Arnold Schwarzenegger HOW TO BECOME A SELFMADE MILLIONAIRE with BIG subtitles.
[Music]
it is wonderful thank you so much for
the wonderful introduction president
Couture it is fantastic to be here today
at the University of Houston and thank
you also for the great work that you’re
doing on behalf of all those students
let’s give a big big hand for the
wonderful work that your president could
do is doing here at the University I
tell you when I read her bio I am so
proud of her
what a great immigrant how many great
contributions she makes to this
university to this state under this
country when I heard that she was the
first Indian immigrant to lead a
comprehensive research university in the
United States I said to myself I’m gonna
hit it off really well with her
and the reason is because I love going
to places where I’m not the only one
with an accent but seriously I’m proud
to be introduced by our fellow immigrant
the students are very lucky here to have
such a fantastic and talented leader I
also wanted to say thank you to the
faculty you have spent years teaching
the students inspiring them and
occasionally man arguing with them but
none of them will be here without you so
big hand to the faculty finally I would
like to say thank you to the parents in
to the families that are here today you
shape the students from the beginnings
of their lives way before they became
proud Cougars you have been there for
them and every step of the way giving
them advice and giving them affection
and love and pushing them along and
probably sometimes even worried about
them but thank you very much for all the
great work that you have done let’s give
the parents in the families a big hand
of applause
and now now to the students now this is
a big day for all of you and I know some
of you gonna say wait a minute this is
our day while Schwarzenegger thanking
everyone here in Houston when is he
gonna get to us well first of all
congratulations to all of you I know
that it took a huge vision great vision
and a lot of work and a lot of studying
and there’s no one they can study for
you you have to do that yourself so I
just want you all to know that I am very
very proud of all of you thank you for
the great work that you’ve done now in
your diplomas there will only be one
name on it and this is yours
but I hope that doesn’t confuse you and
did you think maybe that you made it
that far by yourself no he didn’t it
took a lot of help none of us can make
it alone none of us not even the guy
that is talking to you right now there
was the greatest body build of all times
not even me that has been the Terminator
and went back in time to save the human
race
not even me that fought and it killed
predators with spear hands I always tell
people that you can call me anything
that you want you can call me Arnold you
can call me Schwarzenegger you can call
me the Austrian okay can call me
schwartzie you can call me Ani
but don’t ever ever call me a self-made
man but this is so important for you to
understand I didn’t make it that far my
own I mean to accept that credit but
that mentor would discount every single
person that has helped me to get here
today that gave me advice that made an
effort that gave me the time that lifted
me up when I fell he gives the wrong
impression that we can’t do it alone
none of us can the whole concept of the
self-made man or woman is a myth now I
know you’re gonna say look we read so
many stories about you and we saw
documentaries but you talked about that
you are the model of the American Dream
and that you had the perfect example of
the self-made man well let me tell you I
have seen and heard and read those
stories myself and joy reading them but
the fact of the matter is it is not the
whole story
I didn’t just materialize out of nowhere
like the Terminator threw a fireball and
the streets of Los Angeles and then all
of a sudden I was there no I would have
never made it in my life without the
help but I happened to be someone for
instance that believes in God
maybe were created by God
but let’s assume for a second that
you’re nothing that that then you must
also believe in a at least believe in a
para la djegal aspect that our parents
created us I know I wouldn’t be here
without my parents creating me nurturing
me feeding me changing my diapers loving
me hugging me and all that and then
later on when I went to school there
were the teachers and then there were
the mentors the coaches and then my
mother was the only afternoon helping me
with my homework and be tutoring and
then an evening my father was there
helping me in sports coaching us in
soccer and in the winter skiing sledding
ice skating ice curling and all those
kind of things my father taught me about
discipline and my love and appreciation
for sports and he gave me my first great
advice by saying whatever you do Arnold
be useful so you also read so many times
that I decided from one day to the next
to become a bodybuilding champion and I
started training five hours a day and
then it became the youngest mr. universe
ever well it is true but the fact of the
matter is it’s not the whole story
because if I wouldn’t have met a
lifeguard at the lake where I grew up
and some bodybuilders that introduced me
to weight training and they taught me
the first chin-up and a branch of a tree
by that Lake and that eventually
introduced me also to a weightlifting
Club locally where the coach has taught
me about powerlifting and weightlifting
and bodybuilding they helped me and they
nurtured me they pushed me and then
eventually I saw a magazine mid reg Park
and a cover it said mr. universe becomes
Hercules there was the reg parking a
Hercules posed on the cover
I bought that magazine and I read the
story from the front to the end
cover and let me tell you something I
read exactly how he trained five hours a
day and how I became a champion mr.
universe three times and how I went to
America and then he was discovered and
the movies Hercules movies more when I
read that I found my vision and let me
tell you the most important thing in
life is to have vision to know exactly
where you’re going I found my vision
that magazine reg Park gave me my
blueprint
for my life and five years later after
training five hours a day just like him
and doing his exercises I became through
his help and his inspiration the
youngest mr. universe ever and this is
what made them Joe Weider the father of
bodybuilding the owner of a giant food
supplement empire on the Edit of Muscle
& Fitness invited me to America so it
was show me that they problem with
America to the greatest country in the
world to give me the opportunity to
train in Gold’s Gym and to go and get me
little apartment I came over here with
absolutely nothing
it was his help I had $20 in the pocket
and some sweaty clothes in the gym bag
but let me tell ya I had this one little
apartment and on Thanksgiving the
bodybuilders from gorgeous gym came to
my apartment and they brought me pillows
dishes silverware all of the things that
didn’t have and even a black-and-white
TV in the transistor radio which is
still half the day on my end table next
to my bed the generosity that I saw the
amount of help that I got when I came to
America was absolutely extraordinary so
firsthand how generous the American
people are and then in Gords gym there
it was a magical place with all the
champions mr. America’s mr. world mr.
universe
everyone was training their power
lifters Olympic champions and so on and
they helped me change from an amateur
champion to a professional champion and
after that I want champion of the
championship with seven times mr.
Olympia you here at all and became the
greatest bodybuilder four times
according to the bodybuilding magazine
in 1975 now this is just with all of the
help I would not have made any of that
for myself so this is why I don’t
believe in a self-made man and even when
it comes to show business it was the
same thing I mean I you read the stories
ditch what’s negative sided from one day
to the next to retire from bodybuilding
and to go and become an actor it in no
time he did Conan the Barbarian and
Terminator and command and so on
what is this true but it is only half of
the story
because the reality of it is with a lot
of help of when they made it first of
all it would have been fun to make it
that easy and to be that easy but it was
very very difficult to get into the
movies very difficult and only because I
had help I could get in because in the
beginning every agent every manager
every studio executive said you will
never become a leading man look at your
body you look like a monster I was upset
about that because it rained so hard and
for so long it orbs then they call me
monsters but the bottom line is they say
this is the 70s 20 years ago to deter
Keeley’s movies today the little guys
are in Dustin Hoffman Al Pacino Woody
Allen those are the sex symbols of the
seven distantly understand it I said oh
my god away I mean but they even
belittle me with my accent they said
look the way you talk I have to be very
honest I don’t want to offend you but
you give me the creeps with your accent
with the German accents it’s scary
this is maybe we can get you a job in
Hogan’s Heroes in that TV show to play a
Nazi officer and plus your name Schwartz
and schnitzel or whatever it is there I
can see that already up then the
billboard
and people running in because of the
name so the bottom line is it was very
very difficult but only because they
decided not to listen to the naysayers
and because I decided that to work as
hard as I did in bodybuilding to take
acting lessons to take voice lessons
English lessons speech lessons and
accent removal lessons I know you’re
gonna say get your money back Arnold
but the bottom line is I ran around the
fine wine grows on a vine because the
Germans always had difficulties with the
F and the W and the be a fine wine grows
on the vine and then the sink is made
out of zinc and all those kind of things
so they did his thousands of times and
eventually it worked
I started getting little pots then I
started getting bigger pots and then
eventually even though it was very
difficult it was Dino De Laurentiis and
Ed Pressman that came to me with corn
and the Barbarian and if they wouldn’t
have helped me to get that part I would
not have broken through and become a
leading man this movie came out they
spent twenty million dollars which in
today’s terms is around two hundred
million dollars on that movie it was
number one in the box office and that
was for me the big breakthrough and at
the press conference the director even
said if we wouldn’t have Schwarzenegger
we would have had to build one because I
was the only one that could act and had
a body like that for Conan the Barbarian
and then of course there was James
Cameron the director Terminator when
Terminator came out James Cameron said
the reason why Terminator worked was
because what’s negative slack a machine
and I don’t know if I should think this
is a compliment or what but I mean the
bottom line is it was the two things
that the studio executives said will be
a big liability became big assets and my
career took off and this is why I always
say thank you to the people that helped
me along the way and not ever think that
I’m a self-made man because not only was
the producer and the director so helpful
and the studio executives too helpful
but every person that works in a movie
is a matter of fact when you have a wrap
party which is the party on the end of
the movie I always make sure that every
single person gets invited to that wrap
party to say thank you to them at the
wrap party and go to the microphone and
say thank you to the cameraman because
without him I wouldn’t look as great on
the screen to the makeup person to the
visual effects person to the stunt
people the stunt coordinator the cable
poulos craft services and the list goes
on and on and on there’s 280 people that
work on a movie that make you look great
on that screen so how can I say I’m a
self-made man so this is why it is
important for all of us to recognize and
this is why I tell you and every step of
the way I had help even when I ran for
governor people say yeah one day he
decided to run for governor
and to take over the sixth largest
economy in the world now this is not the
way it was yes I took over and yes I won
the governorship birds if it wouldn’t
have been for Jay Leno who hosted the
Tonight Show who I called a week before
and I said I want to announce my
candidacy on your show and at the night
show because I want to sell myself as an
outsider because the people in
California is sick and tired of the
typical politician so he said to me and
it was a great friend he says yes I’m
gonna help you with that and I had
announced without anyone knowing on
August 6th
on The Tonight Show my candidacy and he
even organized a hundred journalists
from politics to sit in the back when I
announced my candidacy so this is the
kind of help I gotten from then of
course I didn’t even have a team yet
people came out of nowhere I understood
at helping organ
with the campaign and did fundraising
and with the communication and with all
of those things and I became two months
later the governor of the state of
California but it took a lot of help and
I have to say that it is important to
acknowledge that because people make it
or it sounds that you did all this
yourself I didn’t I did it with a lot of
help yes I was determined yes I never
listen to the naysayers yes I had a
great vision yes I had the fire in the
belly and all of those things but I
didn’t do it without the help and even
when you then say Schwarzenegger did
that most unbelievable environmental
laws in California well guess how laws
are done it takes the legislators 120
legislators to negotiate for weeks and
months at the time and then they sent
down legislation and then you sign that
so you need that help too so I had a lot
of help along the way and this is why it
is so important for all of you to
recognize that and the biggest help of
course in calculus from America if I
wouldn’t have come to the United States
if I would have come to any other
country I would not have had the success
I mean America has proven not only to be
the land of opportunity image-wise but
America’s proven to be the greatest
country in the world where anyone can
make it this is why I always tell people
none of my careers would have happened
if it wouldn’t be for the United States
of America I could have gone to the
Middle East you think I would stand here
today I could have gone to Africa do you
think it would stand here today or do
Australia or to Asia shall do any other
country in Europe it makes no difference
this place has given me the
opportunities step after step all the
ways to all my speaker ears and the
millions and millions of dollars are
made all because of America so Thank You
America for the great thing that you’re
doing for immigrants that come over here
and the reason why I want you to
understand that is is because as soon as
you understand that you are here because
of a lot of help then you also
understand that now is time to help
others that’s what this is all about you
got to help others don’t just think
about yourself help others as my
father-in-law sergeant Shriver said at
the Yale University commencement speech
just like I’m speaking right now here
except I speak the better University but
he but he said Sargent Shriver so you
know he was the guy that created the
Peace Corps the Job Corps legal aid to
the poor and orders extraordinary human
being and under the Johnson and Kennedy
administration and so he said that these
students he said tear down this mural
tear down this mirror that makes you
always look at yourself and he will be
able to look beyond this mural and see
the millions of people didn’t need your
help and let me tell you something when
I heard that it all made sense to me
that we have to go out and help this is
why I got involved in Special Olympics
to be the international coach of Special
Olympics and then eventually it became
the chairman of the President’s Council
on physical fitness in sports I was
appointed by President Bush my favorite
host own Ian and the flesh should they
not say the only one but Barbara I
should add Barbara because I see them
later on I don’t want to leave out
Barbara here because otherwise she gets
really mad yeah so anyway both of them
know and then they traveled to all 50
states to promote health and fitness and
then eventually started after-school
programs and now be in 40 different
cities 48 different cities providing
after-school programs for over a hundred
thousand kids in orders so I mean it is
to me was very important to give back
and also to go every time I travel
around the world to go to military bases
and to visit our brave men and women
that save us that protect us to say
thank you thank you thank you to them
anywhere in the world that I travel so
it is important to recognize that so all
I’m saying is it is my challenge to you
today to go ahead and to celebrate your
accomplishments you should this
commencement is a great success in each
of you earned your diplomas but at some
point take a break from the celebration
away from the instagrams and snapchat
and think about all of the people that
helped you make sure the go to recognize
president Couture and to say thank you
to her for the great work that she has
done say thank you to the Dean’s of this
university that are responsible to make
this university so great say thank you
that the professors and the scioscia
professors everyone they talked and
everyone that’s responsible for you to
be here today and go the appearance and
give them a big big hug and tell them
that you love them and thank you for
everything that you have done to get me
here today do that and give something
back to your community and to your stage
and to this country because remember and
we are not going to be remembered for
how much we made but for how much we
have given make sure that it is not
about me that it is about we turn the me
in the wheel and I guarantee you that
you can change the world thank you very
much all of you Cougars thank you
and now I’m going to to do a snapchat
rhythmic asses let’s hear it
fantastic hasta la vista baby
and I’ll be back
[Applause]