Total Recall is an autobiography of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold is a renowned bodybuilder, businessman, actor, and politician who has been an inspiration to so many people. The book is a memoir of 624 pages, 30 chapters covering his childhood, college days, his intense career journey, and personal life in detail including how he won the Mr. Olympia title 7 times, Mr. Universe three times, became a top movie star, and later the governor of California. Arnold says, “If you want to turn a vision into reality, you have to give 100% and never stop believing in your dream.” He was born in Austria in 1947 during the Famine. Since his childhood, he always dreamt of moving to America and becoming a bodybuilding champion and a star. He got famous as an action hero in movies like Predator, The Terminator, Terminator 2, Last Action Hero, and others.
You will come to know about Arnold’s huge ambition right from a very young age, his hard work, tenacity, enterprising attitude, and perfection through this book. The first half of the book is gripping and very interesting to read. His stories of switching careers and getting successful every time through extreme hard work and passion, are worth reading. He says, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
The second half is a bit slow. Few things mentioned in the end about his personal life are also not so interesting. In the last chapter, Arnold has offered rules for everyone from his life story. The principles of success that have worked for him are “Have a vision, trust yourself, break some rules, ignore the naysayers, don’t be afraid to fail”. Arnold always believed in turning liabilities into assets. When he wanted to make a career in movies, he was told to forget about it because of his Austrian accent, his long name, and his body. But he worked on his accent and acting and turned himself into a leading hero. When he was a student, he would train five hours a day, attend acting classes for four hours, then work on construction sites for several hours and attend college and do the homework too. Arnold quotes, “There are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.” He writes in his book, how it took hundreds and thousands of repetitions for him to learn to give a three-quarter pose, say a punchline, perform a dance in True Lies and say “I’ll be back ” correctly. He says “no matter what you do in life, it’s either reps or mileage”
If you are a huge fan of Arnold or bodybuilding or have high ambitions in life, then go for this book. You will surely enjoy this book. To sum up, it is an entertaining and inspiring book.
In the end, I would like to add one quote from this book.
“Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.”
