Arnold Schwarzenegger.Photo:Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty
Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty
Be useful, “was the very phrase that motivated me,” theTerminatorstar says.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and his family.Katherine Schwarzenegger/ Instagram
Katherine Schwarzenegger/ Instagram
Here, in an exclusive excerpt from “Be Useful,” the star opens up about his difficult childhood growing up in the small town of Thal, Austria, and how he ultimately used the experience as fuel to build a life of global superstardom.None of us has a choice about where we come from. I grew up in a small village in Austria at the beginning of the Cold War. My mother was very loving. My father was strict, and he could be physically abusive, but I loved him very much. It was complicated.I think a lot about how different my life could have been if I wasn’t a positive person, if I’d responded differently to my upbringing in Thal. I didn’t have a hot shower or regular meat in my diet until l left for the army as a teenager. My daily morning routine involved fetching water and chopping firewood, which was brutal in the wintertime and earned me exactly zero sympathy from my father, who’d been through much worse when he was a kid. There were no free passes in Gustav Schwarzenegger’s house. No free meals either. I had to do two hundred knee bends every morning just to “earn” my breakfast. Nothing works up an appetite like bobbing up and down like a pogo stick on an empty stomach.
Eleven-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger (left) in 1958.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
source: people.com
