I went to Arnold Schwarzenegger's conference

I wanted to make a post commenting the State of the Union speech, but this will have to wait another day.

Last week my friend Maurizio called a radio station to play at a contest. They were playing three sounds taken from three different Scharzenegger's movies and the contestant had to identify to which movie the sound belong. My friend was third in the row. The two first contestants failed. My friend, did not. So they told him that he was in the finalists list to get the tickets to go see Arnold's conference.

On Wednesday my friend received a call just before he leaves for work. It was the radio station. They were on air and they picked his name as the finalists winner. He then won two tickets for Arnold's conference. My friend's wife didn't want to go (thanks Helene!) So Maurizio called me and asked if I wanted to attend. No kidding!

So I went to the conference yesterday. And I must say that Arnold is quite a speaker and motivator. I knew he would be. Just follow his accomplishment in life is a good cue. But having him right here in front of me was somewhat... enlightening.

He gave the secret of his success which consists in three points:

1. Immigrate to America
2. Work, work and work harder
3. Get married to a Kennedy

This looks like a joke at first but when you look closer, you'll see there is substance in his statement. And Mr. Schwarzenegger was kind enough to give us the message behind the smoke.

First. Immigrate to america is over rated. Unless you live in a place that threathen your life and your family. With the globalization of markets and the Internet, you can very well stay home and make business in America. Not because the Americans don't like immigrants. As the senator stated "Americans love immigrants. People that comes to America and are willing to contribute. What Americans don't like is immigrants that comes with the aim of living off handouts."

Second. Work, work, work... Well isn't this the basis of it all? I remember someone saying, I don't remember who is the owner of the quote unfortunately, the goes like this "I came to realize that, the more I work, the lucker I get." So you have a dream? You have a project? Roll up your sleaves and get to it! Now!

Third. Marry a Kennedy. Now this to me was a pure joke of him. But after saying that, Mr. Schwarzenegger stated that the true secret of is success is to have a dream. Something to aim at, to look forward to and get excited about. The important thing is not how to get there. Just go! Just do it. The important thing is to get there now matter how. The second ingredient is never to take no for an answer. Arnold has been told that he would never make it in America. Nobody would be able to pronounce his name, his accent was too strong... just name it, they had something to say against him. And look what he has accomplished. The third ingredient is work. Never tire to work on your dreams and passions. Stay focus on them. And work your way to it.

So the true takeaway from the conference is that.

1. Have a passion, a dream to fill and go for it no matter how you do it.
2. Never take no for an answer
3. Work, work, work

In your allocution you said that you wanted to give back Mr. Schwarzenegger. Congratulation. For I feel I received a lot from you.