By closely following his teachings, I maintained a strong attitude and overcame numerous setbacks in the process of founding a technology company which I ultimately sold for 43 million dollars. Tony’s material is very powerful — if you follow it. Period. Typically, people who trash his work  have never taken the time to actually try and learn it. Unlike your average motivational fluff, most of his techniques take real practice to master.Yes, you can pick apart a book and find all the things that are wrong with it, but the sad part is you miss finding and enjoying the benefit of all the things that are right with it. Case in point: The chapter on decisions contains far more than your summation to “make lots of decisions.”  To suggest that is all that is in it, to me, borders on dishonesty. My personal take if I were asked, would be that it conveys just how important every decision you make is in determining your ultimate destiny. “Summing it up” however does not “save” a person the time of reading it. Losing all of the examples and discussion rob the reader of the chance to truly learn what the author has to teach.My first exposure to Tony was his very first tape set, before the infomercial, so I got his conviction in what he believes more than you would from a book, and I have attended many of TR’s events. I am sure that this has helped me in my commitment to actually using the technologies he teaches. Nevertheless, his books are loaded with practical techniques that anyone really serious about self-improvement can use. If there should be a caveat, it is that his material requires a commitment to actual effort.

Still, I am curious. What qualifies you as a judge of of self-improvement books? What are your accomplishments? 

*I am not an employee of, or related in any way to Tony Robbins. I choose not to publish my name on the internet, just like almost everyone else I know.

#2 I didnt feel as though he was truly instigating that you should buy his other books, though the repetitive use of references to them may imply this. I think youre wrong about how you see Robbins as a reference. Yes, he did become successful by teaching others how to be successful, but the point hes making is that to be successful you have to believe you can do what it is youre called to do (in his case, this would be motivational speaking, book writing etc on how to be successful). Personally I felt his desire was to change lives, not necessarily buy His material, though I can’t dispute that it could be an underlying motive.

#3 Buddhism and Christianity are different belief systems on the basis of what happens to the physical body n soul and such, but are very similar on a moral standpoint (treat others right, don’t kill others etc.) So the missionary’s point would be that Buddha was a good man w a desirable character. Though he didn’t believe in Jesus, you cant say he wasnt a good person and example.

#4 I believe the “what to do” and the “how to reinforce yourself” is in the book. I agree that you should trust your own judgement though completely, so basing your life solely on Robbins’ book is claiming ignorance, but to use it to help shape your life is intelligent. With that, I can say that you did exactly that. You read it, took from it that nothing or very little applied to you, and did what you thought would benefit yourself by urging others against it.

Also, I appreciate the message, Free is my favorite!

#1 You claim no knowledge of NLP but feel there’s a difference between NLP and NAC. How did you come to this conclusion? From Robbins’ book? If you don’t know anything about NLP and it’s concepts (modeling, anchoring, etc…sound familiar?) then how can you reasonably judge it to be different from NAC?

#2 If I used Robbins as a reference for success, then I would strive to become successful by teaching others how to be successful. This is what Robbins does. His desire to get me to buy his expensive course and expensive seminars does not seem to be in alignment with my success.

#3 Buddhism and Christianity are completely different belief systems. Not close at all. Unless you think that it’s no big deal for Christians that Buddhists don’t believe in a savior-god, or an eternal soul, or an eternal heaven or hell. I could go on and on, but I hope you get the point.

#4 I think you should use good judgement BEFORE deciding to use something. I read TR’s book to decide if I could use it. And I concluded that it was fluff that gave no real answers and gave no real guidance…it was all telling you what to do and very little “how”.
I trust my own judgement. I encourage others to do the same. That’s my message and I offer it free of charge.

Now I dont know anything about this NLP or whatever, but I do understand that studying that is what gave Tony the basis for NAC. As far as Im concerned NAC is legit. The difference between these two = the difference between McDonalds n Burger King…not much, but just enough for a trademark.

As far as the book, there is plenty of self-promotion. The whole book is based on his view of what one should do to become successful then he uses himself as a reference. Basically its a book of trust. You have to interpret what applies to you and then use it. In your review you gave an example of a Christian missionary using Buddha as an example {Id quote you but it wont let me copy< and to be honest, Buddhism is close enough to Christianity that an example in the right context would actually be a helpful argument for the missionary, in my belief. So in conclusion, if your opinion is that the book is fluff than thats true, but if you attempt to Use the book instead of reading it to judge it, it Can condition you to sucess.

At the end of the day, it’s just short term motivation. You feel all pumped up while listening to it, but then when go out in the real world and someone kicks you in the balls, rarely do feel like applying ‘the six steps to xyz’ or ‘the ten ways to overcome abc’. Ya know.

At the end of the day, it’s just short term motivation. You feel all pumped up while listening to it, but then when go out in the real world and someone kicks you in the balls, rarely do feel like applying ‘the six steps to xyz’ or ‘the ten ways to overcome abc’. Ya know.