Tony Robbins (February 29, 1960) is an American author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach. Robbins is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books including Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within. Through his personal development tapes and programs, Robbins has impacted more than 50 million people across 100 countries. Approximately 4 million people have attended his live seminars.
Robbins is the founder of several companies which earn approximately $5 billion in annual sales. In 2015 and 2016 he was listed on the Worth Magazine Power 100 list. He is also an active philanthropist, partnering with organizations such as Feeding America.
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Early life
Robbins was born Anthony J. Mahavoric in North Hollywood, California, on February 29, 1960. His surname was originally spelled 'Mohorovi?' and is of Croatian origin. Robbins is the eldest of three children and his parents divorced when he was 7. His mother then had a series of husbands, including Jim Robbins, a former semiprofessional baseball player who legally adopted Anthony when he was 12.
Robbins was raised in Azusa and Glendora, California, and attended Glendora High School. He was elected student body president in his senior year. While growing up, Robbins worked as a handyman to help provide for his siblings.
During high school, Robbins grew ten inches, a growth spurt later attributed to a pituitary tumor. He has said his home life was "chaotic" and "abusive." When he was seventeen years old, he left home and never returned. Robbins later worked as a janitor, and did not attend college.
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Career
Robbins began his career promoting seminars for motivational speaker and author Jim Rohn when he was 17 years old.
In the early 1980s, soon after meeting Neurolinguistic Programming co-founder John Grinder, the two became partners. At this time Robbins taught NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis. In 1983 Robbins learned to firewalk, and incorporated it into his seminars.
In 1988 Robbins released his first infomercial, Personal Power, produced by Guthy Renker, which helped to promote his services as a "peak performance coach." The infomercial helped Robbins gain wide exposure, selling his Personal Power self-help audiotapes. His early infomercials featured celebrities such as Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton and actor Martin Sheen. By 1991 an estimated 100 million Americans in 200 media markets had seen his infomercials.
In 1997, Robbins began the Leadership Academy seminar. He is a speaker on the seminar circuit sponsored by Learning Annex. Robbins was a featured speaker at the 2007 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. As of August 2012, his talk was the sixth most popular in the history of the event.
Together with Cloé Madanes, Robbins founded the Robbins-Madanes Center for Intervention, an organization that trains life skills coaches to help families and individuals deal with addiction and other issues.
In 2014, Robbins, along with a group of investors including Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, and Peter Guber, acquired rights to launch a Major League Soccer franchise in Los Angeles, California, currently referred to as the Los Angeles Football Club. The soccer team, is scheduled to begin competition in 2018.
Robbins has worked on an individual basis with Bill Clinton, Justin Tuck, Wayne Gretzkey, Serena Williams, Hugh Jackman and Pitbull. He has also counseled American businessmen Peter Guber, Steve Wynn and Marc Benioff. He was named one of the "Top 50 Business Intellectuals" by Accenture and one of the "Top 200 Business Gurus" by the Harvard Business Press.
Authorship
Robbins has written four best-selling books: Unlimited Power, Awaken the Giant Within, Money: Master the Game and Unshakeable.
Unlimited Power, published in 1986, discusses the topics of health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships. In the book, Robbins argues that by using neuro-linguistic programming "anyone can become successful at almost anything." According to Magill Book Reviews, Robbins develops "a systematic framework for directing our own brain."
Awaken the Giant Within, published in 1991, according to The New York Times, the book contains "ways to take control of your emotional, physical and financial destiny." In 1994, Robbins published Giant Steps, a daily instructional book, in a pocket size.
His third best-seller, Money: Master the Game, was published in 2014, reached number one on the New York Times' "Advice, How-To, & Miscellaneous" bestseller list in December 2014, and went on to sell a million copies in its first year. The book contains information stemming from his interviews with over 50 financial experts.
In February 2017, Robbins released his fourth book Unshakeable regarding financial investing.
Philanthropy
In 1991, Robbins founded the Anthony Robbins Foundation, a charity dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations. According to the foundation, it has products and programs in more than 2,000 schools, 700 prisons, and 100,000 health and human service organizations. Independent charity watchdog Charity Navigator gives the Anthony Robbins Foundation a rating of four out of four stars.
In 2014, he donated the profits of his book, Money: Master the Game, along with an additional personal donation, through Feeding America to provide meals to people in need. He did the same for his following book Unshakeable.
Controversies
In May 1995, Robbins Research International (R.R.I.) settled with Federal Trade Commission over alleged violations of the agency's Franchise Rule. Under the settlement, settlement, R.R.I. was not found to have violated any law and agreed to pay $221,260 in consumer redress.
Financial seminar guru Wade Cook also sued Robbins for copyright infringement and plagiarism, alleging that Robbins used proprietary terms in his seminars and from Cook's book Wall Street Money Machine. In 1998, a Tacoma, Washington, jury ordered Robbins to pay Cook $650,900 in damages. The order to pay damages was temporarily withdrawn until 2000, when the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the trial judge had misinterpreted the statutes. The verdict and damages were reinstated with a statement that "The Court found that U.S. District Court Judge, Jack Tanner, erred in "finding a conclusion contrary to the jury award" and sent instructions to reinstate the award. Robbins was forced to pay the entire amount.
One chapter of Unlimited Power, called "Energy: The Fuel of Excellence", is dedicated to a discussion of health and energy. The National Council Against Health Fraud wrote a highly critical review of the chapter.
In 2001, Robbins filed a lawsuit against The Vancouver Sun newspaper, alleging defamation and libel. The judge determined the Vancouver Sun defamed Robbins when it called him an "adulterous, wife-stealing hypocrite". Awarding Robbins $20,000 in damages, the judge wrote "While damages are presumed, the plaintiff's failure to take the witness stand and to testify about his feelings and the effect of the defamation upon his reputation leaves the court somewhat in the dark about these matters".
In July 2012, the San Jose Mercury News published a story reporting multiple people had been burned and hospitalized during one of Robbins' fire-walking events. This story was picked up by other press outlets, including Fox News. These reports were later retracted as inaccurate. A similar corrective article was published by The Huffington Post.
On June 24th, 2016, dozens were reportedly burned and required medical attention during a fire-walk event at Robbins' seminar in Dallas, Texas. Robbins Research International released a statement regarding the incident: "In Dallas tonight, someone not familiar with the fire walk observed the event and called 911 erroneously reporting hundreds of people requiring medical attention for severe burns. While we are grateful to the quick and robust response from Dallas emergency services, only 5 of 7,000 participants requested any examination beyond what was readily available on site. We are pleased to have completed another successful fire walk for 7,000 guests and look forward to the remainder of an outstanding weekend with them."
Celebrity status
Robbins had a minor role in the 2001 film Shallow Hal, hypnotizing Jack Black's character and forcing him to view women for their personality rather than their appearance.
He was lampooned in episode 22 of season 3 of Family Guy.
In Men In Black, an array of screens at headquarters is monitoring aliens masquerading as humans. One of these screens shows Robbins.
In July 2010, NBC debuted Breakthrough with Tony Robbins, a reality show that followed Robbins as he helped the show's participants face their personal challenges. NBC canceled the show, after airing two of the planned six episodes, due to low viewership of 2.8 million. In March 2012, the OWN Network picked the show up for another season beginning with the original first season set to rerun and thereafter leading directly into the new 2012 season.
In February 2012, on her television show "Oprah's Next Chapter", Oprah Winfrey participated in the fire-walk herself.In April 2012, Robbins began cohosting Oprah's Lifeclass on the OWN Network.
Personal life
In 1982, he married Rebecca "Becky" Jenkins, after meeting her at a seminar. Jenkins had three children from two former marriages whom Robbins adopted. Robbins and Jenkins filed for divorce 14 years later.
In 1984, Robbins and former girlfriend Liz Acosta had a son Jairek Robbins, who is also a personal empowerment trainer.
Robbins married Bonnie "Sage" Humphrey, now known as Sage Robbins in October 2001. Robbins resides in Palm Beach, Florida.
Associated people
- Cloé Madanes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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