"You can overthink anything. There are always negatives. The more you know, the less you tend to do something. If I had known everything about real estate, movies, and bodybuilding, I wouldn't have gone into them. I felt the same about marriage; I might not have done it if I had known everything I'd have to go through. The hell with that! I knew Maria was the best woman for me and that's all that counted.
I'm always comparing life to a climb, not just because there is struggle, but because I find at least as much joy in the climbing as in reaching the top."
"I caught myself listening: "Artie, you almost scared me just now." I laughed. "Don't tell me any more of this information. I like to always wander in like a puppy. I walk into a problem and then figure out what the problem really is. Don't tell me ahead of time." Often it's easier to make a decision when you don't know as much, because then you can't overthink. If you know too much, it can freeze you. The whole deal looks like a minefield.
I'd noticed the same thing at school. Our economics professor was a two-times PhD, but he pulled up in a Volkswagen Beetle. I'd had better cars for years by that time. I said to myself "Knowing it all is not really the answer, because this guy is not making the money to have a bigger car. He should be driving a Mercedes."
"Jack Nicholson was very casual and low-key. You would always see him with his Hawaiian shirt, shorts or long pants, sunglasses, and disheveled hair. Hw owned the most expensive Mercede, a Maroon 600 Pullman, with all-leather interior and extraordinary woodwork. The person who actually used this car was not Jack but Helena. Jack himself drove a Volkwagen Beetle, and that was his shtick: "I'm so rich that I'm going to sell myself like and ordinary person. I'm not into money at all." He would drive his little Beetle to the studio lot on the way to media interview or discussion about a film. The guard at the gate would say: "Oh Mr. Nicholson, of course. Your parking spot is right over there." and Jack would putt-putt in as if the car could barely get there. It was genuine. He was more comfortable in the VW than in the Mercedes. I would have loved the Mercedes."
"You could argue that, no matter what the part, being in front of the camera was always good practice. But I felt that I was born to be a leading man. I had to be on the posters, I had to be the one carrying the movie. Of course I realized that this sounded crazy to everybody but me. But I believe that the only way you become a leading man is by treating yourself like a leading man and working your ass off. If you don't believe in yourself then how will anyone else believe you?
Even before Stay Hungry, I had a reputation at the gym for turning down film work. Someone would call and say "Can we have a few strong guys come over for an interview?" Some of us would go and the stunt coordinator or assistant would say "What we want you to do is pull yourself up into this roof, sprint across, have this fist fight, and then jump off the roof into a stunt pad..." I would say to myself "That's not really what builds a leading man career" and tell them I wasn't interested.
But we love you, the director loves you. You are the biggest guy, you have the right face, you're the right age. We'll give you seventeen hundred dollars a day.
"I'd love the seventeen hundred a day, but I don't really need the money." I'd say: "Give it to one of my friends here, they need it much more."
"I'm a tighwad when it comes to spending taxpayers' money, but I'm an equally strong believer in investing in the future. I had to educate the legislators about that, especially Republicans, who thought that building was the same as spending. When you spend money, it's gone. It's like building a house, versus buying a new couch. Build a house, and your investment returns value. Buy a couch and, the minute you take it out of the furniture store, it loses value. That's why I always say a house, in invest in; furniture, you spend money on.
In fact, building infrastructure is one of only three ways to lock in a benefit from a dollar one hundred years in the future. Number one is to build public works that will last for that long. Number two is to use your dollar to invent something that will still be used in a century. And number three is to educate your children and grandchildren so that they see the benefits of knowledge and educate their own children and grandchildren in turn. Do any of these successfully, and you've invested wisely. You may even be remembered for it."
"I was working on my mail-order business and on my acting classes, going to college, training for three hours a day; and doing construction. It was a lot to juggle. I often felt overwhelmed and started asking myself "How do I keep it all together? How do I not think about the next thing while I'm still doing this thing? How can I unplug?"
Transcendental meditation was popular with people on the beach in Venice. There was one guy down there I liked: a skinny guy who was into yoga; kind of the opposite of me. We would always chat and eventually I found out that he was a Transcendental Meditation instructor. He invited me to one of his classes at his center near UCLA. There was a little bit o hokum involved: you had to bring a piece of fruit and a handkerchief and perform these little rituals. But I paid no attention to that. Hearing them talk about the need to disconnect and refresh the mind was like a revelation. "Arnold, you're an idiot." I told myself "You spend all this time on your body, but you never think about your mind, how to make it sharper and relieve the stress. When you have muscle cramps, you have to do more stretching, take a jacuzzi, put on the ice packs, take more minerals. So why aren't you thinking that the mind also can have a problem? It's overstressed, or it's tired, it's bored, it's fatigued, it's about to blow up - let's learn tools for that."
"My term as a Governor had to end, but with the institute, I will extend and expand on the work I started in the office. I find this compelling because I'm never happy until I can share what I've learned and experienced. I think back to Sarge and Eunice, and the way that they always encouraged me to focus on causes bigger than myself. Sarge said it best in a great speech he gave at Yale in 1994. He told the graduating class, "It's not what you get out of life that counts. Break your mirrors! In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. You'll get more satisfaction from having improved your neighborhood, your town, your state, your country, and your fellow human beings than you'll ever get from your muscles, your figure, your automobile, your house, or your credit card rating. You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior." I think about those words all the time. The great leaders always talk about things that are much bigger than themselves. They say working for a cause that will outlive us is what brings meaning and joy. The more I'm able to accomplish in the world, the more I agree."
"We were there to launch a torch run involving athletes from across southern Africa. It was for the dual purpose of raising the profile of the Special Olympics and supporting the cause of law enforcement within South Africa itself. Mandela lit the flame in the grimmest possible setting: his old cell at the Robben Island Prison. Standing there, we had a chance to talk before we began, and I asked how he'd achieved insight in such a place. I'm sure he'd been asked this a thousand times, but he said the most remarkable thing: Mandela said that it was good that he'd been in prison. It had given him time to think - time to decide that his approach as a violent young man had been wrong and to be ready to emerge as the person that he is. I admired him, but I didn't know what to make of that. Was it real or just something he'd talked himself into? Could Mandela really believe that twenty-seven years in a cell was necessary? Or was he looking at the bigger picture: what those lost years meant to South Africa, not to him? You're just one person, and the country is much bigger, and it is what will live forever. That was a powerful thought. Afterward, I said to Maria: "I don't know if I can buy it or not, but it was amazing for him to say - that he felt totally content with what he went through and with losing whole decades."
in Total Recall: My Unbelievebely True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
