An Austrian by birth, Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s skills and popularity, when compared to politics, have given him far more prosperity, especially in Hollywood. The bodybuilder turned actor earned millions every year. Yet, his eventual decision to become the governor had many by surprise, mainly because of its monetary aspect.

Being a governor of an American state is not an easy job to pull off. While Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to join politics was seemingly casual, the ideologies portrayed during his tenure exhibited countless shades of a leader. LiveTalksLA recently featured Arnold Schwarzenegger, where they discussed the Austrian’s political career as a Governor of California.

Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls the reactions of people when he decided not to get paid

Schwarzenegger briefly talked about how and why he ran in the elections, and then he emphasized how people reacted. He recalled someone explaining to him how they were surprised that the actor, who made $40 million from just doing two movies, would choose to let go of that.

He remembered having a conversation with former governor Pete Wilson before running for the elections. According to the Austrian Oak, Wilson told him, “Arnold, you are stupid. For taking 20 million dollars that you are paid for a movie and turning your back on that. You are making two movies a year that’s $40 million. And for seven years, you’re going to go do that now and not take that money, are you kidding me.”

Schwarzenegger also touched upon how he was told that he was not cut out to be something as big as a governor. He recalled someone else suggesting to him how he should start small. Arnie reminisced a well-wisher saying, “You are not really capable of running the state of California. And why didn’t you start with something small like you know mayor or state senator or something.”

Among those around him who were skeptical about him running for governor, his ex-wife, Maria Shriver, made it to the list. In an earlier event, Schwarzenegger had talked about how Shriver had opposed his election bid.

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Maria Shriver’s concern about Arnie’s ‘policy’ skills

During an event at the Sacramento Press Club, the bodybuilder-turned-governor talked about how his then partner, Maria Shriver had doubts about how he would get his head around policy matters. “My wife kept saying, you know, you’re a campaigner. You’re a great campaigner. You’re so competitive. It’s like unbelievable the way you are, I mean, you’re so competitive, but just remember the next step is you have to deal with policy. It was kind of like a threat,” Arnie recalled.

Schwarzenegger also added that Shriver thought he could not sit for hours and spend time learning about “gun control or nurses problems.” However, during his tenure from 2003 to 2011, Schwarzenegger contributed majorly to the state and helped in its improvement as per his capacities.

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