Timely advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger – and his South African mentor.

By Alec Hogg

Looking for inspiration? How about the story of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who overcame growing up dirt poor in Austria to bootstrap himself to world bodybuilding champion, movie stardom and Governor of California.

In the foreword to Tim “Four Hour Workweek” Ferriss’s new bestseller Tools of Titans, Schwarzenegger gives credit to his South African mentor, bodybuilding legend Reg Park, without whom “I might still be yodelling in the Austrian Alps.”

As a 19 year old, Arnie spent three months in South Africa living with his idol’s family and training with Park. He modelled his life on his mentor’s, right down to winning Mr Universe to springboard a career in movies. British-born Park died, at 79, of skin cancer in 2007. He was training clients in the Morningside Virgin Active until shortly before passing away.

Like his hero, Schwarzenegger offers a perfect inversion to those empty vessels given so much airplay in South Africa of late. He concludes the Ferriss book’s foreword with: “The worst thing you can ever do is think that you know enough. Never stop learning. Ever.” Quite.

File photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Photographer: David Scull/Bloomberg News.
File photo: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Photographer: David Scull/Bloomberg News.
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