Be Useful: Seven tools for life

by Arnold Schwarzenegger

And you know what the key was to selling that infrastructure package to the people? Having learned my lesson from 2005, I rarely ever used technical words like “infrastructure” by themselves. Instead I talked about needing to fix our old roads and build new ones so parents wouldn’t be stuck in traffic for so long and miss their kids’ soccer practices so often. I talked about fixing bridges and railroad lines so that people could buy the things they needed when they needed them. The faster we moved people and goods around, I told California voters, the more that increased our economic power. I stopped talking about the corruption and inequities of our state’s redistricting policies, and instead explained to voters that I wanted to take the power away from the politicians and give it to the people. I told my story using language that actually connected to the lives of the people who I was trying to sell. Then, in June 2006, I was reelected governor with an even greater share of the vote (55.9 percent) and even more total votes (4.85 million) than in 2003.