Tony Robbins On Money: Master The Game

Hi, I'm Marie Forleo and you're watching MarieTV, the place to build the business and life you love. And I'm so excited I can barely contain myself because today's guest is someone I've admired for a long time. He has impacted tens of millions of lives around the world and has written an incredible new book, which we will talk about today. Tony Robbins is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. For over 37 years, millions of people have enjoyed the warmth, humor and transformative power of Mr. Robbins' personal and business development events. He is the country's number one life and business strategist.

He is asked to consult and train with some of the world's top athletes, entertainers, Fortune 500 CEOs, and even presidents of nations. Robbins is a founder or partner in more than a dozen companies in industries as diverse as a five-star island resort in Fiji to custom 3D-printed prosthetics. Through the Anthony Robbins Foundation and its matching funds, Tony feeds four million people a year in 56 countries. He has also initiated programs in more than 1,500 schools, 700 prisons, and 50,000 service organizations and shelters. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida. Tony, it's amazing to have you here. Thank you very much for taking the time.

Thanks for inviting me. I think I told you that when you interviewed me for the new Money Masters. You know, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. When I was in my early 20s I went to Unleash the Power Within... Yes. ...and you had a huge impact on me and that influenced everything I've done personally and my entire business. I just want you to hear who you are, what you do, how you serve, it makes a big difference and it means a lot to me to have you here today. Oh, that's so sweet.

Thank you. So thanks for that. Let's start because one of the things I really admire about you is your energy, your passion and your resilience. I mean, you've been doing this for over 3 decades and I know everyone's watching... Now it's approaching 4. Which is amazing. It is so amazing. Yes. And one of the things I admire most is that I feel like you keep getting better, you keep doing more, you keep serving at a higher level. And from a personal and endurance point of view, tell us a little about what you do every day. What are your habits?

How do you maintain this high level of service? Well, I think there's the physical side, which, you know, I do the equivalent of an ultramarathon every weekend. You know, I do 52 hours. The last day I do 26.5 miles, the day before it is 22 miles. So just on the physical side, you have to be in incredible shape. And I'm in better physical shape today, both in my endurance and muscle strength, etc., than I was when I was 25, which is wonderful. So I do certain things, but I think I should mention first, what's even more important is the psychological and spiritual side of things because I think the energy comes first, not from the body.

It doesn't come from eating, it doesn't come from sleeping, because I've been without those things for long periods of time and still been able to give birth. It comes from having a mission. It comes from something that drives you, not something that you are pushing. There are two forms of motivation. You can push yourself to do things, and there is a lot you can push yourself to do. But if you feel drawn, if there is something that you want to serve that is bigger than yourself, there is something that excites you, there is something that you are made for, there is something that you are made for, then there is a level of energy that more people would never dream of.

And we all have that, but most of us don't connect with it and release it. So every day I log in and release that. Every day. I don't expect it to be there, even though I know it will be there, even though it is there, I just... I don't take it for granted. And so I start my day with a process I call preparation. What preparation is is not a meditation, but it has meditative qualities. And what I do is I sit down, the first thing I do in the morning is I go and get in the jacuzzi or a hot water experience and then I go to the ice water.

In all my houses, fortunately I have to have several houses, and I go... in one of them I have a river that I can jump into. You have been there. Yes. There are other places where I have these cold dips. And I do that to train my nervous system to go from 0 to 60 like that. You know, every muscle, every nerve in your body, every organ, when you hit 57 degree water, it hits. And then it's just my mental discipline. And the second thing I do is prepare, and preparing is sitting down and doing a minimum of 10 minutes because my way of thinking is that if you don't have 10 minutes, you don't have a life.

Good. So there is no excuse. So every day you sit down and what do I do? I do three and a half minutes where I do an explosive breathing pattern, a pattern that changes my biochemistry, and after I've done that, 30 of these intense breaths three times, I close my eyes, I'm in a kind of altered state, and I focus first for 3 and a half minutes on everything in my life, at least 3 things, that I am really grateful for. And I don't do it in a stupid way, I don't do it in a mental way, I go into my body and feel it.

And I make sure that at least one of those things is something really simple: the wind against my skin, the look in my son's or my daughter's eyes, something that's just very fundamental, but I really... I cultivate that feeling of gratitude. , of appreciation for those feelings. I do it for three and a half minutes, then I do 3 and a half minutes where I do this process of focusing on healing, strengthening and serving, and I start in a circle starting with myself and then I go through all the people. in my life and my associates and I simply send you love.

Again, it may sound cheesy, but for me it's... it's part of why I'm here and it's part of cultivating that energy, that healing energy and strength, strengthening my passion, my appreciation, my ideas, my... . my capacity. , my resistance. And then I do the last three minutes, it's what I call three to thrive, what do I really want to happen? And sometimes I do that about what I'm going to do for the next 6 months or the next month, sometimes it's today. I shake it. But I... I see and feel and recognize those things being done, and that starts, you know, pretty much my day between those two elements.

And, you know, then I could work out some things that I do of that nature. Yes. And how about eating wisely? Has that changed a lot for you over the years? It's... it's quite simplistic. You know, I'm very simple. I eat a salad and have some protein. I have fish or turkey bacon. I don't eat red meat or chicken, but those are the things I usually eat in the morning. And my afternoon and evening meals are also pretty simple. But, you know, before I met my wife, Sage, the greatest gift of my life, when we met, she's a phlebotomist, a nutritionist and an acupuncturist, so I thought, "This is going to be the easiest thing in the world." And I'll never forget, we were on a date and she drank wheatgrass juice and I was like, "Wow, this is going to be so easy, man." This is amazing".

And then she ordered a hot fudge sundae and I was like, "What the hell are you doing?" and she says, "Eating, you bastard." I wish I could give you some term for bastard, because I was too rule-driven. And then she had this whole thing, you zig and then you zag. So I do that with her now. I enjoy other aspects of life, but when I first met her I noticed that she did more zigs than zigs, or the other way around. In what way she was she. But it's been a good balance in my life. So I enjoy food and things of that nature, but I use it primarily as fuel because life gives me so much juice.

You know, I'm not usually looking to run out of food. And how about it, because I know that because of me my mind can go away and I have so much emotion, so much passion that at night sometimes it calms down. Do you have a liquidation process? My wife would say no. I say yes, she would say no. My wife loves to sleep. Yes. My wife can sleep 8 hours, she is the cutest thing in the world. To me it's like sleeping when you die, so that was one of the first things in our relationship that was a little challenging.

Because I would like to get up and leave. I'll never forget, we were in Fiji and it was like even there we were supposed to be on vacation, it's our house, I get up at 6 in the morning and she's like, "Where the hell are you going?" "I have to start the day, run up the mountain, do this." She says, "Get into bed, I'll show you how to start your day." Well, that's a better way to start the day. Completely. But now what I've done is slept with her because she's, you know, a lady. If you get up in the middle of the night, “Where are you going?” "Porcelain.

Where do you think I'm going? It's three in the morning. I'm going to the bathroom." Know? So I learned to do my work in bed next to her and then she goes to sleep. But I watch stupid movies, I watch things to make my brain disappear. Reading doesn't stop me because then I start incorporating it and using it and my mind goes crazy. I'm underlining everything. But I'll watch cartoon movies like Family Guy or something to blow my mind, frankly, or I'll watch some silly shows, you know, now I'm thinking about the different ones. What is it?

Revenge or something like that. Yes Yes. Something my brain can really let go of, and that's how I do it for the most part. Awesome. So, I mean, you've worked with presidents, you've worked with people like Serena Williams and, you know, one of the biggest investors in the world, Paul Tudor Jones. When you get called to work with these incredible people, how do you begin to prepare? What are the questions you ask to begin serving at that level? Well, they're different for everyone, obviously, but what I try to do if I was trying to look at it from a universal perspective, I guess what I really want to know before I get there as much as I can is as much as I can. about the person.

And I do that because I really want to know what they want? What do they want in their life? What is your mission? What are you looking for? And what are they afraid of? What are your concerns? Because I believe that life is found in the dance between what you want most and what you fear most. And if I know those two sides of a person, I know a lot. And then I dig in and try to learn as much as I can from other people about whatever challenge that may be, and then I prepare to learn directly from the person.

But I want to know everything I can before I go in there. Then I take everything I think I know and then I see what's really real when I meet them. And I'm digging to find out what...what the challenge is, what they perceive it to be. And generally, if I were to generalize wildly, if you're going to help someone create a breakthrough, it really... it comes down to 3 areas. Or they have altered their strategy. We all have strategies, a specific way to succeed. Sometimes we modify it, whether in sports, finances or any other area. We just… forget something, lose a little edge, give up on something, and then it becomes a bad habit.

Or sometimes it is a change in our beliefs. I mean, you may have done something for decades and been very successful, but now... I know a gentleman, he's a good friend of mine, who, you know, had 52 Academy Award nominations and one day I He said: He said, "If I make one more damn movie, I'll kill myself." Know? He just says, "I don't want to make a movie, I don't want an Academy Award, I don't want to do these things." Know? And it's like he's satiated. And so sometimes, when people become full, they lose their hunger and change their beliefs.

When you change a belief, you change your biochemistry. When you change your belief, you change the way you execute. You change everything. And we all develop a story. And sometimes stories are empowering and sometimes mental stories are disempowering. So I'm listening to them, I'm investigating them. And then I also look at their state, because you can do the exact same action from a place of anger or from a place of joy and the same action will not give you the same result. So I look for that quality of what's happening in them, and then I look and try to figure out what it was like before.

So Paul Tudor Jones, I went back and watched videos of him when he was in his prime and I saw what he... how he used his body and the way he moved and I saw him now sitting still and kind of slumped over and he had He broke his leg and spoke in a different rhythm. So I look biochemically at what's happening, physiologically, I look psychologically at what's happening and then I look structurally at what they're doing. And then I develop a plan to help them get back to where they were and beyond, to perform better than before.

Incredible. The other thing that fascinated me… I wanted to ask you so badly, that you've probably accomplished more than most people in… I can't even… I don't even know what time period. And of course, you get to talk to people who are at the top of their

game

. When it comes to productivity, what do top performers know that many people simply don't? What are we missing? Well, I think the top performers focus on results and not activities. If you're trying to manage your to-do list, in the world we live in today, where most of us wear multiple hats, trying to be a great entrepreneur, a great husband or wife, a great parent, a great member of the community, whatever, There are so many roles that you will never be able to do all the pending tasks.

And what helped me in mylife was that at one point I began to say: I am not going to allow myself to fail every day. I'm not going to make a to-do list and I'm not going to stop writing a list so I don't fail. I need to focus on what matters most. I need to discuss…organize my life into categories where I say, “These are the most important outcomes,” and then I know why I’m going to do it. If you know what you really want, the goal, and you know why, you have the focus and you have the fuel, then how to get there, there are many ways to get there.

And then I think the most important thing that the most productive people do is take advantage of what we do. We do not delegate. Delegation is that I give it to you and then when it doesn't work, I get mad at you. Leverage is that I empower you. If I have influence, I'm still a part of it and I'll make sure you're successful. I will follow up, I will make sure that before the deadline I contact you, I will make sure that you have the resources to be successful. But what I do is empower people to move forward: here's the result, here's the why.

I understand you and I align myself with the result and the why. You figure out how you want to do it, I'm open. If you want to exchange ideas with me, I will. You'll probably come up with better ideas than I did. And when you empower people to invent their own how and know what and why, you can get the job done 100 times faster, especially if you have a group of people. I firmly believe that... at the beginning of my life I thought I was a very intelligent person. I'm going to figure out all these things.

Part of it was being responsible and part of it is the ego that we all have within ourselves if we've been successful to some extent. I said, this is bullshit. Did you know? Instead of one person solving 12 problems, I want 12 people solving one problem. And I developed that practice and started to discover that people that a lot of people thought weren't going to contribute had ideas that no one else had. I really learned it from Steve Wynn. Steve Wynn is a dear friend of mine and he built, you know, rebuilt Las Vegas, he's one of the brightest men I know, a billionaire, and Steve really learns more from the buttons, from the people than he ever would in the C suite.

Learn what customers are feeling, what they are experiencing, how to make an impact, and what needs to change. These people are on the front lines. That's why I firmly believe that influence is needed. And if you're just starting out in business, I know that a lot of people who probably watch your shows are watching you because you're a successful business woman who built your own startup and you've done a lot of wonderful things. I think the hard thing at first is that you think you can only do it yourself and then there are only so many hours and you have kids and family and friends and how do I do it all?

The answer is to hire someone. You exchange with someone. You exchange them for 2 hours. That's what I did at first. Because I remember, I remember, I'll never forget, I was very young in my career, very early days, and I was running to get to the dry cleaners so I could get my only 2 suits because if I don't get them, you know, then the place It closes and I can't get on the plane. And I was running to the airport sweating like crazy, and I'm a sweater anyway. You and me both. Sweating like that, trying to get in the door, and I thought, what's wrong with this picture?

You could be doing something very productive and be standing in line at the dry cleaners. This is crazy. And then I was really... I was like 17, 18, 19, I don't know what I was, and I said, "I'm going to hire someone." Two hours a day, that's what I need to start. And then it was 4 hours. So my opinion is that I don't do anything that someone else can do better, and I don't do anything that isn't the highest and best use of my time. Now, when I say that, it's a gross generalization. There are things I still do.

But for the most part, finding people and being clear about the results and why, is what I call RPM. You have to know the outcome, you have to know the purpose and then you have to have a massive action plan. And the plan can change, but that RPM, the stronger the RPM, the faster the car will move. And I try to do it not only through myself but through other people. Beautiful. So the last thing I want to talk about before we dive into the book of monsters, which I can't wait to read, is the idea of ​​crises.

I know a lot of times you get called when someone is, you know, stuck or going through a tough time. So two questions. Many people who write ask me questions or simply comment on the blog and find themselves in a difficult situation. Maybe they've experienced a certain level of success and, as you told your friend Peter, it's like I don't want this anymore. I don't know what I want next. Any common patterns or anything you can share about crises and how we can help each other get out of them? Well, most people reach a plateau and the most important thing when you reach a plateau is not to get angry or stressed about it because stress will not improve the situation.

It's also not about taking it lightly and saying, "Oh my God, this doesn't matter." It's that delicate balance where you say, "Okay, how do I get from where I am to where I really want to be?" And if you don't put the emotional burden on it it's easier, but that's difficult... easier to say and harder to do. The pattern that I see in crises, whether it's an athlete or, you know, a financial operator or an actor, anyone of that nature, the first thing that causes a crisis is usually that you get too comfortable. When you start doing something and you are very successful, many people lose their hunger.

If you ask me what is the most important element of any human being that separates their level of success from the rest of the world, it is hunger. It is not intelligence, however valuable it may be. There are incredibly smart people who can't get out of a paper bag. Show me someone who is not only hungry but who doesn't lose it, he will dominate everything. And that is seen in the greatest sports stars, in the greatest artists, those who simply… are… are insatiable. And that's why you like to be around them because there's this energy in them, this passion in them, and very few people maintain that.

And you lose your hunger, you go into depression. You become overconfident. Another pattern that happens that causes depression in people is when something changes in their world that they're not prepared for, like, you know, I've been doing this forever and, oh my God, now my relationship is ruined. Or, you know, I've been working hard to be a lawyer and now my wife or husband is mad at me. What do I have to do here? And what it does is throw people out of their rhythm. That's why I try to find out what's going on in their environment and show them how they can win in both categories simultaneously.

A third is when people do something where they get mad at themselves, kind of like Tiger Woods, and then... he has all the skill in the world. Nothing changed in his ability. But for that year and a half or whatever, he was punishing himself. Know? And in that state, it is a kind of self-sabotage. And then depending on the form that I find, I go in and I make the changes and they are almost always changes, again, in the psychology of that person, the emotion of that person, because we are all... we all... have these great minds. .

Everyone has a great mind, or at least is available to have a great mind. But we are emotional creatures and we forget that because we live in a society that tries to value thought much more than emotion because emotion scares us. The excitement can come very quickly. And that's why some people try to avoid it at all costs, others get overwhelmed by it. My opinion is that emotional intelligence is a wonderful thing, but I prefer emotional aptitude. Intelligence is a capacity. Physical fitness is a state of preparation. And what I do is train myself to always be ready, and that makes you execute.

And I think a lot of people settle for "I know this" instead of "I'm doing this," and I try to train myself and others to be in that state of readiness all the time because that's where life is truly fulfilled. at the highest level. Believe. Me too. Agree 100%. So let's move on to this monster book, which is a monster in the best way. Is the most beautiful. So do we have a copy we can bring? I just want to hold this up because it's amazing. So, Tony, I got your team's kitchen, which is like... okay, y'all.

You're seeing it right here. We'll talk about this right now. I truly believe in my heart that every human being needs to get this book, needs to read it for their family, for their friends, and most importantly, in the last few chapters on service, I was crying. I love all. My copy is highlighted from cover to cover, I have already taken action on many things in the book. Yes. This is his first book in 20 years. Yes. Why this topic? Because right now? And what makes it different from all the other

money

books out there? Well, one of the reasons I haven't written a book is because I hate writing.

Just being honest. I, you know, I'm on a plane every 4 or 5 days, I go to 15 countries, I see a quarter of a million people a year. I love the live event, I love the spontaneity, you know, you can constantly do something new, you can see what's really going on with a human being. And writing is an isolated process, done by yourself and God bless the people who do that. But they pushed me over the edge because there are only a few issues in life that really affect the quality of life. Good? There is your body, clearly there are your relationships, your emotions and

money

is one of those places.

And I've shared a lot with people about this and I grew up in a very difficult financial environment. We did not have money. There were times, you know, when our car was repossessed, there were times when we didn't have food. So… and it didn't last, but it was one of those places where there was that uncertainty all the time. And when 2008 happened, that's what pushed me over the edge. Because when I started seeing so many people losing their homes, losing half of what, you know, they had saved for their entire lives, and then I kept thinking, well, the government is going to do something because this is... this is A raw and horrible situation that has been caused by a small number of people.

By 2010, when nothing had been done, I was angry and I was... I was reading every article, I was watching every documentary, and the last one that pushed me over the edge was called Inside Job, I don't know if you saw it. he. I have it ordered on Netflix. OK yes. It's a... it's... Academy Award... won the Academy Award. Matt Damon did the voiceover. But what's amazing is that they systematically showed who specifically virtually destroyed the world economy and then showed that the punishment they received is not just that we all bail them out, but that they are put in charge of reversing the economy and giving more money to them again. .

So at the end of this movie, you understand what happened but you have one of two emotional responses depending on your personality. Either you want to kill someone because you are so angry or you are depressed because there was no solution to the whole thing. It was a beautiful documentary, but not a solution. And I'm a solution-seeking guy, so I thought something had to be done. I know I'm not the only solution, but I have a unique gift. I have access. Since most people don't know, I'm considered the motivational, positive-thinking type, and that's never what I've been.

I have been a strategist my entire life and Paul Tudor Jones, one of the top 10 traders in the history of the world, has been my client for 21 years. Literally every day he emails me, I do a variety of things to him, I see him face to face. I've been with him side by side since the 2000 tech crisis, 9/11, you know, when we went through the subprime mortgage crisis, 2008, the gold crash, and he's made money every year for 21 years. . And even beyond me, his company has been making money for 28 years, so it's not just me. It's Pablo. And I've learned a lot from him over those decades and I thought if I didn't interview him, what if I interviewed 50 of the greatest financial minds in... in the history of the world?

They are all alive today. Let me interview you, let me find out, can the average person really win? And, if so, how? Let me understand...not some talking head on TV telling you the same nonsense about putting his money in some 12% mutual fund that has never existed for 10 or 15 years, but the truth. And so I started this four-year journey and, I mean, I was blown away. My average interview is scheduled for 45 minutes. It was 3 hours, some 3 and a half hours, some four hours. And people became incredibly generous in what they shared, and they shared things that they had never shared before and I put them into a 7-step process so that, if you're a millennial who's just out of college and you have a ton of college debt They told me: "How can I solve this?" I will show you how to be financially free.

You're, you know, a baby boomer and you lost a ton of money in 2008 and didn't come back into the market, I'm going to show you what you can do. You are a very sophisticated investor and do you want to know what has never been revealed about him? I'll show you what he does. And so I'm very proud of it and, you know, you've seen the level of diversity that I have among the highest level ofpeople in finance around the world. It's really extraordinary, because it's really your job. It is not mine. It's... I had a lot of fun reading it and honestly, I was intimidated by a 600+ book because I knew we were doing this interview and I prepare as much as I humanly...

I mean, okay, everyone needs to get it. Thank you. I'm really proud. Frankly, it didn't start out that well, but I was writing the book and, as I mentioned, I was a kid, we had Thanksgiving, there was no money or food and someone came to the door, knocked on the door. , he delivered this food, and that changed my life because it wasn't the food, but rather my father had always said, "No one cares about anyone else." You know, he incorporated that belief system. And then I saw that strangers really care. So I swore that one day I would do something to give back, so when I was 17 I fed two families.

The next year, 4 families, the next 8, and I didn't tell anyone, but after the third or fourth year I thought, "I could use some help." So I got my friends and my companies involved, and then it reached a million people and then it reached 2 million people. For the last 4 or 5 years I have been matching the 2 million my foundation personally earns with another 2 million, so we feed 4 million people a year. But as I was writing this, last year Congress passed a new budget that no one seemed to pay attention to, which cut food stamps...they don't call them food stamps anymore, but they are food stamps, by 8.7 billion.

Basically, limiting food access to 2 million people. And then I work with all these nonprofits that are already struggling, and I... it just drove me crazy and I thought, "Okay, what if I..."? I'm working hard on this book but you know what? I can… I can donate all the profits. It is not a percentage. And then I thought, “What if I donate it all up front? It doesn't matter if I make money from the book. I will do it in advance. How many people could it feed? and there were 10 million. And I was like, “Wow.” That excited me.

And it just took on a life of its own. As time went on I started thinking, "How can I really get people's attention to this?" And finally I decided that I am going to feed 50 million; In fact, I'll write the check next week. Personally, I'm going to feed 50 million people in advance, and I'm also working with Feeding America, which is the best hunger relief organization in the United States. And they will partner with me to raise matching funds so we can feed 100 million people. And it's just exciting. I've fed 42 million people in my life, I'm going to feed more people this year, and... so for anyone who buys a book, you know, if I sell a million books, 50 meals for every person that's over there.

If I sell 100 books it will be 500 thousand meals. But it doesn't matter, I've done it from the beginning. And I... I'm... I'm not doing it because I'm a good guy, I'm just paying it forward. I... people forget what a little love can do, you know, to inspire or move someone. And to this day I don't even know who fed my family that day, but if they're out there, if they're still alive, I hope they see and hear this story and know what's going on. I guess they happened because I've shared this story many times and no one has volunteered to share what it is about.

But that person made a big difference. It wasn't just about feeding, but about caring, and I think that's what changes people's lives. I think that's what I admire most about you. I have been to many of their events and will continue to be a follower, fan and friend. Thank you. I think you are one of the most incredible human beings in the world and your heart and soul are reflected in everything you do. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. I apreciate it. And everyone should have this book in their hands. We will link below, tweet and share about it.

It will change your life, your family's life, and like I said, there's a beautiful article at the end about why it's so important for all of us to make a difference. Toni, thank you very much. I love you. Thank you for inviting me, it's so nice to see you again. Thank you. Thank you. Now Tony and I would love to hear from you. What is the most important idea you take away from today's episode? And, most importantly, what is the most important action you will take as a result of all this goodness? Now, as always, the best conversations happen after the episode on MarieForleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now.

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