Stay Hungry by Gabriel

Stay Hungry by Gabriel - October 2020 Scholarship Essay

You sometimes think you know a person just by looking at what gets presented of them on the media, but I bet if they had an autobiography for you to read and you read it, you’d probably change the way you viewed them. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t exactly someone who receives a bad rap, but most of us have only heard a small story of this man’s amazing tale. I decided to read his autobiography over the summer in 2020, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the book a blast to read, but to know it was all factual made me appreciate Arnold all that much more as a role model and gave me a newfound motivation. So, I’d like to take some time to tell you just why exactly I found this book to be a must-read.

Arnold’s autobiography is like a story ripped straight out of a movie; an Austrian boy with his parents and his brother grows up in poverty caused in large part by WW2, but out of obscurity he manages to make it big in America as a world-renowned bodybuilder and movie star. Now, this isn’t exactly a common path many people would even dream of following, but we’re not talking about any ordinary person. In his early life, his father was a strict disciplinarian, and his mother was tender and sweet; he eventually became passionate about exercising as he would regularly work out with friends and even common weight trainers, his first set of mentors. This started him down the path of bodybuilding, and he alone would bring bodybuilding into the limelight, giving it the reputation and popularity, it holds today. This was also his ticket to America, where he would land his first roles in small classics such as Conan the Barbarian, spiraling his acting career upwards into a box office success with the likes of Terminator 2: Judgement Day and more. Did I also mention that he ran for Governor of California in 2003?

My appreciation for Arnold really stems from two things: one is me enjoying the rather cliched yet amazing story of rags to riches, the other is his lifestyle and way of living that simply blows my mind. To say it simply, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a beast, and that is very much true both physically and mentally. At one point his life he was working out four hours a day to stay fit for competition, he was working on his mail-order business, he worked on real estate, was taking acting classes and working on his English in college, and was acting in movies. I can’t make this up, his work ethic is on another level, and I think in large part he attributes that success to his attitude and mentality towards pretty much everything. Going back to bodybuilding, he developed a pretty competitive nature, and while taking college classes he learned about transcendental meditation or TM, both of which gave him the focus and mental clarity to get to work. However, his most compelling and prominent feature is his drive, something that likely manifested itself early in life. More specifically, he was always mesmerized with the idea of traveling to “America” a phrase he refers to with much fascination, and the success he accumulated under his belt alongside the mental training he would partake in gave him the green light to put his life into hyperdrive.

If you can already grasp why from just these few paragraphs, then imagine mesmerizing yourself with an entire book! I for one am always interested in examining successful people trying to discover what exactly makes them strive for greatness. I recently read Steve Chandler’s “100 Ways to Self-Motivate Yourself” where he speaks about an interview he did with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Here, Arnold better formulates his approach to life, and tells Steve “what you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.” Not to derail too much, but this statement can be found in practically every self-improvement book, whether it be Jack Canfield, Napoleon Hill, etc. The point I’m making is that he was using rather simple self-improvement techniques to lead one of the most inspiring and unbelievable lives ever, and this realization shook me to my core knowing that his success was possible, was repeatable. Now, I don’t want to discredit what he’s done; just because people can be like Arnold doesn’t mean they will, and his success was also in large part due to the guidance and help he received from a plethora of mentors, teachers, and even his family. However, I would like for you to just think about what he said; I’ve got no doubt that he put that principle into action when he was Governor, and again when acting. I’ll leave you with a phrase that Arnold Schwarzenegger says, which I believe perfectly encapsulates his drive, determination, and mindset, and is a phrase I think we can all figuratively live by, and that is to “Stay Hungry.” I’ll also give you a fantastic addition to that phrase from one of my all-time favorites, Jim Rohn, “Don’t linger too long at the table of success. The only way to enjoy another meal is to get hungry.”