Tony Robbins: Why Your Biography is Not Your Destiny | E147 - In Search Of Excellence

Episode Transcript
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Randall Kaplan (00:00):
If you give yourself one piece of advice to

(00:02):
your 21 year old self, whatwould it be if you keep giving
your

Tony Robbins (00:06):
all your gifts will make room for you. The only
solution to long term happinessis to get outside yourself. The
human mind will always findsomething to be concerned about,
pissed off about, worried about,but when you're serving you're
not there, find something youcare about more than yourself,
because that's what's going tobe the secret to your growth and
your aliveness. Whether it'syour family, it's your friends,

(00:26):
it's your company, it's a nonprofit thing to you. It's a
mission for you. And if you'vegot that kind of drive, you're
going to keep growing. And ifyou keep growing, and have
plenty to give, and if you keepgiving, you're gonna have a
meaningful life. You

Randy, Welcome to In Search of Excellence,
where we meet entrepreneurs,CEOs, entertainers, athletes,
motivational speakers andtrailblazers of excellence, with
incredible stories from allwalks of life. My name is
Randall Kaplan. I'm a serialentrepreneur, venture
capitalist, and a host of InSearch of Excellence, which I
started to motivate and inspireus to achieve excellence in all
areas of our lives. My guesttoday is somebody most people

(01:05):
already know, the incredibleTony Robbins. Tony is the number
one life and business strategistin the world who has coached and
advised some of the mostsuccessful and powerful people
in the world, including threeformer US presidents, Nelson,
Mandela, Princess Diana, as wellas countless athletes and
celebrities, including LeonardoDiCaprio and Oprah. He is also
an incredibly successful serialentrepreneur and investor. He's

(01:28):
invested in 114 companies andruns 12 of them, which together
have $8 billion in revenues.
He's a New York Times bestselling author, and his
instructional course personalpower has sold more than 40
million copies. Tony is also oneof the world's leading
philanthropists, a mission hestarted when he was 17 years
old, and has since secured morethan a billion meals for people

(01:48):
around the world. Tony, thanksfor being here. Welcome to a
search of XLR. Good to meet you.
What an honor. Thanks. Cindy, solet's start with our parents,
born in North Hollywood, raisedin Azusa and your dad, Boris,
underground parkade tenant mom,Nikki, drug addict, used to beat

(02:08):
the shit out of you, poureddishwasher detergent down your
throat until you threw up andchased you out of the house with
a knife. Tell us what that waslike as a kid growing up, and
the dichotomy of that of yousaying that she was a great mom,
well,

the dichotomy is she really is a good human
being, but when people getaltered chemically, they become
somebody else. And I wouldn'thave called her a drug addict,
but she drank alcohol prettyexcessively, and when she mixed
it with like value and otherthings, she got very violent.
And I have a younger brother,five years younger, younger
sister, seven years younger, andso I had to kind of be the mom
and dad a little bit. It made megrew up very early. But a lot of

(02:47):
the best qualities of my lifecame from my mom, to give a fair
picture, otherwise people justgeneralize. She was very loving
person. She cared for friendsvery deeply. What? So when she
was sober, it was a verydifferent experience, and that's
why, personally, you know, Inever drank I don't have any
judgment people would do, but Ijust never want an altar,
because I was in a family wheremultiple people did that. My
natural father also drank aswell. But, you know, he had a

(03:09):
interesting life. You know, hewas a parking attendant. You
said he's underground all daylong. Was before he had machines
and he'd sit there all day longand make change with people and
never move for 40 somethingyears. And so my mom kind of
despised that, so I think sheinstilled that in me. I don't
want to be that way. I need tobecome more successful. But I
think the truth is, as I lookback on it, if my mom had been

(03:32):
the mother I wanted to be, Itruly wouldn't be the man I'm
proud to be, because she made mea practical psychologist. I had
to learn her moods and heremotions, how to manage and how
to shift it. So, you know, wecould manage those times without
it became violent or difficultat the same time. Just to put it
in balance, she pushed me to dothings I never would have done
on my own, and built a lot of mymuscles, so to speak,
psychological muscle, becauseshe was very demanding. And

(03:55):
those things happen. And thenthere was a third part, which I
walked in with, which is, I justhave a love for people. I was
like, when I was a little kid, Iwas trying to do things for
strangers all the time. My momtells people stories. I was
Mother stories she used to tellpeople. Is like, what's telling
me to like, Has he always beenthis way? And she said, I can
remember when I sent him nextdoor to the liquor stores,
living at this liquor store,she's pregnant with my brother.

(04:16):
So I was probably, you know,five years old, and I sent him
over to get some milk and bread,and it took forever to come
back, and I came back with nomilk and bread. And no money,
and we had no money. And shesaid, You know what happened? I
said, Well, there's a poor boythere. So I gave him the money,
and she said, We're poor. It's astory process. So I think a
combination of reaction to theenvironment, but not wanting to

(04:38):
be a victim, not being willingto settle that shifted me. And
then I have four differentfathers of radically different
role models, and Jim Robbins,who adopted me. Name I carry was
the one that I was most closeto, even as my natural father,
he was a semi pro baseballplayer, and, you know, I
developed a lot of Moxie,because to develop Google to
have love with him. It was realthrough sports. So initially it

(04:59):
was. Really through sports andall that developed for me, so
many

of us have life changing moments. We're gonna
talk about many of yours on theshow today. But one of them
happened when you were 11 yearsold. There's a knock on the
door. Can you tell us about thedelivery guy? Yes. And then the
three decisions that you thoughtabout that came out of that huge
event.

I was 11, and now we at, you know, my fathers were
good men, but they variously gotunemployed at various times, and
when they're unemployed, my momdidn't work, so we had no
income. We had some food stamps,so we had Thanksgiving when I
was 11. We had no food. Weweren't gonna starve. We had
saltine crackers and peanutbutter, but when everybody else
was having a turkey dinner, itreally feels a bit depressing,

(05:41):
and my mom and dad werescreaming each other and saying
things that you know I didn'twant my brother or sister to
hear. And once you say them, youcan't take them back. And and
then my life has changed becauseknock on the door, I go there,
there's this big guy standingthere with two bags of
groceries, one in each hand, andhe had already sat down a pot
with a frozen turkey on theground, and he said, Is your
father here. And I'm like, Justone moment, I was like, so

(06:03):
excited, like, little boy atChristmas, like, this is going
to change everything. My dad'sgonna be happy. Mom's me so
happy. So I went to my dad, justglad the door for you. He says,
You answer and I said, I didanswer it. He's for you. What
does he want? I said, I don'tknow. He said he could only talk
to you. And then I'm sittingthere waiting with a, you know,
internal joy, and he opens thedoor, sees the man. Does not let
the man even speak, and justsays, we don't accept charity,

(06:24):
and slams the door on the guy.
But the man holding the grocerysaid, lean forward a little bit
so it hit his shoulder. Itbounced off his shoulder, which
made my dad even more mad. Hesaid, Sir, sir. He said, listen,
somebody knows you're having I'mjust the delivery guy. Someone
knows you're having a toughtime. And everybody has tough
times. You know, at times theywant you have a great
Thanksgiving. My father said, Wedon't accept charity. And he
pushed again because the guyleaned in his leg and foot had

(06:46):
gone in, so it hit his toe andpopped open again. And so now my
dad's even more aggravated. Andthen the guy said something. I
thought the guy was gonna get mydad's gonna punch him in the
face. He wasn't mean about it.
He actually a soft, gentle voiceabout and he saw me, and he
said, Sir, don't let yourfamily, you know, suffer because
of your ego. Gray Line and myfather's face. I mean, I

(07:10):
remember like yesterday, theveins in the side of his neck
popping his face deep red, andI'm waiting for him to punch
him, and then his shoulders justdropped. I'll never forget he
grabbed the groceries, threw himthe table, didn't say thank you,
slam the door. And I wasshocked, and then I was sad, and
I didn't know how to process,you know, why isn't he happy, or

(07:31):
why, you know, we're gonna have,we're gonna have a great
Thanksgiving. Now, you know, andbut my father had always said,
you know, strangers, nobodycares about us. And I thought we
lived in a very wealthycommunity. It's actually very
lower middle class, but we werein the poorest of the poor,
literally across the railroadtracks, and that's where the
people went in that particularcommunity that really had
nothing. And so it looked likenobody cared.

(07:52):
But I had different evidencethat day, and I remember, I
didn't figure it out that day,but I don't know, about three
years later, I was probably1415, years old, and I was, I
became obsessed withunderstanding human behavior at
that stage. Already, I wasalready starting to read books
and absorb things at that stage.
Took a speed reading class andsaid, I read, you know, book
every day. I didn't do that, butin seven years, read seminar

(08:13):
books in human development,psychology, physiology, but I
got, I started thinking about,like, what made that happen? And
I've realized there's threedecisions, as you noted, that
you're making right now youraudience is making right now.
When I say we're making them, wemay not be making them
consciously. Most of the time,they're unconscious. So you get
the same result over and overagain. If it's a good result, a

(08:33):
good result, most people not so.
Great result. That's what it is.
And those three decisions are,number one, you have to decide
what the focus on. Now, again,if you don't think about it,
you'll be triggered by theenvironment, or you'll be
triggered by your habits. Butwhatever you focus on, that's
your experience of life. Ialways tell people you don't
experience life. You experiencethe life you focus on. Right
now, you could focus onsomething and get yourself

(08:54):
pissed off, if it's not in yourown life, it could be about
other people, right? You couldfind total joy in this moment or
gratitude if you focus onsomething else. So we don't
experience life, it's what wefocus on and what we focus on we
feel, even if it's not true. Soif you think somebody is taking
advantage of you, you get allangry, and later on, you find
out they didn't. You felt likean idiot, right? But when you
were focused on it, it was realto you. So focus equals reality

(09:16):
to the individual, even thoughit's not reality and actuality,
or a simpler way, his focusequals feeling. So I thought
about, what did I focus on thatday? And what did my dad focus
on that day? And it was so easy,because my dad said it under his
breath over and over again, hisfocus was he'd not fed his
family, right? My focus is therewas food. What a concept. I
thought that was awesome. Butthe biggest difference is the

(09:37):
minute you focus on something,the second decision you have to
make, your brain makes is, whatdoes this mean? Is this a
threat, or is this anopportunity? Right? Your brain
is doing that constantly, and sois this person disrespecting me?
Is this person challenging me?
Is this person coaching me? Isthis person loving on me? If you
think they're disrespecting you,you're gonna have a very.

(10:00):
Different emotional responsethan if you think they're
warming on you, right? Andwhatever emotion you feel
controls the third decision,which is, what should I do?
You're pissed off, you're gonnahave very different decision if
you're feeling grateful,obviously, right? So the meaning
is what really changed my lifethat day, because my father's
meaning, I know what it was alsobecause he said it over again,
he unvetted his family, and hewas worthless, and what he

(10:21):
decided to do is leave ourfamily shortly after that, which
was at the time, I thought theworst event of my life, because
I loved him so much. But mymeaning is what changed my life.
It's why I'm here today. Themeaning my brain came up with is
that strangers care. Strangersdo care somebody we don't even
know doesn't even want credit,and they saw we're in need, and
they helped us. That changed myentire world perspective. And

(10:42):
what I decided to do is, somedayI'm going to do that for other
people. And so I promised myselfsomeday I'd feed two families.
I'd double the impact. So when Iwas 17, I had very little money.
I was just getting started alittle tiny business. I went to
this grocery store and outsideof Venice, California, and I
went up to the manager, and Isaid, Listen, I told the story.
I got fed when I was a kid. Iwant to go feed two families. I

(11:04):
got a limited budget. How aboutyou give me a discount? You
know, I'm not doing this for me.
And the guy gave me 10% off. AndI thought, cheap bastard. But I
took the 10% and I took twogrocery bags rollers, and I
filled them with enough for twoor three days of food for two
families. And then I called alocal church and said, and near
the barrio area in the area thatI knew people were suffering,
and I said, Do you have a familythat really needs food but

(11:26):
probably be too proud to get it?
That was kind of model of myfamily. I'm sure we could have
found food if we got it, askedfor it somewhere, but we were
going to do that. And so theygave me two names. And so I
loaded up all the food, Ibrought a friend's van, and then
I I turned around, and I put anold t shirt and jeans, because I
saw my dad responded. So I waslike, I'm not going to be

(11:47):
thanked. I'm just going as thedelivery guy. And then I wrote a
note. Said, This is a gift froma friend. Please have the
beautiful Thanksgiving. We allhave tough times at times. Hope
this makes your Thanksgivingbetter. And someday, please, if
you can do well enough, do thisfor one of their family, you
know, and but love a friend. Andthen I realized where I was
going. They may not speakSpanish, so I had a friend write
it in Spanish on the phone. So Ishow up at the house, this

(12:09):
shouldn't say houses, littleapartment, and I knock on the
door the first place, and thiswoman, about this tall, comes up
to about my chest, looks up atme, sees the groceries and
screams. And I'm like, Oh no.
She grabs my head and pulls medown to her and starts kissing
my cheek. I said, No, no, I'mdelivery boy. Delivery boy,
delivery and I said, Oh. And Iremembered I have notes. I
reached the head of the note andI flip it over. She saw it in

(12:31):
Spanish, and she read it, andshe started to cry. And then she
grabbed and started kissingagain. I said, No, no, delivery
boy. She goes, No. Gift of God.
Gift of God. I'm trying not tocry. And then I said, Well, you
know, where do I put thesegroceries? And there's a tiny
little room right the tablesright there. And she points. And
so I go to put there, and then Ihear these screams, and all
sudden, when one boy hits me,one way, one boy hits the house,

(12:53):
four kids. And it turned outthat her, I found out afterwards
that her husband had left themthree days before Thanksgiving
with no money and no food. It'slike, not the exact same
situation as mine, but so close.
It was ridiculous. It's like,talk about grace. And so, you
know, the kids got all excited,so I hadn't come out to the van
and helped me bring more stuffin, and when I saw the pumpkin
pie, it was like, over there,over the top. And then it was

(13:15):
time to leave, and this onelittle boy would not like go on
my leg. He was so cute, and hewas so just wonderful. When I
had to the next house, I didn'tspeak Spanish, so I turned the
lady, I said, Felice Navidad,Merry Christmas. You know, it's
Thanksgiving that she startedlaugh. She's been crying now
she's laughing. And I gave himall hugs. I went to leave, and I
got in the van, and I'll neverforget, you know, put the thing

(13:36):
in reverses my buddy Zen. Ididn't really to the gears
properly. And I looked in therear view mirror on the porch
for the four boys and the mom,they're grin into mirror to ear
mom's crying and smilingsimultaneously. And I started
crying uncontrollably. And I waslike, Why am I crying? It's such
a beautiful moment, and tryingto get the thing in gear. And
literally, I couldn't see uscrying so hard. And then I

(13:58):
realized today my worst daybecame my best day, that if I
had not suffered like that as achild, but I'd be there to help
this family, and the answer is,why I believe I'm a good person,
probably not. And so the nextyear, I fed four families. I was
hooked, and then it was eight.
And then I have a littlecompany. I got my employees
involved, and I got a biggercompany. Then I eventually got

(14:18):
to 4 million people, 2 millionfrom my foundation, 2 million
from me every year. And then Iwas doing this book money Master
the Game, where I interviewedRay, Dalio, Carl, Icahn, Warren
Buffett, 50 of the smartestfinancial people in the world.
And I'm reading these multibillionaires that I see that the
government has cut food stamps.
They call it SNAP program now by$6 billion I think was the
number. It basically means everyfamily that needs food has to go

(14:41):
out with one week a monthwithout food, unless people like
you and I in the private sectorstep up. So I called my
foundation and I said, how manypeople I fed in my lifetime? I
didn't know the total number,and they said 42 million. I was
like, Wow, I'm as really excitedand proud about that. But I
thought, what if I blew thatnumber through the. What if I
did in one year as much as I didin my whole life, and I did 50

(15:01):
million meals, and I was like,what if I did 100 million meals?
I was 1100 million meals for 10straight years, provided a
billion meals. That is anexciting outcome. And so I did.
I teamed up with FeedingAmerica. They distributed the
food, and I did it in eightyears. And then it didn't stop
there, because I do anotherbillion but because it hasn't
got problems, not got away, butI'm looking for sustainability.

(15:22):
And then I was working, I was inUAE, and MBS was got to meet him
and develop some relationshipwith Him, a friendship. And one
day he called me up, and hesaid, come to lunch with me. I
have someone I want to introduceyou to who's the only other
person I know feeding as manypeople as you are. And it was
governor Beasley who was thehead of the World Food Program.
He won the Nobel Prize forfeeding people there for the UN

(15:44):
and so we decided to join forcesabout a year and a half ago, and
said, Look, normally, 80 millionpeople are at risk every year.
Starvation in this world, it'sterrific. A child dies every 15
seconds of hunger. It's insane.
This year, it's three 50 millionand no one's talking about it
because news cycle is so short.
Everybody focuses on everythingelse. There are 11 nations in

(16:06):
Africa that the bread basket forAfrica is the Ukraine. So
there's nothing coming outbecause of the war. The WF
doesn't want people usingfertilizer, but 50% of the
world's food supply comes fromfertilizer, and most of the
comes from Russia, which wasshut down, so the price of
fertilizer went through theroof. So there are 11 nations
where people on the verge ofstarvation knows anything about
it. So I said, how many mealswould we need? We need a

(16:29):
sustainable solution. How manyyears to get to sustainability?
How many meals would we need? Hesaid, I don't know, 20, maybe
50, 60 billion. I said, Let's do100 billion meal challenge. I
said I did 100 billion meal Imean, I did a billion meals, all
I need is 99 more people like meor organizations. And I said I
wasn't a billionaire when Istarted, you know, I grew as I

(16:49):
contributed more, you know, andand so we did that, and it
didn't turn out very fast. Iwent. I remember going to this
one man who's a good friend ofmine, who's very generous, and
when I did my first billionmeals, he contributed to it. And
he said, what you doing now? Isaid, I'm doing this 100 billion
meal challenge right in over 10years, and I'm looking for
people to do 100 million herefor 10 years. And he goes, Tony

(17:10):
goes, how much would that be? Isaid, about $100 million and
it's like 10 cents a meal. Andhe said, 100 million dollars. He
said, I sent you, but it's over10 years, you know? He says me,
that's beyond my pay grade. He'sworth $20 billion plus, I was
like, oh my god, this is notgonna work. So without boring
you the details, I altered myapproach, and we announced just
two weeks ago, we hit the first30 billion meals in two years.

(17:31):
And quite frankly, we alreadyhave commitment now. I haven't
announced it yet. For 60 billionmeals. We'll be at 60 by the end
of this year. So we're gonnablow through the 100 billion
meals. But the point is, wouldI've ever done that if I was a
well fed child, if I had beentotally nurtured again? I'd like
to believe I would. I'm a goodperson, but I don't know if I'd
had that much drive. So I reallybelieve everything happens for a

(17:52):
reason, including what wentwrong with my mom and I, I honor
what happened to my wife, asopposed to be a victim, and I
try to encourage other people todo the same thing. I never even
told anybody about the story ofmy mom until after she passed.
And I was with a I was in NewYork with a group of young
Hispanic and African Americanchildren who only had single
mothers. And I was talking aboutbiography is not destiny, and

(18:12):
you can make different choices.
And I'm looking at him, I canmine read. They're looking to
this tall white guy's wealthy.
So I told them the whole story,not the ones I gave you, the
details I had. They were cryingtheir eyes out. I was crying my
eyes out and and I realizedsometimes it's valuable to share
that with people, but my overalltheme is, don't settle and don't
be a Don't be a victim in thisprocess. What if everything in

(18:33):
your life happened for a reason?
What if there was a higherpurpose, but it's your job to
find it. I believe life isalways happening for me, not to
me, but it doesn't always lookthat way. So I gotta dig. I
gotta find and sometimes ittakes it. I don't know, in your
life, have you got anyexperiences where you went
through that were brutal, thatwere painful, that you'd never
want to go through again, butmaybe 510, years later, you look

(18:56):
back on and go, Man, I'm so gladthat happened. I don't want to
go through it, but made me somuch stronger. Made me care
more. Can you relate

to that in some Yeah, bullies thought her as a
kid. Yeah, brutal. Yeah. But

it made you stronger. It made you care more,
made you be a different person.
And I'll go emotion in you evennow, when you think about it,
you're near tears just eventhinking about it. So I think
it's important for people torealize that if they go back and
really look at their life, ifthey're if they don't go on
drugs and alter their state.
It's an alter state. You'llnever come up with a better
meaning. But if you stay offdrugs, and you stay straight and
you push for it, sooner orlater, you're going to find

(19:28):
there is a benefit that farexceeds the pain you went
through. And I don't want to seeanybody suffer. The reason I do
what I do is I suffered so muchon everybody else to suffer. So
I've spent a lifetime looking attools to help people break those
patterns, master their body,their emotion, their
relationship, their finances,the areas of life that matter.
When your

mom kicked you out with a knife, you were
depressed. You she kept your 86Volkswagen,

Unknown (19:51):
1960 Volkswagen, 60 Volkswagen,

40 hours a week you were making she kept it.
Yeah, and there were. Main youslept on a hill. Then you slept
in a friend's laundry room,yeah. And then you read a book
called The Power of believing byClaude Bristol. Now you went
magic of believing by Claude andBristol, yeah, the magic of
believing. And you went on toread 700 books. What was so
inflammation, what was soinspiring about that book? If

(20:17):
you tell us about what you werewriting on the mirror as you
were reading that book. Sure youdoing

your homework.
It's beautiful. I saw thatradical preparation is big part
of your life, mine too. No, whenshe kicked me out, she wasn't
gonna stab me and kill me. Iwasn't worried about dying, but
I wasn't going back in thathouse. And so I did sleep on the
hill, and then it rained. Soit's like that plans out, and
they just slept there in therain. Just no I got into the
tree and froze, and I finallyjust went in. I knocked on the

(20:44):
door of a friend who was a girl,a girlfriend, and but her family
really cared about me, and Isaid, you know, can I sleep in
your laundry room? So that'swhere I was. I had, I don't
know, $4 to my name, and $13whatever. And I just took a
little bit of money, got on abus, and I went to this
bookstore that I had remembered,because I'd run 13 miles on my
13th birthday. I had thisobsession I was going to push

(21:05):
myself. And so I remembered thisbookstore. So I went there, and
I just guided this book themagic of believing. And all it
really taught was the power ofbelief. Belief controls
everything. Everything you do isbased on your belief, but it
showed how to program yourbeliefs by conditioning them by
repetition, by what I'd callincantations, as opposed to
affirmations. Affirmations, I'mhappy, I'm happy, I'm happy.
Everybody goes bullshit. I'm nothappy. But if you use your body

(21:27):
and your voice and every ounceof you is congruently speaking,
that over and over again, itbasically hypnotizes you into
owning that experience. And so Iused to write on the mirror in
the laundry room. You know, onlya loser is depressed, which is
not true. But I knew I wasn't aloser, so I used that as the
leverage I'm not going to bedepressed, because I was so
depressed, really. And I had allthese affirmations I would do,

(21:49):
and I go on a runs, and I do,you know, every day, and every
way I'm getting stronger andstronger, and I would just
program this nervous system minduntil I could really be in a
position where I felt like Icould succeed, and it worked. It
produced tremendous change inme. But it didn't stop there. As
you said, I'd started readingbefore that, but I just got
reignited to read. And readingwas my escape, but it was also
my transformation. I escaped theworld, and as I entered

(22:14):
Emerson's essays, and I'd read alot of autobiographies,
especially because when you readan autobiography, you're reading
the words of that incrediblehuman being. So you're thinking
their thoughts. And if you dothat for days or weeks, or
whatever the case may be, youstart to take that on. It's like
if you want to play the piano,and you can mess around on your
own. But if you're smart, youlearn other people's music, and

(22:37):
all of a sudden you do someamazing things, but after a
while, you played enough youlearn enough patterns that now
you become the creator. Now youstart to create your own
patterns. And that's pretty muchwhat happened for me with these
books. And then also events. Iwent to seminar after seminar. I
had no money when I did moneyfor my rent, but I go invest in
a seminar, because I'll never gopay for this until I change
what's going on in me. And thenI was also i because it was all

(22:59):
the money I had. It was such abig investment. I wrote down the
guy said, but I wrote down them,and I didn't miss a word. I
didn't get up to p I mean, and Iwas obsessed with using what I
learned, because I had to,because I'd given up all the
money. I had to do it. And sothat, I think some people it's
easy to do things, and so theydon't retain it. But for me, I
was, I was obsessed with gettingthe result. We

all have a lot of big moments in your life
again, I want to go throughyours to thank so much about
your story. When you were 17years old, you working at Grand
Dora High School as a janitor,helping move people on the
weekends, and there was a friendof your family's who was a
landlord and very awkwardconversation and Sue, where he
said, My parents said, Hey,you're such a loser. How are you

(23:43):
so successful? So tell us aboutJim Rohn and the influence you
had on your life and thequestion that you asked the
landlord. And he said, Nofucking way. I'm not doing that.
You do it yourself. Well,

my you know, I had to help support my family's
minimum money for food, so I'mgoing to school, and I kept two
different jobs as a janitorbecause I could work in the
middle of the night, and theydidn't charge you pay by the
didn't charge you, pay you bythe hour. They bid you by the
result. So I could do two banksin the middle of night, do a
great job, take the busses homeand contribute. And then on the
weekends, I would try to findsomething to do also, because
you didn't have to do the banksthen. And my mom and dad knew

(24:16):
this man, who might as my dad'swords were, used to be such a
loser. Now he's so successful,and I wonder what happened to
him. And all he was was he wasbuying properties, fixing them
up and flipping them in OrangeCounty, California in the 1970s
like 7019 77 and the market wasexploding. So he was doing very
well. So he needed, he was veryefficient in his workforce, to
move things. And so he alwayshired a like a high school

(24:37):
student. And I've been five onein my sophomore year, and I got
a tumor in my brain. No oneknew, that's why. And I do 10
inches in a year. So I was like,get that big strapping guy.
We'll do this. So I come and II'm a hard worker. And after two
days of work on my guts out,he's like, you're the hardest
working guy I've ever met. Hegoes, I'm really impressed. Let
me take you to lunch. So hetakes me to lunch and and he
starts asking questions. I said,I want to ask you some

(24:58):
questions. I said, you know.
Dad. And I wasn't saying tryingto be harsh or funny. It's just,
when you're a kid, you justdon't realize. I said, my dad
said you should be such a losernow you're so successful. Like
how to do that? He was takenback, obviously. She just said,
what? And he goes, Well, hegoes, it's probably pretty
accurate about me. I said, Well,what changed you? And he said, I
went to a seminar. I never evenheard the word seminar before. I
said, What's a seminar? He sitswhere a man who has become

(25:22):
incredibly successful overdecades takes all these learning
the decades and tries tocompress it into a few hours or
a few days and save you all thattrial and error learning. I
said, Well, that's fascinating.
I said, so how long the seminarygoes? It's three and a half
hours. I said, Well, how much isit? He said $35 would be like,
$250 in today's dollarsinflation, and I was making $40

(25:46):
a week. So I said, Wow, that'sexpensive. I said, Can you get
me in? And he's like, Yeah, butuse it anymore. I said, Well,
will you and he said, No. And Isaid, Well, why not? And he
said, well, because you won'tvalue it if you don't pay for
it. I said, No, no, no, I'm onmy own. I've been sleeping in my
car. I'm working as a janitor.
I'm to give him the whole story,right? He goes, I don't hear the
story. He said, If you're reallycommitted, you'll go there or,

(26:06):
he said, learn on your ownexperience, and take 10 or 20 or
30 years, or maybe never figureit out. So I remember, I like
sweating bullets. Some of thisdecision, do I do a week's pay
for this one three hour thing,right? And I was like, Oh my
God. And then I went down there.
I had graduated to a 1968Volkswagen since my mom had
gotten the other one, Baja bug.
I pulled up in front of the nicehotel in Orange County,

(26:27):
California, and gave it throughthe keys to the valet. You turn
my engine off, and it usuallyhad a little explosion. I was
wearing a blue leisure suit,which is what people were in
those days that I got in thethrift store, fake gold chain,
but I was ready to rock androll, baby. And I went in,
talked my way, and a guy had setthis thing up so I could get in.
And I sat in that seminar. AndI'd read so many books that when

(26:49):
Jerome was speaking, I wouldfinish some of his phrases, and
you're at a round table. I wassomewhat disruptive, without
meaning to be, but I was soenthusiastic. And then during a
break, I went up to Jim Rohn andtold him the story about, you
know, how I've been doing allthis stuff, and I wanted to come
to work for him. And he's like,young man, if you want to come
work for me, you have to gothrough all my programs. And,
you know, it was in those days,$1,200 it'd be like, you know,

(27:10):
$12,000 today, 10, 10,500things, the translation. So I
know that kind of money. I'msleeping my car in an old trench
coat I got the thrift store. I'mworking this janitor of, you
know, trying to keep everythinggoing. And I said, I tried to
tell him my story, and he said,No, no, no, I don't want to hear
all that. He said, I'm not yourbanker. So I said, you could
loan me the money, and then I'llgo get these great results, and

(27:31):
I'll tell everybody that youhelped me do this, right, this
whole plan. And he goes, No, no,I'm not your banker. He goes,
you know, what do you want tocome to work? You have the money
by Saturday. And he said,everybody gets what they have to
have. Some people have tosurvive. Some people have to
succeed. Decide which one youare. And he walked away. And I
was pissed off. I was like, he'san asshole. I mean, I'm

(27:51):
struggling. He's rich. I'mwilling to pay for it. I just
want him to finance it, youknow. And then after bitching in
my head about him for a while,another part of my brain started
going, he's right, he's right,he's right. He's like, he's
right, what he's right? You'vealways got what you had to have,
but you haven't had much. Ithasn't been any money must for
me, you know. And so I was like,okay, so I went to banks,

(28:13):
thinking, banks will loan youmoney when you need it, which,
of course, is, I'm sure, youknow, if they only loan you one
of you don't need it, you know.
So So I went to four banks inrow, turn down, turn down, turn
down, and I'm running out oftime. So I finally I'm outside
the Bank of America, West COVIDIn California, a place called
citrus Avenue, and I'm I didn'tknow what I was doing, but I was

(28:33):
getting myself pumped upphysiologically. I know I know
what I was doing now, but I wasgetting in this really strong
state. So I go in there andconvince somebody I walked in, I
looked for somebody who lookedpersuadable, and there's this
kind looking woman, kind eyes. Ithought she'll understand. So I
walked up to her with all theenergy I had, shook her hand,
probably shook it off, and said,I'm Tony Robbins. I'm here today
to borrow $1,200 I don't wantthat money for, like, did repair

(28:56):
or something. I don't want for avacation. I want it so I can
attend a seminar. And she hadthis weird look on her face,
like I'm not getting through toher. And she said, Well, I
appreciate your passion. I said,I want to go, and I just want to
go for me, I'm going to learnhow to manage my time and this
and that have lead and blahblah. And I said, and I'm going
to go help hundreds of 1000s ofpeople. That was the goal I had
at that time. And she said,Okay, young man, well, let me

(29:19):
see your application settledown. And she goes, I appreciate
your intensity and passion. Andso she's reading it, and she
sees my address is on citrusAvenue. It's a commercial street
that goes through four cities.
There's no apartments on it. Soshe says, citrus Avenue. She
said, Where is she apartment inCitrus Avenue? I said, Well, I
don't really have an apartment.

(29:39):
I have kind of a mobile home, amobile home. So I told her the
truth, I'm sleeping in my car at24 hours between Denny's and 711
they don't make me move. I talkto the mailman. He gives me my
mail because he understands whatI'm going through. So if you
send it there, I'll get it. Andher eyes are getting like this.
And then she says, so you wantthe bank to loan you money and
we'll send the bill to the 711And you'll be in your mobile

(30:01):
car, sleeping, she goes, andthen she goes, and you're,
you're 17 years old. I said,What does that matter? She goes,
You can't sign a contract tillyou're 18. I said, I'll be 18
soon. She said, Now, soon? Isaid, I assume that to be 18. I
said, I'll be 18 in two weeks.
She goes, Well, probably that. Ijust don't think the bank's
gonna loan at you. It's like, ohno, you understand I gotta do
this. I'm I got even morepassionate. And she said,
Listen. And she looked at me andshe said, you're serious about

(30:24):
this, aren't you? I said, asserious as a heart attack, I'm
going to use everything Ilearned. I'm going to do all
these things. And she said, I'venever met anybody quite like
you. She said, if you look me inthe eye and swear to me, I will
never have to come looking foryou, because I'm not going to
711 or Denny's. I will doeverything I can to get the bank
to help you, but if they won't,I'll loan you the money. But you

(30:45):
better take this seriously. AndI like, jumped across the desk
from yesterday. She was readyfor that stuff, and I said, I
always tell people he gave mystart, and that's why I've
always told the story. And hername was Mrs. Williams, and she
got the bank, you loaned me themoney. Oh, she didn't have to do
it. I don't know how she does.
Don't know how she does. Maybeshe co signed, I don't know, but
I took $1,200 which is makes meemotionally but now remembering

(31:08):
it, and all the money in theworld is more expensive than the
car I was sleeping in, right?
You know? And I went to Jim Rohnseminar, and I met a man there
named Mike Keyes, who's still myfriend today, 45 plus years
later, and and he had just alittle bit more money than me,
and he said, Look, stay in myhotel. In my hotel. You don't
stay in your car. And we wereboth pretty broken, but a lot of
very wealthy people were therelearning from him. But because
of that, like I said, it's likewe were writing every word. I

(31:30):
didn't go the bathroom andeverything, but at one point, I
figured every word was worth,like, three cents or some
ridiculous thing, but I was socommitted. And then Jim Rohn,
years later, I spoke at hisfuneral. He's a beautiful man.
He would start his seminars andsay, you know, every time I get
up here, I want to do a goodjob, because you never who knows
in your audience. And he tellsthe story about this guy who was
in a kid who's room and shoutingout answers. And he going, you

(31:53):
know, it was Tony Robbins.
Today, there's people all aroundthe world. And then he also
would tell the story about Mike,the two guys that were the most
broke because we probablyapplied it as much or more than
most people would. So that'swhere my whole start began. We

all have a aha moment where we say, Okay,
someone tells us that we'respecial. And you had an
interesting teacher named Mr.
Cobb your sophomore year in highschool. Again, I think a lot of
guys all have their ultimatecrush. You had one a senior
cheerleader in high school. Whatdid he tell you? And took you
aside where he thought you weregetting in trouble, and instead,
it just opened up your wholeworld. He

he was a very kind of right wing, straight laced
guy that taught speech and and Iget in a speech class, and I
screwed around. I was prettyhumorous, and so I would take
over the class to some extent.
And the reason I took over theclasses, there's a senior song
leader, cheerleader NancyColeman, who I was totally in
love with, but I was not in herleague, but I would get her
attention over everything, youknow, the main football players

(32:50):
there. I'd humiliate the guy andtease him. I was crazy in those
days. And so after class, Mr.
Cops, Mr. Robbins, you stay. Ineed to speak to you. And I was
like, oh shit, I'm busted. And Isat down, and it wasn't I
expect. He goes, You know, whyI've asked you to sit down here
with me today after class. And Iwas like, Yeah, I think I do. He
goes, why? I said, Well, youknow? And I started to say, what

(33:11):
I did? He goes, No. He goes,I've been a teacher for 30
years, 30 plus up here was andhe said, I've never seen anybody
stand up and capture every kidin this room's attention when he
speaks. He said, it'sunbelievable what you do. And I
was like, flabbergasted. Ididn't have any reference for
that whatsoever. And he said, Ithink you have a gift. And he

(33:33):
said, I know more about yourstory than you probably think I
do. Knew about my mom and thingslike that. And he goes, I think
I found a speech that embodieswho you are, and it was called
the will to win. And it was allabout the only way I made it to
that point in my life was purewill. And he goes, I want you to
read this, memorize this, andcompete and persuasive oratory.
And I was like, I'm not, youknow, you have to be a junior to

(33:55):
do it. He goes, I don't care.
I'm gonna get you in. And so Iread this speech. I was very
emotional reading, and it was sotapped into my own story of who
I am and and I got up and I tookfirst place, and another first
place, another first place. AndI mean that didn't win every
single one, but I won about 80%of the time as I win these
competitions of the year. And sothat developed that skill set in
me. And then I decided to runfor student my president, even

(34:16):
though I wasn't the most popularkid in school, but I did it
differently. I went to everybodyand found out what they wanted
and came back and told thetruth. I don't think this could
be done. I think that could bedone. And, you know, I won. And
so it taught me that you didn'thave to be popular, that you
could, if you told the truth andserve, you get through to
anybody. Because I beat the mostpopular kids in school by far.
So it was kind of anotherlaunching pad. Well, each of

(34:38):
those things stack on each otherto make you start to believe in
something more is possible.

You're starting your seminars. You're doing some
with Jim. He's letting you speakat 20 year olds old, I think
you're at your first seminar.
And there was someone there whowas basically criticizing you.
Tony doesn't know shit. He'sreally not doing anything. And
then there was some and he'sbasically saying, Hey, I've got
a. Client that has a snakephobia. You said, I can cure it,
but the better one that I thinka lot of people would be more

(35:06):
interested in, and I think youcould create a whole new
business. I know you're you'vedone well. I think people have
said, Tony is now a billionaire,as you were able to give a woman
an orgasm who had never had onein her life before without
touching her, well, withouttouching her. So, you know, I'm
sure there's a lot of guyslistening out there saying, holy
shit, Tony, you got to write abook about this. And then

(35:27):
there's a bunch of women outthere who are not sexually
fulfilled, where I think there'dbe a 5050, audience there on
that one.

Oh no. I made my career by taking challenging
psychiatrists originally, andsaying, Give me your worst
patient. I'll have them in anhour who'd been working with
five or six or six or sevenyears. I started that in
Vancouver, and it became kind ofmy calling card. Now today, you
know, I train psychologists andpsychiatrists. They study my
work and they get continuededucation credits. Kind of
crazy, but in those days, I wasangry to see somebody spend

(35:56):
five, six years at somethingthat I had learned techniques
that truly could wipe it out inless than an hour, sometimes 15
minutes. And so I use that. Itake somebody like snake phobia
and bring it out. They freakout, and at the end, wrap the
snake around them, and people belike, holy shit. This is
amazing. But, yeah, one of themore dramatic ones was woman who
is an orgasm, but women arestraight

Unknown (36:16):
that in the seminar, no, right? I

did not touching her. And the people were just,
guys are like, can you teach mehow to do that when I'm talking
that when I'm tired? But womenare very different than men,
physiologically in that area,the man you can be, I always
say, women need a reason to makelove. Men just need a place. So
a woman, if she is notemotionally safe, secure,
there's a whole series ofelements that allow her to be

(36:40):
able to let go and experience anorgasm. And so I was just able
to guide her to that. But itbecame people talked about it a
lot. It became a big piece. Butthen I did things to like the
army. I took a training programthat they've been doing since
World War One on training peoplein pistol shooting. And I told
the general I could take anytraining program and have cut
the training time in half andincrease the competency. And he

(37:02):
said, You're crazy. I said, No,I'm expensive. We negotiated. I
went through a years with thetop secret clearance, and then
did a whole series thanks to thearmy, and I cut the training
program by three days out offour, one day, one and a half
days versus four days, andqualified 100% of the people
instead of 70% of the people.
And so that opened up doors. Igot to do coding. I got to do
other things of that nature. Andthen I started with sports
teams, and then I got NelsonMandela and mother, Teresa and

(37:24):
Bill Clinton. And then, youknow, a way to think about this
is Randy. It's just patterns.
Everything is patterns. So ifyou want to think about like I
have five kids and fivegrandkids, I have a 50 year old
daughter, and I have a almostfour year old daughter now, so I
have quite a spread. I adoptedmy first three kids when I was

(37:44):
very young, and I look at themtoday and I think, okay, the
world is changing so rapidly.
We're at the base of the change.
We're not even at theacceleration of the change. And
in the next, say, 10 yearsminimum, but even five years,
there'll be more change that'shappened in the history of
mankind, between nanotechnology,obviously from Ai, obviously
from robotics, right? So manythings that are coming here. So

(38:07):
how do you lot of jobs are gonnabe disrupted, depending on whose
studies you read, 40, 50% of thejobs. How do I make sure my kids
and grandkids can do well, oryou and I can do well no matter
what happens in the world? Ithink you need three skills.
Skill one, you have to get goodat the science of or just the
recognition of patterns.
Everything's patterns. Historyis patterns, financial patterns,
company patterns. What you don'tget angry all the time. You

(38:32):
don't smoke all the time, or youdon't drink all the time. You do
those things when you're boredor when you're triggered by
sadness or when you feel alone.
So once you understand patterns,you have less fear, because it's
not the world is in chaosanymore. And so I really started
to get good at studying patternsof all sorts. And then the

(38:52):
second skill, though, is if youcan use the patterns now, you
have power. You don't just knowit's happening. You know how to
use it. So that's what a greatfinancial trader does. I worked
with Paul Tudor Jones for 24years, one of the greatest
traders in history. It's likeit's all patterns. If you look
at somebody's great with musicor singing, they know how to use
the sound or the movement of thebody produce the result. A great
director knows when to come in,when to come out, what to do

(39:14):
with the music. But there's notunlimited patterns, and when you
learn how to use them, it's likelearn to play the other people's
piano. But then the ultimatelevel is when you become a
creator of patterns. That's whenyou're able to do things that no
one else does. You become amaster of your particular domain
of focus. So I look at thosethree skill sets, and I say, I
want to make sure that I hadthat as many areas as possible.

(39:36):
And when I learned how to dothat, that's when I started
getting the calls, because I didit to me first, and then all
sudden, I get the phone callwhen the kid is suicidal. And
knock on wood, I've never lostone, you know, done 1000s of
them. And we've got, you know,there's a documentary on Netflix
called Tony Robbins, I'm notyour guru. Great. If you go
there, watch it. You see it totwo people. I mean, yeah, it's

(39:56):
mind boggling. What happens is,you get to see people, but you
see them five years. Eight ortwo, and what's happened to
them, which is pretty amazing,because it, you know, they're no
longer suicidal. Obviously, one

of them is actually now a life coach in
Berlin. That's right, which isincredible. That's

right, you've done your homework. So anyway, long
story shortened, the bottom lineis, when I understood that, then
I got that's how I startedgetting people like President
states or, you know, somebodycoming to me saying, What am I?
Remember, I got a phone call theafternoon. One day, it's
President. I'd say it's BillClinton saying they're gonna
impeach me in the morning. Whatshould I do? My first response
was, could you call me sooner?
It's tomorrow morning? Butbecause I had these, I had no

(40:30):
net, and I'd go like SerenaWilliams, she can't get back on
the court. Her sister gotkilled, and it's us open and and
I gotta deliberate now thathaving no net but also having
developed enough patterns gaveme a capacity to create patterns
that produce results that peoplehad never seen before, and then
I started doing it in business.

(40:52):
So now I have 114 companies. Wedo $9 billion in business now
and across all these differentindustries, I had no traditional
college education and business,it was just all modeling. Jim
Rohn taught me, success leavesclues. If someone is successful,
not for a day or week or a monthor a year, but a decade or more,
they're not lucky. They're doingsomething different than you. So

(41:13):
figure out what that is. And somost of my books are that. Like,
I wanted to help peoplefinancially. After 2008 I was
pissed off. I knew a lot in thatarea are like, Okay, let me
interview 50 of the smartestfinancial people in the world,
and they're all different, butlet's extract what do they have
in common? And my billionaireclients loved it, but the
average person loved it. Youknow, that's a New York Times
number one best seller, andmillions of copies sold because

(41:35):
people could take it andactually change their life. Did
the same thing with life force.
Interviewed 150 of the greatestregenerative medicine doctors in
the world, Nobel Prize winners.
Because right now, thebreakthroughs that happen today,
on average, takes 17 years fromthe time of the breakthrough to
your clinician will start totalk to you about I was like, I
want to blow up that 17 yearssomebody write the book and

(41:56):
empower people and show themwhat's happening with stem cells
and exosomes and all thesedifferent technologies, and so
because of that, I'm able toexpand so rapidly, because I'm
good at pulling up thosepatterns, and then I know how to
put them in a format that makespeople really change, and has
fun doing it, because I believethat, look, we're not in an
information culture anymore. Theinformation society died a long

(42:18):
time ago. It's too muchinformation. You're drowning in
information and starving forwisdom. But we are entertainment
culture today, so you got tocapture people's attention. And
most people have a longattention span. I got to hold
them for 12 hours or 13, forfour or six days when they
wouldn't sit for a three hourmovie someone spent $300 million
on and they're a stadium of20,000 people. I got to get the

(42:39):
guy at the top to be engaged.
I've learned how to do that.
That's a skill set to be able todo that, but it came from
learning all these patterns. SoI entertain them, first get them
so have the greatest experience,laughter, joy, fun, playfulness,
tears, sometimes, but then thatgives me right for the second,
an E cube. I educate them. Igive them tools that I have
modeled from the very best onEarth at work, they're proven,

(43:01):
and that are cutting edge, andthen they get results. And then,
while they're there, I empowerthem to practice with real human
beings and see what works anddoes it so they don't just leave
there uncertain. So that's why,one of the reasons why so many
people get such lasting resultsis because we have a process,
and we do it for everything.
We're teaching finance orrelationship or, you know, how
to shift yourselfpsychologically, emotionally, or

(43:22):
how to shift your body. We stilluse that kind of secret sauce to
make it

happen. I first heard your name from my speech
therapist, I think, was 1415,years old, and he had done
something called the Fire walk,which was invented by a woman
named Molly Turkin. She hadtaught you at the year before,
before,

toy burger.

But yeah, so she, she showed it to, I think,
and 1.5 million people have beenthrough the firewalking. Gosh,
no, that's that's pretty cool.
And then unlimited power cameout and changed my life

on touch the dead was only when they were reading.

I was a freshman in Michigan. University of
Michigan, I thought, no, justthinking about my speech and
just

sorry. Nobody's sorry. I've touched. I'm really
touching. It moved you so much.
Oh, stop, and I find the onlyplace that you should never have
sadness or any embarrassment oftears, because water out of the
eyes is one of the few placesliquids can leave your body
publicly. Okay,

yeah, I mean, well I could, and it was, I
worked so hard.

Next Ram was up in this touch,

you know, I, you know, suffered for so long
speech. And I. You know, we goto McDonald's, so I learned how
to say, I have a hamburger. Imean, it was, it was just a lot
of work every night. And Ithought, you know, I worked so
hard to do that as a goodstudent, that was something I
can control. Yeah, you know, thehardest worker. I mean, I
graduated top 1% of my class atMichigan, and does work my ass

(45:17):
off, yeah. And in that book,there were two things in that
book that from the same story,which you've already told, that
really made an impact on me.
First of all, your yourboldness, two years before you
wrote that book, when you wentand said, I can improve your
shooting by 50% you had notraining and pistol shooting.
You never held a gun or shot agun before, which is just mom

(45:39):
power. I'm like, God, how fuckedis that possible? Yes. And then
the fact that you did it, and itreally said, you know, it's a
power of the mind. And yes, youknow, so much of my success
today is really just thinkingabout things, I think, in a
different way than most people.
I mean, we'll talk aboutpreparation in a minute here.

(46:02):
And I think, you know, there'sgood preparation, there's great
preparation. And then if youthink of the world's tallest
building with the spire, is verythin air, it's like a pin at the
top of that Yeah? And it reallylike that pin reminds me of the
focus. Yeah? You talked about,and also talked to me about how
to get to that focus thatanybody can do it. Yeah. It
really changed my life. Wow, I'm

really touched here. That's beautiful. Well,
you've had an amazing life. I'msure you've shared on air, but
I've done my homework on you,too. I mean, company founded,
what is it? 25% of the internet.
30% the internet goes throughit. You know, $19 billion
company and all the othercompanies you built your passion
through beaches and so I'm sotouched. But you know what I
really respect about you, Randy,and I find true is some of the
most successful people in theworld had pain initially that

(46:43):
drove them because it wasn'teasy for them, so they'd
overcome it. It's like you lookand say, How is it somebody you
can give them all the love,support from a family, all the
education, economic well being,and they spend their life going
in at a rehab and somebody else,I mean, life steps all over
them, and somehow they develop ahunger to do more, to be more,

(47:04):
to give more, to share more. Andyou obviously have that, and you
lived your life that way. Sowhen I redid this interview,
because I saw the results thatyou created, because I have
great respect for that, but Iguessed or hallucinated, I
didn't know. I guess that youprobably had a pretty rough
being, that you don't have tohave enough being to have that
hunger. But like I said earlier,would I really feed a billion

(47:25):
people if I was well fed? MaybeI've fed 100,000 people. I don't
know. Maybe I've been 10,000maybe I've had two but I think
it's important for people toknow what you just experienced,
that the worst of times reallyis designed to be the best of
times, but it's our job to useit, not let it use us. Most
people today, our culture todayreinforces people for being a

(47:46):
victim more than being a victor.
If you're a victor, you musthave abused someone. You must
take an advantage. If you're avictim, well, look all this love
and attention comes your way andit's it's an upside down world
right now. It was generated agood portion by social media,
where nothing is really true,where people alter the way they
look, so they look better thanthey are, and then picks people

(48:07):
insecure all the time becausethey're worried about, what if
people find out I'm not who Iproject myself to be. The
easiest thing in the life is tobe yourself and your your
vulnerability. Right now, I justhonor and respect. I can go up
into tears at the edge of thelap about something that
matters. I don't think that'sunmasculine. I think it's just
sincere So, and your sinceritycomes from the level of

(48:31):
intensity what you face. Butlook at the muscles you built,
yeah, because of that. So youhad speech difficulties. So just
even say order a burger to whereyou are today. Is this
incredible entrepreneur buildingthese businesses, doing your
podcasting

others now, teaching others to get over
their pain. That's great. Yeah,me too.

That's why I'm still doing this. So you know, I
don't have this shit at thisstage of my life, right? I mean,
I'm gonna be 65 in a few weeks,and my wife's like, what the
hell you know it's like? We evergonna slow down? I said,
probably not, honey. She goes, Ilove you so much. A crazy
person, but I am. I'm crazilydriven because now it's no
longer the pain that drives me.
That's how it started. The angerat some points, was driving me,
but those sources of fuel don'tlast. What will keep you driven

(49:10):
is not so much push as pull.
Push as you're trying to makeyourself doing something. Pull
is that you've got an obsessionfor something you want to serve
something more than yourself,and you disappear. I mean, when
we think only about ourselves,we're always messed up, anxiety
and fear and all this. You hearall these kids today talking

(49:31):
about, you know, mental what'sthe word they use for it? Mental
wellness? What do they call it?
Mental challenges, or whatever,you know, and wanting to soothe
themselves. They know they needto become stronger, and they
don't know, and it's not theirfault. They've grown up in an
environment where you can push abutton and get whatever you want
in two seconds on your phone.
You know you only have to walkcross street get the food. God

(49:52):
forbid, they'll deliver it toyour house. You know that's the
world we're in. But the worldgoes through seasons, and the
season you experience are. Earlyin life, of being really
challenged. Every 18 to 20years, the season changes, and
so we have seasons of our life.
Zero to 21 is springtime. It'seasy to grow even if you had a
work like I did to help yourfamily, still, if it was a war,
I wasn't going to war yet,right? You're being fed

(50:15):
information, being supported. 22to 42 is kind of like the summer
when you get tested. You walk inthinking you're invincible,
you're 21 years old. You'regonna be president united
states, you're gonna be a multibillionaire, and you're gonna
have 100 relationshipssimultaneously, and everyone's
gonna be happy. Then you'returning 3233 3435 and you're
like, shit. I can't even manageone relationship effectively,

(50:37):
and I'm not a billionaire. Whatthe hell is going on? You get
humbled, but you're the soldierof society. If during that time,
22 to 42 there's a war, you'regoing to war, not the people
younger and older, right? And sothat's the area of life that's
the most challenging for mostpeople. That's the area of life
where there was the moststruggle, probably for you and
your youth, in that stages. Youget to 43 to 63 that's fall.

(50:58):
That's the Reaping diet. If youworked hard in the spring and
summer, you're going to reap.
That's like when it's a falleconomy, everybody makes it.
Somebody wants to give you aloan, and because you got a
pulse, you don't even have ajob. You know, they want you to
buy a piece of real estate.
They're willing to do it. We allknow those days that happens
every 20 years, like cycles,like like clockwork, 18 to 20
years, 17 to 20 years. Then whathappens then, after reaping and

(51:21):
having your most power, we'renow at this stage of your life,
holding out 5056, so at thisstage your life, my bed is you
can do more with your pinky thanwhen you work 20 hour days. You
still work 20 hour days, but nowyou're producing that much more,
right? Same for me, but when youget to that stage, you reap if,
or you weep in the fall if youdidn't do the work in the early

(51:42):
seasons. And you obviouslyworked. But I'm here to tell
you, my dear friend, what'scoming, because I wouldn't have
believed this. You know, you go64 to 8464 to 104 64 to 120 the
oldest living humans, whereveryou live, to that's the winter
season, but that's the seasonwhere there's the most joy in my
entire life. Because one, youhave relationships that are

(52:07):
people you've loved for 30years, 40 years. I mean, there's
nothing that comes close to thatyou know who you are. When
you're 20s to 40s, maybe even50s, you're still trying to
prove to yourself, or maybeothers, who you are. You get
this point just like, it's notthat you don't care, but you
don't give a shit. It's like, Iknow who the fuck I am, and I'm
not here for everybody. I'm notthe right style for I don't

(52:28):
pretend to be, but I know myshit, and you know your stuff. I
respect you. Respect me. That'scool. It's a different world.
There's no There's none of thatpush anymore. It's just I want
to serve, instead of, like,giant mission statements I used
to have. Now, my mission isreally simple. How can I help?
Right? So it's like someonecalls me and they're, you know,
they got somebody that'ssuicidal, a kid is having a

(52:49):
learning problem. A businessneeds to be turned around. Or
because I've spent a lifetimeaccumulating those answers,
besides what I do at all mycompanies, individually, I do
that, and it makes my life feelfully alive. So as long as you
keep your health, that stage isthe happiest, it is the most
fulfilling, and most peoplethink it's not going to be. So
that's why I want to plant aseed with everybody who's

listening. So thinking about health, we all
have had health challenges, noteverybody, but I've had big
ones. I know you've had a bigone, and I want to talk about
two separate events. You had agirlfriend while you talk about
her mom, Jenny, and how thatinfluenced how you thought about
health in the future. I know youread a book that no longer is
kind of the book you wouldrecommend today, and then when

(53:31):
you're 31 years old, you're onyour way to coaching Saudi
Arabian chic, who's paying you amillion bucks. You're getting
your helicopters license. Yeah,you get, you get some phone
calls. Some of our best ideascome in the shower. I mean, I
like this thing in the shower.
I'm horrible. Well, you had anepiphany in the shower. So tell
us about what happened and whatcame out of your

health scare.
Well, two things that I thinkyou're alluding to. One is, when
I was just a young kid, I wasvery, very driven, and, you
know, I achieved a good deal ofsuccess at a very young age. But
then in my unconscious, my brainwould say, like, how does this
happen so fast? I mean, I workon my guts out, but still, this
is amazing. And my brain wouldgo, well, you're gonna die
young. And then I got obsessedwith cancer. Some people, our

(54:13):
family, died of it. I watchedthem wilt away. And so I had it
was very vivid to me. And so,like, unconsciously, it's like,
I don't want to die cancer.
Maybe I'm just all happening nowbecause I'm not going to be here
very long. And then one day, mygirlfriend's mom came home, and
she's diagnosed with cancer. Shehad it in her feminine organs
and also a lump in her breastand and they told her she had

(54:36):
nine weeks to live. And I'vealways been the person that's
like, there's always a solution.
Well, for me, I probablywouldn't done as much, you know,
we usually do more for people welove than we do for ourselves.
And so I just geared up. Therewas no fear in me. I was like,
we're gonna solve this. And so Iwent, grabbed all these books,
and I read like seven books, andI got this one book called one
answer to cancer, which wouldn'tbe the number one book I picked
now, but it was written by adentist who had pancreatic

(54:57):
cancer, which is the mostaggressive. Positive and got rid
of it in less than 90 days. Andthey thought he's going to die
within six weeks. And so it wasall about a detox the body and
getting certain essentials intothe system and so forth. And so
I said to her, Look, the doctorsays you're going to die. Why
don't you read this and see whydon't you apply this? You got
nothing to lose. And then theysaid they want to do exploratory

(55:18):
surgery on her. And she came tome at, I think it was 19 at the
time to say, Should I do thesurgery? I was like, I can't
tell you she did the surgery,and I'm a wrong you know, you'd
die. But it was me. They shrunksizably, like you could see it
protruding for her here, and shecould feel it protruding, and
now she couldn't feel theprotrusions. And the doctor did
agree that it gotten smaller.

(55:39):
And I said, was me. I think I'dwait if it keeps getting
smaller. But the doctorconvinced her just to be safe.
And he dug around, and heliterally, I found something the
size of the top of her littlebaby fingernail. And the doctor
said it was a miracle. She said,is a miracle, but let me tell
you what I did. And he's like,No, it's a miracle. It's a
spontaneous remission. She said,Yeah, but let me tell you. And
so he wouldn't listen. So shewent around to churches, but

(56:01):
what it did to me was, is she'sstill alive today. She's in her
80s, right? What it did for meis it made me no longer have
fear. It's like, okay, there's away to handle this. And I
wouldn't have probably comeacross it. I would have been in
my own pity pot, probablybecause I was so afraid, or I've
been so fearful, I wouldn't havefound it. And so I became very
much health oriented. And thenyour example was, Oh, when I got

(56:23):
diagnosed, at one point, I wentto see a sky won't bore you long
story, but I want to see thisdoctor, and I'm a pilot, and so
you have to get certified,right? I'm a helicopter pilot
and a fixed wing pilot. And hedecided that that perhaps I had
a disease without telling me,and he did these tests. So he
calls me and calls me and callsme and calls me, and I'm like,
tell him to send the report. I'mflying to South of France, you

(56:45):
know, and I got home one night,there's a note on my door, and
it says the doctor says it's anemergency. You have to call him.
So then your brain goes crazy,right? So the first time, I'm
like, can I have cancer? I'vedone all the right things, but I
fly a lot, water, radiation, youknow, your head goes crazy. It's
like, stop, because I try tocall him. There's no answer
because it's, you know, one inthe morning, but I tell morning
by time I got home. So I waslike, Okay, I'm not going to

(57:06):
worry. It's like coward dies1000 deaths. A courageous person
wants, if there's a problem, I'mgoing to handle it. I went to
sleep. I got the next day, andthe guy tells me you have a
tumor in your brain. Said, what?
Because you have a tumor in yourbrain, you have a pituitary
tumor. I said, How could you Howcould you How could you possibly
know these I did some extrablood tests because I had a
hallucination, and that tumor iscreating a huge amount of growth
hormone in your body. I said,you know, How'd you figure that

(57:28):
out? You know, my hands arebigger than your head. You know,
my feet are size 16. He goes,No, you have gigantism. He said,
There is an active tumor inthere, I guarantee. I said, How
do you know that? He goes, Whydid this blood test? I said,
explain it to me. He goes, Well,it's really complex. I said, I'm
just I said, I'm a smart person.
Explain it to me. He couldn'texplain to me because he didn't
know how it works. He just knewthe answer. So he wanted me come

(57:48):
in immediately. Do you know anMRI? And then he wanted to go do
surgery, and I'm like, I'd liketo get a second opinion. And I
said, Well, you recommendanybody? And he was not, you
didn't have a good bedsidemanner. And I wasn't a nice
person in that state. I wasangry because I was shocked. And
so he said, find it yourself.
So, long story short, and I wentto Sloan Kettering, I found this
doctor, and sure enough, I had atumor in there, and it it

(58:11):
actually caused this massivegrowth spurt, 10 inches in a
year. But then it infarct, whichmeans it swallowed up a good
portion of itself. I still haveit to this day. But what the guy
want to do is surgery anyway,that's, well, side effects are
what? Well, death. You know,really low energy. Well, energy
is my life. So then I went toanother doctor, another doctor.
When doctors gonna send me toSwitzerland for shots that they

(58:33):
had, and you'd only have to shotevery six months? And he said, I
think that's what we can do. AndI said to him, I said, Doc, it
was his last day of practice. Hewas 72 he's the best in the
country. And he goes, I said,This guy wants to cut me. You
want to drug me. He goes, thebaker wants to bake, and Bucha
wants to butcher. He said. Isaid, but what if I did nothing?
I mean, my heart valves theright size. There's nothing off,

(58:55):
except I grew fast. And he said.
I said, what if it's a gift fromGod, like it makes me? He goes,
Well, it does make you repairquicker because you got a lot of
growth hormone. And he goes,Well, I just wouldn't take a
chance, just to be certain I doit. Well, the drug I didn't
take, the FDA outlawed becauseit caused cancer. I found out a
year later. So I missed abullet, and then I finally,

(59:16):
after, I think it was eightdoctors, I got a doctor. It
says, you do have a huge amountof growth hormone. You get about
$1,200 a month, which is what abodybuilder would be paying at
that time for this. He goes,it's gonna make you restore
really well. As long as youmonitor it, you don't do
anything. So I'm still, youknow, I still monitor it, but
not every three or four years. Ihaven't seen any change. And you
know, I'm, you know, I've got abody that I also buy a hack the

(59:39):
hell out of it. But you know, ifyou believe the true age
measurements, I'm going to be 65in in chronological age, but I'm
52 in biochemical age, which isnice.

At some point people realize that they're
better than different people. Iremember I was playing golf. I'm
a horrible golfer, causer, bythe way, best place on earth.
Um. As you Yes, and I'm playingwith this guy, and I'm a
horrible golfer, and we have afro I have a pro golfer who came
in, who's a friend, and we'reall playing golf, and I'm just,

(01:00:10):
you know, I lost 40 balls thatround. And it was interesting to
hear the conversation betweenthose two guys. And the golfer
said to this player, who hadbeen in eight all star games, 10
All Star game, who said, youknow, at what point did you know
you were better than everyoneelse, and 99% of people weren't
gonna make it? So when did youknow that you had this

(01:00:32):
incredibly special gift that youcould motivate, inspire hundreds
of millions of people around theworld, which you have? I mean, I
put up on my social media. I'mdoing Tony Robbins, you know,
this is, this is my dreampodcast. And thank you. I got

(01:00:52):
hundreds of DMS. You know, Iposted to La story. I'm so
pumped like going to TonyRobbins, how's it doing the
show? And it's just fuckingexploded. That's awesome. I
mean, you've influenced so manypeople. When did you know you
had this gift?

Tony Robbins (01:01:08):
Well, first of all, I'm complimented. Thank
you. I think, I think my gift isdifferent than people think. My
gift is the depth of my caring.
I know that might sound corecorny to some people, but when
people ask my wife, what'ssomething about Tony that nobody
knows, and she says, how much heprepares because, you know, I
could get up and do a four dayseminar for 12 hours a day, you
know, without thinking at thisstage. But I every audience I

(01:01:30):
organize, I do interviews forpeople in advance. I find out
what they're after, what they'redoing. When I do my date with
destiny, I got 5000 people, andthey do a 10 to 20 page
document. I read them all. Imean, the ones they turn in. Of
course, some people turn them inthe night before, and I'm doing
it. But I'm obsessed with givingmy all, every time I can serve.

(01:01:51):
And when I'm up there, I thinkthat's my secret, is I remember
a friend of mine, good buddynow, came to a seminar years and
years ago, and he was like, youknow, what is this bullshit? You
know, positive thing to crapthis guy up there in those days,
it was the 80s, you know, youwear a suit and tie while you're
in a seminar, and it's, youknow, I'm by the fire. It's 110
degrees, you know, sweating. AndI was on stage, and I was, you

(01:02:13):
know, I get people to changetheir bodies, because that's how
you change your mind. Justtrying to change your mind. It
doesn't do shit. You got tochange the physiology first. So
I changed their bodies. And partof what we do is we have people
extend up and rise up and jumpand all these different things.
And I remember just like, youknow, you know, he was with a
guy that was an NFL Pro Bowler,and the other guy he came with,

(01:02:35):
it was a billionaire. I waslike, I'm a billion. I'm gonna
do this jump and shit. And hegoes, Oh. And he goes, 15
minutes later, we're all jumpingbecause he said we watched you.
We watched the sweat go fromhere all the way down to the end
of your tie, and you, it wasobvious, like you were giving
every ounce of your soul. So ifyou could do that crap, I could
jump right. And so I thinkpeople, I'm able to reach
people, because you can't fakethat for four days, 1213, hours

(01:02:59):
a day, and they know don't haveto do it. You can. They can feel
it. So people open when you'rethere to truly serve them, not
serve yourself. And I say that'smy biggest one. The second thing
is, I'm obsessed with strategiesabout how to get results faster.
And they work because they'rethe best. They're not the best
because I created them. Imodeled the best combination. So
when did I know that? You know,I don't know, probably,

(01:03:21):
probably, shortly after, I wasworking with the President, and
I'm 31 years old, 32 and I seenthe President United States. We
were in Camp David and as BillClinton at that time, and and
he's wanting my advice, and I'mlistening to him, and I got
like, This guy's a presidentUnited States. And man, he is
really messed up, and he's themost powerful man on earth. And
so we begin to realize we're alljust people and and that. But my

(01:03:43):
skill set kept growing, and whenI started being able to do
anything from turn around thearmy to, you know, speak in any
country, and take people 1213,hours a day and have the impact,
obviously I couldn't miss that Ihad that skill or the
interventions that I'd done. Andthen, you know, you know, we all
have some sense of inner pride.
And you know, it's funny for metoday, because I have young

(01:04:06):
bucks come up to me and say, youknow, remember my name, because
you know, someday, you know I'mgonna, I'm gonna be where you
are. And I always tease them go,gosh, that's fantastic, because
when you get where I am, you'llbe where I was, because I'm not
gonna stop growing. So let's doit, you know. So I love that
sense of growth and competitionas well. So, but I don't look at
it as like I have this greatgift. I look at it like people

(01:04:29):
have gifts. My job is to helpthem uncover them, but I have a
great gift. The gift is justloving on them and having a
skill to figure out how to getthere.

Unknown (01:04:37):
I came from the California fires. I was

there on Tuesday Wednesday. I was there for
business and some friends. Andso two friends lost their homes,
one of them third home, becauselet me know it's it's terrible.
It's just

Randall Kaplan (01:04:48):
like again, talking about getting emotional.
Just most our friends lost theirhome. I got a call from
principal of school. You know,she calls all the time, right?
And so I see the school pop up,and I never had. To a phone.
It's a recording, and I onlyhave my phone on I'm writing a
book on preparation calledextreme preparation. So I don't
answer my phone in the morning,and my son was in town. I was

(01:05:09):
trying to coordinate. You know,he's home from college, so I
have my phone on there. I see itdidn't answer calls again and
said, Oh, we're evacuating.
Meeting in school. There's afire. Come look out. I look out
my window. I live in Brentwood,my officers in brown. I look in
the palace. I'm like, Holyfucking shit. Most fires, you
just see the smoke, right? Thisfire was black, a black tornado
that was just didn't stop. I wasthere. I saw I was, oh my god.

(01:05:34):
So I rushed down to my car, gotin a parking rush, and then
we're about three miles awayfrom school. And so I, you know,
sun, so I'm driving down Sunsetmaniac. So as everyone else
double honking, crossing thedouble yellow lines, parked, I
don't know, five block away,sprinted into the school, right?
I mean, you just look at thefire, you can see it expanding,
and it's just sheer pandemonium,right? You got the kids crying,

(01:05:59):
you know, you got the parentsall your kids, and you know, you
run out of there and then tellthem everyone, she is eight. I
have five kids, so she's insecond grade at Pali, and then
we have a four and a half yearold in preschool, preschools in
Santa Monica, so they closed theschool later, but we had to get
to Pali. And six hours later,the school burned down. And two
hours later, our first friend,their school, their their home

(01:06:20):
burned out. So so many, so manypeople are suffering so bad, all
of our friends, 90% of ourfriends, lost everything, their
home, their belongings, thankGod, they're all safe. Which is
most important? You said thatcrisis is a gift. What would you
tell all of those families todaywho are in that situation, who
are suffering immensely. Whatshould they be telling their

(01:06:44):
mind to help them feel better?

Well, I know a lot of them are very angry, as they
have every right to be, becausethe government has not done its
part and without playingpolitics, one side or the other,
you know, to empty the world wasempty. In Pacific Bible states,
they lied and said they just ranout of Frank. Governor was
saying they ran out because ofthe use. It's not true. They
emptied it in the summer. Sothere's just some stupid things
that brought that about. So Iunderstand the anger, but in the

(01:07:09):
end, you still got to take careof you. You can vote differently
in the future, but right now,what do you do? Well, I had a
home in California that alsoburned down years ago. It was my
dream home. I built it, andeverything I wanted had all the
memorability of my life it had,you know, I grew up in an age
where there weren't digitalpictures. So all the pictures
are gone, all my favorite rarebooks, all the inscription,

(01:07:29):
everything that had sentimentalvalue was gone. But in the midst
of me feeling this grief andfrustration, I realize this is
not going to serve to stay inthis place. I need to be a role
model for my kids. I have kids,and that was four at the time,
and I need to be I need to showpeople how to deal with this,
because this is something that'sunfortunately common. We're all

(01:07:51):
going to experience extremestress. I don't care how rich
you are, how good a person youare, how religious you are,
everyone in their lifetime isgoing to experience extreme
stress as you have and that Ihave, and probably more than
once. Aren't you guys glad youcame to this positive
conversation? But it's true. Imean, hearing Yeah, but we're
all gonna have a house burneddown, or we're gonna lose a job,

(01:08:12):
or a COVID type thing is gonnashut our business down unfairly,
or you're gonna have some ofyour family who gets a terminal
disease, or you're going to geta terminal disease. I mean,
every one of us is going toexperience extreme stress. The
question is, what do you do whenyou have extreme stress? And the
stupid answer, but it's anaccurate answer, is, when you're
going through hell, you got tokeep going. And the better

(01:08:33):
answer is, when you pushyourself through it and you go
to the other side, you get threeamazing benefits that will
affect your life forever in agood way. One, you discover how
strong you really are. Becauseif it's extreme stress, and you
don't give up, and you don'tsuccumb, and you keep moving
forward, you go on what's calledthe hero's journey. We've all
heard about it. All the storiesof mankind can be put into one

(01:08:53):
fundamental story. What is thehero's journey? You're living
your life. All these peopleliving life, their ordinary,
normal, day to day life, andboom, something comes and
smashes it. The Smash is a callto adventure, a call to a
different world than you wouldhave entered into if it hadn't
happened. You don't know what itis. You don't even know why it
is. It looks like it's forterrible reasons. But as I said

(01:09:15):
earlier, what if everything'shappening for you, not to you
doesn't look like it? I'm notsaying it's fair, who said life
was fair? But it's gonna lead tosomething new. It'll lead to an
expansion. And so when thathappens, Dorothy and the Wizard
of Oz, Luke Skywalker and StarWars, you can take anyone,
they're living a normal life,and then something happens, a
tornado, there's a landing, orhis parents get killed,

(01:09:38):
something disruptive. And then,usually, most of us don't want
to go on the journey becauseit's uncertain. We just stay
upset with where things are. Buteventually you're usually pushed
into going on that journey. Andwhen you do, what will happen is
you will meet when our homeburned down, my first thing was,
okay, we lost things. I valued alot of those things, but. Things

(01:10:00):
are not the same as my family.
Things for losing things is notlosing family this. This is a
gift, and so I had to turn itinto gratitude, because when
you're angry and fearful, youcan't change squat, but
gratefulness, you can't be angrywhen you're grateful, and you
can't be fearful when you'regrateful. So then what did that
lead to? It led to us building anew home in a different place.
It led to meeting new friendsand made me new mentors, and led

(01:10:22):
to new decisions to now here Iam in my favorite home, here in
Florida. I never would have leftthe Del Mar castle. It was a
castle built out of pieces ofcastles in Europe. On top the
hill was my ultimate place, myfamily. It's not even close to
what I privileged have theprivilege and blessing of having
my life today. I love where I amor what I'm doing, but I would
have never known that, because Iwould have stayed there bar

(01:10:43):
having to change. And I thinkthat happens to a lot of us. So
by the way, when you go on thatjourney and meet these new
mentors and meet new friends,you'll develop new skills, and
then you'll have new battles.
It's not like it's all justeasy, the battles with the
external, the battles withwhat's going on inside of you,
and when you conquer and slayyour dragons, you come home the

(01:11:03):
hero, and you're able to give toother people, not on book
knowledge, because you've livedit, and everyone can feel when
you've lived it versus you'rejust talking bullshit or talking
something you've thought of,right or read about. And by the
way, when you're done with thatyou've helped those people,
it'll happen again. That islife. So what I tell people is,
right now, you've got tocultivate gratitude. It's not

(01:11:26):
positive thinking bullshit. It'sbecause to live in pain will not
make it better in any way. Youhave to make that shift of
gratefulness that you didn'tlose it. I mean, it is a miracle
that there are, what, 13 peoplethat died out of that, when
there's 10,000 homes that aregone, and all the schools and
all the, you know, shoppingcenters and all those things
that are out there, that's anincredible gift. It looks like,

(01:11:48):
you know, a war zone. I mean, Iwas there. I know what you're
talking about so badly numberone, but here's what happens.
You find out how strong you are.
Here's the second thing youlearn when you go through hell,
you discover who your realfriends are versus your Facebook
friends, because there's theones that show up and are there
for you. And thirdly, youdevelop an immunity to future
challenges, because you developmuscle in dealing with this

(01:12:08):
issue that you wouldn't have.
It's like, how do you build amuscle? You don't pick a light
weight and do 100 reps that willdo nothing, you get a way you
can barely lift and you couldpush through. And you're trying
to do eight reps, and you're youcan't do one more, and the
trainer says four more, youknow? And you do three more, and
you get more growth there thanany of the time. This is
building us emotionally andspiritually. It is not fair. It

(01:12:31):
is not just. It shouldn't havehappened and it has you. Better
use it so it doesn't use you.
And then the second thing I dois give them tools, and so we
can announce it here. I haven'tmade a public announcement. Yet,
there is a tool called New calmthat I've used for multiple
years, and a lot of people, PTSDuse it, but also just average
achievers or average people,either one will use it so they
can calm their nervous system,because most of us have a lot of

(01:12:52):
stress. And it also has, whathas great sleep mode and a great
Wake Up mode. I've used it foryears. It's one of the best
tools available, because I knowwhat it's like. It's 100 bucks a
year, whatever. I'm buying ayear's worth of it, and I'm
buying six months. I'm gettingthem to donate six months, and
we give a year to anyone inSouthern California that wants
it for a year. No stringsattached. Then there's a skill
you may have heard of calledtapping. It's based on

(01:13:13):
understanding meridians in thebody when, when things happen
down, for example, in SandyHook, it's brutal situation. We
went down there and turnedfamilies around using this 3000
scientific studies. It's a verysimple tool. So we built an app
so millions of people can dothis. I'm doing that for people
for a year, and then I'm alreadydoing something I do once a
year, which is when COVIDhappened, another huge,

(01:13:36):
unbelievable event affected thewhole world, and people are
locked in their homes. I wasused to doing all these
stadiums, right? You know, 15,20,000 people, and they shut
down every stadium around theworld, London, Australia,
everywhere in the US. So it'slike I built a studio, and I
said, Okay, people are stuck athome. They're depressed.
Depressing is going through theroof. People are suicidal. It's

(01:13:57):
like, I gotta help people wherethey live. So even though I
wouldn't have done it ever, Iremember, I'm gonna do this in
people's homes when I'm used toa rock and roll concert of a
building. To give you an ideawhat it's like on those
seminars, like Pat Riley, heowns the Miami Heat was one of
the greatest coaches in history.
I remember the first time hecame with these seminars with
me. He's like, this is like theseventh game at the NBA

(01:14:19):
championship, only, instead oftwo hours, it's 12 hours for
four days. You know, it's like,the energy is unbelievable. So
that's used to I want to do thatin somebody at home, in their
bedroom or their living room ortheir garage, watching me on a
little screen, right? Butbecause there was no other
choice, I came up the way itdid. I built this studio. 55
ceilings, 20 foot size, LEDscreens all around me, 50 feet

(01:14:41):
point six, seven resolution, soI can see more than I can see in
you right now. This car apartfor me because it's magnified. I
went to the guys that run zoom,and I said, I can't have 1000
people. I hate 25,000 people.
And then I said, I got to beable bring them up to see them.
I built software so instead ofclapping your hands in a
seminar, you might pop you'reyou shake. Your phone, it sends
an electrical signal. When oneperson does it, you don't hear

(01:15:02):
it, but when 25,000 people do,it's like thunder, so it
produces the same experience. Sothen I said, Okay, people are
stuck at home. They're fearful.
Let me eliminate every obstacleto them getting goodness in
their life. Let's eliminate notravel. They can't so we're
gonna do it in their home ortheir office, wherever they are.
Let's eliminate money. Am Igonna charge you anything for
it? Let's make an immersion,because that's what works.

(01:15:24):
Learning a language a little bitat a time you don't speak it.
Drop you in Rome for 90 days,you're gonna be speaking the
language. So I use immersion,but let's do immersion that
doesn't freak them out, likethree hours a day for three
days. And let's really give themthe skills to change their
energy, their body, theiremotion, their business, instead
of a bunch of news resolutions,they don't get followed through
on. And so we announced it, weput it out to people, and I

(01:15:47):
developed these tools to keeppeople engaged. And we have
people for 193 countries thatattend. The last one, I did a
1.2 million people in it fromevery country in the world. And
we're doing it again this year,and I only do it once a year.
And so whether you're inSouthern California having
challenges, you could join thatalso, but people from everywhere
in the world go and again, it'snot partially free. It's totally

(01:16:07):
free. It's called the time torise Summit. So if you go to
time to rise summit.com time torise summit.com you can sign up.
There's no fee for it, and youcan do it at home or at the
office. You do with your familyor your friends. But the kinds
of results that people get areunbelievable. And I don't charge
for it, but I say if the onevalue I want back from you, for
you is, if you're going to dothis, we're going to give it to

(01:16:28):
you. I want you to do anassignment tonight, give an
assignment each day, and thetransformations, and they posted
on Facebook, the transformationsare unbelievable. And then you
have a community of a millionpeople who are all hungry and
driven to make their life betterand helping each other. So it
becomes, that's how I startevery year now. So anyone could
do that. If you're watching, Ihope you'll do that's why I'm
doing a bunch of podcasts rightnow. I want people know about

(01:16:50):
it. It's coming up, january 30,31st and February 1. January 30
through February 1 content fromanywhere in the world. Again, no
charge. So go to thatexperience, but the people in
Southern California even more.
So I'm gonna give them thosetools for them that but for
everybody else, I gotta do foreverybody. And they could also
go to that event, and I canpromise you they'll be turned
around. It doesn't mean it'llall be easy. You just mean
they'll be on the path to havingwhat they really want. Let's

(01:17:12):
talk

about a couple things that make people
successful. We've talked aboutpreparation. I'm writing a book
called extreme preparation. It'sbeen one of the hallmarks of my
career. You do a shit ton ofpreparation as well. Talk to us
about Ray Dalio, and you saidsomething in the book. I've been
teaching this and coaching thisfor a long time. It really
helps, takes the impossible andmakes it possible. It helps

(01:17:34):
improve your win, right?
Dramatically. Yes, and you cando if you're so many things I've
heard, oh, I can't get that job,even if someone's firing 40,000
people, there's a job for theperson who does a preparation.
You talk about a concept calledPitch and cash. I've never
thought about it that way. Buttell us what you did for Ray
Dalio. Ray Dalio do foreverybody. But if you have

(01:17:56):
right, yeah. And by your by theway, I've done a lot of
podcasts, I think around 150podcast, your team was the most
thorough in terms of questions,scheduling minutes. It was, it
was great. I'm like, like, Hey,your team speaks my language. I
love this. That's

good. Well, no, what? I wrote this book, money
master the game. And I wrote itbecause in 2000 80s, remember
the world melting down. But Iwas coaching Paul Tudor Jones at
the time, one of the top 10traders in the history of the
world. You know, this is a guywho, in 1987 stock market
dropped 20% in one day, thelargest still percentage drop in
the day. He made 100% for hisclients. Genius. So when this

(01:18:34):
was all happening, I couldn'tbelieve it, and I couldn't
believe afterwards nothing wasdone, and that the punishment
for the people that almostdestroyed the financial system
was give them more money. So Isaid, I don't have a lot of
skills, but one skill I have isthe ability to get to the best
people, and I'm good atmodeling, so let me interview
the very best. So in preparationfor those like Ray Dalio, is one
of the greatest, you know, hedgefund traders in the hits history

(01:18:56):
of the world, there's already inhis class. And so I prepared for
him, I think three and a halffour hours the night before. I
prepared weeks before. But Iwent even deeper. I knew every
part of what's going in. So Iwent in as typical, supposed to
have a 45 minute interview, andI went three hours and same they
have with Jack Bogle. Jack Bogleactually wrote a quote that
says, Tony Robbins came by for a20 minute interview, and three

(01:19:17):
and a half hours later, it wasthe most piercing interview of
my entire career, right? I getthree hours today.

Unknown (01:19:23):
I'll come drive with you in the car. We'll say we'll
save the equipment whereveryou're

going here anyway, what it allowed me to do when I
sat down with them is what Icall pitch and catch, which
means he'd say something. I knewwhat it was, and I could add
some value back and forth. Itbuilt a great rapport, and we're
good friends today because ofit. But one of the questions I
asked him at the time, was whatis the single most important
investment principle, all thingsyou've learned that people
should know. And he said, Tony,that's a great question. I

(01:19:49):
struggled this for years. Ifinally came up with what I call
the holy grail of investing,which is the title of the book
that I just came up with, and itwas based on what he taught me.
And he said, Tony, if you canfind. Eight to 12 uncorrelated
investments. You reduce yourrisk by 80% and you increase
your upside. That's wild. Nowthat sounds wonderful on paper,

(01:20:12):
but when you go to do it, it'ssomething else. And then I was
at the JP Morgan conference.
They have a alternativeinvestment conference where you
got to be a billionaire to go,and I'm one of the speakers, and
raised right before me, andsomebody asked him some
questions, and kind of led to asimilar question, like, what's
the most important member? Andhe said, The Holy Grail, same
thing. And every head in theworld was not written a single
note the entire day. Drop downand ruin it down. So it's like,

(01:20:33):
I need to realize evensophisticated people miss this
one. They may know itintellectually, but they got it.
So then how do you do that? Likeit's hard, because you say,
okay, stocks and bonds aren'tcorrelated. Usually, stocks are
going up. Bonds are a differentprice point. That's usually the
balance, but during tough times,they get aligned. And so you
have to have sophisticated toolsto do it. And then I started

(01:20:54):
studying history and saying,Okay, your asset allocation,
where you put your money atrisk, small risk, larger risk,
upsides, etc. Your philosophyinvesting is the single most
important thing. Every every oneof the people I interviewed
agreed on that. So I said, Well,what is the asset allocation for
the most successful people inthe world? Well, ultra wealthy
people have 46% of their assetsand private equity and private

(01:21:16):
credit, like, Yeah, but that'shard to get into. And I started
doing the homework, and I found,in the last 37 years, there
isn't a single stock market inthe world that has built be
average private equity now Iwrote this book, and I
interviewed 12 of the Masters ofthe Universe, people that then
20% plus compounded for morethan a decade, or two decades,

(01:21:39):
unheard of in the normal market,because when things go down,
they don't have to sell, sothey're not stuck. And when
things go down, they can buy.
When things go up, they cansell. They have more
flexibility, only the timelinechallenge that somebody owns a
stock make the right they have.
And so I started studying them,and I was like, here's the real
numbers, the S, p5, 100, mostpeople would invest in, right?

(01:22:00):
The index has gone up 10.7 overthe last 37 years. It's pretty
amazing. Compounding. Theaverage private equity of these
guys has been 15.7 so if youcould compound 50% faster,
people don't understand whatthat means. If you put a million
dollars in the s, p, 37 yearsago and you never touched it,
it's worth $42 million today. Ifyou put a million dollars in the

(01:22:23):
same day, same amount of moneyin private equity, average
private equity, it's worth 220,$3 million today. So now here's
the next problem. How does theaverage person get that? Well,
you're I know you're a fit.
Familiar, there are things likea credit investor. The
government doesn't give youaccess to all these investments.
The best investments the bestinvestments are reserved for
people that already have money.
It seems so unjust and unfair. Iwas squawking about it. I didn't

(01:22:45):
do it, but somebody woke up inCongress, and last year, that's
why I wrote the book. Last year,they came out with a new rule.
Said it's got to confirm it thisyear. But the new rule is, well,
you could get a lot of money byinheriting. It doesn't mean
you're a sophisticated investor.
You could be a good businessman,but not a great investor. So why
would we penalize people? Say,if they have a certain amount of

(01:23:06):
money, let's give them a test totake. They can study for it.
They understand it that anyonecan have access to this. So
imagine the compounding value toget your financial future when
you can do this. And thenthere's one more thing I'll say,
just because I know we're out oftime. So I'm talking to this guy
who was one of Paul TudorJones's associate partners
before, and he broke off andstarted his own company. I'd
helped him really grow hisbusiness quite a bit. And I was

(01:23:28):
saying to him, private equity isgreat, and because of guys like
you and I, we have certainrelationships and brand and so
we get access to some of thebest. But the amount you get,
they're all sold out right away.
It's so small that it wasn'tgoing to alter my life in any
way. So I was, I was, you know,saying, man, it's like, how did
he get in there? It's just thevery best is already sold out,
and he goes Tony, you helped meso much. I got to tell you where

(01:23:49):
I put most of my money. I said,most of your money is a very
sophisticated financial guy. Isaid, Yeah. I said, where he
goes? There's this Company inHouston, Texas. And I went,
Houston, not Singapore, youknow, London, New York,
Connecticut, same Houston. Hegoes, Yeah. He said they're off
the beaten path, but they arebrilliant. And here's what
they've done. When you tryinvest in private equity, you've

(01:24:11):
become what's called a limitedpartner. And as you know, you
give them your money, and thenthey charge you 2% of your
money, whether they make yourmoney or not, and then they get
20% of the upside. And peopleare willing to do it because
they're so successful, but itmakes them very wealthy. If you
look at the Forbes 400 you'llsee which industry has the most
billionaires. People think it'stech, it's not. They think it's

(01:24:32):
real estate, it's not. It'sentertainment, it's not, it's
financial services, and it'sspecifically not hedge funds
that go up and down. It'sprivate equity. So I look at
this and I'm like, okay, theseguys are the masters universe,
and they're getting two and 20.
He goes, Tony, they have a wayfor you not to try to get into a
fund, but to own the fur. Sothink about, instead of

(01:24:55):
embedding on a horse, owning theracetrack. I'm like, you can do
that. He goes, You. Yes, andwe've done it. They've done it
with some of the like Vista, ifyou're familiar with, some of
the best companies in the world.
100 billion dollar funds likethat are producing results that
are incredible. So I went and Ibecame a client. And then it
turned out the founder of thatcompany, 20 years before it was
a student of mine, like you,changed his whole life, and he's

(01:25:15):
like, Tony, how do I get youinvolved? As I want to get him
also I invest in the company.
And then I wrote the book to it.
People know all theseopportunities are available,
like sports teams, if you wantan asset that's not correlated,
sports teams have done well inevery market and every
environment we've ever done, andthey do better than the s, p,
right? So I worked for alifetime those five rings back

(01:25:37):
there, those all championshiprings from different sports
where I worked with a team, andsome of them I owns, on a piece
of the Dodgers, on a piece ofthe Golden State Warriors, but I
coach the Warriors. Well, it'sthe most fun experience you can
imagine. It's something youreally enjoy. But also the
returns, on average across allthose sports are 14% compounded,
not 10.7 and you own a monopoly.

(01:26:00):
You own a business that's alegal monopoly, and who are your
customers? Fans that comes from,fanatics that are multi
generational, and now they'renot just sports teams, the
entertainment value. I'll justgive you one example, the
Dodgers. My friend Peter Gerberabout the Dodgers, I get chance
to later on, they invested them.
He paid $2 billion for theDodgers, 2.1 I think it was. And
everybody in the news is saying,no one's paid over a billion

(01:26:21):
dollars. This is insane. Theythis. They'll never make

money $800 million more than the second
bidder in that deal. That'scrap. And

everybody's like, This is crazy. So I said, Peter,
I know everything. You're nuts.
I know you're not nuts. You'llslide the ski guys. I know. What
do you know? What are you gonnado here. And he leans toward he
goes, I love a cliffhanger. He'sMovie Maker, right? He goes,
wait three days. I want to makethe announcement. Then you call
me, we'll come over andcelebrate. He announces three
days later, if you own a sportsteam, NBA, like there's 232,

(01:26:51):
teams, if I remember correctly,you get 1/32 of all the media
coverage. It's done nationally,internationally. It's huge. And
the NFL, which is the firstteam, to just they were holding
out, we just made a deal withthem without doing what the NFL.
They get a check for four, $50million they ended every year
just for their percentage of theleague. Just that, but you get
to keep your local rights. Petersold the local rights for $7

(01:27:16):
billion they made 5 billion andprofited in a day doing this so
you can get a small piece of asports team, have the joy of
that, have the benefit of that,and have something else that's
not correlated the stock market.
So I'm passionate about givingpeople choices, and I'm so
grateful that the government isfinally waking up to not limit
people who can participate.

Unfortunately, we're out of time. Okay, I have
two hours more of questions, andI believe in life, you don't ask
if you don't get so I'm hopingto have the opportunity to come
back and finish what we started.
There's so much about there's somuch about money that I want to
talk to and advice. I'm gonnaask you one more question before
we hang up, before we hang up,before we end the podcast, sure

(01:27:59):
if you could give yourself onepiece of advice to your 21 year
old self,

Unknown (01:28:05):
yes, what would it be?

Yeah, that's a very common question today. It's
so interesting. People ask thatall the time. And I thought
about it multiple ways. I thinkJim Rohn gave me a piece of
advice when I was very young.
One of those was me trying tounderstand, you know why my
fathers, like I said, werestruggling so much. You know the
good man, and he was the one whotaught me that we're equal to
souls, but we're not equal inthe marketplace. You got to add

(01:28:28):
more value. But he also taughtme something else. When I was
really frustrated, he said,Tony, if you keep giving your
all your gifts will make roomfor you. And I think the same
piece of advice. I mean, I knowmore today and everything else.
But I think if you just keepmoving forward, if you will not
let anything stop you and youreally focus on serving, because
I really believe the onlysolution to long term happiness

(01:28:49):
is to get outside yourself, thehuman mind, who always finds
something to be concerned about,pissed off about, worried about,
but when you're serving, you'renot there. There's something
magical about finding somethingyou care about more than
yourself, then you get that pullmotivation we talked about
instead of push. You know, pushdoesn't last, pull does. And if
you've got that kind of drive,you're going to keep growing.

(01:29:11):
And if you keep growing, andhave plenty to give, and if you
keep giving, you're gonna have ameaningful life. In the end,
that's what we all really want,is a life that's really full of
meaning. And so mine is full ofmeaning because of my family,
because of my kids andgrandkids, but it's also for all
my chosen family and friends andall the people I have the
privilege to serve all over theearth. And I've been able to do
it for multi generations. I gotfriends that I knew when they're

(01:29:32):
40, but now 82 and 83 andthey're still crushing it. And
so that generation I have, mygeneration that grew up with me.
I'm 60, I have a generation ofpeople that are, you know, 45 or
50 or 55 like you that startedlistening to me when they're 20,
you know. And then I've got 17year olds that are joining it.
So the privilege and theblessing to be able to serve all
these different people indifferent stages of life and

(01:29:54):
have more to give now, becauseI've lived so much life, and
it's certain things you don'tknow without. Living them, no
matter what you try and how tolearn from other people. And so
I'm excited about what the next30 plus years, hopefully, if I
live that long, will provide interms of my ability to serve
even more people. And I thinkthat's what you got to do. If I
were to finish, I'd say, Findsomething you care about more
than yourself, because that'swhat's going to be the secret to

(01:30:16):
your growth and your aliveness.
Whether it's your family, it'syour friends, it's your company,
it's a it's a nonprofit thing toyou, it's a mission for you. If
you can find that and findsomething that gives you that
pull, your life is going to beone hell of an adventure. When

I started my show three and a half years ago,
I made a list of my top gas youwere number one.

Touched by that.
Thank you.

Some great grateful we're here. Grateful to
you for making an influence inmy life and and so many more.
And I want to shout out to DougEvans, for making this happen
and never would happen withoutDoug. You can pour it. It's
important to give credit towhere credit is due. This has
been a true joy. Yes, I'mgrateful to you. Thank you very
much, and I hope we do have achance to get to know each other
and sit down again. So youshould come to have you ever

(01:31:04):
been to an event? No, I haven'tbeen to a well. I'll tell you a
quick story, and I always haveto go. When I was an unhappy
lawyer, I met a guy named Brian,met a boy, yes, of course. And
Brian and so at some point, ourcompany is going to go public,
and Brian had heard about so heinvites me to sing Peter
Gruber's house. Yes, I getthere, and I'm the only one

(01:31:25):
there, not in the business, theentertainment business, and
everyone's the agent. It was amovie mobile meeting for Armani
series, these young agents. I'ma tech guy. So I got, I don't
know if I had jeans on, in ashirt like this. I'm looking
around it. You got people doingjumping jacks. Wasn't jumping
jacks, but sort of you, theywere doing jumping jacks in
their suit. I was worried theywere gonna rip their shirts. And

(01:31:49):
I remember walking out of Petershouse again like I read your
books. I have a book Awaken theGiant film, which in first
edition that I brought, broughtwith me. It's a paperback. You
can say it's got yellow pagesthat I read a few times. And I
honestly walk out again, likeyou had motivated me already.
I'd read your first book and andhere it was. And so that was the

(01:32:09):
only one I had been to. But Iremember walking out of Peters
mansion, you know? And Iremember thinking
this house up off itsfoundation, 29
girlfriend out on my pinkyfinger when I got out of the
car, was so pumped. So

imagine doing that. We did that for like two
hours at this house. That wasyears ago. But imagine being
with 1015, 20,000 people anddoing four days and nights that
you get rewired. I want peopleto know that what we do here is
not about thinking. Sanford dida study. We don't have time to
talk about it. But you know,people go through and they get
treated for depression, that'swhat they were interested in.

(01:32:44):
And 60% of people make noimprovement. 40% of those people
improve. 50% on average, somepeople get well, most people on
drugs the rest of their life.
And when they did the study withmy group over six days with no
drugs, no anything, 93% were nolonger having depressive
symptoms. 7% improved, 17% hadsuicidal ideation, considering
suicide, going in, none of themafterwards, a year later, 71%

(01:33:06):
reduction in negative emotions.
52% increase in positiveemotions. So this is a
conditioning process. We'rediscussing something which is
can be stimulating, but to getyour results, you got to get in
your body, and that's why Istill do events. So you've got
to come to events my guest andeveryone please join me for you

(01:33:26):
know, go to time to rise, timeto rise summit.com and you could
do one from your home for a fewhours a day. But if you get a
chance come to unleash thepower, then you'll be my guest.
So we'll blow you away. You havethe time of your life. I promise
to come. Thank you so much.
Thanks for your time, Randy. Iwish you would have prepared,
damn it. Now, Randy, I really amimpressed in you've done your
homework part about thismeeting, long as you have so

(01:33:48):
many details to talk about. ButI really appreciate that,
because I I'm an extremepreparation person as well. My
wife will tell you I'm nutsbecause and then I don't use all
that, but your brain is awakenedby all of it. And you, you know,
you have more choices to be ableto serve somebody when you're
there. It's like, think of itthis way. It's like, if you may,
have grown up with two differentbeliefs. You were taught, so

(01:34:08):
which one are you gonna live by?
You were taught, look before youleap. You're taught, who he who
hesitates is lost. Which one isgonna guide you, whichever one
is more recently awakened inyou. So when you prep even in
something you know, it'sbringing it into the forefront
of your nervous system, so thatyou're more likely to be able to
make that difference. So Ireally honor you for doing that.

(01:34:28):
You.

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Tony Robbins: Why Your Biography is Not Your Destiny | E147

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tony Robbins: Why Your Biography is Not Your Destiny | E147