Anthony Robbins

Leadership From The Inside Out

Anthony Robbins is considered the greatest personal development expert of all time. He is the chairman of six companies, he is a strategic advisor to world leaders, and his teachings have impacted the lives of an estimated 50 million people. He is a black belt and the recipient of NAPMAs 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award.
MAPro: NAPMA feels youve influenced more instructors than anyone else in the area of personal development. In fact, you even earned your black belt. Tell us a little about that experience. Anthony Robbins: I feel grateful to serve so many people in the martial arts community, because martial arts put major discipline into my own life. Jhoon Rhee was the reason I got involved in Taekwondo. I was actually interested in Aikido at the time, because I loved the beauty of the art and the concept of aligning with your opponent and not necessarily having to harm them to change their perspective. But the privilege of working with Master Rhee was enormous. He said, This is an art I think you would love, and Im willing to work with you. I think you could develop your black belt in a very short period of time. I said, I would love to do it in a year. His eyes got really big, and I said, Im not trying to find a short cut, but I would love to live in total immersion with you. So Master Rhee gave me an extraordinary privilege. We became very close friends, traveled together, and I trained every single day and got to learn from one of the best that ever existed. And, frankly, it was one of the greatest gifts in my life. In hindsight, by jamming in too much, I injured myself several times, as you might guess. In my youth I was trying to do everything in a shorter period of time, but in hindsight, I learned there is a great benefit in taking your time so that you take in some of the greater subtleties. So while I did achieve my black belt, I learned a lot about making sure to really enjoy myself rather than just to experience the discipline of getting it done. And I approach things differently in my life today as a result of it. MAPro: I understand that for a while you were incorporating martial arts concepts, such as board breaking and breathing techniques, into your seminars. How and why did you do this? Robbins: I still do in some of my programs, because I think they are fundamental tools for life as well as for martial arts. I did it because I wanted to demonstrate to people, specific tools and techniques for taking control of their mental and emotional focus, changing their state literally in an instant. Using your body as a way to change your mental and emotional state is the single most powerful and the fastest factor you can access. So to demonstrate it, I would do board breaking, brick breaking and then breaking

with my head. I have one set of events where we teach amateurs board breaking as a metaphor for breaking through their limitations and fears. Many people have gone on to become involved with martial arts as a result of their exposure to our seminars, because they love the state, the psyche, that comes from the discipline of martial arts. MAPro: You have climbed to the top of your profession. Did you ever visualize yourself reaching this level? Robbins: Actually I did. When I was younger I would set goals and say,l want to do this exact thing, and Id point to an exact spot in the future. I push things slightly differently today. Now it is more like I pick the direction of the mountain I am heading toward knowing that, as I get close to the mountain, I will have choices. I may want to go over it, around it or through it. There are all kinds of choices, but if you move in the direction of the goal you visualize, youll achieve it or something greater. MAPro: Martial arts is a personality-driven business, and success or failure often hinges on an instructors charisma. What would you recommend to instructors for maximizing their speaking and motivational skills? Robbins: Well, people who do poorly as speakers are focused on themselves. If you are going to be an effective communicator, an effective leader, the focus has to be on how you are going to serve. That attitude completely changes the way you come across. To be an effective communicator, you have to know your audience. Thats number one. Who is in the class today? What do they need? What do they desire? What do they fear? If you understand what is driving them, youre going to be able to relate to their needs as opposed to just making a presentation. The second point is that you have to think about what you are most passionate about, and you have to re-ignite yourself before you communicate. Otherwise, you are teaching the same fundamentals again and again and again. You can go on automatic pilot, and there is nothing less engaging than a person who is not there. They are there physically, but their mind and body are checked out, because they are on automatic pilot. So youve really got to stop and remind yourself, what do I love about this art? What is my passion? It has to be an every-time experience. The way to do that is the same way that you would walk onto the mat, into the ring, or whatever your metaphor is.You never walk in without being in a peak state. Never take your students for granted any more than you would an opponent. Because if you do, you lose your sense of identity, your sense of pride. The teacher is a leader. I think it is critical that the focus be beyond yourself, that you focus on being in a peak state every time until it becomes your identity. Then its not hard to have charisma in front of the room, because youre not trying to have charisma. Youre trying to serve. MAPro: Can you tell the instructors how you avoid burnout, how you avoid stress? Whats your secret? Robbins: First, I dont get burned out, because I have such a passion for what I do. I love people; I love to serve. Im fed by what I do. Second, I keep a balance. I used to work seven days a week. I never took a break. In my late 20s I felt I was burning out, so under the guise of a vacation, I went to Fiji, where I now have my home where I live 2 1/2 months out of the year.

When I first landed there, I could not turn off. I remember the second day I was there I asked a Fijian man what time it was. I was talking at this tempo and this intensity, and he looked at me like I was crazy. He looked up in the sky and said Daytime. He was serious, and I realized I was out of balance. So it took me probably two days to gear down, but once Id been in that environment, I started to smell the flowers, notice the trees and take in the smiles of the people around me. When I came back home, I came back hungry to deliver at a different level. Being in Fiji wasnt time lost. It wasnt time off. It was such a recharging time that I committed to buy a resort there knowing that if I didnt, I would be caught back up in my old pattern. For the first 17 years I owned the Namale, my resort in Fiji, I went there only one week out of the year. Gradually I set a goal to balance my life by spending two months a year there. I think the secret is staying in shape both physically and mentally. Most people in the martial arts are physically fit, but they are not emotionally fit. And that is what I believe is critical. Emotional fitness comes from not only having drive and desire but also having the ability to laugh, the ability to climb into that moment when you have that total silencenot just the discipline of a meditation, but the times when you find the beauty and the spontaneity of everything around you. When you become a machine just trying to run your business, you do not serve your students and you do not love at the same level. When I came back from that first trip to Fiji, people around me said, Oh, my God! Go on more trips, because I was so much easier to be around. I was a taskmaster before, but afterward I was getting everyone to do the same things, only they wanted to do them. It made a big difference not only in my life but also in the lives of the people I lead. MAPro: I guess you have to recharge your batteries once in a while. Robbins: Without a doubt. MAPro: Here at NAPMA, were all about helping people grow. Can you elaborate a little on the importance of continual growth and improvement in the martial arts field, or in any field for that matter? Robbins: Not only in any field but also in life. I feel there are six needs that have to be met by all human beings. Though we all have different backgrounds, different educations, different languages and religions, there are certain things all human beings need. One of those needs is certainty. One of the pulls of martial arts for many people is to increase their sense of certainty, that in any environment they can be in control of their life. We all need certainty. The entering into battles, the stimulation of entering a different state of mind that our martial arts offers us, meets that need to the fullest level. We all need to feel significant or unique or special in some way. And martial arts provide a unique way of living at a higher level of discipline. It is a different structure than the average person will settle for. We all need connection and love. The martial arts allow you to connect with your spirit. They allow you to connect with a higher spirit and to connect with other people. I believe the highest level of martial arts is where you feel every aspect of your opponent, and you and your opponent are at one. That power is extraordinary. There is also the camaraderie and connection we feel in. the dojo together as we are learning and expanding.

Martial arts meet the four fundamental needs, but the ultimate needs, the primary needs of all human beings, are to grow and to contribute beyond yourself. Those two needs create fulfillment. We must grow or we die. Those are the laws of the universe. Everything in the universe contributes or is eventually eliminated, if nothing else, by evolution. So the bottom line is, we have to live by a philosophy of CANI, Constant And Neverending Improvement, and that philosophy, where you are constantly driving yourself to grow, is the only thing that will make you happy. I have a friend who is worth 5-1/2 billion dollars, and he always talks about the toughest times, the early days when he was scratching to survive. Because during those days, he felt the most growth. His companies were a source of certainty for him, always challenging him. It was constant significance for him, because he knew he had a unique place in it. He felt connected to the people. He had to grow to keep it going. He was always contributing. When he sold his business, he was happy for about four months. But there are only so many islands you can go to, so many beaches you can sit on, so many Mai Tais you can drink, and then you go crazy. He lost his vehicle for meeting all of his needs, and now he is back in business again. So, I say to anyone in any field, you must be constantly scheduling a way to make yourself grow. Youve got to go out after it, pursue it, schedule it. Then it is real. If you talk about stuff, it is a dream. When you plan it, its possible. But when it is in your schedule, it is real and you will have a different life. MAPro: Sometimes martial arts school owners feel like they just cant grow, they just cant raise their tuition, they cant break past 200 students. Please talk to us about how an instructor can break this mind set. Robbins: Whatever we expect, we tend to fulfill. The challenge you have is there arent many role models beyond, say, a couple hundred students, so most people think thats the lid. So what you have to do is find role models that are outside the limits of your own business. My guess is that in the martial arts business, instructors think, I could increase the number of students, but then I would lose my level of quality. Thats a lie. I used to have the same lie in my own business, because I had my own form of martial arts. Mine was psychological and emotional arts. I remember when I first started doing my Date with Destiny seminars. I did them with 35 people. I gradually increased them to 60 and I said, I cant go with more than 60 and give them personal attention and give the same quality and effect. Then I began to challenge myself. I said to myself, You know what? I said that about 30.1 can do 100. I had to change my strategy, but I found a way to deliver for 100 people better than I did when I was doing 35. Next thing I knew I was adding 1,000, then 2,000. My largest events now are 20,000 people. I produce a higher quality of effect with 20,000 people in one day now than I did with 35. So it is all about breaking down the myth in your head. And the best solution for this is to find somebody in your business dwarfing what everybody else does. Model them, interview them, follow them around. Go out with them. Find out what their strategies and beliefs are. Or get outside the business and look at someone in another area and model that thought process.

MAPro: Approximately 60 - 70% of the martial arts business is now comprised of children. Tony, how can martial arts instructors benefit from applying NLP and other technologies when teaching both children and adults? Robbins: If you understand the needs of any human being, you can drive them, motivate them, excite them and move them to do anything. The secret is obviously getting people to do things for their reasons instead of for yours. Often you will see people in the martial arts business who use a motivation strategy thats based on how they were motivated. They will be abusive or tense or harsh or mean, because thats how their sensei motivated them. But everybody is unique. If you try to motivate people only with your style of motivation, youre going to drive a certain number of people and you are going to lose everyone else. You think theyre just weak or stupid when, in fact, youre the one who is weak and stupid, because youre inflexible. Some people move towards. You can yell and scream all you want, but that doesnt motivate them. But show them whats possible, give them a big enough carrot, and theyll go crazy. Every person is different. Some people move with the stick. Some people move with a carrot. There are many elements between. Refining your understanding of the drive behind all human beings will make you an effective leader and will make you a better trainer whether you are working with adults or kids. MAPro: Given your experience in training for black belt, what tools can an instructor use to anchor in success and be more effective in developing their students in a group session? Robbins: I have one simple principle: Its impossible to build on failure. You build only on success. I turned around the United States Army pistol shooting program. I made certain that the first time someone shot a pistol, instead of shooting the .45 caliber pistol from 50 feet awaywhich is what they were starting these guys out atI brought the target literally five feet in front of the students. I wouldnt let them fire the gun until they had rehearsed over and over again the exact perfect shooting form for two hours. By the time they held the gun, they had every technique perfected, so when they fired, they succeeded. BAM! At first the Army thought it was stupid, but it put ignition into the students brain WOW! Ive succeeded!versus shooting bullets into the ceiling or floor the first few times. It created an initial sense of certainty. I believe in setting people up to win. Many instructors believe in setting them up to fail so they stay humble and they are more motivated. I disagree radically. There is a time for that but not in the beginning. Peoples actions are very limited when they think they have limited potential. If you have limited belief, you are going to use limited potential, and you are going to take limited action. MAPro: Sometimes in the martial arts, there is a negative association with money. How can school owners condition themselves for wealth and eliminate wealth wounds, as you would say? Robbins: You hit the nail on the head. We all have psychological separation in our heads about what we think we deserve or are worth. And very often we have developed this duality between financial success and success in serving those we care about. And the

truth is, they can go together. Duality is what I believe makes someone an ineffective martial artist. The more separation you see between the energy that is available in the universe and yourself, the more you are just using your body to produce results as opposed to your spirit. A great martial artist knows there is no separation. You know when I hit someone, the Earth hits them. The Earth and I are one. Thats the connection. Thats the power that comes through you. I grew up in a very poor family. I thought if I did well financially, people would be happy and I could help everyone. Well, I made a lot of money, and a lot of my friends rejected me. Instead of getting love and connection, I got disrespect and frustration. So I unconsciously sabotaged everything financially. I wanted to be one of the guys again. As soon as everything tubed, as soon as I destroyed it all, my friends would come and say, Hey, guy, I know how you feel. But I got bored with that game. I started thinking, you know what? If I can be stronger physically, should I do something to be stronger? My answer was yes. If I could be smarter, should I do something smarter? The answer was obvious: of course I should. If I have the capacity to give more, should I? Of course. And if I had the ability to earn more, should I? Why not? Any time a person has a psychological limit, they need to stop playing the game of pauper and saying, Oh, this is because I serve so much. I can tell you in my own business I serve millions of people at deep and passionate levels, and the greatest gift of my life is not money. MAPro: Tony, I understand you work quite a bit with youth groups. Can you share with me some of the keys to positively influencing the 21st Century teens? Robbins: The kids of today have a completely different experience in life than most instructors had, because they have grown up in a world where the childs attention span has been conditioned to be extremely limited. Living in the world of the web, they control everything. The moment they want something, they can get it. That has trained their nervous systems. They have a different mind set. Unless you as an instructor can be more captivating than your sensei ever was, youre unlikely to capture the majority of these kids for the long term, except those who are pressured at home or have the inner desire. But Ill tell you, what will capture a kid more than anything on Earth is a demonstration of prowess with humility. If a kid feels like you have that power but are humble, that means you care for them. Youre not just showing them whats possible. You are showing whats possible for them. You can capture any child at any age, and all adults are big kids anyway. Ive mentored 22 kids since they were in the fifth grade. I met them in Houston, Texas. Most of them are from single parent families and very poor. I adopted them and said, Hey, listen. Im going to put you through college and help mentor you if you stay in school, keep a B average, and give me 50 hours of community service each week. I wanted to change their identity. I knew that if I could get them from trying to get help, to believing they were to give help, it would turn them into leaders. I believe that if you call kids to a higher level, you give them more than just instructions, and kids will be

attracted to you. But if you talk one talk and walk another, you have no hope of influencing the youth of today. MAPro: What advice would you give instructors in the area of leadership since they are all leaders in their schools and in their communities? Robbins: Well, you dont have to work on leadership. What you work on is your spiritual intent. Not in religious terms; Im not telling people what religion to believe in. The basis of a plantwhether it is going to live or dieis the roots. Likewise with leadership. When you see a great leader, what you see on the outside is merely a reflection of whats on the inside in terms of their beliefs and spiritual intent. All of us start with a fundamental look at life, which is egocentric. This is rampant in the martial arts industry, because we attract people who want to conquer and over come. Egocentric doesnt mean that you are filled with ego. It means you focus on yourself more than on others. It is about meeting your own needs first. Every human being is wired that way at birth. Eventually most of us grow out of egocentrism and into ethnocentrism. That means that to survive, we cant just whine and cry and get our way. We have to take care of other people. Ethnocentrism means our central group. Maybe its our family. Or maybe its the kids on the street. We know they have the ability to give us pain or pleasure, so we have to take care of them. By necessity, most people become ethnocentric. They care about their group or their little dojo, or their martial arts approach as opposed to any other martial arts approach. Or their religion: theyre a Christian, theyre a Muslim, or theyre a Jew, but screw the rest of them. And, of course, that mind set will limit who you can use as a leader. The level above that is world-centric, and very few people get there. World-centric is when we start caring about everybody, whether they affect us or not. You care about whites even though you are black, or you care about blacks even though you are white. You dont care about them because they have the ability to give you pain or pleasure, but because you feel a connection to all that is. And there is a final level above that: It is spirit-centric where you feel the tree, where you feel the butterfly, the lizard, the dog. All of that is connected to you. If your intent is to only meet your needs, its egocentric. As the head of the dojo, very little power will move toward you, because power moves to those who are serving at the highest level. If your intent is to serve a small ethnocentric group, you will receive much more power than just trying to serve yourself. If your intent is to serve the whole world, you will have power, a flow of ideas, a level of physical energy, emotion and spirit, because spirit moves the most toward that which serves the most. And if you are spiritcentric, you will not only be a great martial artist, but you will have no difficulty in attracting people. People will come to you. My intents at one stage of my life were purely egocentric. Fortunately, early in my life, not because Im a good person but maybe because Ive been lucky and had the right people around me, I at least became ethnocentric. I love people. And I love to give and to serve them. It gives me joy to see them light up, and that is what drives me today. I dont do this for money. I dont have to work another day of my life. I do this because this is

what my spirit is called to do. This is what Im made for. So gradually l moved from ethnocentric to world-centric. And I dont know if I could say that I live in the spiritcentric where I feel the tree and the plant. It would be a lie to say that Im there. But I have my moments. My center of gravity is more world-centric. I feel people. Thats why Ive served millions of them. The ideas come through me. I know things. Just like in the ring you know your opponent; you know where their next move is coming from before they even think it. All great martial artists have had those moments. You can feel every moment in your life when youre looking to serve at a high level. So you dont have to work on your leadership skills as much as you do your spiritual intent. If your intent is high, you will seek out masters in the area of leadership. Thats what Ive done throughout my life, and that is why I have those skills as well. But more important than skill is the power that will move toward you when you make the decision to serve.