The School of Greatness - How to Build Unshakeable Certainty When Life Falls Apart | Tony Robbins

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Tony Robbins shares a truth that will stop you in your tracks: every limiting belief you have comes down to one core fear, and once you understand it, everything changes. The conversation moves from his childhood in LA where four different fathers shaped his identity, to the night he ran 17 miles home doing incantations that built the unstoppable force he is today. You'll learn why most people approach breakthroughs in reverse order, starting with strategy when they should start with state, and how that single mistake keeps them locked in place. Tony breaks down the hero's journey we're all on, whether we realize it or not, and why the challenges destroying you right now are actually calls to adventure that will make you stronger than you ever imagined.Join Tony at the Time To Rise Summit and step into your next level of growth, clarity, and connection.Explore this breathtaking Bel Air estate at Carolwood Estates.Tony’s books:Awaken the Giant WithinNotes from a FriendUnlimited PowerMoney: Master the GameUnshakeable: Your Financial Freedom PlaybookThe Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial FreedomLife ForceThe Holy Grail of InvestingIn this episode you will:Break through the limiting belief that you're not enough by recognizing it's really a fear that you won't be lovedMaster the art of building internal certainty so you never have to rent it from external circumstances like jobs, money, or other people's approvalDiscover why your mental and emotional state controls your story, and your story controls what strategies you'll even attempt in lifeTransform your relationship with stress by understanding the difference between managing circumstances and creating your lifeUnlock championship biochemistry in your own body by understanding how testosterone and cortisol create the state of peak performanceFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1875For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Lewis Howes [SOLO]Dr. Caroline LeafJim Curtis Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So many people have made major impacts on my life. But when I think back to the days before it all began, before the business, before the podcast, before the big audience, I needed the motivation to become someone greater than my fears and my limitations. And one of my first inspirations was Tony Robbins. This straight-laced kind of teacher, I'd seen him after class, and he said, you know what I'm here to talk to you? You have a gift, and I'm looking at him like he's crazy.

I have a speech here that I'd like you to read, and if it appeals to you, he said, I think this is your life. The title was the will to win. I could cry, just thinking about it, it was so intense. I mean, I'm reading it and crying, just going, I'm only here still all that I've been through because of my pure will that I will not give up. I still remember the first time I walked into a Tony Robbins event. I was 16 years old. I was searching for direction, for belief, for something to grab onto. And I had no idea how deeply that experience would stay with me.

Designing a life is a different way of living. And it requires courage. You can have courage if you can trust in a higher understanding that everything has higher purpose. And this is an unfolding for me. But I found if you live enough life with that faith and with the drive to find it, you'll find those answers. Tony Robbins is one of the most influential personal development teachers of our time. He is a number one your time's best-selling author, a global entrepreneur, and a advisor to world leaders, CEOs, and elite performers. He's impacted millions of people around the world.

And over the years, Tony has joined me on the show multiple times. But what's mattered more are the conversations we've had in between those interviews. The lessons I've learned, the standards that have been set, and the challenges to grow when growth wasn't comfortable. This isn't a conversation about how to win more or do more. It's about the journey behind the impact of what Tony Robbins has done, what it costs to build a life that ripples outward around the world, and what remains when the noise fades.

So we are here in this incredible home, and more a decade ago, we did an amazing interview on a private jet. I don't know if you remember this. Yes, I do remember. That kind of went viral. This private jet, the interview would. Yes.

It was in Burbank Airport or over there. And now over a decade later, we're doing another epic interview in this $150 million home here in Bel Air. And you've got to tell me what is this place and why are we here? Well, this is already Tramagarin built this home. And he is a dear, dear friend of mine. He actually, when I was doing the Delmar Castle, I came here to L.A. And I was such a big accomplishment. I had this castle overlooking the ocean in San Diego.

And then I came to see Chris Hemeter here who built. If you've ever been to the Big Island of Hawaii, there's a Hilton there now. And it's you go to your room by boat or you go to your room by monorail. He built that place to scratch. Wow. So I went to his house and he had this underground like, you know, a place that was full of, you know, all those wines and cigars. But it was such an intriguing place.

And when I left, I was like, I live in the Delmar ten of it. And so Artie had started like me from nothing. And he wanted an address in Beverly Hills. So he went underground and got this little areas who could have an address. there as an architect and he started designing and he's grown he went to date with destiny he became good friends so he did my castle and then gradually over the years he's grown to be you know one of the number one designers in the world for the wealthiest people on earth and so every time he builds one of these homes he goes you gotta you made such a difference in my life

you got to come live in it for a week and i resisted for many years but my it's unbelievable i came here with my wife and my daughter and we spent spent i don't know two weeks living here that's pretty a pretty amazing home so it's 35 000 square feet four-story High downstairs being filmed later There's the most amazing areas you know for for spa areas and I mean everything about it. All these doors open up So it's just he's a genius. He's got the spiral staircase that goes up all four stories And you're in the middle of bailout. I mean you got an amazing just lifestyle of a view of the whole city It's unbelievable and you like all these things come up you know it looks like a garden bed and it's a giant television that comes up

It's unbelievable and you're looking right over the Bel Air country club and Century City and so it's just cool so You're living the train. My BBJ is doing the whole new internal piece. That's how I know you wanted to do the plane. Here's another nice place for you. It's not bad. It's so cool. I'm excited to do it.

So you want to go upstairs? Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, here we go. Go ahead. You're going to be on the left over there, I think. Okay, you got it. Well, I'm here with the inspiring, incredible Tony Robbins.

Thank you so much for inviting me in this incredible home that you were just talking about. We're here at this expanse of $100-plus million dollar home in Bel Air. And we're talking about how being in an environment like this allows you to expand your own mind at this season of your life, at this stage of your life, and how you just keep expanding your thinking by being around the right people, being in the right environments and allowing you to imagine a world that you don't have yet. Talking about your property in Tennessee and imagining creating the thing you want to create. I'm curious, we were talking as we were coming up here about my Olympic handball journey. We're talking about the people that you have mentored and coached Olympians, billionaires, presidents. You've coached the best of the best, overcome their limiting beliefs to help them achieve their own level of greatness. I'm curious, from those who are at the top of their game to those who are struggling day by day,

what is the number one limiting belief that most people have that keeps them from accomplishing what they want? Well, it's different depending upon what level of life you get to, but people usually bump up. against I'm not enough. You know, the whole idea that today, they talk about in a trite way, it's like, I remember talking to Anthony Hopkins, Tony Hopkins, the actor, he's a good friend of mine. And I was surprised because this guy is so obsessed

that he not only knows his own lines, I've met a few movies, and I was shocked that people don't know their lines, but, you know, you shoot things 10,000 times. A lot. So he knows his own lines and every other person's lines. And so he's that committed, and he's that great an actor,

and he says to me, Tony, I feel like, you know, I'm a facade, I'm a phony, and I'm going to get found out. And so I think not everybody has that exact belief, but the idea that maybe I'm not enough for this level, but I'm going to, or the level I want to go to in my life, whether it's, they might be great in business, but they're not doing great in their relationship, or they're great in their relationship, and they're not good with their kids, or they're good with the kids, but their body's not where they want to be. They got all the money, but not the body, right?

And so I think most people bump up against that fear that something in me is not enough, And the deeper fear is that if I'm not enough, I won't be loved. And so it's an unconscious fear. So most people push it aside by focusing on what they're good at and not taking care of those other things until they bite them, the relationship, the body, whatever it is, the kids. Or they come up with a story about, well, I don't need to be good at that. Or it's just not my nature.

And so I'm often called in to help somebody, you know, sharpen their skills. But you're right. Usually there's a limiting belief of some sort. So I couldn't say there's one. But if I was saying the most domicest, It's like, I've never done this before, so how the hell am I going to do it? Right? There's uncertainty.

If you look at a great athlete, what makes a great athlete? There's that sense of not only you practice and you've got it in your nervous system, you're incredible, in your strategy in the sport, but there's the state you bring to the table. So I'm sure you've seen an athlete basketball player in the NBA about shoot a free throw, a kicker in the NFL, and they go jogging out there and you look at him, you go, they're going to miss it. And sure enough they do, everyone's had that experience. How did they know? They saw the lack of certainty.

in their body, right? And so when you try to get yourself to do something you've never done before, it produces that kind of uncertainty. So I always tell people, if you want a breakthrough, I think of it as three things at the most simple level to create a breakthrough.

A breakthrough being, maybe there's an area that you've not gotten to where you want to be and you've promised yourself if you're going to do it and then you don't follow through or you fall back and you're frustrated with yourself. Most people have had something like that, but one day they did break through. They did finally say enough of this.

And that day, that moment, They changed their relationship. They quit what they're doing. They started something new. And what I found is there's three parts of that breakthrough. And if you want to break through in any area, these are the things you got to do. But I want to give you a reverse order real fast. Okay?

So reverse order is most people, they want to make something happen. They focus on the strategy. Now, I'm a strategist. I get paid to be able to show someone how to save a decade because the right strategy in business can save you 10 years, right? Can accelerate your earnings, can decrease your costs. There's so many tools. The right strategy and relationship is price.

So we'll turn it around. But as much as I love strategy, it's not what I start with with people. The reason is because the natural question is, I want to achieve this, but how do I do it? There's nothing wrong with answering the question how. It's just the sequence of these that are critical. It's like if I told you this is someone's phone number and you have the right numbers and you're dial the wrong order, you're not going to reach them. If you knew the vault numbers, but you put the wrong order, the vault doesn't open.

When it comes to a breakthrough, most people are focused on the strategy, the how to and The problem is when you go to how to do something you've never done before, it brings uncertainty. Yes. And uncertainty creates hesitancy and hesitancy kills momentum. Hesidency kills performance. Hasidency kills, you know, most things that really matter in your life. So what I tell people is, if you took it something like losing weight and said, you know, most of America is overweight, why is that?

Is it because the strategy for being fit and strong is so complex? No. Is it only for the 1%? No. Is it super expensive? No. you have to basically ignore everything that's around you, right? So it's not a strategy problem.

People think it's a strategy problem. It's not. The real problem is they have a story. So I think it's these three S's. The story is locking them in place. The story is what you said, a belief. But when you stack a set of beliefs together, you build a story. And you tell it to yourself over and over again until you believe it.

So the story is, I've tried everything. Yes. And I'll say to them, really, everything. How many things you tried? I've tried thousands of things. Then I go, okay, name them. And they'll go, uh, I've got two things. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

These two things that don't work I did over and over again, right? You know? But as long as you believe that, a belief is the feeling of certainty about what can be done or can't be done, right? Who you are or who you're not. So when you go first for how, you have uncertainty. I call it the tyranny of how. You don't want to get to the how first. You got to deal with the story before that, right?

So the story might be all the good ones are gone, right? Or they're all gay and I'm not, or I'm gay and they're not. You know, some story that makes it impossible to succeed. If you change the story, you can get a strategy that works. But the order people work on is strategy. Rarely pay attention to story, but the one before that is where we need to start. It's your state. It's your mental, emotional state.

There's an athlete you know this, right? So that state of certainty, that state of passion, that state of conviction, that stage of absolute determination, right? That state that every great athlete has, that state, any great leader has, and a great business person has, if you have that state, it will change your story and it'll change what you're able to do strategy-wise. So, like, for example,

have you ever gotten pissed off at somebody and then realized, remembered everything you've ever been pissed at them about? You know, it's like you get in that mode, you remember everything, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or when somebody's in love, what's wrong with life when they're in love?

Nothing. Nothing. It's amazing. So your story changes with your state, right? Your story about your life. It's, it could be one day, it's horrible. The next day, life's a gift. So the most important thing to do is change your state first.

That's why most people fail to achieve what they want. They have not become masters in their own mental, emotional state. And you know in our events, that's my number one piece, because without that, you won't get lasting change. You'll get temporary change. Once I get enough state, I can change the story. That's easy. Once I change the story, if I don't give you the strategy, you'll find a strategy.

You'll make it happen. You'll find the way, you'll make the way. You've lived this as an athlete and as a businessman. So I look at this and say, the problem is, as most people do it in reverse order. When they go in reverse order, they stop the process. They don't know how. They freak out about the uncertainty.

Their story doesn't support them. And now they're in a lousy state. And so they try something for a little while and never follow through. So that's the breakthrough I do it. So it's, it is a belief system. But I want you to see it's a little more complex than that. It's the state. Because in you, were you taught, look before you leap?

Yes. When you taught, he who hesitates is lost? Yes. So which one do you pick? Yeah, right, exactly. The answer is, what am I supposed to do? Your state will determine it. So if you're fearful, your state's lost, you're going to justify.

If you're more aggressive and there's something you really want, you're going to, you know, it's like, I've got to make this thing happen, right? It's a different piece. So you pick your beliefs based on your state unconsciously. So state is a controlling factor in everything, in a relationship. Congratulations. You've got your two daughters and your wife. We talked for many years about relationship together.

I struggled for many years. No, but you did it right. I needed to learn a new story. That's right. I needed to learn a new story and I needed to kind of heal that story. That's right. And create a different one for myself so I could attract the wife that I have now. That's right.

That amazing relationship about that. But even before you got the story, you had to get the state. Yes. When the state was there, it became easier to get the story. Because I was living in fear a lot in intimacy. I know. You know, I was able to living in the thrill of excitement. Yes.

Without really going deeper and making sure the values aligns. That's right. And then later you learn about the values and you're like, oh, but now I'm stuck in this and I can't get out. I'm afraid to be alone now. So I was living in fear or excitement, but it wasn't like grounded certainty. And I think when you get into relationship, when you start dating someone, you're never certain it's going to work out. But it was more of like, I finally was like, I'm certain I'm going to be okay no matter what happens. You know what I mean?

It was like, I'm certain. Yes. If we don't align, then I want the best for her and I want the best for me. Yeah. And I was certain that I was okay. Yes. No matter what. Yes.

And before I never had that certainty or because the story didn't match that. And think about it. Fear almost always makes you make the wrong choice. Every time. Every time. And so there's so much fear and uncertainty in that. And so by the way, your next one is going to probably be about your two daughters. Yeah, yeah.

With this first time parent, right? Oh, man. Yeah. And you got two of them simultaneously. Yeah, the same time. And so that'll bring up those pieces. And those pieces, by the way, can filter into the rest of your other areas your life without you noticing it, being aware of it when I say noticing it. So you've got to be cautious about that, meaning not cautious.

Just do the same thing you do with anything else. You want to jump into parenting and learn everything you can about it. So when things happen, you know the pattern in advance. Yeah. You have a great state. You have a great story and you have a great strategy. But you've done some study. You go like certain things, they're predictable, right?

When you have your first child, for example, most people have first child, the child gets really sick and they freak out. They run to the doctor. If they have four kids, when I'm talking about the fourth kid, they don't care by the last one. You get an earache. They can, you care just as much,

but you go, it's part of this stage. It's a problem, but you don't freak out about the problem. Same thing in a business. In a business, when you understand the patterns, in the beginning of a business,

it's going to be a cash flow challenge, right? They're going to cash flow challenge when it's mature. That's a real problem. Yeah. Each stage has predictable challenges and opportunities. And the more you can know the pattern in advance, the more you can anticipate,

anticipation is power. reaction puts you in fear. And so you found the right state, the right story, and then you found the right lady, right? Exactly. And I feel like we did the work together while we started dating. We went to the kind of couples therapy in the beginning to make sure we were in alignment and kind of communicating, hey, when something happens in the future, how do we want to handle it? Exactly. It doesn't mean it's going to be perfect. That's the anticipation part. Yes. Right? Instead of waiting until it happens, then you're in it. Exactly. And my twin girls were born two and a half months ago and I felt like I was so prepared. I didn't know what was going to happen because I never

experienced it, but I felt emotionally ready. That's great. And my wife, you know, she did an amazing job, but she had to go to the ER twice after we got home from preclampsia and had complications and the twins and all these different things were happening. Family was around. It was just a lot of chaos for about six weeks. But I felt more calm because I felt like I'd been preparing for years. That's great. For the uncertain. I was like, I was like, I was just. certain it was going to be uncertain. Yes. And I would be okay. And that extrapolate that to life and it changes anybody's life. Like you know, I train people how to build certain your body. Because people say now to me, they'll say things like, well, they're eye coming and all these changes

occurring. Like when there's no certain, when people lose their jobs, when there's no certainty the outside world, how are people going to have certainty? And I go, let me give you a clue. There was never any external certainty. You've had rented certainty. You've convinced yourself hypnotically that you're certain because you had a job and you had this. None of this. And you walk across the street and get hit by a bus, right? There's so much it can happen. So we hate uncertainty so much and we want it so strongly.

But if we link it to our job or to an income or to a person responding the way we want to, then you're going to live a very fearful life. If you train yourself to feel that internal certainty, which is what you're dead, and anticipate as much as possible and you know, no matter what, I'll find the way. That is a different identity. Yes. You've gone to a level of not just how to deal with things, but the identity is I'm the guy that will find the way for my kids and for my family. Right?

And that is freedom. You said something to me seven, maybe seven or eight years ago. It was in Fiji. We are at a mastermind with you and Dean Graciosi. There's about 20 of us there. You said many things to me over the years. But this, I remember the line you said. You said winter is coming.

You said it while you were barefoot on the beach in Fiji with the sun on our faces and the ocean breeze. and this beautiful resort that you have. And you said winter is coming. And it was maybe a year before COVID, right? Or a year or two before COVID, year and a half, something like that. Yeah. And you said, winter's coming. It may be a year, maybe eight years, but it's coming.

Yeah. And I remember taking that very seriously. Yeah. You know, as seriously as you can take a time on the beach with Tony Robbins hanging out in the sun. But I remember saying, I need to continue to prepare. That's right. For winter. That's why I was telling everybody that.

Yes. And I felt ready. when COVID came. That's awesome. I felt ready because for years before that, I'd also been doing the work and I was like, let's go. I was telling my team earlier this week.

I was like, when you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. And this is a lot of athletes say this as well. And I think it's being ready for the uncertainty or the winter, whatever is coming. It's coming. And it happens for everybody. Listen, call it extreme stress for a moment.

You just called that, extreme stress. Yes. Who's going to experience in their lifetime? All of us. Everyone. All of us. I don't care if you're the most God-fearing, loving human being. I don't care if you're religious.

I don't care if you're the richest person. No one escapes massive, massive stress. And what does that look like? It looks like your house burns down. Like you're in L.A. Lots of my friends' houses burned down. I was here when it happened as well. So I actually put in $6 million.

I'm not pat myself on the back, but I just couldn't see people just not have a home. They had a 14-day pass. So I worked a bunch of organizations. But my helmet burned down 20 years before. in California here. Really? And it was when there was no, you know, no AI, no place to put all your stuff, pictures in the cloud, I lost everything.

But my family, which is the most important thing, right? But there's a journey that it takes you on. If you deal with extreme stress, like what else? Your house could burn down. You get robbed. Somebody steals from you in your business. COVID happens and the government shuts down your business against your own will. You're in a place where you lose your job.

I mean, there's somebody dies in your family. Someone tells you you have a tumor. All of us are going to experience something like that or for someone in our family. So when that happens, what do you do? You either use stress or stress uses you. Yes. And the way you use stress is, you know, the whole phrase they'd say, you know, when you're going through hell, keep going.

Yeah. If you keep going, three things happen. Number one, you discover how strong you really are. It's the only way you're going to find it is to push through it. And then each time you do it, by the way, you get stronger, stronger. Second, you figure out who your real friends are, not your Facebook friends. Because when all hell's breaking loose, no one sticks around except real friends. And then the third thing, most important thing, is it gives you like almost a little immunity to future stress because it's like a vaccination of it almost.

I remember I dealt with this friend of mine, Captain Coffey was his name, and he was a pilot and, you know, young and, you know, looks like, you know, top gun kind of guy. And in Vietnam, he got shot down. And he got locked up for seven years in a Vietnamese prison, literally in isolation on a floor, cuffed to the ground and upside down so that when he peed, the acid would run down. down his back. They beat him, they interrogated, and everything could do. And I remember this decades later, I said to him, he was dealing with the IRS and it took him three years to get his money back. Some guy was, when the IRS was just got some problem about him. But it was brutal what he went through. And I was like, how do you deal with this? He goes, Tony, after you've been with the North Vietnamese in prison, so do you think the IRS can get to me? So there's

great value in that process. Now, if you make it through those steps, now that internal certainly inside you just builds and builds and builds. And then what happens is life has got a different experience because it's like some part of you goes, God's guiding me or I've always found a way in the past. I'm going to find a way again. And so you don't go through all those fear stages that make you make the wrong choices in relationships, in business or anything else. And that's part of the value of decades. Yeah. You know, it's like you're how now you know? Forty-two. You're not the same man as you were 32. No. And we all think we're men when we're 20, right? But you become a a man basically in your 40s and 50s in my experience, most people, because you've lived enough

life and you find, if you're growing, you see the patterns you've not seen before, and it frees you. Speaking of life, we're here in this amazing home again, a friend of yours who's built one of the biggest, you know, builders in the world. We're here in Bel Air, but you grew up a few miles from here in North Hollywood, or at least I think you were born there in North Hollywood area. Yeah, more of the San Gabriel Valley, or the Doroosso out and where the small is. But a few miles from here, you were, you were raised or you were, you know, close by in California and you know a lot of people have heard your story you said it many times that your your mom was abusive in certain ways although she loved you a lot but she was abusive

and you had you know she used alcohol and prescription drugs yeah when that happened she was different human being exactly unfortunately but she made me a practical psychologist exactly i had to learn to manage her emotions yes i got a younger brother five years younger younger sister seven years younger so she was the most important influence of my life and loved me to death and had quirks but we all had works and it gave me a gift. 100%. And you also had, you know, a father that left your mom and that left. Four fathers, yeah.

Four different fathers left your mom. But you, you spoke about the word identity a moment ago. And when you're, you had a father that adopted you, I think at 12. Is that correct? Yeah. So you originally had a different last name. You essentially had a different identity until 12 when you took on a new identity with the last name.

I don't think I've ever heard you talk about this moment in terms of. In terms of taking on the identity of a new person's name, how did that shape you from, for 12 years of life, you're a different man's name. Then you take on Robbins. Yeah. What did that identity shift do internally for you? Did it give you a different certainty or confidence in life? Because this father figure was more empowering for you than the previous ones.

Did something shift and say, I'm going to go create something in myself now that I take on this name? I've never heard you talk about this. I'm curious about it. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, you're right. It was 12. I was in the seventh grade. It was my fourth father, Jim Robbins, his name I carry.

He adopted me. I loved him to death because he was an athlete, you know, a semi-pro baseball player. And I've done that. And so, you know, when I was a kid, I really wanted to play sports, but we had no money. So, you know, couldn't go by Little League or Warner Football and things of that nature. He just couldn't afford it. And so he convinced my mom that, and my mom didn't. wanting to get hurt. I was always the smallest guy, believe it or not.

You know, it was 5-1 in high school. You know, it's like my sophomore year, and then boom, six, seven. But the process he brought was, I think, more, I connected him through moxie. Like, I think I always had him in me. He had the moxie. He had moxie. And I

have moxie, but it, like, through sports, it was how our relationship created. Like, he started playing fast pitch softball, and I would get up there and pitch to him. As hard as I could throw the ball for three hours, till my arm literally falling off me and it was just like, or he hit me baseballs for two hours and I was in the beginning and I hadn't played, right? So it smacked me in the face and I'd be bleeding and

goes, keep on going, telling him, keep on going, right? And I was like, so part of it was my nature, but my nature got nurtured. Yes. Right? I got rewarded and it rewarded was the form of love I had from him. So I think it wasn't the name as much as the relationship, but the name was, my friend was Mahoravik. Your last name was Mahoravit. Yeah, M-A-A-H-A-R-A-O-V. I used to hate when I'd go into school because they'd say,

no one could pronounce my name. So now I'm Robbins. It was easier. There's some value in that. But I think the bigger piece was, it was more than that. It was more like, okay, this is my father. My natural father is a really good man.

Looking at my life now, 66, looking back, I can see what a good man he was. But he worked underground. here before we had automatic parkins. That's all he did all day long for 40 years. And he was an alcoholic, but not a mean one. It's a nice one. But my mom, it framed me on who he was.

Yes. She told a story. And I believe the story. And so that's, yeah, interesting. And the story is he's weak, he's worthless, he's all these things. I don't want to be those things. And then the second husband she had, she left him for the same reason. And then the third and somehow or the fourth. And he's not weak.

So they fought like you can't even imagine. like you can't even imagine. Interesting. But so the answer to your question, I think, is I developed this identity that was based on, I'm going to be an athlete. And I developed a plan. I'm a plan guy, right. Strategy.

That's right. I mean, I remember we had no money. I'd like save up all my money work as a janitor so I could go to Dodger Stadium and bleed Dodger Blue in the right field bleachers way at the top, you know, twice in a year would be a big deal. And I own them. That's a piece of it. That's a dream come true. That's amazing.

pretty cool. Small amount of owner, but it's still over. And so, anyway, it's just at the world's season with Peter Guber is the primary owner, my dear friend, and we were there for the seventh game. I witnessed that. It was just such a, such a journey. But what my plan was simple. It's like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to, I'm a shortstop in a pitcher. I'm going to crush it, you know, in junior high school here. I'm going to go to my high school. I'm going to crush it there. I'm going to get a scholarship to USC. Then we're playing the minor leagues.

And then eventually, the Dodger organization, I'm going to bleed Dodger Blue, and I want to be a Dodger baseball player. That was my whole plan. So here's what really changed my identity. I'm Robbins. That didn't help. I've got a good mind. So I was like the best science student.

So the science teacher was the coach of the baseball team. And I was a little bit of his favorite student. Because I could absorb it. I always wanted to make things work and figure it out. And so he loved about me. So I make the first cut. I make the second cut. And then I know at that time I had hair down.

Well, my style back there. California guy. Your hair was down to here. And he was a straight-laced guy. and you didn't have it. So my mom cut all my hair off. Oh, man. And I show up and I got cut from the junior high school team on the last day.

And I'm like, my brain was like, what? If I don't make the junior high school team, how the hell I'm going to make the high school team? How am I going to do with USC? The whole thing just exploded in front of me. So something inside of me has always been there's a way, right? You know? And so I was like, what do I want? What I'm going to do with my life?

You know, because there was no safety net in my family, right? There was no economic safety net. No one's going to send me to school. And I was like, okay, what do I want? What do I love about baseball? What I love the sports? I love the energy. I love the passion.

Same thing is making you want to go to the Olympics, right? I want to go in the game, but I want the energy that we generate, how it lifts people, how the crowd becomes one. So, okay, well, how can I do that? Well, I'll be a, I'm smart. I'll become a sportscaster. I'll be a sports writer. So I took, in the seventh grade, I took up typing, and I was the only kid, only boy in a shorthand class. So I could take notes really rapid.

And then I was in a program that was called mentally gifted minders. They tested my IQ is pretty high. So they gave you a free, you know, hour in the day that you could do whatever you want. You could design whatever it was, and then they'd score you based on what they thought you did with your time. And so I started reading every book about every different athlete, and I'm learning to type one. So I thought, I'm going to interview. I'm going to interview the Dodgers. So in those days we had mimograph.

I don't know if you know what that is, this stuff. But I typed this stuff on a mimograph, and I had these questions, and I sent them to Dodgers and they didn't respond. I sent him again and I called in and they just kept pushing. And one day I got this envelope with answers from Ron Say, who was in a third baseman, right? And then Steve Garvey is still around and some other players. And then the next thing I know, I decided I've got to get live interviews. And I want to work for a newspaper. I'm 14. Wow. So one day I'm in my little open class and I'm reading the newspaper at sports parts, see what's going on.

and I see an ad that says Howard Cocell, who was the biggest sportscaster in the world in that time. He was the guy who did the Super Bowl. He and Muhammad Ali had this taunting relationship. He was a huge personality. He'd written a book and it was by Simon and Schuster, who later published my books, and he was going to be over here in West Hall, or, excuse me, on the west side here of L.A.

At Robinson's and he's going to sign books for people that bought them. So I called my mom, who never left the house, was always there. And I said, Mom, I never asked you. for anything, but I've got a private interview with Howard Kosell. Wow. And I did not have a private interview. You told her you did. Yeah, yeah. I said, I need you to come get me out of school,

drive down there, and get me down there. And I was so, I don't know what it was. Somehow I got through to her and she did it. They had tape recorders, then they were cassette players, but they were this size with a separate microphone. So, and I printed out these business cards. It said Tony Robbins' future sportscaster, the currently limited brief taped interview, sponsored by the MGM program. So I had a little business card.

That's cool. At 14. Yeah, 14. Wow. And so she drives me down. It's about a two-hour drive to get here. And she's like, this interview better go well. It'll go well, Mom.

And I go up and I'm watching. He's on this little dais. And these people are standing in line and, you know, getting a book sign. And this older woman walks up to him and had not bought a book with a napkin and said, did you please sign? He goes, I only signed books, ma'am. And then I'm like, oh, my God. I'm going to interview with this guy.

And then all of a sudden, he's starting to finish up. And the guy, some, the publicistist, you know, ushering him out of the room. And he's starting all of a sudden that he's getting surrounded by, there were cameras everywhere and all these, you know, these sports people and sports riders

and they're like, tell me about this, and what about the World Series? What about this? And my mom of Lee and the Super Bowl, he's answering. And so I finally pushed through the crowd on this little guy.

I got this little green Levi jacket on jeans. And I got my microphone, and I handed my card, and I say, sir, sir, I'd like to interview you. I'm interested in becoming a sportscaster. I want to know what makes the difference there and everything else.

He said, you wonder what son? He looks at my car and he looks around the audience and he saw the moment and he used it and he said, young man, I'll give you an interview. He goes, you people wait. So we're standing by the towels and shit like that. And he puts his leg up and he goes, tell me your questions. So I take it my hand shaking my wrist and face and I'm going and my mom, I'm thinking, thank God I got this interview. And so I asked him, what does it take to be a sports guest?

And he says, well, I'll tell you Tony. He goes, it's not being an athlete. They know nothing about the English. language. And he went through this tyrant about the athletes become sports rights, but people like you who are educated, going for it. So he does this whole thing. So I get about five questions in, and the time was just a guy, he's like,

can they get him out of the room? Yeah. And everybody's taking pictures, the LA Times is there, everything else. And he says, he goes, I think I've got to go, Tony. And I said, well, could I ask you one final question? He said, sure. At that time, there was a radio guy here in L.A. who used to, the day after Monday night football, he would take all the flubs of Cocell and play them. He was super popular.

His name was Jim Healy. The most popular radio guy at the time, sports guy. I said, do you ever wish the morning after Monday football that Jim Healy would wake up with laryngitis? And the crowd goes, oh, and the whole time he's been calling me Tony, right? And he goes, I'm sorry, son, but I've never heard of Jim Healy. And he walked off and everybody clapped and cheered. So the next day, the LA Times wrote an article about this kid,

talked about how the woman couldn't get an autograph, But this kid got this interview, right? Wow. Well, my local newspaper, my little town saw this and said, would you write an article? So I wrote a 20-page, singles-faced in a sports article, which they trimmed down. And then I started interviews with Woody Hayes and Joe Namath and all these people are 14 years old. And so that was going to be my target. And then what changed it all was my mom felt like I got KTTV Channel 11 here at the Fox station.

It wasn't then. They had tried everything to get ratings. They tried Fannie Fox, the stripper to be the sportscaster. They tried all these things. And then they saw me do these interviews and get interviews that people know one else did. Right before the Rose Bowl, I get Woody Hayes. House State.

I'm from Ohio. That's my guy. Yeah. And a room full of reporters, and I pulled it off, I got it. Really? You interviewed Woody Hayes. Yes. Yeah.

And I wrote this article about the real Woody Hayes because, you know, he was smacked a player. Yeah, yeah. He had all those controversy around. Anyway, wrote these articles, and they turned around and they said, he should be our sportscaster. So at almost 16, 15 and a half, I got offered the job to be the sportscaster at KTV. And my mom said,

your ego's too big and all this stops now. And she took away at all. I started working for a daily newspaper. She took it away. She said, you're going to come home every day and you're just going to work. You're going to clean the house. You're going to do the things.

Really? It was brutal. What did that do to you psychologically or mentally? At the time, I hated her. I thought it was the worst thing. on earth. The gift it is, is like every day in my life, I have people tell me, you know, you're the greatest that ever exists.

I love you, you've changed my life. But I never lost perspective, but that's all that I'm just a guy. It was probably God's way of making sure that I'd be prepared for the future or the universe's way, whatever you want to call it. My mom was a great vehicle for it. But what changed my life and why I'm here today is because, so now I'm in class and I take up a speech class. I'm a sophomore in high school.

I'm just turning 16. And I'm mouthy. I thought. Like, I didn't care about, I never, I never used drugs and alcohol because it was abused in my family, right? So the cool kids, I told them, you know, read between the lines. And so I don't give a damn. I don't know who you are, who you think you are. But I'm little. It's like, and I'm attracted to beautiful women. So I'm in my speech class and my journalism class. And I'm already writing for a daily newspaper. So they bring me in even though I'm a sophomore. And the head noseguard is this girl named Nancy Coleman. She's the head song leader. And I can make her laugh and I'm getting her attention. And he gets mad, and so he comes up to me and says, you know, I'm going to destroy you. And so he pours chocolate milk all down my head. And then he and five of the guys chase me. And I was not very fast.

I got the beat out of me. But I get back up and go, screw you. You know, I was just willful. So one day, after a speech class, Mr. Cobb, this straight-laced, right-wing kind of teacher, says, Robbins, I'll see you after class. I'm like, oh, you know, because I was always, I was making fun. teasing things and stirring the class up. So I soon left class and he said,

you know what I'm here to talk to you? And I said, yeah, I think I understand why I'm sorry. And he goes, what he's sorry about? And he said, well, I know. He goes, no, I want to talk to you because I've never seen a student in my 30 years who can stand in front of all these other kids and mesmerize and hold their attention for 30 or 45 minutes and influence them.

He said, you have a gift. And I'm looking at him like he's crazy. He goes, you don't understand. You have a gift. He says, there's something about how much you care and something about your intensity, something about your style. And he goes, Mr. Robbins, I've done some homework on you because I'm fascinated by you. And I know more about your home life than you think I do.

Because I was in really bad shape. My fourth father had left. My mom kicked him out. You know, I'm going through a rough time. And he said, I have a speech here that I'd like you to read. And if it appeals to you, he said, I think this is your life. And he said, I want you to memorize it and I want you to compete

and persuades of oratory. You just have to be a junior to do that. And I'm like, well, I'm not as you. He goes, I don't care, I'll get you in. How long is the speech? 20 minutes, 25 minutes, yeah. I read this story. The title was the will to win.

And it was my life. It was like, I could cry, just thinking about it. It was so intense. I mean, I'm reading it and crying, just going, I'm only here still, all that I've been through because of my pure will that I will not give up. And I took that speech and I read it and owned it.

And I got up in a one, first place, first place, first place, four in a row. And then I've gotten debate. And then that led me in a different direction. And then I ran for student my president. I wasn't the most popular kid, but I went around and did actual speeches about what I do. And I go find out if it could really be done. And I shot people straight. And I beat the most popular girl in school and became the president.

And that made me believe, this is the identity, long answer, that if you really are sincere, and you're really real and you really give and you tell the truth that it doesn't matter whether you're popular or not, you can write your own ticket. You can make this world the way you want it to be. That influence me more than the name Robbins by far.

Interesting. Try the journey, though. It's having all your plans be messed up. It's like, what can say, if you want to make God left, call on your plans, right? You know, so it was a larger plan. Two things that were interesting to me is you had your natural father.

Yes. And then you had your adopted father. Yes. And you had these different influences, teachers that saw something in you throughout the journey. Yes. I guess what was the story, if you can look back now, since you have a different interpretation of the story now. Yeah. What is the story of the lesson your natural father taught you versus your adopted father, who you took on the Robin's name taught you?

I think what I've learned today is I judged my natural follower and didn't want to be him. I wanted to be anything but him because I want to be anything but him because I want to be. of my mother's love. I was closer to my mother because my father was my mom was alcohol too, but she was more there. He was more of a quiet by himself kind of guy. And I realized that as much as I love my mom, her interpretations, I allowed to become mine. And I won't let that ever happen again in my life. Interesting. Because it affected it. And I've, I've actually, you know, it sounds corny, but I've actually had prayers and so forth of to my natural father saying, You know, I'm sorry, I love you, please forgive me for the judgment I had.

At the same time, I'm proud that Jim Robbins, I think he and I, our natures were more aligned. Yes. And so he fanned the flames of my true nature and my grit and my capacity to push to anything, which has been a part of my entire life, was expanded by that. And then it got tested because he got kicked out by my mom. My mom chased me out with a knife. I knew she wasn't going to kill me, but I wasn't going back in that house. And I was working as a janitor in the San Francisco.

in Reno, California, where some of the fires were, Pasadena area. And I realized if I could be paid not by the hour, but by the result. If I clean two banks, I could do it in the same amount of time in the middle of the night going to high school. So I had to take buses there because my mom kept my 1960 Volkswagen. I'd warrant it 40 bucks a week. So I would take all the buses all the way there, taking me about 90 minutes because you had to switch buses and all that.

And then I'd finish about two in the morning, cleaned two banks thoroughly. But I was the guy that left notes for people and left candy kings at Christmas as a janitor. I was just still people person. And I came out one day and it's 2 o'clock in the morning and that's the other day that changed my life. I'll never forget I'm standing by the thing and I'm standing waiting for the bus, waiting for us. I got to get home and get some sleep

for two or three hours and I can get it, I'm going to school. And finally, no bus, like after 20 minutes. And I'm like, that's really late. And I'm standing by the bus stop and this car comes cruising up because in the middle of the night. The guy rolls his window and goes, hey, buddy, didn't you see there's a bus strike? You'd be sitting there all night.

I'm 16, 17 miles. from home. I have no one I can call. I have no net. No money. That's that nature. There's no Uber's right. I know the money for an Uber anyway in those days. I'm like, what the hell am I going to do? And there was such anger in me about my mom kicking out and everything else. I started with anger.

And I'm like, F this. I'm going to run the whole way. Now, I never even run three miles in my life. And it was 16 miles. I actually drove it one day. I think it was almost 17 miles. But the last mile I walked because I got chin splits. It was so bad. And

And so from two in the morning to like four, whatever it was, I ran. But while I ran, I did incantations, not affirmations because I remember when I first got kicked out, I realized I needed to feed my mind. And so I took a little bit of money I had. I got on the bus and I went up to this spiritual bookstore. It was like 20 minutes of my home by bus. And I was a book's going to guide there. There's a book that's going to be here. And I got Magic of Believing by Claude in Bristol.

And in the book, he talked about your beliefs control everything. And the way to condition them is through not just affirmations, but what I became called incantations. He still called them affirmations. But he taught the difference was saying, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy. I'm happy. And your brain goes, I'm not happy, versus I am ripping this open where your body, your voice, your mind all engaged with enough repetition.

And whatever you attach the words, I am to, with enough consistency, enough emotion, you become. It's a little hypnotize you into it. So I start out with every day and every way. I'm getting stronger and stronger and then I go every day and every I'm stronger. Every day and every I'm stronger, stronger. And then I got burned out of that one. So then it's like healthy and healthier and more and more happy.

I did that the whole way. To this day, that energy lives in me. It's like it's an energy of like pure effing will that you tell me can't be. I'll run to the effing building. You will not stop me if what I'm doing is for a greater good. Right. But I left from the anger part in the middle of it, The anger disappeared.

And I didn't need that because anger fuel will run out. And I got into the excitement of becoming more. Let's go. Right. And it's like, this is my juice. Yes. Right. It's always they tell people there's like two types of motivation.

There's willpower. There's what I call push. And I got a lot of that. I know you do too much. That drive. Yeah. That push is invaluable. But there's a limit to willpower.

You know how much you and I both have. Burn out. Yeah. But pull motivation is very different. And pull is there's something so magnificent. You want to serve more than yourself. You want to create, you want to make it happen. Then it pulls you through those times.

And pull is way more powerful than push. And pull does not wear out. And so I discovered pull on that trip. And I also discovered this part of me. So I always tell people, and it's like, this Tony Robbins guy, I created him. He's always me. But I shaped and created this MFO, right? I decided who I'm here to be now.

And I created it through incantations. Again, not affirmations, but saying it, feeling, envisioning it with such intensity for hours and hours. And I didn't stop after that. I go on runs and I do this over and over again. I did it with abundance because I grew up with no money, no opportunity. There's no money in my family. They have no money for food. That's why I fed a billion people now.

It's 62 billion. I don't know if you know. Yeah, of a hundred billion meal thing. I've done 62 billion meals. So it's insane. I don't have been able to do. But it started with me being able to get inside that head of mine and just create absolutely. certainty and train it into myself until I built an identity. This is who I am. And your identity

is the strongest force you have. The strongest force in any personality is to stay consistent with your identity. If you think you're a loser, you find a way to lose. If you're Lance Armstrong and you say your core belief, your identity, not just your belief, is I am a guy that finds the way to victory. When he was told he had cancer in his brain, his lungs and his testicles, which is inconvenient when you ride a bike, right? Right. Instead of saying it's over, he says, I will find the way and created Livestrong and he survived. Unfortunately, it also was why he used drugs to win. He used every way.

Yeah, illegal ways too. It's the same way. I will do whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. So identity is the force that controls you. And when you enhance your identity, you enhance your whole life. Otherwise, it's like a thermostat. You set it at 68 degrees.

If the temperature drops to 65, you're okay. But there's a place, maybe 60 degrees where all of a sudden the brain goes that, hey, You're supposed to be at 68 degrees and the heaters kick on and you've got to make it better. You've been there. It's not good enough. But what people don't realize is if you think you're at 68 degrees, that's your comfort zone. That's what you've, it's not your goal, but it's what you're used to. And you get to 70, 78, 80, 90 degrees.

All of a sudden in the middle of the night, your brain goes, what the hell are you doing up here? You're not a 60 degree or a 68 degree. And you lose your drive, right? The heater stop. And if that's enough, the air conditioners come down and bring you back to where you you are. So all of my work is changed identity. If I came to you and said, you don't smoke cigarettes, correct? No, never been. If I said to you, you know, would you like a cigarette? No. You wouldn't say, what brand is it? No, no, no. Because you go, I'm not one of those. I'm not a smoker.

That's different. That's an identity belief. Identity beliefs are the controlling force of your life. Yes. But if you've never tasted abundance, again, you didn't taste abundance. You were living in scarcity, emotionally, you know, probably maybe spiritually, financially, all these different things. You didn't have the resources. If you don't have a taste of abundance, you weren't living in this $165 million home, you weren't even coming here and visiting it. But if you can't taste it, how do you make your identity shift to become that abundance? Proximity is power. Yes, it is. You have to get yourself in the environment. When I was in the banks, I would, one of the things I would do every night is I go to the CEO's office, which I had

to clean up and everything else, but I read all his documents, which is totally inappropriate. But I want to know how he thought what he was doing was going on. And when I was there, he had pictures in the wall. And, you know, he had this boat and he had different things. There was like, wow, that's, that's an interesting life. That's an interesting way of being. And then gradually, I got the chance to be around people where I got to coach some people that were just unbelievably successful in terms of movies, business, life.

And they're much older than me, 25, 30 years older than me. And they're like, man, you help me with this thing. I don't know you do, you're just a kid, but I wasn't stupid enough. They thought my ego I'm helping him was like, let me suck out of their brain, everything I can. But I got in proximity. That's the first piece. And I saw, but that's not enough.

You can get in proximity and go, I'll never have this. Yes. And be defeated. And be defeated. Yeah. The thing that saved me was when I work for Jim Rohn, and I'm just 17, 18 years old, and I'm learning basic philosophy for things to change, you've got to change.

Things get better. You got to get better. But it's all still foundational. I went to him one day because I got a chance. I'd done so well for him that I got a chance to have a lunch with him and some other people. So I had access to him. And I said, Mr. Rohn, I said, I love if you could help me with something. I said, I have had four fathers.

They were all good men. And all of them at times, we had no money. We had no money for food at times. And I said, I don't understand how that can be when someone's a good person. They lost their jobs. And I don't understand how a school teacher back. man, it was like $35,000 a year, making $35,000 a year. And this hedge fund guy over here is making a billion dollars in one year. I said, that is so unjust. And can you tell me why? And he was so

awesome. And the advice he gave changed my whole life. He looked at me and he said, Tony, you are right. We are all equal as souls on this planet. But we're not equal in the marketplace. Interesting. I said, what does that mean? He said, let me ask you a question. Is it possible for someone to make twice as much money in the same amount of time as someone else? He said, yeah, five times, ten times, a hundred times, yeah. I said, how? He said, that person who goes to McDonald's, and they make that minimum wage, and they got it, he said, that is not supposed to be a career.

It's an opening job, and the reason is you're not adding much value. Anyone can learn to do that job in an hour. Today, they use machines, right? There's more and more robots are coming for it now. He goes, that school teacher, he said, that school teacher was not willing to bet on themselves. They wanted security and how many of them were great. I said a lot of great teachers. He goes, name them.

So I thought of Mr. Cobb. I thought of like three of my teachers. He goes, how many teachers have you had? Yeah. And he goes, then how many people did they help? They worked with how many people? He said, so they had limited added value. And some of them didn't get better, right?

Some of them just went there for their pension. At the minimum, they wanted security. He goes, that guy who made a billion dollars, he had a 38% return last year. The money he has comes for people's futures. It's for their retirements. It's retirement funds. It's funds for people's college educations. It's for them.

He goes, he made $48 billion last year for his clients. He's worth a billion. Wow. He goes, so Tony, here's what I want you to remember the rest of your life. You need to become more valuable. Not valuable what you think is valuable. what serves those out there. And you've got to give what people need.

He said, you need to find a way to add more value to people than anybody else in the marketplace. If you become more value, we're going to add more value. Not the value you want to give, the value they need. He said, you will never have to worry about money for the rest of your life. And I've never forgotten it. And, you know, I've got 1221 companies now. We just got over $12 billion in business. And I've got in all these different industries,

it's radically different industries. And what's the common denominator you're having them? Every single one. I get great leaders and I create a culture where everybody understands we're here to do more than the customer could possibly imagine. And that creates raving fans because satisfied customers go away. Raving fans stay. And so people come to my seminar, they're raving fans. You don't come to seminary go, that was good or, you know, like that.

People go, I'll change my whole life, right? Yeah, yeah. And I've been doing that for, you know, my 49th year. Yeah. I think Stanford actually did a study about Date with Destiny, I believe, a few years ago that they studied a lot of people that came in who had depressive thoughts or depressive mood and depressive energy. And I think it was within 90 days or 60 or 90 days afterwards, they didn't have the depressive thinking anymore.

It was actually during the COVID situation, during the shutdowns, they came to me because two of their professors came to my date with Dessian, the six-day seminar. And what's interesting is they both were clinically depressed. And they came back and got rid of their medication and had no symptoms. And they said, this is impossible. They said, do you have data on this? I said, well, yeah, I got millions of graduates. I said, no, no, like scientific data.

I said, no, it's not my focus. Come do the data for me. That's what? I said, you want to do study it? They said, yeah, about what? They said, depression, because during that time, depression went through the roof. And as a result, suicides went through roof. Overdoses went through the roof.

And I said, okay, if we're going to do this study, help me understand, what did the meta studies say right now on various treatments? What's out there? And they said, and this blew my mind, 60% of the people that are depressed. to seek improvement through psychiatric or psychological tools, so drugs or therapy or both, 60% make zero improvement. 40% improve,

and the average improvement across all the meta studies is 50%. So it means they're half as depressed as they were. Some people got well, but very few, most of them stand drugs forever, right? And it's probably because of lifestyle changes or relationships or other things. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

So now they don't grow, they're just numb, right? So I said, okay, I said, you should be able to get that result with a placebo. Right. And he kind of got nervous, gave us nervous laugh. He goes,

yeah, maybe. I said, we will destroy that number. I said, but tell me another thing. I said, what is the best result you've ever seen?

What's the best study? Single study. And it was done almost now nine years ago at Johns Hopkins. And they gave people psilocybin, magic mushroom for 30 days and cognitive therapy. So I said, you did that much to their biochemistry. Yeah.

You had to make some major changes. And they did. It was the most successful study in history of psychiatry up until that point. At the end of six weeks after the treatment, they had 57% of people who had no symptoms. Unheard of. Right. Unheard of.

So I said, we'll beat that. And I said, I know that sounds like ego or hyperbole or exaggeration. Right, right. But I said, I'm telling you this, not because I'm so smart, but because we're going to change. Your emotions come from the meaning. Is this the end of the beginning? Is this person, you know, disrespecting me?

Is this person challenging me? Is this person loving me? Is this person coaching me? Whatever answer you give it changes your emotion. And emotion is where depression comes from. So I said, we're going to change the meaning maker. I don't tell them what to do. They rewire that.

I said, you will see radical changes. And I guarantee it'll beat this, but let's see what's right. Wow. So they set up the study exactly like the study done John's Hopkins with the comparison group. And then they put this group of people in with Destiny. and six weeks afterwards, 93% of the people who went to date with death,

they had no symptoms whatsoever, 7% improved, but not to the point where there were no symptoms, they had some, but the best number was 17% came in with suicidal ideation, constantly thinking about suicide, so I'm going to tempted it,

and when they left, not a single person, and the best statistic of all is one year later, with no communication for me whatsoever in the whole year, the average person reduced their negative emotions over 71% and increased their problems of emotions, 52% and no illness still depressed. Wow. So now I just did one on engagement because in business, engagement equals EBITA. And since COVID, engagement has dropped through the floor.

You know, they measure engagement, the disengagement, which is like quiet quitting where people turn to the minimum. And then active disengagement leads, they're doing the least they can and they're trying to hurt the company too, right? The largest change in 50 years since COVID is, huge drop in engagement, huge jump in active disengagement trying to hurt the company, right? Wow. And so we just finished the study, 12 months, I believe, 1,500 people.

So most studies are 35 people, right? Yeah. One year or not two or three months, and the numbers will be coming out in two months. It'll be on medical journey. Wow. And you'll see it blows your mind is, we made up for all the disengagement. In six days, we got them back to where they were before COVID. But the best part is every month after that, an increase that I never spoke to them again.

Wow. Because they're meaning maker change. Yes. Right. Yes. And then we did all this by changing their biochemistry, not through drugs. You know, you've been to an event. What they found is when people, like they've done this test on Tom Brady,

they've done it on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who've won multiple times the NHL hockey championships. And what they found is they put a monitor on me, $70,000, $65,000 device. And at every break, they came and took my saliva to find because they can fill your, take your hormones out of that. and they took my blood, and they're monitoring minute by minute, 12 hours a day on stage. It is for three years. At the end of it, there was a pattern that's just so clear.

They call it championship biochemistry. You'd be interested in this in what you're doing. What happens when Tom Brady is down in the fourth quarter by 10 points with four minutes, whatever to play, if you remember that game, and he comes back to win. How does he do it? Here's what he does. This happens in my body every time I get on stage. Testosterone surges. Now, testosterone produces focus.

power intensity, and it enhances your memory massively. If I said to you, were you on 9-11, most people know where they were sitting, if I say, were you on 8-11, because information without emotion is barely retained. But when you have testosterone, it drives. That's why a year later they still had it. But normally with testosterone, you get the stress hormone in cortisol.

In Tom's case, my case, the Tampa Bay guys case, this championship biochemistry, the cortisol drops off the cliff. So all you have is power and focus. So, Tony, aren't you lucky you have this? The best part is then they measured my audience. Then during COVID, they measured people in different parts of the world who are in their homes experiencing it digitally. Wow. And it looks like, you know what mirror neurons are, right?

You look at somebody, maybe they're paddling. And if you're really connected, you kind of feel that unconsciously in your body. Well, it looks like mirror neurons. It looks like music. They all surge with me and their cortisol drops off the cliff. I can only go to the firewall. They're in front of a fire of 2,000 degrees, and they might feel some feeling,

but the testosterone is so strong, the cortisol is so slow, so low, they storm across it. But more importantly, they retain it. So it's the biochemical changes that make it less. It's not just the intellect. I have two minutes, two, three minutes left,

so I want to get through the final two questions quickly if that's cool. I could hear you tell stories for as long as it tastes, but I want to be respectful because I know you've got another interview here afterwards. Before I get to the final two questions, you've got a summit coming up very soon. This is going to be coming out here in a couple of days,

but you have time to rise summit.com. January 29 through 31st. It's a free event. It's virtual. And you're going to be giving them some incredible insights and strategies to help them rise in 2026 and beyond. Just what you're talking about with your six-day in-person events or your UPW walking on the fire.

This is going to be a taste of that virtually. Well, you know, I created it during COVID. because during COVID, all the stadiums in the world, I was used to doing 15,000 people, and they go, you can put 100 people in there. It's like, you're talking about. 20 feet away, yeah, yeah. So then I tried to move to Vegas.

They shut down Vegas, move to Texas. I try to do movie theaters because they let you have 10 people in the movie, they shut down the movie theaters. So I built this studio, 50 foot high ceilings, 20-foot-high LED screens, 0.67 highest resolution in the world, 50 feet around me. And then I called the founder of Zoom, Eric Yon, is a friend of mine. And I said, I can't just have 1,000 people. I need 25,000.

Anyway, we did the first one with like 400,000 people. And now I've done it for five straight years. We've had, last year, we had 1.3 million people from every country in the world that attended. And I didn't just do two hours I did. Let's do three hours a day for three days in a row. And let's give them the best tools to figure out what they really want, change their energy, find what's stopping them, give them the strategies, show them what they do in their relationships in a compressed period.

Like, imagine like going to a movie, but the movie's your life and you're actively creating instead of possibly. but it's that enjoyable. And so we've done it every year, and we're going to do it again this year. So, as you said, there's no charge for it whatsoever. It's not partially via. It's totally free. If they go to Time torise Summit.com, get yourself registered.

And you can do it from your home or you can do it in your office. Think about there's some people you want to do it with because it's really fun. And by the end of those three days, instead of having a New Year's resolution, which people have already violated by the time we're going to do this, you'll actually have a plan and a strategy and have momentum. And there's no charge for it. That's powerful. And I've been to many of your events.

I think this is the six time I've interviewed you in 13 years of this podcast, six times. And it'll be a 13 year anniversary that week of Time to Rise Summit.com of me starting the podcast. Wow. And so, thank you. It's every week for 13 years. I haven't missed a week. Wow. That's awesome.

Not the smartest, but I'm consistent. I got the will to win like you. I know. Repetition is the under a skill, baby. It's it. Right? As an athlete, you know that. That's it.

People think they do something once and it's enough. It's the repetition to get you to be master's. Exactly, exactly. So I have been around you. I've had you on the show six times now. I've been to many of your events. I've been in masterminds with you. I've been around you for over, you know, a decade of this work that I've been into. But I met you originally, you don't remember, but I met you when I was 16. And I've told you this many times. But I met you the first time. I was 16 years old. I went to one of your big events that used to do in an arena. Donald Trump was actually speaking there. Larry King Live, Pat Summit. All these like all stars were there. And, um, you. You came up out of these stands into the audience and stood right next to me. You don't remember this moment, but I remembered it as one of those memorable moments in my life where my state changed, just like Mr. Cobb, for you. Yes. You didn't look at me, but I saw you looking around me and looking at everyone.

And the energy you brought in that moment is still with me 25 plus years later. That's beautiful. And if anyone watching and listening right now feels like they need a new step change in their life, a new breakthrough. They're stuck. They're feeling anxious. They're feeling overwhelmed. Whatever whatever it might be. I'm telling you. You want to go to another level. And you want to go to another level. You have to go to this event. Time to Rise Summit.com. I'm telling you, it is a game changer. And I know we got to. Of course. And I tell you every time it's, it's a, it was a massive moment for me as an inspiration and a, and a mentor that I didn't even know you were mentoring me, but you were mentoring me back then.

And I hope everyone gets that experience with you through this event or one of your events in the future. in person. My final question is I tell me to wrap it up now. I asked you before your definition of greatness many times. I'm going to read one of them for you and then I'm going to have you adjust it. You said this the first time I had you on 12 years ago, 2014. You can't believe I've done this many times. This many time. You said back then, you said greatness is somebody who just will not settle and finds a way to do, be, share and create in life what they want as opposed to fitting in. I'm curious if your definition of greatness has changed now almost over a decade later, or if there was one message that you wish you could yell, scream, or say loud enough that

people would truly hear that if this was the only message that you could share and you just like, I don't want to regret not saying this enough. What is that message you want everyone to know? That's just so many. But I think at its core, people don't let me. that life is a journey and it's a story and it has predictable elements and that the greatest story if you study mythology and religion around the world, the greatest story of all is always the hero's journey. And it's that step I mentioned earlier that we're being called to an adventure. It doesn't feel like a call.

It feels like your life's ending. It feels like your house burned out. It feels like something you value is gone. Your house, you lost your finance, lost your job. But if you try to refuse the call, it's still going to take it. It's like Dorothy and the Wizzer Mraz. the tornado is going to take you anyway. So why not go proactively into it?

And what it'll end up doing is you'll enter a different world and you'll meet different friends and you'll have new mentors. And then you'll go through ordeals and do battles. But eventually, if you keep going, you'll slay the dragon and you will become something more than you ever were before. And then you get to come home as the hero in your own heart

and your own soul, not an ego hero, a hero who knows they've conquered things and you have something to give. And so I think maybe the subset the simple thought of that is, is that everything happens for a reason. There's a higher purpose and everything, but it's your job and my job to find it. It's like I believe in my soul that life is always happening for us, not to us, even though it looks like it's happening to us. Like COVID, for example, COVID looked like I can't do my work anymore. And then my seminars

went from 10 or 15,000 people to a million people. It's like all over the earth and, you know, 193 countries simultaneously, right? It's like, but I had to find that. It was my job to find that. And if you trust them that, if you can have that core belief, it's like almost anybody's listening. And I ask you, too, have you had some time in your life where something happened that was so painful, difficult, frustrating, whatever, it felt like it wiped you out and you'd never want to go through it again. But then you get five years later, 10 years later, and you look back and go, I see the universe of God's perfection.

That made me so much stronger. That made me have more courage. And that made me care more, right? In my life, I've never not found one of those. Now, it's sometimes hard in the moment to find it. But I think that's the most important thing. And I say, the second thing I'd say is, most people live a life where they talk about being stressed all the time.

There's only one reason you're stressed. You're managing your circumstances instead of creating your life. Like, we were not made to manage circumstances. We were created by something called a God, called the universe, whatever your preference is. But no question, something created us. And we're given the ability to create. This house is a creation.

Your life is a creation. Your two daughters are an amazing creation between you and your wife and the universe of God. I just think the more we're in a creation mode, there's zero fear in creation. There's fear when you're trying to manage or hang on to something. We're trying to maintain. When you're just trying to make a living. It's like designing a life is a different way of living. And it requires courage.

Yes. It requires faith. But you know what? I tell people, we're not religious faith, just faith. You were born with faith. If you're going to drive down a highway here and there's nothing but a little yellow line, dividing you from people coming 65 miles an hour at you. And you know, every day in every city on earth,

somebody falls asleep or is reading a text or is drunk, and they come across and kill somebody in every city, every day, all over the earth. So how the hell do you drive down the street without fear? Because you use your faith. Because without it, you'd have to do what they did in COVID. Live in your house and not move and have no life. Yes. Right?

And so courage does not mean you're not afraid. It means you're afraid, but you do it anyway. You can have courage if you can trust in a, higher understanding that everything has higher purpose. And this isn't unfolding for me. And it's going to lead to something greater. And that takes faith. But I found if you live enough life over and over again with that faith and with the drive to find it, you'll find those answers. Tony, thank you so much, man. Appreciate you. Amazing. Congratulations once again, on your wife, on your two daughters. And I'm going to look to see you in 2028. You're going to

be the Olympics. I'm coming. I'm there. You might be all be there. Okay. You got it. Thanks. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it, man. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts.

Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from me. you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.