Tony Robbins: A Fraudulent Showman?

Tony’s pretty awesome; he really knows how to use his words to move people to purpose and motivate them to affect change.

He’s also a great example of someone who consistently polishes their craft. His presentation of Business Mastery is so much more refined than Awaken the Giant Within. Personally I really enjoy the Business Mastery series of lectures.

On the other hand, he lost a couple of points in my book when I discovered that he pitched himself as having done a live interview with Napolean Hill. It wouldn’t have been any discredit to his name, style or the result if he’d just offered up front that he’d spliced his questions with precise timing into the audio of a Hill lecture. Still, whatever. Neither am I going to over-analyze why he may have decided to go that route.

Tony has interviewed some really interesting personalities and I’ve always had some great takeaways from those. His own presentation of his own talking points is practiced and polished most admirably. His 20-minute Ted Talk for instance is a great example.

Personally, I’m not into the event-seminar thing for more reasons than I care to get into. But I’ve watched his performances and his evolution on video and always found something useful to apply to my own day job as a coach in corporate learning and development.

So yes, he’s a pretty awesome showman, well-practiced and well-studied on any number of levels. He puts on a great show, hosts a well-choreographed event, shows you faces and delivers words to purpose. But I don’t believe the word fraudulent necessarily applies to showmen either. After all, would you call Hugh Jackman’s character a fraud? Still, what’s happening lately with the whole Knowledge Business Blueprint – anybody can create Mastermind class, become a business/wealth/life coach – just sign up for Clickfunnels and away you go… No, I think this one was created to bolster Dean Graziosi and just make a whole bunch of money. Anyway, that’s another article altogether. Nothing wrong with being a businessman and selling people a dream. But with Tony’s understanding of the human condition, he also ought to know that a lot of people who are definitely not cut out to be teachers and might not have a penny to their name, will put themselves into debt and call themselves a master just on his say so.

With authority the likes of which Tony currently has, comes a great responsibility. I hope that he doesn’t lose sight of that.