Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Six Rules of Success
EPISODE 228
Arnold Schwarzenegger, a renowned actor, politician, and former professional bodybuilder, has shared various principles and guidelines throughout his career.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger, a renowned actor, politician, and former professional bodybuilder, has shared various principles and guidelines throughout his career.
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While he hasn't explicitly formulated a list of laws, here are six key principles that can be attributed to his philosophy and life experiences:
1. Set Clear Goals: Schwarzenegger emphasizes setting specific, measurable goals. He believes that having a clear vision and direction is crucial for success in any endeavor.
2. Work Hard: Schwarzenegger is known for his strong work ethic. He advocates putting in the necessary effort and dedicating oneself to the task. He often emphasizes the need for consistent practice and perseverance to achieve greatness.
3. Take Risks: Schwarzenegger encourages taking calculated risks and stepping out of one's comfort zone. He believes growth and success often come from embracing challenges and pushing boundaries.
4. Learn from Failure: Schwarzenegger views failure as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. He encourages individuals to embrace failure, analyze the lessons it offers, and use them to improve and grow.
5. Be Disciplined: Discipline is a recurring theme in Schwarzenegger's life. He stresses the importance of self-discipline in terms of physical fitness, career, or personal development. Maintaining discipline helps in staying focused and achieving long-term success.
6. Give Back: Schwarzenegger values giving back to society. He promotes the idea of using one's success and influence to make a positive impact on the lives of others, whether through philanthropy, activism, or mentorship.
Buy The Book on Amazon https://geni.us/arnie
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Watch this episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/uw8KjST5Ero
While these principles are not exhaustive, they encapsulate some core values and beliefs that Arnold Schwarzenegger has shared over the years.
Runsheet
SUMMARY
Arnie gives us perhaps the best advice you’ll ever hear
6 Rules Summary (3m15)
POWER
Arnie states that there is no magic pill to success, only your desire to improve yourself
Work Like Hell (3m52)
BUILD RESILIENCE
Arnie states that you should not have a backup or Plan B, just like Michael Jordan
Don't Be Afraid to Fail (2m55)
OUTRO
Arnie continues with a callout to help others as you succeed
Give Something back (2m40)
Transcript
Mike Parsons: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 228. I'm your co-host, my Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark Pearson Freeland. Good morning, mark.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Good morning, Mike. Good morning listeners. Good morning subscribers and members. I say it probably every week, Mike, but actually this week we may have more of a.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Muscle packed action bound episode than even normal.
Mike Parsons: It feels like we've bogged up for this show. Indeed,
Mark Pearson Freeland: mark we certainly, I think bulking up is exactly what this individual between us. Would say so too. That's right. Members, listeners, as well as viewers. Today we are diving into the legendary figure of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a character who not only has existed within entertainment, for example, in his many series of films like Total Recall.
Mark Pearson Freeland: As we can see on the screen here, Terminator Predator. But also he got into [00:01:00] politics. He was quite an impressive governor of California for a number of years. He's really been this influential figure, Mike, certainly in my life, and I'd say probably for a lot of our listeners and members as well, but he's really got quite a lot to teach us through those years of success, through years of action, through years of getting stuff done.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Totally. I think. I think today we're gonna make the case for him,
Mike Parsons: aren't we? We're gonna try it and talk about achievements. He is just dripping in achievements. He came to America as an immigrant. He became a bodybuilding champion many years in a row consecutively. He then if that's already a ton like going to America as an immigrant and becoming a world champ, bodybuilder.
Mike Parsons: He then becomes a huge Hollywood star. In the face of the fact that everyone's like that accent is terrible, but he made it his greatest asset. And then not satisfied with [00:02:00] that mark. He then became the governor of the fifth biggest economy on the planet. Any one of those three achievements would be worth celebrating.
Mike Parsons: But I think we failed to recognize, and obviously thanks to the recent Netflix series, I think we've all been reminded, man, this guy accomplished a lot and he has packaged up six rules for success, which are so perfect for moonshots. Mate, I can't wait to get into it. Yeah you're
Mark Pearson Freeland: totally wrong, Mike.
Mark Pearson Freeland: He's accomplished so much, and like you say, we probably haven't necessarily. How much he's really done. But today we're actually gonna find out why he did it and how he did it. How did he motivate himself to go out and keep on grinding? Yes, keep on pushing further and further through that glass ceiling.
Mark Pearson Freeland: I think we're gonna learn a lot today, Mike, as he say with his six rules of success. This is pretty exciting. And
Mike Parsons: what's really interesting for our viewers on YouTube for our listeners and [00:03:00] Spotify and Apple Podcasts is that, check this out, man. He has some very similar patterns of thinking and mindset.
Mike Parsons: Some habits that relate to people like wait for it. Brene Brown, which relate to all sorts of other in interesting people, Oprah Winfrey. But then he's got one or two unique things as well. Things that we haven't had come up so much on the moonshots. Mark, I'm really excited to share what I believe are six rules that very different to the rules of Jordan Peterson.
Mike Parsons: These are insanely practical, not as philosophical. I think they're a little bit more habit based, so they're probably a bit more somewhere between a Goggins and a Brene Brown, if you will. But if you really want to have a playbook for being the best version of yourself, we can find it in these six rules from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mike Parsons: Mark, I'm pumped. Let's jump [00:04:00] in.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. Let's hear from the legend, Mr. Arnold Schwar, and I guess straight off the bat, Mike, let's hear about those six rules for success and how we can turn a propensity towards action into a physical mindset as well. People
ask
Arnold Schwarzenegger: me all the time, they say to me, what is the secret to success?
Arnold Schwarzenegger: The first rule is trust yourself. What I mean by that is so many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from the teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down. Dig deep down, and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who. And I'm talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I'm talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to the people. SA Rule number one is of course, trust yourself no matter how and what anyone else thinks. And of course, sa rule number two is break the rules. We have so many rules in life about everything.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I [00:05:00] say, break the rules, not the law, but break the rules. It is impossible to be a maverick or true, original. If you're too well behaved and not want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth? If all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble, the only way that ever got any place was to breaking some of the rules, which of course brings me to rule number three.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Don't be afraid to fail anything I've ever attempted. I was always willing to fail. You can't always win, but don't be afraid of making decisions. You can't be paralyzed by fear or failure, or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision, and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So don't be afraid to fail. Which brings me to rule number four, which is don't listen to the naysayers. How many times have you heard that you can't do this [00:06:00] and you can't do that, and it has never been done before? I hear this all the time, pay no attention to the people that say you can't be done.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I always listened to myself and said, yes, you can. That brings me to rule number five, which is the most important rule of all. Work your butt off. You never want to fail because you didn't work hard enough. I never wanted to lose a competition or lose an election because it didn't work hard enough. I always believe leaving no stone unturned.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: And let me tell you, it is important to have fun in life, of course. But when you are out there partying, horsing around someone out there at the same time is working hard, someone is getting smarter, and someone is winning. Just remember that now, if you want the coast through life, don't pay any attention to any of those rules.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: But if you want to win, there's absolutely no way around hard work. That takes me to rule number six, which is a very important role. It's about giving back whatever path that you [00:07:00] take in your lives. You must always find time to give something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Let me tell you something. Reaching out and helping people who bring you more satisfaction than anything else you've ever done. Remember those six rules. Trust yourself. Break some rules. Don't be afraid to fail. Ignore the naysayers. Work like hell and give something back.
Mike Parsons: Wow, mark. So six big rules, different right from the Jordan Peterson ones, right? It's less philosophical. It's very Very pragmatic. Obviously. Even despite some of its differences to the likes of Jordan Peterson, there are themes in here from Arnold Schwarzenegger that riff directly off Jordan Peterson that riff off even people like I'm thinking James Clear Atomic Habits.[00:08:00]
Mike Parsons: I'm thinking for sure Brene Brown and David Goggins, Of all of these six. Which one for you, mark, have we heard the most? Over 228 shows. Actually,
Mark Pearson Freeland: that's an interesting question, Mike. We would normally go, which is maybe the breakout, but which one have we heard the most? Is a challenge because you're right, there's a lot of familiarities with some of these rules that are then based into some of the laws that we've seen. I think the one that we've probably heard a lot more recently, within the past maybe 12 months or so, is number four, ignore the naysayers. I think this has become a theme that has certainly stood out to me when we've dug into many different themes, including creativity with Elizabeth Gilbert, she was, again, really reinforcing the idea that you can go up against other people, even if they are saying no, even if they're saying something's been done before.
Mark Pearson Freeland: And like you said, already, [00:09:00] Says is very cemented within that Jordan Peterson Rules of Life Absolutely. As well. Yes. I think that one might be the one that, that we've heard a bit now, this reinforcement of trying to be unique as well as confident in your own abilities and the accomplishments that you're trying to put out into the world.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah.
Mike Parsons: I think definitely challenging that would be work your butt off, like hard work and don't be afraid to fail. Oh yeah. I think those two are very high frequency. Moonshot, if you will. Mantras. Yeah. Isn't it amazing that we have studied entrepreneurs, authors, academics, superstars and alike, and we can see that there is a pattern of success not only for all of the moonshot previous shows, but we see Arnold is embodying many of the same.
Mike Parsons: Beliefs, mindsets and habits. Hard work, ignore negative people. If you fail, just make sure you are learning,[00:10:00] challenge the status quo. Have a vision for where you are going. But here's what's really fascinating, Mike. We haven't heard a lot of give something back, have we?
Mark Pearson Freeland: No, you're right. I think that it's possibly unarguable that some of our individuals would of course, reinforce this.
Mark Pearson Freeland: But, and there, there are somewhat similarities to some of the rules, for example, that Peterson would've said, for example letting the kids go on their skateboard and so on. Allowing people to beat themselves. Yes. But to put it in black and white like Arnie has done here, specifically calling back.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Dedicate your time to other people, help others. It's not just smile at each other and be nice. It's actually proactive. Go out and physically do something, find something, find a way to help your community, your country, and so on. And I think that's a really. That's the unique build, Mike. Yeah. It's not something necessarily that we've come across before.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Mean, isn't it funny how it's coming [00:11:00] from the world's or the universe's strongest man?
Mike Parsons: Dude, it's coming from the Terminator. He wants to give something bad Terminator. He's telling us to give something bad. Look, what, how exciting to, to discover this. The habits of success that are shared from the Oprahs, the Brene Browns, David Goggins, the Arnold Sweg, many of them are in fact doing similar if not the same things.
Mike Parsons: And it's so great to share that with our listeners and with our viewers and with our members. And it's also great to find something new to add a new weapon for the arsenal, a new workout for the routine. So that's super exciting. But I'll tell you who's working out hard, and that is our members Mark, boy, are they putting in some work?
Mike Parsons: So I think we should pump some iron for them. What do you think?
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, I think we should pump some mind, get in the gym give my vocal chords a workout mic, much like Arne would encourage me to do please welcome Bob Marlin, Ken Dimar, Marj, and Connor [00:12:00] Rodrigo Leeza. Sid, Mr. Bonjour, Paul Berg, cowman. Joe Ivo, Christian, Sam, Barbara, Andre, Eric, Chris, Deborah Lase, Steve and Craig.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Annual members right here. Everybody, but hot on their tails includes Daniel, Andrew, Ravi, Yvette, Karen Raul, PJ nta, Ola, Ingram, Dirk, Emily, Harry, Karthik, ven, Cutta, Marco, and Jet. Roger, Steph Gabi, Anna Ro, ni, Eric, Diana, Christophe, Denise, Laura, Smitty, Corey, Gayla, Bertram, Daniella, and Mike. Thank you all so much.
Mark Pearson Freeland: For continually tuning in as well as being part of the Moonshot family. Thank you for continuing to help us, not only Mike, keep the lights on, but also encourage us to go out and not be afraid to give the Moonshot show another go. Keep on pumping. We've got all these people in the gym with us exercising.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Their brains, Mike. I [00:13:00] think we're all gonna end up at least on the inside, looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger pretty soon.
Mike Parsons: Yeah, we are, we're definitely pumping iron with all of our members and they also get to receive an exclusive second podcast that we do, the Moonshots Master series, where we do really deep dives into particular themes and we take.
Mike Parsons: Insights, content and learnings from superstars, from all different disciplines. So it's a different take than the Moonshot Podcast, which you are listening to or watching right now. So if you are interested in supporting us, if you are interested in the master series, head over to moonshots.io, hit the member button and the magic will happen.
Mike Parsons: You'll become our patron, and then together we can do some hard work. And I believe, mark, we might have a few thoughts from Arnold Schwarzenegger on that very topic. We totally
Mark Pearson Freeland: do. So now let's jump in. Mike, we've heard a kind of synopsis of each of those six rules of success. Now let's go a little bit deeper.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's dig into a couple of these and really explore them, [00:14:00] tear them apart like Arnie would do in the gym. Let's pick up the weights and put some practice in. So this next clip we're gonna hear from Arnie is himself is focusing on this idea that success comes from hard work. So now let's hear from Arne.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Talk about working your butt off.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: And it drives me crazy when people say that I don't have enough time to go to the gym for 45 minutes a day and workout, or to do something for 45 minutes to an hour a day to improve if it is physically improve or if it is mentally to improve. Imagine you read one hour a day about history.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: How much you will learn after 365 hours in one year. Think about if you study about the history of musicians, of composers, how much you would know. Imagine if you would work [00:15:00] on the business and some business that you want to develop every day for an hour. Imagine how further along you will go and get.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So it drives me nuts because we have, when people say we don't have the time, we have 24 hours a day, we sleep six hours a day. So it gives you still 18 hours. There's someone shaking their head out here in front. They say, probably I don't sleep six hours, I sleep eight hours. Or just sleep faster.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So we have 18 hours a day. The average person works around eight to 10 hours, so let's assume it's 10 hours, so we have eight hours left. Then you travel around an hour a day, maybe two hours a day. So now you have still six hours left. So what do you do with the six hours? What do you do with the six hours?
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Then we eat a little bit. Schmooze a little bit, talk a little [00:16:00] bit to people and all that stuff, but you can see how much time there is available if you organize your day. So you got to work hard. Let me tell you something. When I went to America, I went to college. I went and worked out five hours a day and I was working on construction.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Because in those days in bodybuilding, there was no money. We didn't, I didn't have the money for food supplements or anything, so I had to go to work. So I worked in construction. I went to college. I worked out in the gym, and at night from eight o'clock at night to 12 midnight, I went to acting class four times a week.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So I did all of that. There was not one single minute that I wasted. This is why I'm standing here today.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I became very friendly with Muhammad Ali in the seventies, [00:17:00] and Muhammad Ali worked his butt off, and I saw it firsthand. I remember that there was a sports rider. That was there in the gym when he was working out and he was doing sit-ups, and they asked him, how many sit-ups do you do? And he said, I don't start counting until it hurts.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Now think about that. He doesn't start counting his sit-ups until he feels pain. That's when he starts counting. That is working hard, and so you can't get around the hard work. It doesn't matter who it is. The matter, I believe what Ted Turner said, work like hell
Mike Parsons: and adv. I love this mark, this idea of hard work and pushing yourself.
Mike Parsons: To me, this is a huge theme that we've discovered in the show, and [00:18:00] I think it's really important to talk about hard work right now because, I think the temptation is that we see perfect worlds on Instagram and YouTube, right? And in those messages and videos and images, it can be very easy to deduce that it's a game of chance or amazing things happen without.
Mike Parsons: A lot of work and it's really interesting. He talked about Ali then, but I think this is something we have seen in people like Einstein as well. He readily admitted that he really didn't think he was smarter than anybody else. He just worked harder and for longer. Yeah, on one problem and he just stayed on it just arnold, think about working in construction, studying, going to acting class, and he did all of that. So when you hear [00:19:00] this, there was no shortcut. Like he wasn't No. Just becoming a teenager and all of a sudden he's a size of a giant. No, he was spending five hours a day at the gym. Yeah.
Mike Parsons: He was putting in the work. He did acting class four times a week. So we can't deduce anything else other than hard work. And I think the battle where a fighting mark is, and it's a temptation for us all is. When the hard work comes the first day, eh, it's okay. The second day. It's like it's the second week or the second month Yeah.
Mike Parsons: Of trying to keep your run program or stick to a healthy diet or exercise in the morning, or do extra study at night. This is where the champions are made because I think we can all get very excited in January and start eating well and going to the gym and not drinking as much. But what happens in February and March and I think, yeah, exactly.
Mike Parsons: We are learning. It is [00:20:00] about sustained work where you get the compound effect, Allah, Darren Hardy, where you get the benefits. Of vastly underestimating what you can achieve in a year. But I think our enemies, we vastly overestimate what we can do in a few days. Hence, we kind, we bail.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. I think that the, exactly what you are building there, Mike, and I think where Arnie is taking us within that clip is that there are two enemies to working hard.
Mark Pearson Freeland: The first one is time. And then the second one is discomfort. Yes. So the discomfort might come in a physical element. Muhammad Ali, not counting his sit-ups until they hurt. Also a and as you've just said giving up something that you know isn't great for you, but then it becomes uncomfortable when you have to keep on saying no.
Mark Pearson Freeland: So discomfort can come in a lot of different ways. As well as this element of time. Oh, I just don't have the time. What I think is really interesting and helpful about that clip is [00:21:00] we're hearing essentially practical solutions to both of those. It's very easy for me to say, Hey, Mike, actually I don't have time.
Mark Pearson Freeland: And also it's not that much fun to, to go out and do whatever that is. Let's say it's training for a marathon, preparing some extra work doing a side hustle, whatever it might be. It's always a little bit hard and time is always against you. But it's familiar territory, Mike for what? I think we've uncovered on moonshots, for example, I think what Arne was basically making the case for with regards to eking out time during the day is Cal Newport and time blocking.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Oh yes. It's putting into your calendar. Yeah. I'm gonna work out here, so I'm gonna commit to that. I'm gonna be forceful with myself. I'm gonna be disciplined with myself and go to my acting classes from eight until midnight. I then gotta factor in food. Okay, let's figure out where that is and how am I gonna get my job going through?
Mark Pearson Freeland: Okay, this is the hours I can work. Again, it just comes from being explicit, I think, with yourself. Yes, being very practical and taking a lot of ownership, for the time. That you do [00:22:00] have and how you're gonna go out and spend it. Yeah. I think that's really where Arne's surprising me here, because he's coming at us with quite a familiar time blocking angle.
Mike Parsons: Yeah. It's fascinating. Which comes from an academic like Cal Newport, so a different headspace to the Terminator. The interesting thing for me is what comes to mind as practical ways. To be time efficient. And this is gonna sound so tangential, but we mentioned food and so did Arnold.
Mike Parsons: I would say meal preparation and meal planning is a really good way to save time. And here's what I mean by that. If you about the dishes you want to eat in the coming week, on the weekend, you can take some time on your weekend to actually cook food, put it in the freezer. So even worst case scenario, the first three or four nights of the week, you've actually already made dinner.
Mike Parsons: So you just have to get it out, defrosted, put in the oven or put in the microwave. I think this is a [00:23:00] huge time saver, but it's also a huge nutrition upside. Cause when we are tired and busy, we always shortcut food, don't we? For sure.
Mark Pearson Freeland: It's too tempting and that also it's now too easy. Pick up the phone, pick up an app.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Uber Eats food
Mike Parsons: in 20 minutes, Uber right? Now. The other thing about that is you're obviously taking control of your diet, so there's so much more health benefits than eating out where they use a lot of salts and sauces and sugars to refine the food taste. So I think that's a big one.
Mike Parsons: You mentioned time blocking. Oh my gosh. Like block that time. I would say if this is really a challenge for one of our viewers or listeners or members, I would definitely look into the book, the 5:00 AM Club by Robert Sharma. This, yeah, this really just is such a powerful thing that we've seen is.
Mike Parsons: So many successful people get up early in the morning, and if you own the morning, you own the day, win the morning, win the day. This kind of thinking, [00:24:00] I think this is fundamental for success. If you are not getting up when the sun rises, then you're making it hard, right?
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Mark Pearson Freeland: And I also think that when you are not waking up, and maybe it's not the first thing you do, but we've certainly discussed this on the show before, Mike, taking a look at what our day is gonna be like, and even planning it out. At least 24 hours or ideally maybe a week beforehand, so you know exactly what's happening.
Mark Pearson Freeland: You know when things are gonna start piling up. Yeah. You can hit your to-do list in a fashionable way that does not create too much more pain. You're not creating issues for yourself. Instead, what you're doing through planning, let's say with meal keeping and bulk making in advance. What are you doing?
Mark Pearson Freeland: You're saving yourself time in the long run. Yeah. All those little things add up. If you can save yourself, let's say 20 minutes every day, Hey, you've suddenly earned 20 minutes every day to guard and do. Maybe it's a bit of exercise, maybe it's learning, [00:25:00] maybe it's just going out for a
Mike Parsons: walk. Do you know what amazes me, mark as well, is how many people.
Mike Parsons: Seem to only look at their calendar for the day, in the morning of that day. And I'm always surprised that there's all this frantic running around of, oh, can we move this? Can we put this here? And you're like, but you, if you had looked at your diary at the beginning of the week, you would've I'm, you would've noticed this.
Mike Parsons: To me, one of my greatest Monday. Practices is looking at the calendar for the week, but wait for this. I'll show you how geeky I am. I make a Gantt chart of the quarter and I review it and change it and update it every single Monday. So I literally have in my diary here a printout of a Gantt chart.
Mike Parsons: And this Gantt chart, check this out. This Gantt chart has up until, so we are recording here [00:26:00] on July 11th. This goes up into the week of October 9th, and these are all the things I've got going on. I love it.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Now, this is our first physical moonshots prop as well.
Mike Parsons: Yes. For those of you watching on YouTube, you.
Mike Parsons: That to me is just taking control. Arnold was breaking down the 24 hour clock. I'm just breaking down the quarter and saying, oh geez, potentially I have two workshops this quarter. I've got two trips to the US in the next four or five months. I've gotta fit in some other things. So you've gotta start thinking about that.
Mike Parsons: Like for example, when I was working on my Gant chart just this week, I was thinking to myself, if I. The possibility of doing another workshop, a two day rapid prototyping workshop. I probably can't do that until last week of November, first week of December, [00:27:00] and I only have that insight when I actually do the planning.
Mike Parsons: If someone had said, Hey, Mike, can you come do a workshop in September? I would've gone, oh yeah. Okay, great. And then go, oh my gosh, hang on. I've got one in August in the us. I've got one in October in the us. Oh, this is gonna be crazy. But you've gotta own your time if you wanna be successful.
Mark Pearson Freeland: You, and you know what?
Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're demonstrating here, Mike, with this level of foresight into October, November, having your Gantt chart that you review every week. You know what you're doing there. You're working your butt off. You are putting into practice what I think Arne's trying to make the case for here, this muscle bound man.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. Not only is working his butt off in the office sorry. In the gym. You are working out in the office. You are putting it into practice. Totally. So I think there's great. Isn't it funny how you can take that similarity so clearly? Yes. And put it into this professional knowledge worker vibe. Yeah.
Mark Pearson Freeland: It's totally transferable.
Mike Parsons: Said. And as you go out into the world, let's say you're working your butt off, you're working hard, this doesn't mean things will be [00:28:00] easy, does it? In fact. This next thought we've got is really about some of the blockers that we face. And this big learning mark that we keep having is successful.
Mike Parsons: People experience failure just like all of us. It's how they think about it, which is different. I think we got some thoughts from Arnie on this.
Mark Pearson Freeland: We do, we certainly do. Let's hear now from Arne with his next follow-up rule, which is all about don't be afraid to fail.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Let me tell you something. Don't be afraid of failing because there's nothing wrong with failing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: You have to fail in order to climb that ladder. There's no one that doesn't fail.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Michael Jordan said in one of his interviews when they said, you are unbelievable. You're the greatest basketball player of all times. Mean, tell me about that. And he says you had just mentioned the successes, but he says, for me to become the greatest basketball player, [00:29:00] I missed 9,000 shots when I was playing basketball at the N B A games.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So during this games that he was so successful, he missed 9,000 shots. Does it make him a failure? No. He is one of the greatest basketball players of all times, but he failed 9,000 times. You get it. We all fail. It's okay.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: What is not the case that when you fail, you stay down? Whoever stays down is a loser and winners will fail And get up. Fail and get up. Fail and get up. You always get up. That is a winner. That is a winner.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I failed in bodybuilding. I've I lost bodybuilding competitions. I [00:30:00] lost power lifting competitions. I lost weightlifting competitions. I had movies that went in the toilet and that were terrible and got the worst reviews. And in politics, I remember I had many of the initiatives on the ballot, and we lost my approval rating in California.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Went down to 28%. Then it went back up again and they won again. The governorship, Hey, we all lose. We all have lost us. This is okay. And this is why I say don't be worried about losing, because when you're afraid of losing, then you get frozen. You get stiff. You're not relaxed. You got to be in order to perform well in anything if it's in boxing or if it is on your job or with your thinking is only happening when you relax.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: So relax. It's okay to fail. Let's just go all [00:31:00] out and give it everything that you got. That's what it is all about. So don't be afraid to fail.
Mike Parsons: So true, mark. And it reminds me, I'm gonna go back in the moonshots time machine here, Serena Williams, right? When we did her show, she talked about like it's actually the true champion is made. After they fail and then they rise again. That is the true champion. And I think, we have such a fear of failure and like the embarrassment, we have a fear of the, it's almost a shame that we create ourselves about failure, but this is classically within our control.
Mike Parsons: If we accept that, you'll fail. That is just part of life. Then you can say, okay, I failed. You could perhaps ask some questions like, what did I learn? What would I do differently the next time? And if If you can just for a [00:32:00] moment, remember that every single other person on the planet fails as well, so it's okay.
Mike Parsons: What's not okay. Is dwelling on that failure? Yeah. What's not okay is something that we do, which is continually relive that failure. You gotta move on. Who else does this remind you of when you hear about this? Sort of resilience in this go forward and this okay, cool. I failed. I'm learning, I'm moving on.
Mike Parsons: You know who it
Mark Pearson Freeland: does remind me of. Yeah. Dyson I'm reminded of the inventors. So the ones who I, you obviously referenced Einstein earlier from a work perspective, and I think that's probably true here as well. Don't be afraid to fail with anything, whether it's products. Businesses or even just mindset, day-to-day attitude.
Mark Pearson Freeland: And I think what we saw with Dyson and our entrepreneur series was a [00:33:00] definite case of putting in the hours to grad to see incremental improvements. And obviously with Dyson incremental improvements are products there, vacuum cleaners and so on. But I would argue that the same would be true for training practices.
Mark Pearson Freeland: So from a strength perspective, exercise even waking up early in the morning. Each of those experiences that you have, treat it like product development, and see those incremental improvements gradually. I don't think it's necessarily realistic to go from zero to a hundred or from a scrap of paper to a physical product that's on the shelf in a store overnight.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Those overnight successes, as we've mentioned on the show before are challenges, and unrealistic. Instead, what I find interesting once again is Arnie making the case similarly to people like Dyson? Whereby you just gotta put in the time Yes. And yeah, that time might be negative.
Mark Pearson Freeland: But if you can harness much like we were hearing earlier, the Muhammad Ali, not counting until he [00:34:00] starts feeling pain, he's valuing that pain. Yeah. Cause he knows that's the point that he's gonna get better. I'd argue that if you fail, that's your moment to then realize, ah, okay, how am I gonna react to this?
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. How am I gonna pick myself back up? Because that's the lesson, isn't it? That's The moment of true personal growth. Yes. Kicking in and taking place.
Mike Parsons: And you can be methodical about it and say If I've just failed, then it technically actually means I'm closer to succeeding because every time I'm failing, I'm learning and reducing like I'm optimizing for more chance of success.
Mike Parsons: Because every failure means there's a likelihood that next one might be a success. Yeah. I've got this, I've got this great quote for you. You totally inspired me about Dyson. And I'll read it to you here. It's from Thomas Addison, who famously had to prototype the light bulb 10,000 times and he says, I have not failed.
Mike Parsons: I've just found 10,000 ways that it won't work.
Mark Pearson Freeland: How great is that? Right? 10,000 ways that it [00:35:00] doesn't work. But that's a real journey, isn't it? It's to go through that process and
Mike Parsons: isn't it funny? No, I know, but as soon as you take away this perception of shame or self-doubt and just say, oh, that's cool. I'm actually a bit closer to working out what's gonna work.
Mike Parsons: Everybody fails. It's really your obligation with failure is not to dwell on it, but to learn from it, right?
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, exactly. Rather than, Percolate, allow yourself to in fact I'd love just going back to to Arnie Arnie's clip. Again, if you aren't relaxed, then you're not gonna be that best version of yourself.
Mark Pearson Freeland: I love the, I love that idea. That's a nuance for me. I understand the value of failure. It's a great opportunity to learn as well as a great opportunity to grow as an individual. But I th I like where Arne's going with this, which is, if you are percolating, let's say you're at your low point now [00:36:00] and you are struggling, maybe it's business, maybe it's physical, maybe it's something else.
Mark Pearson Freeland: If you allow that to continue for too long, everything else around you, oh my gosh. Things that you perhaps to, yeah, the solid job, the relationships around you, the habits that perhaps you were utilizing, suddenly those come into question and the foundation that you once had, which was solid. You are enabling to get a little bit rocky by maybe focusing too much on those negatives and not feeling or staying within that relaxed mindset, both physically, actually, as well as a mindset perspective.
Mark Pearson Freeland: That for me, Mike is a great takeaway here. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling like you're a failure, try not to let that get in the way of everything else, because then you wanna make sure that those lines of your life continue moving in the right direction. You wanna be able to react to them and enjoy them, rather than just constantly thinking that everything has failed around you.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah.
Mike Parsons: Powerful thoughts, [00:37:00] powerful mindset. Very consistent as well throughout the 228 shows that we've done, but now we get to some new territory and some new ideas. So why don't you set up this final clip from Arnie. Yeah
Mark Pearson Freeland: I think we've heard the case from Arnie today with regards to resilience of working like hell, as well as this idea of creating the network around you so that you can start to look at failure as a needed thing.
Mark Pearson Freeland: The truth though is it's the challenge to do all this by yourself, Mike, isn't it? So let's hear from Arne. He's got a great call out for us, all of us today, subscribers and members, and how we should all start to really consider how we can give something back. You can only
Arnold Schwarzenegger: feel complete as a person if you think about what can you do for your fellow member around you that maybe needs help.[00:38:00]
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I felt like that everyone has a different motivation. Why you get into that? I was an immigrant going to America, and as somehow America was the most generous country in the world. They opened up their arms to me. They helped me. They invited me for Thanksgiving dinner. The people, they brought me the bodybuilders in the gym, brought me blades to my apartment because I had no blades.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I had no silverware. I had no bed wear. I had no pillows. I had no blanket. I had no tv. I had no radio. I had nothing. They brought it to my apartment. They helped me, and that's all that firsthand is generosity in America. And I say to myself as an immigrant, that is being embraced with open arms, that I need to go and make sure that I give something back That, because I said, I started thinking about how did America become such a great country?
Arnold Schwarzenegger: How did America become such a generous country? I look back in history and I [00:39:00] realize that people have fought. For America and people have died for America and people have suffered for America. And so it is my job now to contribute, to keep it as being the number one country in the world. And this is when I started feeling obligated.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: And I said to myself, so what can I do? I'm a bodybuilder, what can I do? But then I realized when there's so Special Olympics that I can help and train special Olympians. We started getting involved in Special Olympics and in no time I proposed to them to start power lifting in Special Olympics, to have deadlift, which was a safe thing to do, and to have bench press, which was a safe thing to do, and it became the number one sports in Special Olympics power lifting.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: They always have a packed hall of 5,000 people, and that became the national trainer and the international trainer of Special Olympics.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: [00:40:00] And I tell you, I felt so good. I felt better than winning a bodybuilding competition, going to one of their competitions and seeing a hundred of those athletes from all over the world competing in power lifting and being happy and being included in being felt that they're equal to all of us.
Mike Parsons: Yeah, this is.
Mike Parsons: This is something that we haven't heard a lot of superstars and experts talk about yet. What's really interesting, mark, is what we both know, that the science tells us that healthy relationships, helping others is a very well studied, highly frequent characteristic of people that are happy and live long lives.
Mike Parsons: And isn't it fas fascinating to hear someone who's achieved so much. You can see the buzz that Arne gets from working with Special Olympics. And to be honest, it's really [00:41:00] inspiring and worth reminding that we have to make time for that work in our schedule. Otherwise, it's very easy to say, oh, I'm so busy.
Mike Parsons: It's hard to make community or charity time meaningful. But the practical thing I do, mark, is I try to. Also help people in the scope of my work as much as possible. Like I hope that the advisory work and consultancy work that I do with clients at its heart is helping others. How do you do it? How do you make time for this?
Mike Parsons: How are you taking this lesson? For yourself. I'm interested cuz I think I could do better. But yeah, it's a challenge,
Mark Pearson Freeland: isn't it? Look I could definitely do better when I refer oh, sorry. When I compare my dedication, I guess is one [00:42:00] word. Maybe the time I dedicate towards something like my local community, for example, I could probably do more when it comes to the way that I collaborate with others.
Mark Pearson Freeland: So to, to build on where you were going there. From an advisory perspective, the time that I work with others, what I hope I am bringing is an ability to assist and make more efficient the processes that businesses have in place. And to a, to say it in a shorter way, save time. I want to try and help cuz we've all worked in businesses where it takes all the hours of that God gives you and what ends up happening is people burn out.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe they struggle, maybe they find it extra difficult, maybe they can't see their family as much and so on. What I hope is by coming in and giving a helping hand to some of these. Businesses that I work with, it's enabling individuals to have maybe a little bit more time. Maybe it's a little bit more bandwidth, [00:43:00] maybe it's a little bit more relaxation to use Arnie's word from earlier on.
Mark Pearson Freeland: And if you can start to bring in that level of support, relaxation, maybe freeing up some time for others, what I think happens is then they can go out. And be that best version of themselves. They can go out and do that great work and they can go out and try and, equally give back to their communities as well.
Mark Pearson Freeland: But really, I guess it comes down, Mike, to knowing your why. Knowing what it is that you wanna try and put out into the world where you're trying to build, and then finding much like Arne did, he was a bodybuilder. Paralympics and power lifting was a natural fit and therefore it didn't require him to, let's say, leave his lane too much.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe that's the secret there. Maybe it is finding benefits such as from a work perspective, things that we can do in our own day-to-day. Hours to hours, yeah. Yeah. Perspective. It helps others
Mike Parsons: if there's an element of service and generosity in the work that you do. Then I think that's a little bit [00:44:00] more practical.
Mike Parsons: But that being said, when I lived in the US I was more active in. Giving back outside of my work. And that was so deeply rewarding. And it comes up, it actually comes up for me, besides doing this show together on Arnie, this has come up, I have had these thoughts, ah, I would love to get back to doing some of that.
Mike Parsons: So what a great way though to explore the huge success of Arnie. But also I feel like I've left with a big homework assignment from him. I'm like, oh man, I'm really falling short on this. What for you, mark has stood out from these six big rules for success?
Mark Pearson Freeland: No it's a it tough one because I like each of those individual rules that we dug into as well as the other three that we didn't dive in as much today.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Particularly the work like hell. I think he really [00:45:00] does make the case for digging in deep. Making the time for doing stuff that matters. But actually Mike, I've gotta give it to him. I think the idea of giving something back Yes. Cause it is a new, a newish concept. Yes. On the, and something that.
Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe it hasn't been so eloquently broken down as Arnie has done for us here. Yeah, I think that might be my homework today, Mike?
Mike Parsons: Yes. I think this one we're in absolute agreement. Giving back is a homework assignment for both of us. Yeah. And I wanna say thank you to you, mark, for helping me and all of our members, viewers, and listeners in this journey because this was a journey of show 228 and it was an epic, it was a Titanic, it was a Terminator style.
Mike Parsons: Arnold Schwarzenegger and his six big Rules for success. And they spanned all sorts of fascinating ideas from trusting in yourself to even breaking a few rules, but we focused on three that really brought [00:46:00] it home for us, working like hell, not being afraid to fail and giving something back.
Mike Parsons: This has to be such a complete journey, learning from one of the most successful people ever, bodybuilding, champion, famous actor, governor of California. He did it all and we took his six rules. So we could learn out loud together so that we could hope, dream, and put in the work we could pump the iron of being the best version of ourselves.
Mike Parsons: And that's what we're all about here on the Moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.