“In America, They Love This European Bulls**t”: Arnold Schwarzenegger Laughs About a Silly Coincidence Between His Brick Laying Startup and the Earthquake of 1971

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 to an underprivileged family in Austria. The constrained financial conditions of his parents in childhood pushed Arnie to visualize a life of riches and success. He chose bodybuilding as a career and won the Mr. Universe title by 20. But the money he made as a bodybuilder in the 1960s and 1970s was peanuts. So Schwarzenegger always found ways other than bodybuilding to earn a living.

On October 25, the fitness icon appeared on the Fly on the Wall Podcast. He opened up about how fate helped him become prosperous in one of his earliest businesses after landing in America in 1968.

Arnold Schwarzenegger tells the lucky story of his brick business

The bodybuilding legend arrived in America upon Joe Weider’s invitation to compete at Mr. Olympia. But the bodybuilding sport back then was not as remunerative as it is today. So, apart from lifting weights at the gym for an athletic career, Arnie had to earn a living by other means. So, he started a brick business with his training partner, Franco Columbu, as the latter was a professional bricklayer.

So, when Schwarzenegger asked Columbu, “Franco, you are masonry worker; you are bricklayer, why don’t we start the bricklaying business? I sit in America. They love this European bulls**t,” the latter immediately agreed. Arnie and Columbu put a small advertisement in a local newspaper, and a natural disaster the next day catapulted the growth of their bricklaying business.

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“We put a little ad in the LA Times. With the next day after we put this ad in, without, beyond our knowledge, an earthquake happened. It’s 1971,” Schwarzenegger narrated. The disaster resulted in the collapse of chimneys, walls, and patios, which flooded Arnie’s business with customers. Arnie laughed while narrating the incident in the Fly on the Wall podcast, saying he had not planned it. While the bricklaying business fetched him a great deal of money, it wasn’t the only means of living for young Schwarzenegger.

The mailing business of The Austrian Oak

The 7x Mr. Olympia stunned the bodybuilding world with his ripped physique in the 1970s. So Schwarzenegger utilized his bodybuilding knowledge to start a mailing business. Arnie took up a business selling bodybuilding booklets, sharing his training rituals.

Joe Weider suggested selling the booklets as a limited edition, which worked wonders for the Austrian Oak. Soon, the 76-year-old was churning millions while his contemporaries failed to make ends meet. “All I had to do was go down to city hall and pay $3.75 for a permit, and then rent a post office box to receive the orders,” Schwarzenegger once revealed about his mailing business.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for his shrewd business tactics that helped him become the richest bodybuilder in the world. But Arnie’s success lies in his attitude to never lose sight of opportunities. Don’t you think so? Let us know in the comments below.