Arnold Schwarzenegger was 76 years old and had a new book under his arm when he sat down with Howard Stern. He was there to promote ‘Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life’, but ended up delivering a warning no one expected.
He said the United States risks creating “a generation of weaklings” if young people are overprotected.
His prescription: teach children to get outside, play sports, and go through painful moments. “You can only strengthen your character and become a truly strong person on the inside if you have resilience, if you fail, if you get back up again, and if you work hard”, he said.
And he went further: anyone who tries to indulge and pamper themselves “has already lost”, because they will never get anywhere.
This isn’t armchair advice: Schwarzenegger arrived from Austria with nothing, won six Mr. Olympia titles in the 70s and a seventh in 1980, and served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Even so, he clarified that being considerate is fine. His limit is different: not raising children who never learn to get back up on their own.