Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, this time as a self-help guru with the tools you need to improve your life

Now a self-help guru, the former bodybuilder, actor and Governor discusses how to make your dreams a reality, laments the state of US politics and sends a warning on AI.

Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’d be back, and he is, as a self-help guru

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the greatest bodybuilder, winning multiple Mr Universe and Mr Olympia titles, the highest paid and most bankable movie star, and Governor of California, leading the sixth largest economy. Now, there is a fourth act – adding self-help guru to businessman, philanthropist, advocate.

Arnold’s Pump Club podcast and newsletter has over 500,000 subscribers. His new book distils wisdom that he says can be applied by everyone to improve their lives, realise their goals and be healthier. It is entertaining, breezy, life-affirming. With his accent as thick as his muscles, it is hard not to hear his voice as you read it.

I write about politics and popular culture, having interviewed presidents and prime ministers alongside Hollywood legends and celebrity icons. But never has an interview afforded the opportunity to talk and write about both. But there is nobody quite like the Governator ...

TROY BRAMSTON: It is 6.30am here in Sydney but, as you say, “sleep is for babies”! You quote a line from The Terminator (1984):“There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.” Do we all have the tools to change our lives?

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes. We have the power to choose which direction we are going to go. I have been a perfect example of that because I had a very clear vision at the age of 15 to become a world champion in bodybuilding and to get into the movies. And when I ran for Governor in 2003, I won because I could see myself very clearly as the Governor of California.

BRAMSTON: Growing up in Austria, you write that you were “made for it and by it”. How did those early years shape you?

‘I had a very clear vision at the age of 15 to become a world champion in bodybuilding and to get into the movies.’

SCHWARZENEGGER: I had a very strict upbringing. We had a father that said always, “be useful”. Growing up after World War II, where there was starvation and hunger and misery, it was a terrible first few years. All of that had an impact on me for the rest of my life. Not that I felt depressed about it or bad about it, I just think that if left an imprint. Why do I have a vision? Why do I have that fire in the belly? It makes me want to perform better, to do more.

BRAMSTON: When you saw Reg Park (Mr Universe) in a muscle magazine, you saw a future in bodybuilding. You transformed the art and sport of bodybuilding. How did “never thinking small” also transform you?

SCHWARZENEGGER: I visualised being another Reg Park – to be this guy that I saw in the Hercules movies and win the titles that he won. I never had a small goal. Shooting for big goals takes just as much energy as little goals. So, you might as well pick a big goal. I also saw myself as another Clint Eastwood, another Charles Bronson – they were the big action movie stars in the 1970s.

BRAMSTON: You write about “naysayers”. Were you motivated to prove people wrong when you were making the transition into films such as Conan the Barbarian (1982), The Terminator (1984), Commando (1985) and later as a leading man in action/comedy movies Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990) and True Lies (1994)?

SCHWARZENEGGER: In Austria, skiing is the national sport, playing soccer, doing track and field, but not bodybuilding. The kid says, at age 15, I’m going to be a bodybuilding champion! Inevitably people are going to say, are you crazy? What the f..k is the matter with you? You must be a little sick. Let’s take you to a shrink. Even my own mother was concerned about me and asked the doctor to come to the house and to talk to me and to look at the wall that had all those pictures of my idols hanging on it. And my mother would say, “Oh my God, look at this old, naked man hanging there with muscles bulging and oil on and no clothes. All his friends have pictures of girls on the wall and my son has all these men. Where did we go wrong?” So, I always tell people, “Don‘t listen to naysayers, have a clear vision and make sure that you understand that you have to work your ass off.” Because the more you work, the further you’re going to go. There’s no shortcut.

‘When people with different philosophies come together and compromise, this is where the action is.’ Picture: AFP

BRAMSTON: You enjoyed being Governor of California (2003-11) more than anything else. You were a different type of Republican, though. Do you worry about the influence of Donald Trump in the Republican Party?

SCHWARZENEGGER: My Republican philosophy has been around since the existence of America. That was the philosophy of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, all of these great Republicans. That’s where I am, which is to be more concerned about being a public servant than a party servant. It ultimately is: what makes the country a better place? What makes life for the people better? Today, people are stuck in their ideological corners: “I’m a Republican, therefore we want to do it this way.” And the Democrats say, “I’m a liberal, I want to do it this way.” That’s perfectly fine but we still have to work together. We still have to go and accomplish great things for this country. When people with different philosophies come together and compromise, this is where the action is. That’s what I did when I was Governor. We can bring people together. That’s what is needed today.

BRAMSTON: Would you have run for president if you could? (Candidates need to be born in the US.)

SCHWARZENEGGER: Yeah, of course I would have. But I can’t, and therefore I’m not going to worry about that because I have been able to do all the things that I’ve accomplished in my life because of America. I’m not going to go complain about the one job that I cannot do.

Arnie's new book, Be Useful

BRAMSTON: The world is grappling with the impact of artificial intelligence. You write that The Terminator “represented a warning to the human race about technology”. How valid is that today?

SCHWARZENEGGER: Whenever you start dealing with a subject that you don’t quite understand, it makes it very challenging and big mistakes can be made. We have to figure out a way where we can use AI to our advantage, but also with safeguards, so it doesn’t go in the direction of what Jim Cameron wrote in The Terminator, where it becomes self-aware and takes over the human race. That is the biggest fear, and we have to do everything we can to stop it from happening.

BRAMSTON: If you could go back in time and give 21-year-old Arnold advice when he arrived in America, what would you say?

SCHWARZENEGGER: I would say that you are going in the right direction. I’m amazed when I think back to how inclusive I was and how I learnt very quickly the American way of doing business. The only thing that I would warn myself of is the mistakes that I made – professionally or in my personal life. I would give myself a heads up for that.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life is published by Edbury. This interview has been edited.