In this episode, I interview the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger… at his kitchen table.
In our conversation, we dig into lessons learned, routines, favorite books, and much more, including many stories I’ve never heard anywhere else. I’m also giving away amazing goodies for this episode, so be sure to read this entire post.
As a starting point, we cover:
- The Art of Psychological Warfare, and How Arnold Uses It to Win
- How Twins Became His Most Lucrative Movie (?!?)
- Mailing Cow Balls to Politicians
- How Arnold Made Millions — BEFORE His Acting Career Took Off
- How Arnold Used Meditation For One Year To Reset His Brain
- And Much More…
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
### NOTE: THE BELOW HAS SINCE ENDED. THANKS! ###
I WANT TO GIVE YOU GOODIES:
1) A signed copy of Arnold’s autobiography, Total Recall, personalized for you by Arnold himself.
2) A roundtrip ticket anywhere in the world Continental flies, $1,000 USD cold hard cash, or a long dinner with me in SF (and a flight from anywhere in the domestic US). Pick one of the three.
To get both 1 and 2, all you have to do is this:
1) Promote the hell out of this episode this week, driving clicks to the iTunes page (ideal) for my podcast, this direct streaming link, or this blog post. If helpful, the shorter link fourhourworkweek.com/arnold forwards to this blog post.
2) Leave a comment on this post telling me what you did (including anything quantifiable), no later than this Friday, Feb 6, at 6pm PT. Comments must be submitted by 6pm PT. It’s OK if they’re in moderation and don’t appear live before 6pm. Note: You must include #arnoldpod at the top of your comment to be considered!
3) Within 7 days hence, I and my panel of magic elves will select the winner: he or she who describes in their comment how they drove the most downloads/listens.
4) That’s it! Remember: Deadline is 6pm PT this Friday, Feb 6. No extensions.
5) Of course, void where prohibited, no purchase required, you must be over 21, no minotaurs, etc.
###
This podcast is brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results.  Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade.  Give it a test run..
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
- Arnold wants to fly you to LA to blow sh*t up with him in person. Check out Omaze for details.
- Pumping Iron
- Stay Hungry
- See Franco Columbu dislocate his leg in the World’s Strongest Man competition
- See the trailer for Twins with Arnold and Danny DeVito
- Learn more about the documentary Brooklyn Castle
- The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History by Boris Johnson
- Free to Choose by Milton Friedman
- California by Kevin Starr
- Learn more about the USC Schwarzenegger Institute
- Follow Arnold on Twitter
- Learn more about climate action at Regions 20
Sample People Mentioned
- Reg Park
- Steve Reeves
- Franco Columbu
- Warren Buffett
- Bill Gates
- Larry Ellison
- Elon Musk
- Nelson Mandela
- Mikhail Gorbachov
- Muhammad Ali
- Cincinnatus
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
This was brilliant.
New The Tim Ferriss Show 1 Minute Recap this coming Monday the 16th – Episode #02 Josh Waitzkin http://ow.ly/i/8BgB9
A lot more to Arnold that most people realize. Terminator (the original) is still one of my all time favorites.
Some fantastic insight into Arnold’s mindset here! It’s truly amazing how much he has accomplished (that most people don’t even know about e.g. real estate).
Awesome interview!
Love the article! Arnold is such an inspiration and so is Tim Ferris. Its awesome to see people build massive success from nothing. I hope to build what you have some day!
During this whole episode I was thinking I wanted the video version! Tim, have you thought about video? Even if it’s with poor lighting (Gary V style), I believe it gives another dimension to the conversation…
Who won the contest? Thank you.
Does anyone know if a winner has been announced?
not that I have seen … the elves are still having fun in their magical land 🙂
Arnold really inspires us! Thank you Tim!
***It’s a week past the date you were supposed to announce the contest winner. Please post an update ASAP! Thanks!
awesome episode 😀
Hello there :)! So curious about who won the contest :)? Thanx and cheers from Susanna in Sweden.
Tim, Why do you think Arnold discontinued Transendential Meditation if he found it so beneficial? I tried mindfulness meditation. I even took the John K Zinn MBSR course, and did not find it all that effective. I’ve been thinking of giving TM a try. Thanks John R.
Really great site/blog/media outlet you’ve got here, Tim Ferris! I really enjoy your work & have since the 4HWW era
Arnold is one of my favourite actor. Thanks for sharing this podcast.
I’m hooked by the psychological warfare. No wonder he became governor of CA. Super enjoyable episode!
What an amazing interview Tim! I must confess I have never been a big fan of Arnie, in fact I wasn’t even that interested to listen to this podcast, but I found him SOOOO inspiring and really see him in a different light. I need to check out his biography now! Great interview and really interesting interview questions. I am finding with so many people podcasting now, that often they make the podcasts about them, and interrupt or go off tangent, but you really nailed it!
Just curious, Arnie says he made money on real estate and says the 80s was a great time. He says he couldn’t get those gains now, but he touched on other type of real estate that could work in this current economy. Anyone know what he might have been referring to??
I just listened to the episode with Arnold Shwarzenegger and an idea occurred to me. I have a painting I made of Shwarzenegger, wherein he is getting a lightshow (presumably at a rave but perhaps in the privacy of his own home, or maybe even in the gym with all the lights off) wearing his “Arnold is Numero Uno” shirt while smoking a doobie. This is from a film still from the movie Pumping Iron, of course. I want to gift the painting to Tim, only if he would like it of course. That is presuming he will see this, which I hope he does, but I am unsure of such odds. I have had great fortune in selling paintings recently, which are enabling, in part, my upcoming vagabonding around the world. (got Rolf Pott’s book here thanks to Tim as well) While the Shwarzenegger painting has been popular among peers, it remains available and I would prefer to have in a home where somebody appreciates it rather than storing it while I travel. After listening to many inspiring entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, etc., I have been thoroughly encouraged to reach out to those who motivate me and act as virtual mentors, so whatever trepidation or perceived foolishness I may have ascribed to this endeavor in the past has now dissolved. It is risk-free, after all. Furthermore, I have also been convinced of the value of giving back, and that the potential ability to for me to offer Tim, or any other seemingly unreachable role model, something of value, is a special opportunity. I don’t know if links or images can be pasted here but here is a url for the image: http://res.cloudinary.com/hrscywv4p/image/upload/c_limit,h_900,w_1200/kkypstadgdafuhynr1qa.jpg
Thank you for your continued work and sharing, Tim!
Nice one! For the sake of us all would you be willing to share that painting on the web?
Tim, a must read book from Arnold Schwarzenegger is the “education of a body builder”. It´s like the bible full quotes about dedication and mission, such as “in the summer at the lake the girls would say – Arnold you grew again, when are you ever going to stop? I said never. They would laugh. But I meant it. “
Tim, a must read book from Arnold Schwarzenegger is the “education of a body builder”. It´s like the bible full quotes about dedication and mission, such as “in the summer at the lake the girls would say – Arnold you grew again, when are you ever going to stop? I said never. They would laugh. But I meant it. “
Hi Tim,
This was a great episode – I love how Arnold takes nothing for granted, neither the rules nor the opportunities granted to him. I was surprised, however, to hear you say that you hadn’t heard any of this material covered before — some of the stories he told were replicated word-for-word from his interview on The Nerdist Podcast. (About half was totally different though which was awesome, especially the psychological warfare angle!)
PS If you haven’t listened to The Nerdist podcast, you should really consider it. Bill Gates, Morgan Freeman, Paul McCartney – some amazing personalities on there, and some incredible questions / interviewing techniques.
The best part was when Arny talked about his bricklaying business back in the day. I loved how they quoted a job then took the money before buying the material to complete the job. It’s exactly what you preach in your muse examples. Get your customers before making the product. Pretty funny when he said “the bodybuilders doing the work loved it – they were gettings tans.” haha.
Great podcast Tim. Going to go listen to some more.
Tim, I have to be honest: I thought this interview was a bit of a wasted opportunity. Yes, there was plenty of good stuff in there, but you clearly didn’t go as deep as usual, and you weren’t as undaunted in your quest to uncover the minutiae. I would have loved to learn more about Arnold’s specific daily routines, how his current workouts are structured (and in comparison to what they looked like in years past), how he approached learning in making the dramatic transition from movie-making to public policy formulation, etc. Of course it must been quite something to sit across from the Terminator, so I fully understand why you might have felt a little wobbly in the moment, but these are just my honest thoughts, brother.
love this and all the interviews ,humblness to remember winner of contest in Germany vcool!
Hi, can I use it as my lesson in English? I want to record a comment for that interview.
I’m not very good at sharing. That’s why I need to meet you Tim! Love the Arnold interview!
Quick FYI, boris johnson did not invent the city bike system as arnie said, he brought to london something that was already in cities all over the world including in america..
Hey Tim/fans, not sure if anyone is able to help me with this question and I’ve been curious for months now so I’m posting it here to see if anyone can offer insight:
Arnold mentioned that there was another area of real estate that you could generate similarly large returns today as he did with his multi-family property real estate portfolio, however he didn’t mention what that was. Does anyone know what area of real estate he was referring to?
This is great interview.
Enjoyed. So much new for me about Arnold.
Superhuman – very simple and honest cool guy.
Thank you for this podcast, Tim.
Hi All,
Always been a huge fan of Tim and Arnold as well. This podcast was one of my favs! That being said, its always been my dream to meet him one day. Totally random question but does anyone know whats the best way to get access to Arnold even for just a little bit? Any specific show, gym, area, event, etc?? Thank you!
Love this. I’ve been hearing a few interviews from this man and I think he is such a contribution. This was a great interview! Thank you Tim!
This is probably my favorite interview of all-time. The Jamie Foxx one is close. Thanks so much for the insight!
This is great interview.
Enjoyed. Arnold is still badass . such a physique
Thank you for this podcast
Is there any way to get a transcript of the podcasts?
Hi guys, At the end of the podcast Arnold mentionned Boris Jonhson and the fact that he created the first bike shared system in Europe in 2010. He actually copied the Velov system created in Lyon, France by TCL and JC Decaux in 2005.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lo%27v
These bikes now called Santander Bikes in London bring Boris a good popularity along Londoners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santander_Cycles
WOW! Just a great a interview. Thanks!
Wow, what an incredible interview! Tim Ferriss delves deep into the mind of Arnold Schwarzenegger, exploring the fascinating world of psychological warfare and so much more. It’s truly inspiring to see these two icons engage in a thought-provoking conversation, sharing insights and wisdom that we can all learn from. Arnold’s journey and mindset are truly remarkable, and this interview offers valuable lessons for personal growth and success. A must-watch for anyone looking to conquer their own mental battles and achieve greatness.
[Moderator: link removed.]