Total Recall covers the full span of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career across three distinct fields: bodybuilding, acting, and politics. The book is over 600 pages and moves chronologically from his childhood in rural Austria, where he grew up in a house without plumbing, through his rise to become the world’s most famous bodybuilder, then the highest-grossing action movie star of the 1980s, and finally the Governor of California.
What makes the book more interesting than a typical celebrity memoir is how deliberately Schwarzenegger approached each career. In bodybuilding, he describes a specific process of visualization, goal-setting, and psychological gamesmanship that he used to win competitions. In Hollywood, he explains how he studied the business side of filmmaking, negotiated his contracts, and made strategic decisions about which roles to accept. In politics, he covers the mechanics of running a campaign as an outsider.
Schwarzenegger is candid about his mistakes, including the affair and the child that ended his marriage to Maria Shriver, though some readers feel he doesn’t dwell on it long enough. He is more naturally expansive about his successes, and the book is at its best when he describes the specific steps he took to go from one level to the next: how he got his first gym membership, how he negotiated his first film deal, how he learned English by watching television.
For founders, the book is relevant because of Schwarzenegger’s approach to goal-setting and promotion. His ability to set an enormous goal (become Mr. Universe, become a movie star, become governor) and then work backward to identify the steps needed is described in concrete, operational detail. His philosophy of self-promotion, that nobody will notice your work unless you actively draw attention to it, is stated more directly here than in most business books.
The writing is conversational and moves quickly despite the length. Schwarzenegger clearly enjoys telling his story, and the energy carries through even the less dramatic sections. It reads like having a long conversation with someone who has thought carefully about how they got from where they started to where they ended up.
