Before Arnold Schwarzenegger ever said “I’ll be back,” he was a young Austrian kid with a dream.
Schwarzenegger, hailing from the small Austrian town of Thal, had a vision.
His goal? To become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.
So, he did just that—and by 23—he became the youngest Mr. Universe.
Schwarzenegger didn’t stop at bodybuilding. After chiseling his persona (& abs) in the classic 1977 documentary, “Pumping Iron,” he got the taste of the camera and liked it.
But he was told by Hollywood that, “my body was too weird, that I had a funny accent, and that my name was too long.”
Then Conan the Barbarian hit theaters in 1982, Arnold’s physique blew audiences away.
And when The Terminator arrived in 1984, suddenly those same negatives were what made him One of One.
His accent? It became one of his signatures. His name? Well, nobody forgets it (even if they still have to spell-check it).
Like Albert Einstein, “The Arnold” emigrated to the US, faced skepticism, but used his unique strengths to disrupt his field.
Takeaway 1: Mental Speed Limits as just that, mental
In Arnold’s words: “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”
Arnold went from bodybuilding champ to Hollywood icon to politician. And he’s fascinated the world for 6 decades.
But it hasn’t been without shame or mistakes. “My father was a Nazi” he says at speeches recently. And in the upcoming Netflix docuseries (https://www.netflix.com/tudum/arnold), he doesn’t shy away from his affair while married.
Takeaway 2: Kintsugi
“Kintsugi” is the Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery with golden paste, where the “brokenness” is the beauty—an ode to the object’s history—rather than for it to be discarded or hidden.
No one’s perfect, especially those we admire, but we can admire their authenticity in owning their mistakes.
Arnold pumped iron to make his body stronger, but it’s the trials and tribulations in his life and how he’s attempted to mend them that makes him a strong person.
He may be more imperfect at age 75 than when he was a Barbarian on the big screen, but in that special “Kintsugi Way”, Arnold may be more beautiful than ever.