LEGENDS: Schwarzenegger

Evolution - Basketball jump

"Not every legend is a myth. Some are made of flesh and blood. Some legends walk among us. But, they aren't born, they are built!" 

Arnold Schwarzenegger.


"Legends are made of iron and sweat, mind and muscle, blood and vision...and victory. Legends are champions that grow. They win, they conquer.
There's a legend behind every legacy. There's a blueprint behind every legend"

"I always believed, in order to be motivated, or to work really hard, you need to have a vision in front of you"

This swashbuckler has been one of the most gifted minds of our time. He doesn't want to be a role model in everything he does. He is full of contradictions and he knows it.

He had an inspiration

Somehow, seeing the World Weightlifting Championships and the Mr. Universe contest, with all those muscles and all that strength, had a profound impact on him. At the age of 15, he was very determined to become like his heroes. He wanted to do the training and take it seriously. He picked up a magazine that had Reg Park as Hercules on the cover. And it had a blueprint of his life: how he had become Mr. Universe and his training routine. If he had been lost in life, unsure of what he was going to do, that uncertainty was gone. He now had a direction.

He had a vision

By then, he understood that he had a special ability: to visualize very clearly, because he is a visual learner. He could see himself very clearly up on the podium in London, where Reg Park had been, with hundreds of bodybuilders around him, holding the trophy and celebrating while thousands of people out there screamed his name (assuming they knew how to pronounce it, I suppose).

He transforms his vision into reality

That vision was his motivating factor that drew him to the gym. And it was so strong that he actually didn't need discipline. Every workout he did took him a step closer to his beautiful vision. It was all about thinking about becoming Mr. Universe and training, training, training. Sculpting his body, eating the right way. Just staying focused. At the age of twenty, he transformed his vision into reality and became the youngest Mr. Universe ever.

Arnold's vision of a future achievement is one source of motivation. My comparison of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan explores two others: inner battles and challenges from opponents.