Be Useful – Seven Tools for Life

By Arnold Schwarzenegger

If there are too many self-help books, it might at least be worth reading one by Arnie, which is how I will respectfully and affectionately be referring to Arnold Schwarzenegger for the rest of this review. Arguably the greatest bodybuilder that has ever lived, movie star and governor, Arnie has been successful in many areas. In this book he takes the no-nonsense self-help book approach, framing his success as being down to seven key areas, of which each takes a chapter.

I have huge admiration for Arnie, feeling that besides being hugely successful he has also been quite open to his critics. He provided inspiration for countless bodybuilders and, if you’re younger than me, just know that the original Predator movie was an absolute classic.

In this book it does tend to take a fairly standard approach. Arnie argues that there is little substitute for hard work, for aiming big despite detractors, being useful to others and giving without expecting anything in return are generally effective approaches, and he relays examples of these approaches from his own life. Personally I find these quite interesting because of the breadth of his involvements, it remains varied and avoids being too stale. Occasionally, it perhaps comes across a little self-aggrandizing, but it is a bit hard not to when somebody successful is waxing lyrical about their successes – it just naturally sounds a bit pompous. But, Arnie is someone who clearly has had the method, hard work, connections and maybe a bit of luck to succeed.

So the book is divided into seven tools – the first two of which are ‘have a clear vision’ and ‘never think small’, where the book then talks about how Arnie applied them himself. Of course I do get the feeling that the book has been structured from the sense of ‘here’s 7 tools, now let’s fit what I did to them’ but that doesn’t necessarily render them null and void. It just means that perhaps it feels a little formulaic. As with every self-help book review, I do get the sense that if you read five of them you have pretty much read 95% if them – but this isn’t something unique to be useful.

The advice in here is good. It really argues for a reliance, determination despite obstacles, and thinking about what you want. It perhaps doesn’t really do a good job of going much further than that though. What about if you struggle to create that vision? What about setbacks that are inevitable? Although you can typically guess the answers there isn’t really a huge amount of depth here. I suspect the focus is more that people buying this book already know Arnie and want tidbits from his own life (which is here in abundance) but personally I would like if there was a little more depth to the advice, especially as the book only clocks in at 260 pages.

Final score

This is pretty much self-help book standard fare, and although the seven tools are generally good ones, the advice is often fairly surface level, obvious and not exactly groundbreaking or detailed in its approach. But, if you want a bit of advice alongside Arnie’s own anecdotes and life, then it’s a decent enough read. It’s the kind of book you can go through in a couple of hours, without much effort but it probably isn’t one that will stay with you massively long after, despite the advice being generally…useful.

6/10