Tony Robbins

Anthony Robbins or Tony Robbins, (born Anthony J. Mahavorick on 29 February 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.

Personal life
Robbins was born in 1960 and raised in Azusa, California and attended Glendora High School. When Robbins was seven, his parents divorced, 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 almost 2 meters in height, or 6 feet 7 inches). 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 disclosed the difficulty in ending his 15-year marriage to Becky Robbins, who is 10 years his senior, stating that "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. 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).

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". Charity Navigator gives the foundation an overall rating of four out of four stars.

Seminars and claims
Anthony Robbins is the inventor and proponent of what he refers to as neuroassociative conditioning, which is based on Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Robbins studied NLP under 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. Firewalking then became the foundation of Robbins' popular seminars. The book Unlimited Power mentions firewalking and offers a number of examples of how to employ elements of NLP in day to day situations.

Robbins also conducts seminars, the most famous of which is his four-day Unleash the Power Within seminar, during which the participants walk barefoot over hot coals. 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'). 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 requires no special physical skills, but it does require the mental discipline to overcome one's inner doubts. 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.

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.

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.

Lawsuits
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 their motivational seminar customers, agreeing to refund $221,260 (USD) in redress.

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.

Criticism
Skeptic James Randi is a notable critic of Tony Robbins, calling Robbins' "applied kinesiology" a "scam". In a 2002 newsletter for the James Randi Educational Foundation, Michael Roes, a participant in a Tony Robbins seminar, recounted his experiences. Roes describes an intense hard close selling technique that encouraged participants to sign up for later workshops, which cost as much as $10,000.

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. Some participants were surprised and uncomfortable with this, although others felt it is was an "essential part of the process" and found it more than helpful.

Freelance writer Steve Salerno in his book SHAM 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".

Celebrity meetings
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.

Acting
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". He also has a second important scene to the plot with Jason Alexander.

CD/DVDs

 * ''Living Health
 * ''The Time of Your Life
 * ''Get The Edge
 * ''The Ultimate Relationship Program (Robbins-Madanes)
 * ''Leadership In Times of Crisis (Robbins-Madanes)
 * ''Reclaiming Your True Identity (Robbins-Madanes)
 * ''Conquering Overwhelming Loss (Robbins-Madanes)
 * ''Personal Training System
 * ''Unleash The Power Within
 * ''Personal Training System
 * ''Unleash The Power Within