Whether you’re a fan of his movies, or a critic of his personal/political life, it has to be said … Arnold Schwarzenegger has had an extraordinary career.

Was it fate or focus?

Definitely fate when you discover one of the most famous movie lines ever created almost never made it! Terminator’s Arnold Schwarzenegger argued with director James Cameron that “I’LL be back!” was better to say than the now-famous cry. After a heated debate, Cameron finally said, “I don’t teach you how to act. Can you please not tell me how to write the script!”

And thankfully Cameron won that argument as the signature line charms crowds when Big Arnie speaks on his success.

However, when it comes to success, the one thing Arnie shows is his life has been very much by intentional planning and personal design.

At a recent motivational trip around Australia, Arnold Schwarzenegger gave 4 keys to his extraordinary success.

1. Be absolutely clear in your vision & make sure your vision is BIG!

When Schwarzenegger was in Austria, his parents’ intent was that he’d live a life they did. He says his father was a police officer, and his mother had visions of him “Like the Von-Trapp family”, but this is not what I wanted.

Austria’s morale was an all-time low after the second World War, one day Arnie saw a documentary on America. He knew then and there that’s where he wanted to live. The next stage for him was, “how do I get there?”

He then saw a magazine article on Reg Parker, a body builder and star in Hercules movies. Parker became Arnie’s role model, and Schwarzenegger decided he wanted to be like Parker. Body building would and did become his ticket into America.

At 15 he started lifting weights. Arnold wanted to not just be any old body builder. He wanted to become the body builder champion of the world.

He was specific in his goal, as he was when it came to his acting and political career. Arnie says he didn’t just want to do ‘bit parts’, he wanted to be a Hollywood leading actor. In politics he didn’t just want to be a governor of any state, (the highest office he can obtain constitutionally), but the governor of the largest economy in the world – California.

Schwarzenegger’s second key to success:

2. “Work your ass off! You only need 6 hours of sleep. If you need more sleep, sleep faster.”

Many people ask Arnie how hard were the 5 hours of gym training each day he did to become the body building champion of the world. Arnie says he loved it. He says he knew each rep, and each lift was getting him closer to his goals. So while many body builders complained, he loved the fact he could lift until he couldn’t anymore. Why? “Because it was taking me closer to my dream.”

When it came to acting, his accent and diction were an issue. Many don’t know that after a full day’s work Arnie would take acting lessons from 8 until midnight to be able to speak and act as he needed to on screen.

3. Don’t listen to the naysayers.

When he wanted to be a body builder his Austrian friends couldn’t understand. They said, “We do skiing not body building.”

When it came to acting the movie executives laughed at him when he announced he wanted to be a leading Hollywood actor. They said, “Your body is too big! Leading actors of today are more normal size. Your accent is a problem. And what’s with your name? No one will be able to say Schwarzenegger. It sounds like ‘Schnitzel’! Sure we can get you a German soldier role in Hogan’s heroes, but you will never be a leading actor.”

As Arnie puts it, “Those movie execs aren’t laughing now!”

The naysayers on the political front told him what he was doing was career suicide. “Why would you drop your salary from $20 – $30 million a movie, to $175,000 a year? Why would you want to risk all the criticism, and risk never working in Hollywood again?”

His reason:

4. Give back, especially when you’ve been given so much.

Arnie says America had given him so much in life and being the “govenator” was his way of giving back.

He says he authorised the spending of $90 billion over 10 years to fix California’s highway infrastructure which hadn’t been updated since the 1960’s.

He says, “I knew Californians were frustrated having to travel an hour each way in their car for work and weren’t able to be with their families, so I decided we needed to fix that.”

He also says that when you are a public servant you are there to serve the public not the party. He says this is why he was the first state governor in America to approve Obama’s health reform, even though his fellow Republican’s questioned his loyalty in approving a federal Democratic bill.

Arnie’s response, “Because 8 million Californians didn’t have private health care. How could 8 million Californians in the biggest state economy of the world not have private health care?”

What many don’t realise is that Arnold was also a successful businessman, property developer, and millionaire before the age of 30. He says much of this comes to focus. When he is doing a particular task he tries to devote total focus on that one thing.

In his recent presentation in Melbourne, he acknowledged his personal mistakes and says you just have to keep moving on.

Smart people learn from other’s mistakes and if you can see pass personal and political controversies, Arnie’s four keys to success are thought provoking.

The challenge becomes, “What are you doing about your life? How intentional are you in your design? Are you creating fate? Or are circumstances creating you? Are you focused? Have you defined what you want for your financial life? Or will you like 95% of the population need the government pension in your retirement?

At Wealth Safe we’d love to assist you in putting things in place to help you achieve your goals quicker, and with great success.

If you haven’t defined your life goals, or been knocked down a few times maybe it’s time to take an old movie line on board for inspiration. “I’ll be back!”

Get a consultation from one of our Wealth Safe Specialists today for a free 30-minute check up. We can help you put into action your 4 steps to financial success.