So, what can you learn about business from
Arnold Schwarzenegger?
That's today...I'm Scott McKain...as we look
forward to the release of my new book, "ALL
Business is STILL Show Business!"
Here's the next in our series of business
lessons that I've learned from celebrities.
And, this one is a little bit different, because
I didn't meet Arnold Schwarzenegger through
my work as a movie reviewer.
Instead, it was as a speaker.
After I had the chance to speak and emcee
at an event where Arnold was in the audience,
he asked me to be the speaker and master of
ceremonies at the Great American Workout,
held on the White House lawn.
It was an incredible experience to get the
chance to speak in front of the President
of the United States and many others -- but
it was kind of intimidating to have the "Terminator"
right behind me as I'm delivering my remarks!
During the "run up" to that program, as we
were planning and preparing, I asked Arnold
Schwarzenegger to tell me something that most
people wouldn't know about his illustrious
career.
Now, I know in more recent times that Arnold
has run into some challenges of his own making.
Yet, when you think about his total career
-- from coming to the United States as an
immigrant, to becoming the greatest body builder
in history, to becoming the #1 movie star
in the world, to becoming the Governor of
one of our most populous and progressive states
-- that's a pretty incredible life.
So -- before all of that came down -- Arnold
told me, "What most people don't know is:
I was a millionaire before I made my first
movie."
"See, I made money from body building and
through the sale of suppliments that I was
involved in, and then I leveraged that money
into buying California real estate, and I
continued to earn and make money -- and I
had a million dollars saved up...I was a millionaire
before I made my first movie."
I had never heard that before!
I said, "Wow!
With all that money, why did you continue
to go into acting?"
He said, "That was always my goal!"
But, he said, "As I studied performing, as
I studied actors, I found that after they
got a little bit of notoriety, and after they
started making a little bit of money, they
became so used to that lifestyle that they
would take roles that would perhaps damage
their career -- or really would not help their
career progress -- but they needed to take
the role because they needed to get the cash
to maintin the lifestyle that they were fast
becoming accustomed to."
He said, "I decided that the most powerful
thing I could do was to have the ability to
say: NO!"
Well, isn't that true in business?
Sometimes, the best deals that we make, are
the deals we don't make!
Having the ability to be able to say, "No!"
is critical --
But, not only that, here's something else
I learned -- it's how much have you researched?
How much do you know before you begin an endeavor?
Have you researched it enough to know what
the pitfalls might be -- so you can prepare
for those in advance?
"ALL Business is STILL Show Business!" -- the
book is coming soon.
Check us out at: http://All Business is Show
Business.com -- you can sign up for all the
freebies that we have and all the other things
coming down the pike as the book is released.
And, I'll be back with more of what I've learned
about business from celebrities -- because
"ALL Business is STILL Show Business!"
