巨石强森清华《执着于你的梦想》英语演讲稿

巨石强森清华《执着于你的梦想》英语演讲稿

Some of your families maybe don’t believe in your dreams. But let me tell you something, myyoung friends. Keep your dreams. No matter what, keep your dreams. Don’t give up on them,even when you are temporarily defeated or denied. Keep your dreams.

Well, thank you very much, President. First of all, I want to thank President Gu for having mehere, and I want to thank Mr. Qizhi for your kind introduction. Thank you very much.

It is wonderful to be here at this university. What a special place. I just looked around a littlebit here, it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous place. I want to congratulate you for going to thismagnificent university here. Now, the last time I was here in China was five years ago, and then I was promoting mymovies. They had a movie festival here, the Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Festival. I rememberthey showed all my movies for a week—which was a rarity, may I remind you—and they alsoshowed the movies on television. But we also were here to promote Special Olympics, which isan organization that helps people with mental disabilities, so I was here for both reasons.

But this time I’m here as the governor of the great state of California. I’m here representingthe people of California, and we’re here on a trade mission to see how we can do more businesswith China and to help each other, because both California is a very fast growing state, andChina is a very fast growing country, and there are a lot of things that we can do for oneanother.

But I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to come here today and to talk with the youngpeople; as a matter of fact, to the brightest young people of China. And this is why it is so greatto be here at the Tsinghua University, and I’m honored that I was invited here.

Now, I read a little bit about the history of Tsinghua, and I learned that actually this schooloriginally prepared students to attend universities in America. Now, I also know that since theattack on our World Trade Centers it has become more and more difficult to go to theuniversities in America because you need to fill out all kinds of paperwork now and you have toget visas, and it’s very complicated, and you have to wait a much longer period of time to goover there. But let me tell you, things are improving already. I’ve heard that it’s easing up, therestrictions, and it’s easier to get a visa. My young Chinese friends, I want to tell you that incase no one from America has ever invited you, let me do this right now personally. I want towarmly invite all of you here to come to the United States, and especially to come to

California,because that’s the happening place. California is the best place.

Please come and visit us, we will welcome you. I invite you all to come there and to travel, tomeet the American people, and to come there and study in our universities, and some dayhopefully you will come and do business over there, or maybe you’ll want to move over there.Whatever your goal is, you’re always welcome. America, after all, let’s not forget, is the land ofopportunity. And it’s not only the land of opportunity for Austrians like me, but for Chinesepeople as well. Remember that. I know that beginning with this century, China is also becoming a land of opportunity. It’s afast growing place, and as the students of this great university and the citizens of a risingChina, I think that you have a great future also here in this country. And today I want to talk toyou a little bit about the dreams, about the dreams of your future, and dreams for this country.I want to talk to you a little bit about dreams, because it seems to me that I’m somewhat of anexpert in dreams, because I had a lot of my dreams become a reality. So let me just briefly tellyou my story, and tell you a little bit about how I started with my career. I think that this storykind of relates a little bit also to you, and also to China.

I started way back as a weightlifter. I always liked the idea of lifting weights and being abodybuilder. From the first moment when I gripped a barbell and held it around the bar andlifted the steel up over my head, I felt this exhilaration, and I knew then that this issomething that I’m going to do; that I was in love with that, and this is going to be somethingthat I’m going to do. I’m going to pursue the sport of weightlifting and bodybuilding.

Now, I remember the first real workout that I had. Eight miles away from my home village inAustria there was a gymnasium, and I rode to that gymnasium with a bicycle. And there Itrained for half an hour, because they said that after half an hour you should stop becauseotherwise your body will get really sore. But after half an hour I looked at my body, and nothinghad happened. So I said, \better work out for another half hour.\the muscles pop out or anything like that, so I trained foranother half an hour. And then after another half hour I trained another half hour, and alltogether I trained two and a half hours.

Well, let me tell you something. After two and a half hours—even though they told me that Ishouldn’t train that much or I would get really sore—I left the gymnasium, I rode my bicyclehome. And after the first mile I got numb, and I couldn’t feel anymore the handle of thebicycle, and I fell off the bike and I fell into the ditch on the side of the road. So I got up againand I tried it again. Another few yards, I fell off the

bicycle again. And I tried it three, fourmore times, and I just couldn’t ride my bicycle because my body was so numb and my legs feltlike noodles. Well, let me tell you something. The next morning when I got up, my body was so sore that Icouldn’t even lift my arms to comb my hair. I had to have my mother comb my hair, and youknow how embarrassing that is. But you know something? I learned a very important lesson,that pain means progress. Pain is progress. Each time my muscles were sore from a workout Iknew that they were growing and they were getting stronger.

I think there is a real life lesson in that. After two or three years of discipline anddetermination and working out hard, I actually changed my body, and I changed my strength.And that told me something; that if I could change my body that much, and if I could changethe strength of my body that much, then I could also change anything else. I could change myhabits, I could change my intelligence, I could change my attitude, my mind, my future, mylife. And this is exactly what I have done. I think that that lesson applies to people, and it alsoapplies to countries. You can change, China can change, everyone in the world can change. My parents, of course, I have to tell you, didn’t understand my dreams at all. They werealways wondering, they said, \is he doing? When are you going to get a job, a real job?When are you going to make money?\And all of those questions I got. And they said, \bum, someone that doesn’t make money and just wants to live in agymnasium and think about their bodies.\thinking, and themore negative the thinking got, and the more negative the questions got, the stronger andthe more positive I became, the stronger I became inside.

So of course some of your families maybe think the same way, and this is why I’m mentioningthat. Some of your families maybe don’t believe in your dreams. But let me tell you something,my young friends. Keep your dreams. No matter what, keep your dreams. Don’t give up onthem, even when you are temporarily defeated or denied. Keep your dreams.

I remember the first time I went to the United States and I was competing in a competition,the World Championships in Bodybuilding. I lost. I came in second, and I was devastated. Iwas crushed. I felt like a loser, a major loser, let me tell you. I cried, as a matter of fact,because I felt like I disappointed my friends and I disappointed myself. But the next day Igot my act together, I shifted gears, and I said, \going to learn from that lesson. I’m goingto stay here in America. I’m not going to go back to Europe. I’m going to stay in America andI’m going to train with the American champions, I’m going to train the American way. I’mgoing to eat the American food, I’m going to train with the American machines and theprinciples. And a year later, in America, I became the World Champion in Bodybuilding. So Ithink this is a very, very important lesson.