Arnolds Total Recall

A few years ago Arnold Schwarzenegger came out with his autobiography, "Total Recall".

It was a great read and a long awaited book for me. Arnold's ambition, success in multiple fields as an athlete AND businesS ACUMEN was something I've admired for years. AS A KID WHO GREW UP IN THE 80’S HIS MOVIES WERE ALWAYS FAVORITES OF MINE AS WELL.

Arnold and pro wrestling have always been connected. Over the years I saw photos of Arnold training with pro wrestlers such as Bruno Sammartino and "Superstar" Billy Graham. I figured he knew and respected wrestling. ARNOLD being at the WWE Hall of Fame to induct Bruno confirmed my beliefs.

  The Italian strongman Bruno & Arnold during the colorful decade of the 70's.

In the book Arnold talked about coming across wrestlers as early as his years in Germany before he came to America. But the biggest take away from the book was some principles Arnold had in his thinking that allowed him to be the biggest movie star in the world. PLUS the greatest bodybuilder of his time, become WEALTHY, and THEN GO ON TO BE elected governor of California.

1. He was a salesman. Arnold throughout the book talks about trying to sell more gym memberships in Germany when he was managing a gym there. 
He worked hard to sell bodybuilding to a skeptical public in the 70's. Nowadays, there's a gym in every town. Women, athletes in all sports and senior citizens all train with weights. 

But in the 70's people viewed bodybuilding much differently. It was considered unhealthy, unproductive for athletes and weird. Arnold helped change all that by selling the sport. 

  Arnold the bodybuilder

When Arnold wrote his first book his publisher suggested a small book tour of six or so cities. 

Arnold countered with a 30 day tour. A different city for every day of the month. He knew his project couldn't succeed if people didn't know about it. 

He repeated the process when he finished filming Conan The Barbarian. The movie marketers planned on hitting two cities in Europe. Schwarzenegger, being Austrian, was aware how big of a market Europe was. HE HAD SEEN THE STUDIOS ignorE the globe and focused too much on domestic sales. Arnold went on a large European publicity tour and was welcomed by the press in these smaller markets enthusiastically since they rarely had access to a star of a major Hollywood movie. 

This served his Hollywood career well as most actors considered themselves pure artists. They didn't like to sell. They thought it was beneath them and crass. But Arnold was loved by theater owners because he was so eager to market his movies. Because he went to theater owners conventions to meet them, take pictures with them, they would give his movie extra theaters or showings. 

2. Go for the top. There's more room there. 
Arnold in the book talks about how he and his agent kept getting small offers for roles in movies. But the Austrian Oak wanted to star in movies. He believed he was a leading man. 
He also felt its crowded at the bottom and middle of any field. But at the top it's never crowded. So why not shoot for the top? 

How smart is that?  

In wrestling you see that a lot. Most athletes are just trying to get booked. Hoping to be on the card. How many guys in the locker room are trying to be the main event? Trying to get to the next step of ROH or Japan? Which group is smaller? Which group has less competition?  

3. There's 24 hours in a day. Pretty obvious right? But not so much in how we use those hours. 
I've been the worst offender of this in my past. I rarely used all 24 hours of a day well. 
Sure I went to the gym. I ate decent. But I also spent a ton of time watching hours and hours of television. I USED TO SPEND BLOCKS OF MY DAY ON news that didn't matter or affect my life one bit. Time spent at dive bars around people who had no ambition to better themselves.    

A huge waste of time. 

Arnold kept his sleep to 5-6 hours and used those remaining hours with ruthless efficiency. 
He worked out, often twice a day. He went to school at Santa Monica college. He worked on his mail order business. He took acting classes. He built a real estate business. He travelled the world doing posing exhibitions and seminars.  
He moved into acting then eventually got married and became a dad. He never stopped managing his time always maximizing his 24 hours. 

As I head out to California for my very first trip there to promote ( and sell  ) my book I think about Arnold as he's so identified with that state. He made that image of the southern California bodybuilder appealing to me as a teen reading Muscle & Fitness and watching Pumping Iron.

Arnold had a crazy dream that bodybuilding could help him come to America and become a movie star. I had a crazy dream that wrestling could take me places other parts of my life couldn't. And here I am. 

Thanks Arnold!

If your interested in supporting Latin Thunder or just looking for a good read please consider my book, heres the cover -  www.latinthunder.com/book

All photos courtesy of Arnold's public Facebook page.