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VOLUME 25
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HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE! I hope you are getting some well-deserved time off. It has been a busy summer for us, and the fall is heavily booked. Despite that, we're in the mood to make you an offer you can't refuse. We'll offer anyone who books The Mark of a Leader before October 1, for any conference in 2007 or 2008 - a 20% DISCOUNT on our first day price. The discount will also apply to any books that you buy in volume for your audience. So if you have a conference coming up and want a way to make it amazing, and do it at an even more affordable price, jump on this offer now. It's only for readers of our E-zine!! I was recently fortunate to be part of the ACCE conference in Sacramento. As a Canadian, I was particularly struck by the "Governator" T-shirts everywhere with the pictures of the Terminator on them. I had already been planning this month's story on him because Governor Schwarzenegger turned 60 just a few weeks ago. This was just more incentive. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy this month's incredible tale. Have a great "rest of summer", and don't forget to take advantage of our super discount offer! Yours in Leadership
Please visit our website at www.themarkofaleader.com |
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FEATURE
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QUOTABLE QUOTES One of the great tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts. Benjamin Franklin |
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER - CAREER #3 AND COUNTING
Anyone who saw "Pumping Iron" knows that Arnold Schwarzenegger was an incredibly hard working athlete. Few, though, could have predicted that today he would be running a business with over $100 billion in revenue, more than 235,000 employees, a population/direct customer base of over 36 million, and the world's 6th largest GDP. But that's California. How did this man from tiny Thal, Austria put together three (so far) world-class careers - first as the greatest bodybuilder of all time, second as Hollywood's biggest grossing action film star, and third as Governor of California?
It sounds simplistic. But these, and the occasional bit of fortuitous timing, really are the foundation for his incredible success. Schwarzenegger did not have a particularly happy childhood. Born on July 30, 1947 in post-WW2 Europe, his police chief father was tough and abusive. Arnold knew he wanted out of Austria, and saw America as the land of opportunity. All he needed was a way there. At 13, his soccer coach took him to a gym and introduced him to very basic weight training, encouraging him to increase his strength and weight in order to improve his soccer skills. He loved this new "sport" with barbells, and almost instantly displayed the work ethic that would get him to the top of the world. 
He also did something that every great leader in history will tell you they also did - he found a mentor. His first was Kurt Marmul - Mr. Austria - who helped train the young man and fueled Arnold's passion to grow stronger and better. But it was Reg Parks and Steve Reeves who provided the big dream or vision. Both were world-class bodybuilders who had gone on to become movie stars in "sword and sandal flicks" like the many Hercules movies. Arnold decided that he would become the greatest bodybuilder in the world, win the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia titles, and move to America to become a movie star. 
And that is exactly what he did. "With my desire and drive, I definitely wasn't normal. Normal people can be happy with a regular life. I was different. I felt that there was more to life than just plodding through an average existence. I saw bodybuilding as the vehicle that would take me to the top and I put all my energy into it," said Schwarzenegger. At 18, while serving in the Austrian army he snuck off the base one night to compete in the Jr. Mr. Europe competition, arriving there with neither trunks nor any clue what to do. He won anyway. He was caught climbing back into his army base and jailed for a week in a cold cement cell with only a blanket and the tiniest bit of food. But he had his trophy. After the army, he met lifelong friend and training partner Franco Columbu in Munich, and began a training regimen of 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. Coming second in the Mr. Universe in London in 1966, the judges told him he did not have the muscle definition he needed to win. So he invented a new regimen and new routines to improve. That would be the last time he would lose a major international competition. |
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QUOTABLE QUOTES It is not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves. Sir Edmund Hillary |
He returned the next year and was aptly dubbed "The Austrian Oak", with muscle mass no one had ever seen before. At age 20 he became the youngest amateur Mr. Universe ever. His hero, Reg Park, invited Arnold to South Africa to train with him, and he soaked up every bit of information he could, including moving to 6 hours a day of training, starting at 5AM. He had found the path to becoming the best in the world. But he still hadn't found his way to America. That path was provided by bodybuilder and publisher Joe Weider, who brought him to California in 1968 in a deal that included Arnold writing a monthly column explaining his training routine for Joe's Muscle Builder magazine. 
There, Arnold joined a group of bodybuilders who worked out at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica. At the time, bodybuilding was not a widely popular sport. Arnold and Franco ran a bricklaying business to pay the bills - and famously convinced many Hollywood celebrities that "Austrian Bricklaying" was the finest in the world. Now it would have been easy upon first seeing the muscled Mr. Arnold and hearing the thick Austrian accent to think "this is no rocket scientist". But Arnold was no dummy. In addition to his business and training regimen, Arnold enrolled at USC and studied business at night. And following the path of his heroes, he landed his first big movie role in Hercules in New York, which later became a small cult hit. He also had a magnetic personality, a great sense of humor, and a work ethic that he sums up like this: You have 24 hours in a day, and you only have so many years to reach your dreams. I utilized the 24 hours better than anyone I know. You snooze, you lose. 
Arnold was just the personality that George Butler was looking for as the center of a book on bodybuilding called Pumping Iron. By the mid 1970s, Arnold was unbeatable in competition, and by 1975 had won 6 Mr. Olympia titles. He had also appeared in several other movies and TV shows. But it was the movie of Pumping Iron in 1977 which changed bodybuilding, and created the breakthrough second career for the magnetic Mr. Schwarzenegger. Made on a shoestring budget and credit cards, Pumping Iron showed the world of bodybuilding, and particularly focused on the unbeatable Arnold, showing him as smart and funny, but also cunning, competitive and relentlessly driven. It turned him into a celebrity. |
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QUOTABLE QUOTES Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. Thomas Edison |
The offers started to come in, launching his second career in movies. He had several forgettable parts before he got his breakthrough role in Conan the Barbarian in 1982. Starring alongside James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow and his pal Franco Columbu, Arnold's personality and incredible physique jumped off the screen, and Conan became a small hit. His film career took off, and today the list of Arnold action movies is as long as his bicep is large. It was James Cameron's Terminator movies that broke him huge and catapulted him to the top of Hollywood's "A List". 
Supported by a degree in international marketing of fitness and business administration, Arnold's many business interests in bodybuilding, publishing and restaurants took off. The man is certainly no dummy. His net worth jumped through the 1990s to many hundreds of millions of dollars. None of this, though, predicted stage three of his life. Arnold became an American citizen in 1983. Shortly thereafter he was invited to a charity tennis tournament, one of many requests that the star received weekly. Most he turned down. For a reason he cannot explain, he decided to say 'yes' to this one. There, he was introduced by a friend to Maria Shriver, niece of President John F Kennedy. There was an immediate attraction. They began dating, and in 1986 were married. What intrigued journalists was that Arnold had declared himself a Republican when he arrived in America. 
"He (then-President Richard Nixon) was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, 'What party is he?' My friend said, 'He's a Republican.' I said, 'Then I am a Republican.' And I have been a Republican ever since." His new wife, of course, comes from the country's most famous Democratic family. As it turns out, it may be a match that will help save the world from itself. Arnold had long had his eye on politics as a way to give something back to the country that had given him so much opportunity. The chance came when California had a financial meltdown in 2003 and called an election recall. Arnold announced his candidacy on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and immediately demonstrated the kind of focus and energy that had made him so successful. He pulled together a team of experts, hit the campaign trail, and successfully won the election. He was re-elected in a convincing victory in 2006, and today his popularity continues to rise.
His political career has not been without incident. But early on, he showed remarkable intelligence by nominating a Democrat, Susan Kennedy, as his Chief of Staff. With another powerful Democratic voice at home in his wife, the Governator has demonstrated a remarkable willingness to find a middle ground, where things get done instead of being locked in partisan politics. For that alone I applaud him. Indicative of his optimistic attitude toward life, he has become a champion of the environment and may well be a pivotal figure on saving the world from climate self-destruction. He has passed tough environmental laws at home, and tours the world encouraging leaders to see the climate crisis as an opportunity rather than a threat. In typical style, he sees a multi-billion dollar opportunity for businesses which can provide sensible, environmentally sound products and services. Is he perfect? Of course not. Has he made mistakes? Of course. Does his testosteroned, cigar-smoking personality sometimes rub the wrong way? Absolutely. But in the end, he has brought the same tough-minded, hard working mentality to politics that has made him so successful in his previous careers. 
What ultimately will be the Mark of the Governator? I think he is living, walking proof of the simple ideal of Think Big and Do It. He has been completely fearless in taking on huge challenges for himself - constantly striving for bigger and better. And he has shown that good old - fashioned hard work and a powerful belief in yourself can overcome just about anything. In the cynical, self interested, partisan world of politics, I find that particularly refreshing - and important. I look forward to one day telling my young son the story of a man who came from nothing, helped save the world in the movies, and then did it in real life too. "For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer." |
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Please visit us at www.themarkofaleader.com. Copyright 2007 Mark of a Leader |
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