Tony Robbins is one of the best-known, and most popular motivational speakers and personal coaches in the world. The author of a number of NY Times booklist best sellers, his Awaken the Giant Within alone has sold over 2 million copies. His successful teachings have helped celebrities, politicians, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and people from all walks of life in different countries.
One of Tony Robbins’ most admirable traits is his willingness to give credit where credit is due. Modeling the successful techniques and methods of others is one of his core strategies, and he rarely will fail to cite from whom he learned a particular practice or tactic. This also goes for his own hardscrabble past, which became a rags to riches story thanks to a revelatory seminar he attended at age 17.
Mentoring a Future Giant
Robbins unhesitatingly credits his mentor, Jim Rohn, with changing his life around when he was a 17-year-old janitor.
“When I was just 17, I attended a seminar that changed my entire perspective on life. I listened, utterly captivated, as a speaker detailed his journey through hardship and self-doubt, turning every obstacle into a stepping stone for success. That day, I realized that the struggles I faced were not dead ends but doorways to something greater, inspiring me to commit my life to helping others overcome their own challenges.”
– Tony Robbins, reflecting on his early breakthrough during a 2008 seminar
Tony Robbins’ adolescence as the eldest of three living with a single mom disabled by substance abuse in North Hollywood is filled with tales of harsh circumstances. Admittedly a poor student himself, Robbins worked part time during his high school years as a janitor. Money was scarce, and he did what he could to help protect his younger brother and sister from their abusive and indigent mother.
With few prospects of advancement ahead of him and bitterness over his situation, he luckily struck up a conversation with his landlord, who told the young Robbins that his life got turned around after attending a life coaching seminar from Jim Rohn, whom he described as “a man who takes everything he’s learned in 20 to 30 years of his life and pours it into 4 hours.”
Intrigued, Robbins saved up a week’s pay to afford the ticket to Rohn’s next seminar. Rohn, who had been mentoring oil industry executives, was himself influenced by predecessors like Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People) and Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich).
The seminar had a profound effect on the teenaged Robbins, who was so captivated by what he had learned that he approached Rohn later on for a job. Robbins soon became Rohn’s protégé. Distilling his mentor’s lessons into a broader appeal format and adding his own touches, Robbins became a millionaire and best selling author merely 9 years later.
Life Lessons For All
Robbins’ teachings took principles from Rohn’s seminars based on embracing personal responsibility, not blaming others for one’s circumstances, and techniques to overcome personal obstacles, many of which are psychological or emotional and under the control of the individual.
In a 2009 memorial tribute to Rohn, Robbins recalled: “He got me to realize that the secret to life was to work harder on myself than my job or anything else, because then I’d have something to give people.”
The overwhelming premise behind Robbin’s success lessons focuses on the power individuals have over themselves and not to give it to others. Conquering the mental and emotional blocks preventing one from improving and moving forward to be better in whatever endeavor one chooses are his primary goals, and some of his more controversial tests, such as fire walking, are designed to help overcome those barriers.
These lessons can extend to one’s finances in such ways, for example, as:
- Overcoming lack of money management discipline to start retirement savings and debt elimination by modeling other successful techniques, including automatic account savings deductions and other strategies;
- Conquering fears over market volatility by using ETFs or other risk-mitigated asset classes to still set a retirement account on the road toward targeted growth,
- Making the time to improve one’s skill sets in order to qualify for a passed over promotion or to branch off on one’s own in accordance with a broader plan.
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