, right? So let's assume I'm set for 85. So I can decide to...”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And therefore, my little fingers started getting numb. So now that comes, and it's in the late 70s. He always said it's a bit the nerves. And someone talks to you about the neuropathy, about your legs and feet. And this is how it just creeps up on you, all this stuff. And the interesting thing is it's like weightlifting. It doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are. It doesn't matter how rich you are. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter from where you're from 200 pounds is 200 pounds. It's the same fucking thing for everybody. And the same is also when you get older. It makes no fucking difference who you are. You can be the biggest fucking celebrity in the world, but you still get your back pain. You still get your hip pain. You still get your shoulder pain. You still get your elbow pain. You still get numb fingers.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Less. Why am I walking less? I always love hiking for four or five hours up the steep mountain and all of this I love, why am I walking less? Then I realized that I got back pain. When I walk a long time, I started getting cramps in my back. So I started walking less. So I started doing stretching exercises for the back. And so things like that start creeping up, then you have to start kind of really be disciplined and say, okay, I still have to walk soon so many miles a day, so many steps a day and blah, blah, blah. But now you have to make yourself what came normally natural. So you get kind of like one thing after the next, then you have shoulder surgeries on both shoulders. Then like yesterday, I had elbow surgery because Minerv had to be kind of relocated because where the nerve was, it created pressure.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Or a quarter of an inch before my chest. So it looks still like it's smashing for in and I still sell it, but it's like you start planning on your vulnerability. And this then continues on because all of a sudden, you know, you used to kind of hop up stairs and hop downstairs in a squatting position to just get out of breath so that when you start a singing, you're exhausted, you know, like you're cutting in in the middle of a fight scene so that you're and you have the big breath. So all of a sudden you start jumping up and down and your knees start hurting. So now you realize, okay, between 50 and 60, it's the knee punishment. So I have to watch my knees. Then after you're 70, you sit for the first time saying, you know, I noticed myself walking.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Where you put pressure on it, the faster we will have to tire 30,000 miles of tire, you can use it up in one year, you can use it up in 20 years. So it's up to you. It's that kind of a thing. So it was the first time where I started thinking about when I did stunts, I remembered that right after that was a stunt in end of days, where at the moment it was possessed by the devil takes the piano and runs it against my chest, wanted to kill me. So, and normally you can run a piano into my chest doesn't make any fucking difference. I don't care, right? But because of the heart surgery and having been now cut open on the chest, I did not know how vulnerable that rib cage is. So I told them to measure out the distance with a rope and then the rope comes to an end and it stops an aid.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“The first time at all I experienced something similar to that is when I had my open heart surgery. I was not even 50 years old. It was in April and in July I'm 50. So it was just a few months before I was 50. And it was the first time where I woke up after two heart surgeries. The first one didn't work so they did a second one within 48 hours. And after that, I felt like I was damaged goods. I didn't feel any more like invincible and I didn't feel like I can handle anything. All of a sudden there were limits put on me where the doctor said don't train as heavy. Every time you force your reps, you put pressure on your valve unnecessarily. We have to replace those valves again in maybe 10, 15 years from now.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Biceps. But it's just a great, great sculpture. So to me, Franco will live on forever. So is Joe Wheeler, you know, on Ben Weeder and Dave Draper and Sergio Liver and Bill Pearl and Regg Park. To me, I see them all sitting in front of me when there's the Arnold Classic, and I see them all sitting there laughing and having a great time and watching Arnold Classic and watching how bodybuilding is progressing, how the cash prices are going up, how we have bigger and bigger sponsors, how we have a bigger and bigger convention and expo and all of this, how they enjoy all that. So that's what I see out there now. But it's kind of like, you know, it's in between kind of like, should I have tears in my eyes when I'm out there and looking at all those faces of those bodybuilding champions and promoters of bodybuilding? Or should I smile? It's this combination.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Someone tells you, Oh, Frank, it's just passed away on a beach in Sardinia, it is also then a daily thing, a weekly thing. Every time I go to Deanrod Classic and the handouts, I have a trophy. That is the Franco-Colombo posing trophy of most muscular man trophy. And we hand those out with Franco's body on it that I got made by a really great Italian sculptor, the double bicep pose, and the double bicep pose intentionally because Franco was really never known for his biceps because he was known as had such overpowering back, his lats, his chest, his deltoids. He was so overpowering that people sometimes didn't even see the arms. So I on purpose wanted to do a double bicypose, so in the future, he would also remember him for his”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“But anyway, we always said 5'3", and then working out with him the fun of working out with him. Then I had him in so many movies. I remember when I directed the movie, The Switch for Tales of the Crypt, I had him in there in Conan, the Barbarian, I had him in the Interminator, I had him in there. I had him in all those movies in there. So it was just, he became, you know, kind of part of me.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“than they were as of the last 10 years when we talk about kids, where we talk about family, where we talk about where we grew up and about the past, and in what kind of like deeper conversations and more emotional conversations. And now all of a sudden every day, when you walk into your living room, you see this chess table down the corner at Franco is not sitting that anymore. And that, to me, you know, is heartbreaking. And when I go to the gym and I drive down with a bicycle and Franco came on the bicycle, he was not good in bicycling. He was all over the place. So that was funny. And I had people sometimes videotape him, you know, just to show how goofy he looks on a bicycle. I think the bike seat was maybe too high up, but we couldn't load it, whatever the problem was. It was just hilarious because he was in a 5'3 according to him. I think he was 5'1 or 5'2 the most.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“I have to say I react a little bit differently to those kind of things than everyone else because to me it's not so much the shock as it is the ongoing missing a person because there are certain friends that have become part of you and so if they pass away and they die something dies in you and so when I imagine every day when I walk in my living room And I see this chessboard where Frank and I play chess in the last 10 years, two, three times a week and drank wine, smoked the stogy, and just talked in the talk like 65 and 70-year-olds talk rather than the way 20 years old stalk, you know, like in the old days. Because Frank, I've known since I was 18 years old. So then our conversations were different.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Oh, it smells wonderful. I mean, you have good taste. That's a totally different tone. He says he would change your voice if you smell the rose. It would change your voice. But you only can do that if you really smell it and be in touch with that. So that's what I'm talking about shifting gears very quickly. So from one year to the next, I had to kind of always have all the emotions kick in and make everything work that didn't really work in the past”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Have you thought about lately the smell of a rose? Is it the smell of what? A rose. It says a rose smells a certain way, the beautiful smell. What does this have to do with acting? He says, ah, this is if you sit there in the scene and you start thinking about that, smell of a rose, you have a totally different facial expression. You close your eyes. You know, let's assume that you want to compliment the woman, the perfume she wears. You can't go and say, I like your perfume. stupid but if you go and say what are you wearing”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“All of a sudden you go and you start taking acting classes, and you start hearing from the acting teacher Arnold, you talk like a fucking cold fish. I mean, there's no emotions there. I got to go and find your emotions. So think about that for a second, all your life longer here now, that this is like bad. And now all of a sudden you hear, you have to be more emotional. You have to be in touch with your emotions.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“for that and confront that. I mean, that's the most important thing. It's just so many people get stuck on certain things and the track and they then cannot get off that track. I just always felt like I was very good in shifting gears, like going from bodybuilding to show business. I mean, you really had to shift gears because all of a sudden certain other things became important. I mean, think about it. You go and you do bodybuilding. Every athlete always tells you that you got to go and keep the motions out of the way because it's the emotions that are going to kill you. You cannot go and train and compete and train for a competition for a world championship or the Olympic Games or whatever it is and be emotionally involved in whatever it is because you can derail you. So you do that. And that's become a master in that. I became cornerstone.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Talked about it earlier you wake up from a surgery that you think is two hours they replace your heart valve and then someone tells you we poked through your hard wall and you now have been out for 16 hours and now you have to stay here seven days you're not out of the woods yet you know we have to do everything we can to keep you alive and you know you almost died on the operating day and it could still happen next night if you don't really get going with the walking and if you get pneumonia So that you have to shift gears very quickly. I usually call it the art of improvisation, you know, that you have to be very good in improvising because there's a lot of things that come up to you in life where you have to be really good in improvising. And this happened to me all the time when I was governor, I had to quickly shift gears. It happened also in show business where you have to shift gears, where it is the unexpected is happening, and you have to be kind of like ready.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And fake tiles and all this. She says, No, no, but it was one other thing. I switched who I thought was the customer. He says, she was the customer, not him. He paid for it, but she was the customer. So I had to talk and address her because that was the important thing. She needed to be convinced. So I had to sell to her. And so I realized then that selling is an art, that you have to improvise and adjust all the time. that if you go in front of a children audience, for instance, you have to speak a totally different language when I talk in a class, in a school, in after-school programs than I talk in Washington, when I talk to legislators. I have to talk to differently, when I talk to a crowd of fans at the movie theater, then I talk to a bunch of lobbyists. So it's always different. So you have to learn the art of selling. And this is why selling is so important. And I remember that.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Lift towels or pink tiles or white tiles. And the guy said, this is, well, I don't know. So the woman said, we want white tiles. And for the bathroom, we want to have pink tiles. And so the guy looked at her and says, okay, fine, let me take you over there. He said, how much tiles do you need? Again, the man didn't answer and the woman answered. And she says, oh, I need something to me. I've it written down the measurements here. I need two meters by a meter 80 tall and blah, blah, blah. And so the guy then all of a sudden realized that she's the customer. So he started really paying attention to her and asking all the questions and thinking around, but included him also. And then on the end when they were satisfied and we wrote up the order and we then told them that it will be all delivered on Thursday, he came to me after they left. They said, so what did you learn? I said, well, I said, did you really sold the tiles well and the colors and the difference between real time?”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“This idea of selling, publicizing, marketing, communicating, convincing, all of those kind of things is an art. And those art agencies that make millions and millions of dollars to just figure out what the language should be in order to really sell to the right people and have the right customers and sell a product the right way. So it's an odd to do that. And I've learned it way back when I was 15 years old and I learned how to sell. I remember when my boss said to me, sis, now look at, watch me carefully when I sell. This couple coming in. This couple comes in. I worked in a store that had wood products and it was like a lumber yard, then kind of hardware store. It was kind of like a hardware store type of a thing. So this couple comes in, they wanted to have tiles. And so immediately the guys started talking to my boss started talking to the guy and said, what kind of tiles do you want?”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“You can imagine the reason why I called it sell, sell, sell is because it does raise eyebrows. But it does make people say, wait a minute, selling normally is a no. I mean, if you think about it, most of the actors in their 70s and 80s refused to sell their movies. They say, this is not my job. I'm an artist. I don't sell. I'm not a salesman out there and all this stuff. And I, this was my strength because I studied selling, you know, when I was in career education. I started to be a salesman. And so I realized then the importance of selling that no matter what you have, if you have a podcast, if you have a movie, if you have a painting, if you have a car, a technology, a medicine, whatever it is, if people don't know about it, you have nothing. The more people did know about your product or about your talent, the more you can go and be successful. So therefore,”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Anyways, it was like historic kind of a deals. But I had the confidence that I could put it off and Ivan had the confidence and Daniel had the confidence. And so together we all did it. And Universal Studio then had the confidence. And they promoted it really well. We hired any Liberits to do the photo shoot. And she took us on top of a bus against the blue sky and just photographed Daniel and me leaning against each other. And that became the poster. And it was like really genius. So everyone kind of worked together to make this a brilliant movie and a successful movie.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And drop the blind. And so it's like we all were laughing because we all were very good friends. He was right. I mean, really because they were so worried about the risk taking that we say, we take the risk. And sure enough, we did. And the risk paid off. And so we just really cleaned the house. So I made like, I think $70 million on twins or something like that. And Danny made a fortune that he bought two houses and built two houses. So we all got kind of a lot of money. And Ivan Reitman. And so that's what deals that we did then in the future with kindergarten cop. We did it with junior we did it. So it became a model that no one is going to do the day anymore. The studios got smarter than that.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“We have plenty of money. And if the movie goes in the toilet, we all go in the toilet. Everyone takes the risks, not just you at the studio, wouldn't be fair, would it? They said, hey, this is my thinking. So what do you want in return? He said, all we want is just you give us three, 37.5% of ownership of the movie, and then we all go to the bank together. If the movie goes to the roof, we all make money. The movie goes in the toilet, none of us make money. They said, we are in. That's exactly what we did. And it happened to be with Ivan Reitman's genius directing. And with Daniel DeVito, kind of great, great acting, and everyone else around us, Kelly Preston and everyone else. And me being involved, we made the movie a huge hit. As a matter of fact, that movie...”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“On something else that is not sure. I love the actual movies. We're going to give you all the scripts for action movies. And so I said, yeah, but I understand. But what about me doing an action movie for you? And then the next one we do is a comedy. No, why would I do that? You tell me. I mean, would you do it? I said, yeah. I said, but here's the thing what we need to do. So then when we finally formed a partnership, Danny DeVito, Ivan Reitman and myself, we got together and they said, you know, I can sympathize with the studio. Why would they take the risk for what? Why not we all take a risk? Why don't we go to them and say instead of us getting the big salaries, why don't we just say we do the movie for nothing? Just give us a back end. You don't have to pay us any salary whatsoever. If the production costs $16.5 million, that's all you use. Not one penny more for us. Fuck us. Don't worry about us at all.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Where twins was a kind of like a little bit out of nowhere because I had certain goals, but comedy was not one of my goals when I got into movies. And I felt like I can be funny in the movies, in an encounter. There were funny moments and all that stuff. But only when I started doing one action movie after the next, you know my hunger. You know, the whole philosophy of staying hungry kind of came out a little bit. And I said, I said, well, I wonder if we ever could sell the idea of me doing a comedy. And then all of a sudden I started getting obsessed with the idea. And I started talking to everyone. I said, have you ever thought about me doing a comedy? And of course, every studio executive said, are you crazy, Arnold? I mean, what do you think? I'm making now millions of dollars of you being an action hero. We finally built you up to be international action here, not only in America, but all over the world. Why would I go and start spending money?”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Accent became very welcome when they determined that they loved the German accent is talking like a machine. That's why it worked being the terminator. So things like that. So all of a sudden the things that they said would never make it in Hollywood, the accent, the name, the body, all of the things became big pluses and it made it. So that's my own ladder that I built. That's why it's important. Don't just worry about climbing a ladder that someone else has built. No, build your own ladder. You know, just don't wait for anyone else. So that's what I did.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“So I worked my ass off. I did exactly what I did in the bodybuilding. I did in the movies. Eventually it happened. I started doing the chain Mansfield story. I started doing with Kirk Douglas and Margaret, the villain. I was doing Streets of San Francisco. I was doing Stay Hungry and pumping iron or in the 70s. And even with Lucio Ball, doing Happy Anniversary and goodbye. So I did all of those kind of things. And then that led to the big role. And now I've arrived, starring role in Conan the Barbarian. You know, when John Milliers saw me, he says, if we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger, we would have had to build one. So all of a sudden the body that everyone said would never, ever become famous in the movies because the movies no one is seeing Muslim movies anymore of the opposite came true.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“But any case, I took all of those lessons one hour every day and I was grinding it out and then I remember eventually it happened people started hiring me and the great thing was that I felt that I should not be financially vulnerable so I first got into real estate and I worked my ass off in real estate and my first million I actually made in real estate before I really got into acting and that helped me because now when they came to me with stupid parts and says, do you want to play a bouncer? I said, fuck now. Why would I play a bouncer? He said, well, what about the Nazi officer? You have a great German accent. I said, no, I don't want to be a Nazi officer. I said, I want to be a star. I want to be a leading man. I want to get rich and famous. Just looking these group. And they said, you're crazy. It would never happen. Well, I applied the other rule, which is don't listen to the naysayer.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Building gymnasium making this the launch pad to America, which was my ultimate dream. So this is what I'm saying. So it didn't take more work to thank Big. It's just thanking Big makes you bigger. And what my point is it takes just as much effort. And I learned again from bodybuilding. From that kind of thing, I learned that don't hold back. So when I went within the age of 19, I was the youngest Mr.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Competition, but now you're a junior Mr. Europe and you have this trophy. And now you're getting a job to train in the second biggest gym in Munich. So that was like absolute heaven. So with 19, I started training and become the trainer in the gym. So now I had the opportunity to train day and night. And when I wake up because I was sleeping in the gym, I was waking up and I was training. I was taking a nap in the afternoon. I was training before going to sleep at night after dinner. I was training. I was training day and night. So this is a dream. But it was all because I thought big. They were still stuck working for some bath house in Austria or for the government or being a trash collector or being a teacher or something like that. They were still stuck in the same job. I was already moving on to Munich and I was already a trainer in the body.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Just the very beginning. I mean, for me to go and say, I want to compete in the junior Mr. Europe competition rather than just in a Mr. Austria competition. I trained just as hard as everyone else in the gym. Their goal was just smaller. They sit, I want to be Mr. Austria. And I said, I want to be Mr. Europe. So I'm going to start with Mr. Jr., Mr. Europe, the best built man of Europe. I'm going to go to this competition. And I was thinking bigger and I was training as hard as they were. Everything was the same. But then when I won that competition because I had a very clear vision, that's what I want to win. That immediately launched me into getting a job, become a trainer in Munich and a bodybuilding gymnasium. Imagine how in heaven is that you're a young bodybuilder. You're 18 years old. You just won your first international competition. You win some local competitions in Austria. You win some powerlifting competitions, some weightlifting competitions.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Them in, they could never have that quality of hunger and desire and deep inside, kind of like being able to reach inside no matter what it takes.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“And so I've always kind of appreciated that, and nothing comes in the perfect package because I know that if he would have given me all the love and if he would have not done none of that and if I would have had all the money in the world, I would have not grown up as tough. And I would not have been able to accomplish what I did coming to America and becoming this world bodybuilding champion and do all the things that I was doing. It was all because of that upbringing. And so when I look at, for instance, my in-laws, you know, when I see those kids, they're very smart kids in the Kennedy family. But I always felt kind of like they couldn't have grown up, like Maria or Maria's brothers or anyone around them. They couldn't have grown up or my children couldn't grow up with the same desire and the same hunger. But they can get other qualities. So that's the key thing to focus on that.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“So, this all became kind of my new father figures in a way. And then eventually Joe Wheeder, when I came to America and all of those people, I looked up right away as an idol because they would treat me in a better way. And they would educate me and they would really usher me along and nurture me along. But I never really resented my father because of it. I always kind of felt that he served a really extraordinary purpose for me. not for my brother but for me which means to get me to America, become a great champion, to have that will, be able to work no matter how many hours it takes to do, no matter what it takes and to not shy away from misery or from pain or from obstacles or from falling down and having to get up again and crawl and offer from nothing. That was the power and the strength my father gave me.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“Really sad because they could see that he just could not handle anymore the punishment. And I could. I was thriving on it and I used it to my big plus and as a support system and it was like gave me the motivation. It created the fire in the belly. It made me create a vision. It was an unnecessary vision. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to get to America. I have to become a bodybuilding champion. I have to get away from home. I had to find my new father figure. My father was great to be the father, the official father, but there were others, the trainer and the weightlifting club, Kurt Manor and Mui. There was a guy that could now, that we also know there was in his 40s and 50s that became a father figure, very smart guy that spoke English and was very worldly. And then there was a Jewish fellow there that became our kind of mentor and helped us with the weightlifting.”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023
“My mind started gearing up to I'm going to get back at him. I'm going to leave this house as soon as I can. I'm going to be out of here with the age of 18. I'm going to go to the military and then I'm going to go and get my passport and then I'm going to go to Germany and then I'm going to go to America and I'm going to be out of here. This is it. I'm not going to take this any longer. And it will make me stronger and really set a program and set a goal and a vision of what I'm going to do in life. Whereas my brother, Crumper, he got weaker. He started drinking. He started getting involved in alcohol. And I could see in his behavior that he didn't behave well. He was abusive. And eventually he died because of a car accident, drunk driving with the age of, he was, I think, 24 and I was 23. When that happened, I was already in America at that time. But it was like it was...”
The Tim Ferriss Show2 October 2023