Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s early days in America were stacked with periods of uncertainty yet excitement. His association with Joe Weider was yet to blossom into full potential to become the giant that he is. The Austrian Oak, who wasn’t necessarily affected by the low prize money in Mr. Olympia, started making money in more ways than one. One ingenious business opportunity that he capitalized on was launching a mail-order business out of his apartment. His “superefficiency” led to his quick success in earning some green. This was when most of his contemporaries struggled to make ends meet.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with author Peter Petre, wrote in his autobiography about the time he wisely used the money Joe Weider gave him. While he would make a quick buck by conducting seminars at Gold’s gym for $500, the mail-order business, which was borne out of his innumerable fan mail, truly revolutionized his financial game at the time.

Schwarzenegger did more than just bodybuilding in those early days

It wasn’t an easy task to set up the business. Even tougher was maintaining it. The superefficiency was in terms of adhering to strict timelines in delivering the mail after accepting the money. After all, complaints could completely ruin the business. “Business would be gone. You might even go to jail”, wrote Schwarzenegger in the book Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story.

But Schwarzenegger was diligent, resourceful, and most importantly, he was disciplined. And fans started buying en masse. These booklets were the articles Schwarzenegger had been writing for Joe. He just turned them into a profitable venture. He was also smart enough to make it limited editions on Weider’s advice. As Weider said in the book, “People loved limited editions”.

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These were the early days of bodybuilding in America (Golden Era), and fans were curious to find out about the process of building big arm muscles, training chests, etc. Given that he was in the land of opportunities, Schwarzenegger took full advantage of it.

How Schwarzenegger turned it into a profitable deal?

Schwarzenegger also wrote about how much easier it was to start this venture in the US as compared to Europe. “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”, he wrote. He also wrote, “Unlike Europe, there weren’t a million obstacles in starting a business”.

When the IRS came, Schwarzenegger’s estimation was to make $1000 a month from the business, out of which the IRS would take $320. Soon the booklets would grow in number, and there would be one for the chest, arms, back, calves, and thighs each. Each would cost $1-2, whereas the whole set was priced at $15-20. All in all, Schwarzenegger was able to make millions out of this deal. But what’s noteworthy is the passion, zeal, and punctuality that has been guiding the seven-time Mr. Olympia since he set foot in the US, all those years back in 1968.

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