The Desire for Success: Unveiling the Key to Achievement

Once, a young man approached the wise philosopher Socrates, seeking the key to success. Patiently, Socrates listened to the man's inquiry and instructed him to meet by the river the following morning for the answer. True to his word, Socrates met the young man near the river the next day.

Socrates invited the young man to accompany him on a walk towards the river. As they ventured into the water, it gradually rose until it reached their necks. Unexpectedly, much to the young man's astonishment, Socrates submerged him in the water.

Struggling to free himself, the young man fought against the strength of Socrates, desperately trying to escape. But Socrates held him firmly, keeping him submerged until the point where the young man began to turn blue. Sensing the urgency, Socrates lifted the young man's head out of the water, allowing him to gasp for air and take a deep breath.

With a sense of relief, the young man regained his breath. Curious, Socrates posed a question, "What did you desire most while your head was under the water?"

Without hesitation, the young man replied, "Air."

Socrates then imparted his wisdom, saying, "That is the secret to success. When you yearn for success as intensely as you longed for air while submerged, then you will achieve it. There are no other hidden secrets."

The moral of this tale is that a burning desire acts as the initial catalyst for all accomplishments. Similar to how a small fire cannot produce substantial heat, a weak desire will not yield remarkable results.

Success principles taught by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Let us talk about success. Having a vision is the first rule of success. If you don’t have a goal of where you go and if you don’t have a vision where you go you drift around and you never end up anywhere. I was born in 1947 in Austria after the second world war.

I was very fortunate that I happened to had a vision and I didn’t really like Austria. My vision was totally different I felt that I was born for something big, for something special and for something unique.

When I grew up I couldn’t wait to get out of Austria. I couldn’t see myself becoming a worker in factory or a farmer or anything like that even though my parents wanted me to stay there and have a normal life. But that was their vision not mine.

When I was 11 years old I went to school and one day I remember, they showed a documentary about America. In that documentary they showed the huge bridges, the high rises, the six lane freeways, the huge skyscrapers all of this in that massive city. I decided that day that I want to be there one day.

I don’t want to be around here with these little farmhouses and these little buildings. I want to be in America. One day after school I walked by a store in graze, so I went inside and I looked around and then I saw a magazine there’s a bodybuilding magazine that had Reg Park on the cover.

Reg Park was then a three-time Mr. universe and I saw him on the big screen as Hercules. I read that and I said to myself wow this is the blueprint for my life. This is exactly what I want to do. I want to become a bodybuilding champion just like Rag Park.

I want to get into movies just like Reg Park and I want to make millions of dollars and be rich and famous just like Reg Park. Do you know how great it felt that I knew where I was going. Imagine the majority of people don’t know where they’re going. I knew where I was going that I'm going to become this bodybuilding champion just like him. It was just a question of how do you do it.

I was so relieved because when you have a goal, when you have a vision everything becomes easy. People always ask me when they saw me in the gym in the pumping iron days they say “why is it that you’re working-out so hard five hours a day six hours a day and you have always a smile on your face” and I told people all the time. I said because to me I'm shooting for gold. In front of me is the Mr. universe title.

So every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal. To make this core this vision turn into reality every single set that I do every repetition every weight that I lift will get me a step closer to turn the score in the reality. I couldn’t wait to do another 500 pound squat. I couldn’t wait to do another 500 pound bench press. I couldn’t wait to do another 2000 reps of sit-ups. I couldn’t wait for the next exercise. With the age of 20 I went to London and I wanted to miss the universe contest as the youngest Mr universe ever and it was because I had a goal.

Let me tell you something visualizing your goal and going after it makes it fun. You’ve got to have a purpose no matter what you do in life. You’ve got to have a purpose. 74 percent hate their job in America. Now there’s not much different when you come to Europe. The majority of people don’t like what they’re doing because they’re really not doing it because they didn’t have a goal and they followed the score.

They just aimlessly drift around and then all of a sudden, if there’s a job opening, they get their job because you have to work. Then when you work it’s a chore. It’s work. It’s not fun. If you think about only a quarter of the people really enjoy what they’re doing in life that is unbelievable. If you think about it. I felt so blessed that I knew what I was doing. It’s like a medical student that studies and knows he wants to become a doctor.

You know where to go and the same thing is also in politics. I remember that in politics I had a very clear vision. That I will be the leader of California this is as far as I could go because I was not born in America. I could not run for president. Being the governor of the fifth largest state, or I should say the largest state, the fifth largest economy in the world was for me really the ultimate title. The ultimate accomplishment in politics.

Even though people came up to me and says why don’t you go and run for something smaller you’re never gonna make it. I ran for governor and then two months later I became governor of the state of California again because I had a very clear vision. What I'm gonna do with California. That’s rule number one. Have a vision.

Rule number two is don’t listen to the naysayers.

Rule number two is don’t listen to the naysayers. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Everything I ever did, the thing that they heard out of people’s mouth was that’s impossible. That can’t be done or no that is exactly what I heard and of course I proved to the people that it can be done. Whenever someone said to me it can’t be done I heard it can be done. When they said no I heard yes. And when they said it’s impossible I heard it is possible.

I'm a strong believer. What Nelson Mandela said that everything is always impossible until someone does it. Well, I'm gonna be the one who said to myself. I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna show it to them. Maybe it has never been done before. That’s perfectly fine with me. But I'm gonna do it and I did not listen to the naysayers.

It’s all about the hard work that you put in. I said I must have been bodybuilding. I worked out five six hours a day. I'm gonna do the same thing now for acting and of course I went to college to study English. I studied the accent, removal acting classes and all of this stuff all day long. I worked and I worked in the works. And within a short period of time I made one movie called Hercules in New York which of course went right into the toilet. But it didn’t discourage me. I still had the same vision and then all of a sudden I did Streets of San Francisco. 

 

I did stay hungry and pumping on and the villain and then all of a sudden I was asked by Dino De Laurentiis at the universal studio to star in Conan the Barbarian. After I did Conan the Barbarian the director at the press conference said to the press, the director was John Millius, he said to the press if we wouldn’t have had Arnold we would have had to build one. Think about that the very body that they said can never be sold because the time is wrong. A few years later I'm doing Conan the Barbarian and it was the number one hit at the box office when it came out in the summer of 82.

Think about that and the director says if we wouldn’t have had his body we would have had to build one. All of a sudden my body became an asset not a liability and the same thing was with terminator. After we were finished filming terminator Jim Cameron said to the press if Arnold wouldn’t have had that accent and talk like a machine, I think the movie wouldn’t have worked.

So think about that the body and the accent that they attacked was an asset. But I didn’t listen to those losers, I didn’t listen to them at all. It’s just the reality of it is that you cannot listen to the naysayers. This is a very important lesson for all of you. When someone says no, this is a stupid idea, you in your mind you don’t have to say so