It’s difficult to have a conversation about Arnold Schwarzenegger without talking about “the secret.” In his new book, Total Recall, Schwarzenegger reveals details about his affair and the child he kept secret from his wife, Maria Shriver. Since I strongly believe that leaders need to demonstrate exceptional character in every aspect of their lives, Schwarzenegger’s actions left me profoundly disappointed. Having said that, Schwarzenegger’s unlikely success story carries valuable lessons for business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs.
In 2003 Schwarzenegger became Governor of California and I was hired by CBS in Los Angeles to cover the first 100 days of his administration. For three months I had a front row seat to many of his speeches, presentations, and press conferences. I quickly realized why he had won the recall election against then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was charming, funny, smart, inspiring, and had honed his public speaking ability through relentless practice.
See yourself as a brand. I was in the audience one day when Schwarzenegger offered advice to California high school students attending a leadership conference in Sacramento. He urged the students to see themselves as a “brand” regardless of their career path. He said that every great brand is run by a leader with vision, the more specific the better. Schwarzenegger’s “vision” was to become the world champion in bodybuilding, which he believed would be his ticket to America. Once here he would become the world’s highest-paid movie actor and a successful businessman. Can you imagine how absurd this goal must have sounded spoken by a young man in a small Austrian village who didn’t speak English? He didn’t just dream big—he dreamed bigger than anybody else. “I refined this vision until it was very specific. I was going to go for the Mr. Universe title; I was going to break records in power lifting; I was going to Hollywood. The vision became so clear in my mind that I felt it had to happen,” he writes in Total Recall.
If you can see it and believe it, you can achieve it. In Schwarzenegger’s book there are no fewer than sixty references to the importance of ‘vision.’ He actually pictured what it would feel like to stand on a pedestal and accept a trophy as the world’s top bodybuilder. Schwarzenegger says he believed in his vision so thoroughly, it actually gave him a sense of calm. After all, why should he be anxious about a competition that he had already won in his mind? “I believed 100 percent that I’d achieve my goal. I always feel that if I can see it and believe it, then I can achieve it.”
After listening to Schwarzenegger repeat the vision mantra day after day, I began to consider my own career. Shouldn’t I dream bigger than being a ‘reporter?’ I asked myself. What’s my vision for my own career and personal brand? I had always loved the art of public speaking and I began to see myself as a brand. I even developed a vision statement, just as Schwarzenegger had advised: The communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. The next question I had to ask was, How do I accomplish it? Again, Schwarzenegger had advice—take small steps, work harder than anybody else, don’t listen to the naysayers, and have confidence in your ability to reach your goals. A close friend of Schwarzenegger told me that his confidence was ‘freaky.’ “He’s almost incapable of considering failure,” the friend said.
Schwarzenegger said that while he was taking business classes in Santa Monica, California, he trained five hours a day, took acting classes for another four hours, and worked in construction to make ends meet (he started a bricklaying company with his bodybuilding friend, Franco Columbu. Always the salesman, Schwarzenegger realized that Americans like foreign names such as Swedish massage or Italian design so he promoted the pair as “European bricklayers”). A vision is great, but without a step-by-step plan and hard work, it’s just a phrase with empty words.
If there’s one big idea I took away from covering Governor Schwarzenegger, it’s this: if you’re going to dream anyway, you might as well dream big. According to Schwarzenegger, “There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal.” In today’s increasingly competitive global economy, ‘normal’ only guarantees below-average results.
As a student of leadership, I’ve discovered that nothing great happens without passion and vision. Passion gives you the energy to work hard, the enthusiasm to attract partners, and the drive to overcome inevitable setbacks. All that energy, however, needs to be directed to a specific outcome. Energy fuels the rocket; vision guides the rocket to its ultimate destination.