I enjoyed this book. It's a fun read but at the same time it's great to get into the mind of a person who has gone from zero (a migrant entering America from Austria in his early twenties with little English and little money) to hugely successful in not one but multiple different areas throughout his life: sport, business, acting, politics and public service. Here's some quotes from the book that stood out for me:
"... Instead of existing I started to live... Now all of a sudden there was joy, there was struggle, there was pain, there was happiness, there were pleasures..."
"... If you tuned into my thoughts before a competition, you would hear something like: 'I deserve that pedestal, I own it, and the sea ought to part for me. Just get out of the f***ing way, I'm on a mission. So just step aside and gimme the trophy'..."
"... I like to always wander in like a puppy. I walk into a problem and then figure out what the problem really is. Don't tell me ahead of time. Often it's easier to make a decision when you don't know as much, because then you can't overthink. If you know too much, it can freeze you..."
"... The more knowledge you have, the more you're free to rely on your instincts... Yet in most cases, people who have the knowledge get bogged down and frozen. The more you know, the more you hesitate, which is why even the smartest people blow it big-time..."
"... A boxer brings a huge amount of knowledge to the ring—when to duck, punch, counter, dance back, block. But if he were to think about any of this when a punch comes, it would be over. He has to use what he knows in a tenth of a second. When you are not confident of your decision-making process, it will slow you down..."
"... I saw myself as a businessman first. Too many actors, writers, and artists think that marketing is beneath them. But no matter what you do in life, selling is part of it. You can't make movies without money. Even if I had no publicity obligation in my contract, it was still in my interest to promote the movie and make sure it made as much money as possible..."
"... People can be great poets, great writers, geniuses in the lab. But you can do the finest work and if people don't know, you have nothing!... the most important thing is to make people aware..."
"... Just like bodybuilding, campaigning is all about reps, reps, reps..."
"... The voters thought that they were getting a diet pill when they elected me. Instead, I had turned around and asked them to meet me at the gym at five in the morning for five hundred push-ups..."
"... have a vision, trust yourself, break some rules, ignore the naysayers, don't be afraid to fail..."
