"Start wide, expand further, and never look back"
About this Quote
The real subtext is his allergy to hesitation. “Never look back” is less about nostalgia than about refusing the permission structure most people live inside: the craving for external validation, the urge to re-litigate mistakes, the temptation to treat past versions of yourself as ceilings. The line has the clean, motivational bluntness of an actor who became a symbol precisely because he treated identity as something you build, not discover.
Context matters: Schwarzenegger’s career is a sequence of improbable pivots, each one inviting mockery until it didn’t. The quote reads like an antidote to the smallness of “staying in your lane.” It’s meant to be shouted at the inner accountant who wants guarantees. The charm is its simplicity; the danger is it makes reinvention sound painless, when in practice it’s expensive, lonely, and occasionally delusional. That tension is why it sticks.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. (2026, January 18). Start wide, expand further, and never look back. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/start-wide-expand-further-and-never-look-back-18528/
Chicago Style
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "Start wide, expand further, and never look back." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/start-wide-expand-further-and-never-look-back-18528/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Start wide, expand further, and never look back." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/start-wide-expand-further-and-never-look-back-18528/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.









