Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ann Miura-Ko — The Tim Ferriss Show

This is a two-for-one 'super combo' episode celebrating the Tim Ferriss Show's 10th anniversary and 1 billion downloads. Arnold Schwarzenegger explains how a clear vision drove his bodybuilding, real estate, and film careers, including the psychological intimidation tactics he used against competitors and the napkin deal that made Twins his most lucrative movie. Ann Miura-Ko shares her arc from a painfully shy, special-education child to a champion debater, recounting her father's relentless 'is this world class?' standard and a college shadowing day with HP CEO Lou Platt that changed her trajectory. She breaks down venture capital lessons on intelligent versus fake growth, winning versus not-losing strategies, and the 'Thunder Lizard' founders she hunts for. Both guests return repeatedly to self-belief, preparation, and creating your own luck.

• Arnold became a millionaire through Santa Monica apartment and office building real estate investments in the high-inflation 1970s, before his acting career took off, so he never had to rely on movies to make a living.
  00:17:08
• Before bodybuilding paid money, Arnold and Franco Columbu ran a bricklaying/masonry business advertised as 'European Bricklayers,' using a centimeter tape measure and a good-cop/bad-cop routine in German to confuse and upsell customers.
  00:20:14
• The Twins deal was made on a restaurant napkin: Arnold, Danny DeVito, and Ivan Reitman took no salary in exchange for roughly 37% of the back end, making it the most money Arnold ever earned on a movie.
  00:27:31
• Ann was so painfully shy as a child that her brother had to announce her piano performances on stage, and she failed IQ tests multiple times and was placed in special education after biting a preschool interviewer.
  00:36:57
• As a junior at Yale, Ann gave a campus tour to a man without knowing who he was; he turned out to be HP CEO Lou Platt, who invited her to shadow him over spring break in 1997, a life-changing mentorship moment.
  01:14:41
• Ann finished her Stanford PhD, completed her first set of Floodgate investments, and gave birth to her second child all between 2008 and 2009, defending her dissertation six weeks after giving birth.
  02:06:57
• Ann invested in Ayasdi in 2010 when the company had no business plan, only four math papers they had sent her; it later raised over $100 million in financing.
  02:18:37
• Floodgate is named for being at the 'headwaters of innovation,' and the 'Thunder Lizard' term, inspired by Godzilla, describes founders born fundamentally different who cross the ocean and disrupt an entire industry.
  02:33:20

• Young Arnold traveled to the Junior Mr. Europe contest in Stuttgart on the slow 'people's train' during his military service, without a passport because the military held it.
  00:07:48
• Conan the Barbarian was a $20 million movie in 1982, which Arnold notes would be equivalent to roughly $200 million today.
  00:16:04
• Twins cost about $18 million to make and grossed $129 million domestically and around $260 million worldwide.
  00:28:35
• Arnold practiced Transcendental Meditation 20 minutes morning and night in the 1970s and says he learned to disconnect his mind within about three weeks; he now treats workouts and playing jazz as forms of meditation.
  00:30:08
• At age 10 (fifth grade), Ann chose an adult negotiations class at Foothill College over a normal writing class because the textbook was 'Getting to Yes' and she wanted to learn how to get to yes.
  00:41:40
• Ann's teenage debate coaches, Stanford students aged 18-21, would buy her a slice of pizza if she made an opponent cry in cross-examination; she recalls at least four or five occasions where someone cried and left the room.
  00:46:26
• Ann's father came to the US barely speaking English, earned a PhD in aerospace/mechanical engineering, and worked at NASA's Moffett Field, repeatedly asking young Ann if her work was 'world class.'
  01:09:25
• Ann's favorite pen is the Pilot Juice Up 0.4 (available on Amazon) and her favorite notebook is a European 'Nuuna' brand with dot-matrix paper resembling craft paper.
  01:21:05
• Ann's second day of work at CRV was September 11, 2001; the firm voluntarily shrank its fund from about $1.2 billion to $450 million and gave back management fees during the downturn.
  01:45:23
• Ann's most impactful recent purchase under $100 is a foldable Amazon chair with a flip-over sun shade that she uses at her daughter's soccer tournaments.
  02:30:04