Mark: Alright, Michelle. You've read the book. Give me your five-word review of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Be Useful. Michelle: Okay... "Big muscles, bigger life lessons." Mark: I like it. Mine is: "Stop whining, start doing things." Michelle: That's also very accurate. And a little terrifying. Mark: It is terrifyingly direct. And that's the whole point of Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger. What's fascinating is that he wrote this not as a young man, but after this incredible four-act life—bodybuilder, movie star, governor, and now... this sort of global self-help guru. Michelle: Right, and he's very open that the core message, 'be useful,' came directly from his father in post-war Austria. It's this old-world piece of advice that he's now applying to modern problems like, as he sees it, a 'pandemic of negativity'. Mark: Exactly. And it all starts with a tool that seems almost impossibly simple, yet it powered his entire journey from a tiny Austrian village to global fame.

Mark: He argues that the first and most critical tool is to have a clear vision. When he was a boy in Thal, Austria, he saw a magazine cover about America. He didn't know what he'd do there, he just knew he belonged there. It was this huge, fuzzy, but incredibly powerful feeling. Michelle: I can see that, but that feels a bit like a lottery ticket. What about people who feel lost and don't have a 'vision of America' just appear to them? Does he offer a tool for just... finding a starting point? Is it a personal failing if you don't have one? Mark: That’s the key question, and he addresses it. He says there are two ways to build a vision. You can do what he did: start with a huge, broad idea and then zoom in. For him, the "zoom in" moment came when he saw a movie starring Reg Park, a bodybuilder who became a Hercules-style movie star. Suddenly, the path was clear: become the world's greatest bodybuilder, use that fame to get to America, and then become a movie star. The big dream got a concrete roadmap. Michelle: Okay, so that’s one path. What’s the other one for us non-Terminators? Mark: The other path is to start small and build outwards. He uses the example of Steven Spielberg. As a kid, Spielberg wasn't obsessed with winning Oscars; he just loved playing with his dad's 8mm camera. He made a short film. Then another for the Boy Scouts. Each small project built on the last, and over time, that small passion grew into a massive vision that defined his life. Michelle: That’s a lot more relatable. It’s less about waiting for a lightning bolt of inspiration and more about just following your curiosity, one step at a time. Mark: Precisely. But here’s where his advice gets really intense. Once you have that vision, whether it’s big or small, he says you have to commit to it completely. He has this rule: No Plan B. Michelle: Hold on, no backup plan? That sounds incredibly reckless. Every career counselor on the planet tells you to have a fallback. Mark: He argues that a Plan B is a plan for failure. It gives you an out. It whispers in your ear that it’s okay if you don’t give 100%, because you have a safety net. He tells this incredible story from 1974. He's just won his fifth Mr. Olympia title, but his real vision is to be a movie star. The fitness legend Jack LaLanne comes to him with an offer to be the spokesman for his health clubs. Michelle: I can imagine that was a huge deal back then. Mark: It was for $200,000 a year. That's a fortune in the 70s. But Arnold turned it down instantly. Without hesitation. Because his vision wasn't to be a health club spokesman; it was to be a leading man in Hollywood. The offer, as great as it was, was a distraction from Plan A. Having that clear vision made a seemingly difficult decision incredibly easy. Michelle: Wow. So the vision isn't just a goal; it's a filter. It tells you what to say no to. That’s a powerful idea. It reframes "no Plan B" from being reckless to being focused. Mark: Exactly. It’s not about being a daredevil. It’s about having such a clear picture of where you’re going that anything else is just noise. He says it’s no harder to think big than it is to think small. The hard part is just giving yourself permission to do it.

Michelle: A big vision is great, but it's just a daydream without action. I'm guessing this is where the 'Work Your Ass Off' part comes in, which, by the way, has been a bit controversial among readers and critics. Mark: Oh, absolutely. This is the engine of the whole system. For Arnold, there are no shortcuts, no life hacks. There is only what he calls "reps." Putting in the work, over and over, until it becomes second nature. He tells this story about filming Terminator 2. He had to do that cool, one-handed shotgun cocking flip while riding a motorcycle. Michelle: The one every kid in the 90s tried to imitate with a toy gun. Mark: That exact one. He practiced it so many times that the skin on his knuckles was gone. He was bleeding. The crew wanted to use a prop with a bigger lever to make it easier, but he refused. He kept doing the reps until it was perfect, until it was effortless on screen. That, for him, is the essence of work: you do the painful, repetitive work behind the scenes so the final performance looks like magic. Michelle: But this 'work 'til you bleed' mentality... doesn't that just lead to burnout? Critics have pointed out he seems to lack empathy for people who don't have his, as he admits, "good genetics" or superhuman stamina. It can come across as a bit out of touch. Mark: It's a valid criticism, and he does have a very hardcore perspective. He says things like "naps are for babies." But I think he would argue it's about purposeful pain, not pointless suffering. The pain of practicing the shotgun flip had a goal. The pain of one more set in the gym built a championship physique. He distinguishes that from just being "busy." He says busyness is bullshit; it's an excuse. If something matters, you make the time. Michelle: Okay, so it’s about the quality and focus of the work, not just the hours. But even if you do all that work, you can still fail if no one knows about it. Mark: And that brings us to the tool that surprises people most: Sell, Sell, Sell. He argues that having the best idea or being the hardest worker is useless if you can't communicate its value. And his prime example is the movie Twins. Michelle: The comedy with Danny DeVito? How does that fit in? Mark: In the late 80s, Arnold was the biggest action star in the world. But he wanted to do comedy. His agents, the studio, everyone told him it was a terrible idea. An Austrian action hero in a comedy? No one would buy it. They were thinking too small. Michelle: So how did he sell it? Mark: He and the director, Ivan Reitman, and Danny DeVito, went to the head of Universal Studios, Tom Pollock. The studio was terrified of the budget. So, the three of them made an incredible sales pitch. They said, "We believe in this so much, we will do it for free." They took no upfront salary. Instead, they took a percentage of the profits on the back end. Michelle: That is a massive risk. They were betting on themselves completely. Mark: It was the ultimate sales pitch. They removed the studio's risk and put it all on their own shoulders. And the outcome? Twins was a colossal hit. It was Arnold's first movie to cross $100 million, and because of their deal, it was the biggest payday he ever got for a single film. He didn't just work hard; he sold his vision so effectively that he changed the entire financial structure of the deal. Michelle: So the work gets you in the room, but the selling gets the deal done. They’re two sides of the same coin. That’s a fantastic insight.

Mark: And that idea of purpose brings us to the final, and maybe most surprising, set of tools. What happens when your big vision fails? When all that work leads to a dead end? Michelle: Which definitely happened to him. His post-governorship period wasn't exactly a victory lap. Mark: Not at all. He calls it hitting rock bottom. His movie projects were cancelled, his public approval was low, and most painfully, his family life imploded. And he says something incredibly vulnerable in the book: "I blew up my family. No failure has ever felt worse than that." This is where the tool "Shift Gears" comes in. He had to completely reframe what his life was about. He couldn't just be the action hero or the governor anymore. Michelle: So how do you shift gears from a failure that profound? Mark: He says you have to find the positive, even if it's just a sliver. You have to treat failure not as a death sentence, but as a progress report. It tells you what's not working. And for him, this led to the most important tool in the entire book: "Break Your Mirrors." Michelle: Break your mirrors? That sounds... violent. And ironic for a man who spent decades looking at himself in mirrors. Mark: That's the whole point! He says our society is so self-absorbed, so obsessed with our own reflection, our own success, our own image. The ultimate tool for a useful life is to shatter that mirror and start looking at other people. To turn your focus from "me" to "we." Michelle: That’s a powerful message, especially now. 'Break your mirrors' feels like an antidote to selfie culture. It's the idea that usefulness isn't just about being productive for yourself, but for others. Mark: Exactly. He tells this beautiful story about working with Special Olympics athletes in the late 70s. He was teaching a group of teenage boys with intellectual disabilities how to bench press. One boy was terrified of the barbell. But Arnold worked with him, coaxed him, and eventually, the boy lifted 85 pounds. He said the look of pure joy and confidence on that boy's face gave him a "helper's high" that was more addictive than any trophy. Michelle: Wow. So is that the ultimate point? That all the vision and the work and the selling is ultimately meant to be given away? Mark: That's what he concludes. He says you build this incredible machine for success, but its ultimate purpose is to help others. He helped create the After-School All-Stars program, which now serves nearly 100,000 kids. He donated a million dollars for PPE during the pandemic. He realized that the greatest feeling of success came not from winning Mr. Olympia or a box office record, but from being useful.

Michelle: It’s a really coherent philosophy when you lay it out like that. It’s not just a list of seven rules. It’s a life cycle. Mark: It really is. It's a three-step process. You build the internal blueprint with a huge, unapologetic vision. You power it with an engine of relentless, purposeful work and smart communication. But the final destination, the thing that makes it all meaningful, is turning that power outward to be useful to others. Michelle: It makes you ask yourself a tough question: Am I just building my own monument, or am I building something that helps someone else? It's a really challenging thought. Mark: It is. And it doesn't have to be on a grand scale. He talks about a homeless man who just decided to start cleaning up the streets in his neighborhood. That was his way of being useful. Michelle: I love that. It makes the idea accessible. You don't have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to apply the final, most important tool. Mark: Not at all. And we'd love to hear what you think. What's one small way you can 'be useful' this week? Let us know on our social channels. We're always curious to see how these ideas land with you. Michelle: This is Aibrary, signing off.