Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life

“[T]here are groups out there […] that are taking advantage of people’s misery and selling them nonsense, feeding them lies, and inflaming their grievances. All for profit or political gain. These forces are incentivized to keep people miserable and helpless, and to obscure how simple it should be for them to engage with the tools of usefulness and self-sufficiency that are the primary weapons in the fight against unhappiness and apathy.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger touches on an uncomfortable truth here, claiming that industries and institutions, whether for capitalistic or political gain, benefit from a population that feels too defeated and helpless to improve their circumstances. He decries the negativity in today’s culture and aims to encourage an apathetic audience to uncover their potential and understand their power to change their lives. Schwarzenegger is affluent and a politician, so he builds ethos by evoking his insider status when referencing others who seek “profit or political gain” by preying on others. By casting himself in opposition to these figures, he further situates himself as a trustworthy narrator.

“Vision is the most important thing. Vision is purpose and meaning. To have a clear vision is to have a picture of what you want your life to look like and a plan for how to get there.”

Schwarzenegger repeatedly returns to this concept of vision throughout Be Useful, and his use of repetition in this excerpt emphasizes how important it is in his advice. For him, it is the primary weapon against apathy and aimlessness, and he lays out in clear language why having a vision is vital for gaining a sense of direction. Having a clear vision is the first step toward building a purposeful life, which is why Schwarzenegger presents it in Chapter 1 as his very first “tool for life.”

“We always have a choice. What we don’t always have, unless we create it, is something to measure our choices against.”

Vision is presented here as a vital tool for sound decision-making. The author emphasizes personal choice and responsibility and asserts that without vision, people are likely to make choices that are not aligned with their purpose or the life they envision for themselves. By using the first-person plural here, Schwarzenegger includes himself in these statements, presenting this statement as a universal truth that affects everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

“What I would learn, though, is that some of the strongest visions emerge like this. From our obsessions when we’re young, before our opinions about them have been affected by other people’s judgements of them.”

This quote presents one way that readers can uncover and/or develop their vision. Through anecdotes about his life and the lives of other famous figures, Schwarzenegger encourages the reader to explore their childhood interests. These anecdotes create a body of evidence to support his theory. Grammatically, Schwarzenegger uses a sentence fragment here to draw attention to his point.

“This wasn’t a fantasy. This was a memory that just hadn’t happened yet. That’s what it felt like to me.”

Schwarzenegger continues to use personal anecdotes to illustrate what it means to have a “clear” vision—the ability to visualize, in vivid detail, the goal that one wants to achieve and the path to getting here. In this quote, he uses a metaphor to describe the clarity of his vision, comparing it to the clear, specific, and detailed nature of a memory.

“If you can’t fully see your vision—if you can’t picture what success is and what it isn’t—it becomes very hard to assess opportunities and challenges like this. It becomes next to impossible to know for certain if they’ll get you what you want or something close, and if ‘close’ is good enough for you.”

Schwarzenegger uses the second person here, directly addressing the reader to convey his advice. Having a clear vision sets a very specific standard for success, and every decision can be judged by whether it takes the reader closer to or further away from that standard. In this way, it becomes obvious when one is on the right track or settling for something less than they envisioned. He takes on the language of a coach, asking whether “‘close’ is good enough” to set a challenge for the reader—the presumed answer is “no.”

“As uncomfortable as it can be, you have to look at yourself in the mirror every day in order to know where you stand. You have to check in with yourself if you want to be sure that you’re moving in the right direction.”

The “mirror” is a metaphor that represents self-reflection and accountability. Schwarzenegger challenges the reader to objectively assess their progress and ensure that their efforts are consistently in line with those of the person they want to become and the life they want to build. He acknowledges the discomfort in this but asserts that self-reflection is a vital tool.

“What I’m saying is, if you’re going to do it, do it. Not just because going all in might be the thing that guarantees your success, but because not going all in will absolutely guarantee that you fall short.”

Once again, Schwarzenegger uses second-person direct address to advise his audience. He uses repetition to emphasize his points here, repeating “do it,” “going all in,” and “guarantee” to highlight these as key aspects of his advice. Italicizing “do it” strengthens this effect. He uses common idioms here—“going all in” and “fall short”—to create a conversational yet authoritative tone.

“The quickest way to get me to bench press five hundred pounds is to tell me it can’t be done. The easiest way to ensure that I would become a movie star was to laugh when I told you my plan and then to tell me I couldn’t do it.”

Through his anecdotes, Schwarzenegger demonstrates how to deal with “naysayers” and external criticism: ignoring negative comments and using doubt as motivation toward one’s goals. Arnold Schwarzenegger meets his dissenters with confidence and bravado, claiming that this attitude helps fuel him to succeed in objectively difficult challenges like lifting 500 pounds and becoming an actor. He challenges his readers to adopt this mindset as well.

“Plan B is dangerous to every big dream.”

This advice may seem counterintuitive as many people are taught the importance of having “backup plans” in case their goals do not work out. However, Schwarzenegger asserts that safety nets can be harmful; in the pursuit of one’s vision, failure should not be an option. This blunt advice to take risks, which reads like a film tagline, evokes Schwarzenegger’s action-hero persona.

“What’s just as powerful, I believe, is that other people realize their potential is limitless, too, when they watch someone like you or me bust through barriers and blaze new trails.”

Here, Schwarzenegger returns to the idea of self-improvement as a means of serving others by highlighting that attaining success can demonstrate to others what is possible and inspire them to reach great heights as well. When a person accomplishes an ambitious goal, it opens the door for others to reach and even surpass that accomplishment. He emphasizes this idea through figurative, action-oriented metaphors (“bust through barriers” and “blaze new trails”). The alliteration (“bust,” “barriers,” “blaze”) creates a sense of momentum or forward motion in the text.

“If there is one unavoidable truth in this world, it’s that there is no substitute for putting in the work. […] People have tried to cut corners for as long as hard work has been hard. Eventually those people fall behind or get left in our dust, because working your ass off is the only thing that works 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of the things worth achieving.”

Schwarzenegger’s tone is straightforward and stern on the topic of hard work, but he creates solidarity with the reader through his use of the word “our” to suggest that the reader has the potential to adopt the same mindsets and work ethic that propelled Schwarzenegger himself to success. He uses clear, blunt language to underscore the idea that there is no way to avoid doing the necessary work in the pursuit of a vision and warns against taking shortcuts. Repetition (“100 percent”) and swearing build emphasis in this excerpt.

“We have to embrace the boring stuff. We have to nail the fundamentals. We have to do them right and we have to do them often. This is the only way we can build that strong base and all that muscle memory, so that performing when it counts isn’t a question. It’s the easy part.”

Here, Schwarzenegger underscores the fact that there is no avoiding the repetitive, boring work that is inevitable in the pursuit of any worthy goal. He lists several famous examples to emphasize the point that he—and every other person who has accomplished great feats—all commit to tedious, monotonous practice. He uses sports language like “muscle memory” to draw up images of his success as a professional athlete, building ethos.

“Nothing builds character like resilience or perseverance through pain. Nothing destroys character like succumbing to pain and quitting.”

Schwarzenegger’s advice here highlights the importance of developing resilience to pain—in this case, the discomfort necessary when working toward a goal. This can refer to pain in a literal sense, such as in fitness and bodybuilding, or other sacrifices that may be necessary to make a vision a reality. This is a key theme in the text, and its importance is emphasized through repetition and a parallel sentence structure (“Nothing builds/destroys character like”).

“You can have the most amazing idea, the most fantastic plan, the best in class of virtually anything, but if nobody knows that it exists or knows what it is, then it’s a waste of time and effort. It might as well not exist at all.”

Part of working toward a goal includes getting others involved in its execution. Here, Schwarzenegger is blunt in his assertion that nothing great is created in a vacuum, and a grand vision requires the support and attention of others. He juxtaposes superlatives (“the most amazing/fantastic, the best”) with nonexistence to highlight the importance of marketing and spreading information; knowledge is just as important as execution.

“If you see a problem and you don’t come to the table with a potential solution, I don’t want to hear your whining about how bad it is. It couldn’t be that if it hasn’t motivated you to fix it.”

Schwarzenegger critiques those who complain about issues or situations without bringing forward a plan to fix them. In his advice to switch gears and focus on the positive instead of on the negative, he also pushes the reader to focus on solutions rather than on problems. While other quotes use encouraging language, Schwarzenegger is openly critical here by describing this inaction as “whining.” This draws on his tough, no-nonsense action-hero persona and creates an authoritative tone.

“[I]f you feel powerless to affect your circumstances, you’re right. If you believe that you can triumph over them—not just survive in spite of them but actually thrive because of them—then you are also right.”

Data show the power of positive thinking to create meaningful change in one’s life, some of which Schwarzenegger alludes to in the chapter, building logos. In this quote, Schwarzenegger uses repetition and parallel sentence structure (“If you feel […] you are right”) to reflect his belief that positive and negative thoughts have equal power, so it’s best to think positively.

“When failure is a positive part of the game you play, it’s much less scary to search for the limits of your ability […] and then once you’ve found those limits, to grow beyond them.”

Reframing failure as an inevitable part of the process toward reaching any goal allows a person to not only move past it but learn from it. He compares general goals to weightlifting and sports, where working the muscles to failure is simply part of the practice and necessary to grow. Failure in any endeavor need not be a sign of defeat.

“Risk is just the name we give to the conclusions that each one of us comes to independently when we evaluate a choice for its chances of success compared to the consequences of its failure.”

Schwarzenegger acknowledges that risk is relative, and its definition will vary from person to person. He asks the reader to consider both the upsides of success and the costs of potential failure when evaluating a decision, suggesting that pursuing a dream always involves some degree of risk. Similar to the previous quote advising that failure can be productive, Schwarzenegger uses minimizing language (“just the name”) here when describing risk to encourage healthy risk-taking.

“This is the missing piece of the equation. Purpose. Vision. We aren’t giving young people the time and space to discover a purpose or to create a vision for themselves. We aren’t allowing the world to show them what is possible for their lives.”

Schwarzenegger returns to the concept of vision in his critique of the traditional university system that pushes young people to obtain college degrees directly out of high school. He asserts that this may not be the right path for everyone and that there are other ways to gain valuable experience and to be a lifelong learner. He uses one-word sentence fragments (“Purpose. Vision”) to underline the traits he finds most likely to determine success, juxtaposing these ideas with his belief that unfocused education can be limiting.

“Simply by opening my mind to the wonders of the world around me, my curiosity has attracted many amazing opportunities to me.”

Here, Schwarzenegger underscores the importance of maintaining an open mind and remaining curious about the world. He refers to it as a “superpower”—curiosity is a tool that helps him develop relationships with others and, in turn, draw in important people and opportunities. This reflects his belief in the power of positive thinking.

“If you don’t regularly flex your mind like a muscle and put your knowledge to work, it will eventually lose its power.”

In highlighting the importance of knowledge and being a lifelong learner, Schwarzenegger uses a weightlifting metaphor, comparing the mind to muscles. This subverts pop-culture ideas of weightlifters as vain or unintelligent, showing how mental and physical exercise are both useful tools for personal growth. Additionally, referencing muscles alludes to Schwarzenegger’s career as a bodybuilder, injecting his personality into his advice.

“Life isn’t zero-sum. We can all grow together, get richer together, get stronger together. Everyone can win, in their own time, in their own way.”

Here, Schwarzenegger acknowledges a pitfall in self-help content: It can foster a selfish mentality in which one can succeed only at the expense of others. He rejects this notion, saying that everyone can succeed by Committing to Others and Giving Back a core motivation in their self-improvement journey. This also alludes to Schwarzenegger’s political career, situating him as public-minded and concerned with people’s success in general.