How Did Arnold Schwarzenegger Make Money Before Hollywood?

David Senra, reading the close of The Education of a Bodybuilder, says Arnold Schwarzenegger made his own money before Hollywood by turning bodybuilding into a business. He wrote his goals down and made them specific. Knowing exactly where he wanted to end up freed him to improvise how to get there, and no offer and no relationship was going to distract him. He decided the way to stay independent was to mind his own business and make his own money.

The book ends on that plan. Working the same way he had built his body, he wanted to create an empire. Business school and the practical work of running a gym made him think he could start his own enterprises. He established mail-order training courses that educated thousands of bodybuilders, and he sold photo albums, T-shirts, posing trunks, and personalized programs. He ran seminars in Japan, Australia, South Africa, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Finland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and he began promoting bodybuilding competitions in America.

He kept defending his titles so the name would grow. He wanted every person who touched a weight to equate the barbell with the name Arnold.