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Anthony Robbins
Robbins appears on the cover of his future book Inner Strength
Born	February 29, 1960 (1960-02-29) (age 47) Glendora, California
Occupation	Author, Professional speaker

Anthony Robbins or Tony Robbins, (born Anthony J. Mahavorick on February 29, 1960 in North Hollywood, California, U.S.) is an American life coach, writer, and professional speaker. Some of his well known audio programs include Personal Power II, Get the Edge! and Lessons in Mastery.

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Seminars and claims 2.1 Human Needs Psychology 2.2 Seminars 3 Lawsuits 4 Criticism 5 Celebrity meetings 6 Acting 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 9.1 CD/DVDs 10 External links

Robbins was born in 1960 and raised in Azusa, California. He attended Glendora High School. His parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother later remarried twice. Tony took on the surname of his second stepfather, Jim Robbins.

Inspired by motivational speaker Jim Rohn, Robbins began selling his own seminars. He then went on to study neurolinguistic programming and to establish his career. In 1989, Robbins saw success using infomercials to promote his products.

In 1994, a routine medical check revealed a tumor in Robbins' pituitary gland. According to his recounting in Personal Power the tumor was actually an adenoma that had infarcted several years prior. Due to the pressure of the adenoma on his pituitary gland, he had circulating levels of growth hormone several times higher than what would be normal for an adult his age. This had resulted in a subclinical manifestation of the disease known as acromegaly, which doctors told Robbins was responsible for his remarkable growth spurts as a teenager, as well as his large hands and feet (He is 6 feet 7 inches tall, (201cm)). After consultation with a number of different physicians, Tony eventually decided not to have the adenoma resected, as it was not causing any clinical manifestations, such as organomegaly or heart valve defects.

On a CNN interview in 2001, Robbins stated that he found it difficult to end his 15-year marriage to Becky Robbins, who is 10 years his senior, saying "it was the toughest decision of his life" and yet that he knew if he stayed with her, he'd be ruining her life and his.^[1] Robbins reiterates similar comments about his previous relationship in his recent Ultimate Relationship Program (recorded with family therapist Cloe Mandanes and also Sage Robbins).

In the same year he married Bonnie Humphrey (now Sage Robbins).^[2]

Robbins is the founder of the Anthony Robbins Foundation, which proclaims its mission is to empower students, help prisoners to improve their lives, organize food drives, and fund Robbins' summer "Discovery Camp".^[3] Charity Navigator gives the foundation an overall rating of four out of four stars.^[4]

Anthony Robbins calls himself a peak performance coach as opposed to a motivational speaker. Robbins claims that he tries to find out what people do when they are at their peak, and then help them access that peak state whenever necessary, and he believes what he does is more effective than providing a rousing half-time speech and temporary motivation.^[5]

Robbins started his career promoting seminars for Jim Rohn, and then started teaching neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) after learning it from NLP co-founder John Grinder, who encouraged him to look into the firewalking experience. In 1983, Robbins located Tolly Burkan and learned how to firewalk from him.^[6] Robbins then added firewalking to his seminars, which enabled him to gain media coverage and launch his celebrity status. Robbins later began to teach what he referred to as Neuro-Associative Conditioning (NAC), and recently collaborated with Dr. Cloe Madanes on what they call Human Needs Psychology.

In his Personal Power program, he says that the difference between NAC and NLP, lies in the use of the word 'conditioning' as opposed to 'programming'. Robbins says his use of the word 'conditioning' implies that the subject has greater responsibility for his or her own change, as opposed to being programmed by someone else.

His first book, Unlimited Power, was originally published in 1986 before he began calling his technique NAC. Robbins' second book, Awaken the Giant Within (1993), discusses similar topics to those in his Date With Destiny seminar.^{[citation needed]}

More recently, Robbins has partnered with Dr. Cloe Madanes in founding the Robbins Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention. to create what they call "Human Needs Psychology". Robbins believes that all people must meet six human needs:

1. Certainty
2. Variety
3. Significance
4. Love/Connection
5. Growth
6. Contribution

Unlike Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Robbins' needs are not hierarchical. The first two, certainty and variety, counterbalance each other, as do significance and connection. Too much of one leads to the desire for the other. Too much certainty, for example, can cause one to become bored and crave variety, and vice versa. Too much significance can cause one to seek out love, though people often settle for connection. Robbins claims that the first four needs can be met by almost any vehicle, from smoking to one's job, to one's family, to joining a cult. If a vehicle meets any three needs at a high level, this is an addiction. It is in the last two needs, growth and contribution, where Robbins believes humanity meets its highest potential. ^[7]

Robbins also conducts seminars, including his four-day Unleash the Power Within(UPW) seminar, also known as the Firewalk Seminar, and his Mastery University, which includes Life Mastery, Date With Destiny, and Wealth Mastery.

The UPW is his most well known seminar^{[citation needed]}, during which the participants walk barefoot over hot coals at the end of the first evening. The aim of the seminar, demonstrated in the firewalk, is to illustrate that the main quality shared by those who achieve greatness is the ability to take action ('Personal Power').^{[citation needed]} Robbins' philosophy asserts that fear often holds people back from achieving what they want with their life, and that fear is a more powerful motivator than desire or attraction. Walking safely on burning coals (with the correct preparation of the coals, and instruction of the participants) requires no special physical skills, you simply have to have the courage to brave it. Applying that same principle to other aspects of life can, Robbins claims, empower the individual to attempt tasks he or she would previously (erroneously) have considered impossible. Once the participants have walked safely over the coals, Robbins teaches them some NLP, and other beliefs which he claims will help them make the changes they desire in their lives.^{[citation needed]}

Recently Robbins has appeared at many of The Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expos as a headline speaker, and at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED conference) conference.^[8]

Robbins promotes a mainly vegetarian and vegan lifestyle and endorses the views of Robert Young and Natural Hygiene practices regarding the need for an alkaline diet, in which proteins and carbohydrates are consumed separately. In recent events, he has included fish into his diet plan, citing the need for omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids in a complete diet. He has also praised John Robbins' book Diet for a New America. He previously promoted a concept of diet based on a predetermined value or "electrical energy" of foods, although this no longer forms part of his recent "Living Health" materials. Prior to his promotion of these dietary practices, Robbins ghost-wrote the book Fit for Life.^{[citation needed]}

In May of 1995, Robbins and his company, RRI (Robbins Research International), agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they misrepresented the potential earnings of franchises for his motivational seminars, agreeing to refund $221,260 (USD) in redress.^[9]

Financial seminar guru Wade Cook also sued Robbins for copyright infringement, claiming that Robbins lifted concepts and terms from his seminars and his book, Wall Street Money Machine, during the creation of a competing financial course. In 1998, a Tacoma, Washington jury ordered Robbins to pay Cook over $650,000 in damages.^[10]

Skeptic James Randi, a notable critic of Tony Robbins, has stated that the applied kinesiology used by TR's associate in testing a product being sold at one of TR's seminars is a "scam".^[11] In a 2002 newsletter for the James Randi Educational Foundation, Michael Roes, a participant in a Tony Robbins seminar, recounted his experiences.^[11] Roes describes an intense hard close selling technique that encouraged participants to sign up for later workshops, which cost as much as $10,000.^[11]

Roes also relates that some participants arriving with their partners or spouses found themselves separated and paired with strangers, and then were directed to repeatedly massage and confide in these strangers.^[11] Some participants were surprised and uncomfortable with this. ^[11]

Freelance writer Steve Salerno in his book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless states "NLP has shown up in many settings inside and outside SHAM" (his acronym for the Self-Help and Actualization Movement) but particularly aims his opinion at Anthony (Tony) Robbins who he claims "made NLP his own, refining it and personalizing it into what he christened "neuroassociative conditioning" (a claim with which other proponents of NLP would disagree; see history section in NLP article). Salerno criticizes proponents of self-help, including Tony Robbins, stating it "actually fans the fires of discontent, making people feel impaired or somehow deficient as a prelude to (supposedly) curing them." Salerno opines that there are contradictions in Richard Bandler and John Grinder (the co-founders of NLP) ending up in court over who owned the rights to NLP given NLP's promotion in business for negotiations and conflict resolution and also in Tony Robbins having become divorced while marketing products for the "perfect marriage".^[12]

According to the National Council Against Health Fraud, Robbins' book Unlimited Power promotes unsubstantiated and potentially harmful notions about health and nutrition.^[13]

Another example of unsubstantiated claims made by Robbins is his reference to the "Yale Study of Goals" in Unlimited Power as scientific evidence of the power of positive thought. The anecdote claims that a survey was taken of the 1953 graduating class at Yale, and only 3% of the class had written goals regarding their financial situations. Twenty years later the class was interviewed again, and the 3% of the class who had written goals were worth more than the other 97% of the students combined. This would have been strong evidence of the power of written goal setting, but the alleged Yale study has been debunked as an urban legend. ^[14]

In his book, Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins recounts meetings with a variety of public figures, such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterand, and Princess Diana.^[15]

In Shallow Hal Robbins appears in a scene with Jack Black's character in an elevator where Robbins hypnotizes Black's character in order to change Black's mental state. Black's character can now see people's outward appearance based on their inner personality. The scene is pivotal to the plot. In this scene, Black's character riffs on Robbins's large hands calling them "banana hands".

Robbins is also in an upcoming movie The Singularity Is Near: A True Story About The Future, which is based on the book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005) by Ray Kurzweil. In the movie, an AI hires Robbins to help her become more human. The movie is scheduled for late 2008 release.^[16]

• Fit for Life
• Human potential movement
• Self-help

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• Tony Robbins official site
• James Randi Critical article by an attendee of a Robbins weekend.
• Video → Tony Robbins - Charlie Rose interview from 2000 (55 min)
• Anthony Robbins by William T. Jarvis, The National Council Against Health Fraud
• Financial Statistics on Anthony Robbins Foundation from Charity Navigator
• Tony Robbins at TED Talks
• Anthony Robbins at the Internet Movie Database
• National Council Against Health Fraud Article on Tony Robbins
• Tony Robbins Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos