LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Arnold Schwarzenegger is the man of the moment. After becoming the Netflix Chief Action Officer and delivering a successful series with ‘FUBAR’, Schwarzenegger is all set to appear in the three-part docuseries ‘Arnold’, which will tell the story of his rise to success in his own voice. The Former Governor of California has been sharing snippets of his life ever since he published his autobiography ‘Total Recall’ in 2012.
In a newsletter published by Schwarzenegger that was quoted in The Pump Daily, the 'Terminator’ actor spoke in detail about failure and what it means to regain faith. Schwarzenegger, who is the epitome of the successful American Dream, talked about the ultimate meaning of success and how he thought his career in America was finished even before it started.
‘My ticket to America’
He said, “It was 1968. I had just won my second Mr Universe contest in London. England was the place I got started.” He then received a telegram from the godfather of bodybuilding, Joe Weider, inviting him to another Mr Universe competition in Miami. The boy from Austria, who dreamt of carving his niche in America, grabbed the opportunity with open arms. He wrote, “This was the moment I had been waiting for. My ticket to America was in my hand. I was 21 years old, and all the people who told me I’d never make it to America were about to be proven wrong.”
Full of dreams, he boarded the plane to America with just his gym bag. “I was about to take America and its bodybuilders by storm, and Joe Weider would want me to settle down in California to be the frontman of bodybuilding.” Unfortunately, he wrote, “That’s not what happened.”
The ‘Commando’ star continued, “Frank Zane beat me. I was shocked, I was depressed, and I was all alone. I had just left everyone I knew and everything I had in Europe for this.” Like every mortal, he too took the defeat to his heart and felt miserable. He described the feeling by noting, “All of the thoughts you can imagine went through my head. First, the denial: how did that little guy beat me? Then the mental beating and the worst-case scenarios: I’m a loser, why did I ever think this was a good idea? Weider won’t want to work with a loser.” He even thought of going back to his home country the following week.
‘I went from misery to a mission’
However, he didn't. He did not let the defeat break his mental strength. The action icon wrote, “I cried all night. And in the morning, I woke up a little more clear-headed.” He also tried to understand why he was defeated, “Now, instead of denial and worst-case scenarios, I saw that Frank won because he was more cut than me and he had better definition.” He also realized that he needed to work more on his “definition.”
He continued, in what can be one of the most beautiful modern-day fairy tales, “And just like that, I went from misery to a mission.” Even Joe Weider did not let him go. “Joe Weider still wanted me to stay in America, proving those worst-case stories we tell ourselves are almost always wrong. I moved to Venice near Gold’s Gym, and one of the first things I did was invite Frank Zane to stay and train with me. I wanted to learn from the person who beat me, and Frank was a great guy,” Schwarzenegger revealed.
Since then, he not only became good friends with Zane, but Weider also became his mentor. The ‘Conan the Barbarian’ star then shared his piece of advice to his readers, “So if you have failed one of your goals we set at the beginning, stop beating yourself up, and turn that misery into a mission today.” Indeed, had he left the arena defeated, Hollywood would have lost one of its most phenomenal stars of all time.
