Tony Robbins 🤛❤️🙏

Last night I went out for frozen yogurt. It was sort of against what I've been trying to do this month, which is eating better. It is a. Oh, I came up, by the way, with a it's not dry January, but it's a low January because I'm not having weed. So instead of high, what do you think of that low January?

I don't love it because it makes me think that your mood is low. You're sad. It's kind of a sad sounding way to start the year.

Last night Kate wanted frozen yogurt. And I was like, I don't know. And she gave me a little speech to encourage me to get frozen yogurt. She made a really good case for it. And so I started thinking about speeches that motivate, you know, when you're reluctant to do something and then you're inspired by somebody to do it. And it's one of the reasons I love certain movies. But when we were growing up, one of our favorite movies still is. One of our favorites is a movie called Glory. And it's about the 54th Regiment in the Civil War. It was the first all black regiment. There's a speech that rouses them to the highest stakes action to go into battle. And Andre Braugher, sadly now late great Andre Braugher has such a powerful moment. He had been behaving cowardly throughout the movie and in the face of like certain death, he, because of the speech, decides to. To pick up the flag. And the general says, who will if this man should fall on the battlefield, who will pick up the flag? And Andre Braugher steps forward and the music swells and he has just has two words that he says. It's I will. And it is some of the best acting you'll ever see and the most stirring, affecting acting that's ever been put on film. There's such conviction in his voice. And we're thankful to have had his performances and such a great body of work from such a great actor, the late, great Andre Brauer. So let's dedicate this to him and to his memory and to all of his great work.

That's a good idea.

And not to me eating frozen yogurt.

Well, that moment in Glory reminded me a lot of your decision to go get frozen yogurt when you had a sweet tooth. That was very similar to that moment in Glory when Andre Braugher decides to lead the charge into the battlefield.

The stakes were similarly high.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And historically, of course, it will be remembered in probably the same way. So, speaking of high stakes, let's do this podcast. Life could be a dream.

Life could be a Dream.

You are listening to Life is Short. I'm your host, Justin Long. Life could be a dream, sweetheart. And with me, as always, is my. He's moving his microphone. He's adjusting. My brother and co host, Christian. Why do you have to say everything I'm doing? It's not interesting for the listener.

You're like a dog. You're just like whatever's in front of you, that's what you're focused on.

Speaking of, look at these two.

Those are cats.

You see them there in the sun? Yeah. Pados or.

No.

Gatos, Gatos, Gatos, Gatos, Yes. Pedro was just in the room. Do you call him Feliz in Spanish?

Was he in here?

He was. And he turned around and he left.

Oh, Felice.

Yeah, that's Felice.

Felice the Pero. Do you know why he left? He did an about face.

He was being respectful of the podcast.

That's a good guess, but no. He's very intimidated by these cats. He doesn't want anything to do with it because they're. They can be pretty vicious. They're harsh. They especially teek Will. He's the alpha. This. This cat.

You might say that's what motivated him to leave the room when he saw the cats.

Yes, immediately and very dramatically. And that's all it took. That's how strong a motivator Tieck is. It's just by his presence. And it's funny that you should mention motivation. And of course, we're talking about motivational speeches and speeches that inspire and animals that inspire behavior in other animals. It's because we have on the show today. I'm going to answer my own. I don't even think I posed a question.

It's like a rhetorical comment you made.

Yeah. Because we have on the show today the most. I would. Is that safe to say. Or the most well known inspirational speaker and strategist and lifestyle guru, maybe.

Can we call him that?

Well, he's so interesting and he's affected so many people that. But what he does, the reason that we're kind of dancing around it is that it is hard to distill what he does down to one thing, down to just a label. He has inspired and affected so many people. I wonder if there's a count. I wonder if there's a way to quantify that, because I think if there was, it might be in the millions. I'm sure our guest Today is the transformative lifestyle guru, the incredible Tony Robbins.

Star of Shallow Hal.

Yes.

Also. Yeah, he also does some acting work. Let's not, let's not forget that.

Well, yeah, he's hard to paint with just one brush.

He has three finance books out. He has a trilogy and the third of the trilogy called the Holy Grail of Investing is available soon. You can pre order it now. And also he has an online seminar coming up. January 25th to January 27th. Three day seminar, free seminar. It's called Time to Rise. So you can check that out. Timetorise summit.com He's a very busy man and we're very lucky to have him on the show today.

It's sort of like an. I would imagine it's sort of like a. Is he doing his own personalized alarm where you like, you give him your phone number and he just, he calls you and screams into the phone. Time to Rise.

Yeah. The alternate name for this seminar was Snooze Alarm. Tony Robbins Snooze Alarm.

That's actually funny.

But he went with Time to Rise.

Yeah, well, he's gotta be doing it right. You know, he's a master. He's really. I had met him, which we'll talk about, years ago. I was doing the Apple, the Mac and PC commercials and he was one of the, the guest stars on it. His. I don't think it ever aired his commercial. So yes, I had not seen him since and I was looking forward to that. And I also wanted to thank him for something, for a real kindness that he did that I never got the chance to thank him for. So that was also a nice personal opportunity for me. And I also wanted to hear from him, as do so many millions of people. Why am I still talking? Let's hear from him. The man himself, the legendary, inspirational Mr. Tony Robbins.

Life could be a dream, sweetheart.

Hello, hello again.

Shabooming up and we'll meet again.

Hello, hello, Tony.

Hey, nice to see you. Gosh, how many years ago did I meet you? We did that little commercial.

It was, it was, it must have been 2000. I rem to the month, roughly. Cause I was going through a very difficult breakup. It's funny because the commercial we shot before was with James Carville. I was in that place of uncertainty during this breakup where I was just talking to everybody about it. You know, I couldn't keep it to myself. I was so confused by the whole thing. And so I'd get into a cab and they would say, how are you, sir? Where are you Going. And I would say, not so good. My girlfriend just broke up with me, you know, and I would just say to everybody. And so. And then you were the next guest, and you came in, and of course you said, how are you? It's nice to meet. You know, you were so welcoming and warm, and I started spilling the same thing to you. And what kills me, Tony, is that I remember staring at you and thinking, and you were giving me. You were so generous with your time and your advice, and you were really present with me. And I remember just thinking, oh, what? Look how handsome he is. And he's got kids and a beautiful wife. What is he. He's happy. You know, I was so shut down that I didn't internalize these. I'm sure I've since now discovered so much of your work, and I see the way you guide people through. Walk people through these dilemmas and problems in their lives, and I wish. I just wish I had been more open to it. And then a month later, I got something from you in the mail. It was an ipod, and I. Oh, that's right.

I sent that to you. Yeah, that's right. To give you some feedback, to give you some. Store some good stuff in your brain, because you only have the negative stuff coming in.

That's exactly what you said. But it had been all your seminars on it, and it was such a gift. And I'm so glad I get to see you to now. Thank you. In. Well, zoom.

Justin, you're married now, right?

Yes, I'm married. I was just thinking about this on the way here because I thought what a different place I was in at the time. And I hear people talking to you all the time, and I hear the advice you give, and I wonder what you would have given to me at the time. Because marriage was something that really scared me, that kind of commitment. I was smiling, thinking about how settled I feel, how different those two people seem now to me.

How old were you back then? How old are you now?

I was. I'm 45 now. I was 28 at the time. 29, maybe 30. 39. No, I was. I was 30. And. Yeah, but just such different situations. And your TED Talk is so fascinating. And what's most impressive to me as a performer is just I know how much you speak. I know what. What a great orator you are, and you had to cr. And I'm not letting you speak, and you're my guest, and I'm not. And. And. And you had to cram it all into, I don't know, 27 minutes or something.

Minutes which I'd never done in my lifetime.

I want to ask you about the one person who said they made that joke about the Supreme Court. You need the Supreme Court on your side.

Yes, that was. That was Vice President Al Gore.

That's funny.

Why?

What is it?

I asked why you failed to achieve your goals and people are yelling things like, didn't have enough capital, didn't know the right people had the wrong staff. I said, sir, you had. I heard, I talked to people, they said they had the wrong leader, you're not going to mess with them. And then I heard this voice down in the front. It was really dark in those days, you know, because it was done. But when they used to do it up in Northern California, much smaller group, and it was maybe a thousand people, and I heard this voice go, I didn't have enough. Supreme Court Justices. Al Gore, holy shit.

And of course you didn't say that, but it's funny that you're thinking that because you are. So many people would think that about seeing you, you know. And so here you are with this obviously very impressive person. Does it change the energy in the room? Does it do anything to your cortisol levels?

At this stage of my life, not really. Honestly, it's just like, you know, I'm sure certain aspects of acting for you and so forth, you always gear up. I never take it for granted. I over prepare for everything. And I'm also not focused on me. I think that's the secret. And when it comes to speaking, so many people have fear of public speaking. It's because they're thinking about how they're coming across. And I'm really focused on the audience. What are they experiencing, feeling. And if it's not working, I just change what I'm doing rather than trying to do something perfect, which I do. The opposite of my writing, by the way. So I hate writing because I really rewrite it and rewrite it and rewrite 8 million times. Right. You know, there it's really. I just measure by the result. I can see the result in real.

Time and I've seen a lot of those results and I've read a lot of the comments and the things that people say, the things they credit you with, how transformative you've been in their lives. How does that live in you? That kind of. I hate to use the word power, but there is a power in it. A great, you know, power of love, I suppose.

But I was going to say it's more gratitude and a Joy. I mean, I love to light people up. I love to see that transformation. That's what started me in this. When I was a kid, I loved lighting people up. I grew up in a pretty tough environment, and my mom was pretty messed up. Thank God for her, though, because she made me who I am, because I had to grow to be able to deal with things. But I literally would go to the grocery store and do anything to light up the clerks behind the table there. Just. It's my nature. So when I learned skills that could change people's lives, I got addicted to learning what's the latest thing, what's the best thing. And, you know, I came obsessed with it, and I understand it has the power to help people, but to me, that's something I'm grateful for. It's a gift, but it's a gift that I've developed as well.

You're very forthcoming about your background and what led you to being. Choosing this path. Your dad also left. I mean, that must have been a transformative experience. You talk about how that you made that pivot into giving back, giving, especially around the holidays, and how much you have now given back. What was that journey like?

Well, I actually had four fathers, so.

I went through all at the same time.

Yes, my mother was very. A very aggressive lady, so she goes through them pretty rapidly.

Wow.

But the fourth father I had was the one I really fell in love on. He is the one who adopted me, and he was a beautiful soul. And. But he also, like all my other fathers, did not do well financially. And so my mom's biggest upset in life was always about that. And we had a Thanksgiving with. I was 11 years old. We had no money and no food. Now I say no food. We had crackers and peanut butter is what we were going to have. But at Thanksgiving, that magnifies the problem. And somebody showed up at our door and delivered all this food to us. And it changed my life because it didn't just give me a meal, you know, Justin, it gave me a belief that strangers care. And that belief about strangers care about me and my family, then I need to care about strangers. And I promised myself, you know, someday I'd feed at least two families. So when I was 17, I fed two. And the next year, four and eight. And then it got to a million people a year. And back in. I was doing a book in 2014 called Money Master the Game. And it was interviewing 50 of the smartest financial people in the world. The Ray Dalios, the Carl Icahns, the Warren Buffetts, you know, all of them, and condensing what they do into actionable steps for average people. And it was while I'm doing it, I saw them cut food stamps, which now they call the SNAP program. And I grew up on those. It wasn't a bonus. We wouldn't have survived without them. And so it's not a statistic to me. So when I heard they cut it by $6 billion, I was like, this is insane. Every family that needs help would have to go without one week's worth of food each month unless people like you and I step in. So I called my foundation, I said, how many people have I fed in my lifetime? And it was 42 million people. And I was out of my mind. I was, like, really proud of that. I thought, what if I did as many people in my whole life in one year? I did 50 million people. What if I did 100? What if I had 100 million for 10 years and provided a billion meals? And I'm really proud to tell you I did that. This last year, I completed eight years, two years early. So it's been a really exciting thing to see grow. But it started from somebody who, by the way, I still know who it was. I think we know. My mom thinks she knew the woman's past, but she was in her 80s. But person took no credit. She just made sure that we were fed that day. It was a life changing experience.

Tony, I have chills. And I also find it fascinating that your father, at the time, your father's reaction to that was one of shame, which also makes sense, which is why.

You know, when I did it for the first time When I was 17, my father was angry. I thought, oh, my God, this is gonna be the most exciting moment. I opened, my dad opens the door, and I'm watching because I answered the door initially, right? And my parents were screaming at each other, saying things you can't take back. And I got a younger brother, younger sister. I'm trying to keep away. When this happened, I was euphoric, but my dad was like, we don't take charity, and started to slam the door in the guy's face. And the guy was persistent enough that at one point it hit his shoulder and the door bounced open. He said, sir, I'm just the delivery guy. Someone wants you to have a great time. Everybody has tough times. And my dad went to close it again, and he goes, sir. And he looked at me. I thought my dad was going to punch him out. He said, don't let your Family suffer because of your ego and my dad's veins and the sinus.

Oh, man.

But that really taught me something because I couldn't figure out for years, why did he leave our family? And later I found it out. You know, we all, I believe, make three decisions and your audience can test this within themselves. We're making them all the time now. And the first one is, what are you going to focus on? Because whatever you focus on, that's what you feel. You experience life, you focus on, like what's wrong is always available, so it's what's right. It's not about positive thinking, it's about intelligence. Controlling your own focus is everything. And most people tend to focus on what they can't control, which stresses them out. They focus on what's missing in their life. So my dad focused on the fact he's not taking care of his family. I know, because he kept saying it. And then the worst part is, you know, you know, when you focus on something, you tend to give it a meaning. That's the second decision. What does this mean? Is this the end or the beginning? You know, is this the end of a relationship or the beginning? If you think it's the end of relationship, you behave very different than if it's the beginning. Right. Or is this person, you know, dissing me? Are they challenging me? Are they coaching me? Are they loving me? Whatever meaning you make up produces emotion. And that controls the third decision. What are you going to do? And my dad focused on he hadn't taken care of his family. And I know the meaning because he kept saying he was, I'm worthless, I'm worthless. And shortly after that, he left our family, which at the time was the worst experience of my life. But it turned out to be the best because would I really be out trying to feed a billion people and now more than a billion people if I was a well fed boy, probably not. I know what the suffering feels like. So I don't want anybody else to suffer. It's not, I'm such a good person. It's just I hate that feeling. I don't want else to have that feeling. And so I was driven to find solutions.

That's the interesting thing about struggle, is that it, you know, from it, great things can happen. And you are obviously a testament to that. So how old were you at the time? I'm curious, Tony.

I was 11 at the time.

Wow. And so, and you just mentioned in that story that you had to keep, you were trying to shelter your siblings from some of this going on, was that a role that you played? That was a significant role in your family dynamic?

My mom was a beautiful soul. And I wouldn't be who I am without her. She's since passed. I never talked about it when she was alive, but she abused alcohol and prescription drugs. She didn't know how to deal with the stress. And when she did that, she made a different person. So she would bash my head against the wall instead. I was lying and pour soap down my throat till I threw up. She was a very animated lady, to say the least. But because of her, I became really a pragmatic, call it a practical psychologist. I couldn't have time to go analyze her past. I figure out what the hell to do right now to change her emotional state, protect my brother and sister. So my core skills started at home as little as, you know, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old. And then they got stronger, you know, as I started to study and begin to work with people. And now, you know, this is my. I'm about to enter my 47th year doing this. You're probably not even 47, are you?

I'm not 45. My God, 45.

So I've been doing as long as you've been alive to give you an idea.

You have such a positive outlook. I mean, you're telling me these stories, and I suppose you are. It's a perfect example of you go one way or the other. I mean, you find help in whatever way you can. And do you think you were born positive? I mean, are you must be a nurture versus nature guy.

The one thing I did is I. I was a rebel. So when you told me what I couldn't do, it's like a part of me is like, f you. I'll show you through. So there's a part of that that was in me at a very young age, but I was a very fearful kid. Believe it or not. I was also 5:1. I was the smallest kid in my class in high school. You know, I'm six, seven now. You know, I tell people. I tell people. The difference is personal growth, right? I had a tumor in my brain. I had a tumor in my pituitary gland that made me grow 10 inches in a year. So I was fearful, I was uncertain. But I learned to condition myself. I read these books. I learned how to basically hypnotize myself into finding the best part of myself and making that what I believed in. The ability to produce certainty in an uncertain world is one of the most important skills in life. If you want to maximize who you are as a person. So I learned how to train certainty in me. I didn't walk around with that kind of confidence. I wasn't that kind of person, But I built it.

What was the impetus for that even? Was it being short? Was it being. Was it.

And girls. I'm sure it was girls.

Yeah.

Okay.

Isn't that always every man?

I mean, isn't it funny? I mean, even, like, it's just really impressive people. I remember Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's my favorite actor of all time, I remember him saying he's a genius. And I remember hearing him say something along those lines, like, you know, I got into it for the girls, man in high school, so you want to, like, meet girls?

I like. The guy didn't have any confidence. I said, I'm gonna build this skill.

Yeah, that's interesting. That's really interesting. And. And that has be. Certainty has become one of your six needs that you talk about. You mentioned in the TED talks.

That's impressive.

I have. And I was just. As a performer, too. I'm very impressed by you that you're able to say so much and be so present in such a short amount of time. Are you ever lost for words? Do you ever. Does somebody ever stand up with a problem and you just think, oh, shit.

If I let myself do that, I would never pull off what I do? That's where that certainly has to come through. It's like, when I don't know what to say, that's when I know what to say. That's my core belief. So I always tell people, you get rewarded in public for what you practice intensely in private. I did have the experience where I had mercury poisoning for a period of time, severe mercury poisoning. And I found myself on stage at 52 years old, and I went to go tell a story. I was like, why did I tell that story? What's going on? It's like, for the first time in my life, I didn't know where I was. So I do know what that feels like. It was horrific.

I got it.

Got the mercury out of my body and did oxygen therapy, and now my brain's, you know, great again, and I don't have that challenge. So I do know what it feels like, but it's not. It's no fun, that's for sure.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I bet. I mean, especially for somebody like. Like you. How did you. You think you got it from shellfish?

Yeah, I. I didn't know I was eating swordfish and tuna fish every single day. Those Are my primary pieces. I had salad and fish that came. Being so healthy. And you know, they. They absorb all the mercury because of their big fish. They live for a very, very long time. They eat all the smaller fish. And also I don't methylate, I found out. So as a result, they measured on 0 to 5 scale. I was 123. I burned a hole in my arteries here and bled out about a third of my blood supply. I shouldn't have survived. I did, thank God. But before that happened, I kept having this. I'm exhausted and I couldn't be losing my memories at this stage, at this young age. But it does all those things. It disrupts your ATP. So I always tell people you should get a metals test. Because what a lot of people call aging is just different types of metals in your body that can detox. It took me about two years to get it out of my system. It was brutal. Oh, I would go to get on stage, if you can imagine, with audience of 15,000 people in a stadium and they're announcing my name and I'm throwing up.

Oh my God.

And I got to get on stage for 12 straight hours and hold an audience that wouldn't sit for a three hour movie someone spent $300 million on. It's just me in a stadium. I got to reach the guy at the top of the stadium and keep him engaged 12 hours a day for four days and nights. So the demands on the body were pretty intense. But that also led me to biohacking and a lot of the most important tools that I now are able to help other people with. Because I learned so many ways to maximize my energy and turn things around.

Oh, my God.

I bet.

And you need to be shot first more than anything. Just sharp and dialed into people I've.

Seen no, there's no warmup band. There's nobody who could take your place. So their attention for 12 hours. They think about it today, you know, the attention span of most human beings today because phones, you know, time is really emotion. When people say I don't have time or it's a long time or a short time, how do you know it's a long time or a short time? But the real thing is, do you enjoy yourself when you're enjoying yourself? Time flies. There is no time when you're not enjoying yourself. A minute feels like eternity. So I know how to capture all the different needs of people simultaneously. Their need for certainty, their need for variety, Their need for significance, the need for connection, love, growth, contribution. All six of Those needs for hours and hours. And when you really fully fulfilled, time disappears. And that allows me to really go in and do deep work. Because it's like if you learn a language a little bit at a time, like most people do in college and high school, like five, 10 years later, they don't speak the language. But if I drop you in Italy for days with no teacher, you're going to come out speaking it. So my whole thing is immersion and that's why I'm able to kind of get the results that I want. Stanford just did a study during COVID They came to me because two of their instructors or professors came to my Date with Destiny seminar. It's a five day seminar. And it was fascinating because they came back and they were both clinically depressed and they came back with no symptoms of depression. And they were really interested in the impact on depression because during COVID as you probably know, we had the highest levels of depression. We still do, unfortunately, highest levels of drug overdose. And so I said, well, what's the, I mean, what am I comparing it to? You know, what do the meta studies show? When you do multiple studies, what do they show as the average? And they told me that 60% of the people who get drugs and therapy make zero improvement for depression. 0. 40% improve and the average improvement is 50%. So they're half as depressed. Now, some people get well, but very few. So I said, well, you can almost do that with a placebo, that 40% improvement. He said, you're right. So what's the best result you've ever gotten in the history of psychiatry? So it was done four years ago at Johns Hopkins. They gave people psilocybin for a month and cognitive therapy for a month. And the results were like nothing they've ever seen. Six weeks afterwards, 53% of the people had no symptoms whatsoever of depression. But it's not going anywhere because most states obviously can't use psych. And so I said, well, let's compare to it. And when we did it, the numbers were so staggering they didn't want to get canceled. So before they published it in the Journal of Psychiatry, they sent out blind the numbers to three other organizations. The results were 100% of the people that came through that were clinically depressed, not a single one was depressed. Six weeks later, no symptoms. 17% of people came in with suicidal ideation. Zero had suicidal ideation. Eleven months later, 71% decrease in negative emotions, 52% increase in positive emotions. And I never saw them again. So now they're doing the largest behavioral study in history of shifting on focus on engagement and business. You know, people were at home for so long, and now they don't want to go to work, you know?

Right.

And then. But then the people at home are complaining. They feel disconnected and they feel depressed. It's so. It's such a bizarre thing. People don't understand what it takes to be fulfilled. You've got to put yourself on the line. You got to do things that are uncomfortable. But we got so comfortable, and now people really are not as engaged. It's the biggest challenge of businesses. So they're doing a study right now. It's a one year study. Most of these studies are one to three years. And the initial six months of it show a quadrupling of their engagement, meaning it made up for everything that happened during COVID and got people better than they were. And it's gotten better every month without me seeing them because their psychology has changed. So I'm really excited about the kind of results I've always known we could get. But to show them in science is really nice.

Wow.

God, Tony, that's so impressive. What do you. I mean, if you could distill it down to something, what would that thing be? What do you attribute those great results to?

Your life is your emotions, right? So if you had a billion dollars and every day your primary emotions are anger and frustration, your life is called angry and frustrated. If you have three beautiful kids and a beautiful wife or husband, and all day long all you do is worry. You don't have love in your life. All you have is worry, Right? So we have an emotional home. And what I do is help people, help them shift their perceptual filters, their beliefs, their values, their rules, to something that is winnable instead of something that puts people in conflict with themselves and other people. And the other part is the way it works. They've tracked me for three years, and they show that I go through this massive testosterone push, which also the audience follows me. They've done everybody, not everybody. They've done people in the audience both live and when. I've done it digitally in other countries and showed that they literally follow my biochemistry. Their testosterone surges, but their cortisol drops off the cliff. So the testosterone also makes you remember things like, you know, where you were in 9 11, when you heard about it or saw it, you'll never forget it. You don't know where you were on 8 11. There's no testosterone firing off. There's no biochemical shift. So this Biochemical shift makes people retain what I do. And then the changes in their filters change the meaning of how they look at their life. So they feel different, they behave different, they act different. So that's the essence of it, the most short version I can give you.

God, Tony, that is, that's incredible. And, and, and this study is going on, will it be published?

Yeah, it'll be published soon. Actually there are the 12 month finish, this finishes this month. I saw the six month review which was mind boggling, but the first one's already published. It's in the Journal of Psychiatry Life.

Good.

Be a dream, sweetheart.

You tell an incredible story about being I think in Hawaii on 9 11. You were doing a conference there and something came out of that. I mean it was a really beautiful story where you were able to bring people together, people who were really fractured. Can you briefly explain what happened, your memories of 9 11?

I was there doing a seminar for 2,200 people for 10 days and basically killed people 12 hours a day for 10 days. But on the very first night we finished usually about midnight and I had this weird experience. I, I planned what I was going to do, but I didn't get on stage and I feel the audience, a lot of times it changes. And so we had, you know, I had guys from Cirque Soleil set it up and we had this huge opening and you know, people looking forward to going here for a year and magical stuff happens. I just appear on stage and you know the music, it's really pretty awesome. And at the end of it there's these confetti cannons and the things. It's the opening to the event and then I'm supposed to say something and I just stood still for a long time. People kept laughing until they were quiet. And then I said, living. When do people really start to live? And I said when they face death. And I went on this 10 minute soliloquy on what would you do if you couldn't get off this island? If these are the last 10 days of your life, who would you call? What would you say? What would you do? And then that night, 911 hit about two hours later and I got all these phone calls and we had people From I think 43 countries who were translating seven languages. So we had every religion, every background, every worldview. And people were fighting in the halls, people were screaming, crying. Some people thought it was the end time. Some people were trying to comfort other people. In the middle of it all I got everybody come together in the hall, announced what had happened, which most people knew we couldn't get off the island. And so I, I asked everybody, I said, you know, I want you to get in a group, mixed countries, not just us and not just men, men and women. And I want you to answer these three questions. When you heard this happen, what was your first focus? What did it mean? And what did you decide to do? And you can decide to do nothing. It's still a decision, right? When I was doing this, this one woman stood up and she shared that she had been moved by my talk the night before about death. And it was one in the morning. She didn't want to wake her boyfriend up. He had asked her to marry her, and her previous boyfriend had been kidnapped and murdered. And she said, I'm just not ready for that. And he said, well, if you go to that stupid seminar, it's over. She goes, it's over. She goes, but when you said, who would I call? What would I do? I called and left a message on his voicemail at work so I wouldn't wake him up to tell him, I love him and I want to marry him. And he called her back and she was asleep, and she brought her a little recorder on it and she played it for her. She was later on Larry King sharing the story with it. And he called from the top of the World Trade center and said, honey, I can't tell you how much I'm moved by your message. I love you so much. I have bad news. And he tells her he's at the top. You know, he's not going to get out alive. And you're probably wondering why God did this to you twice. But the only thing I'd say is, don't ever wait to love again. Honey, I love you so much. I'm going to die a happy man knowing this. And we're all crying. And this one man stands up and he goes, I'm from Pakistan. He goes, I'd love to hold your hand and say, I'm sorry, but this is retribution. It was like a war broke out in the room. So I did this process. It's all on film. I took him and I took an Israeli man who worked in the World Trade center. Lost like 40 of his friends. His family lived in the occupied territories there, and they were going to kill each other. And I got them on the same side. And they. Not only on the same side, but the next day they gathered all the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims together and they formed this group that went around for about four years or five Years to different mosques and churches and so forth and preached peace. And this guy wrote a book because his dad, he was trained in an Al Qaeda camp. His dad took him out, sent him to Berkeley and then he sent him my seminar. And he told people that morning, his only regret was he wasn't on one of those planes. So he wrote a book called My Jihad because jihad is actually a beautiful thing. It's the war with yourself to be a better person. That's actually what that's supposed to be about. And so that was decades ago. He's still great. So it was pretty amazing experience.

That story is incredible. And have you found in terms of resetting, you talked about psilocybin. Have you found any other positive effects of plant based medicine? Ayahuasca, ketamine, any. Any of those tools?

One thing I felt impotent in, and I rarely feel that feeling is when people were dying. It's like I could handle anything else but terminal illness. And one of the reasons was I had my own issues around death, right? You know, it's like, I don't want to die. I still don't want to die, but I don't have a fear of it anymore. And I was talking to Tony Bassis, who's a professor at nyu. I decided to interview a group of these people that were doing some of this new research. It's not really new. It was done in the 70s and given up. Interestingly enough. He said, tony, I said, I don't do drugs. I said, I'm not a prude or anything. It's just I was surrounded by drugs and alcohol growing up and those people did not behave real great. And I love life, so I'm not interested in this. And he goes, tony, think of it this way. A drug is something you got to keep taking to get the result. He said, these are one time experiences that transform people's entire experience. And he started telling me stories and he showed me some videos. He showed me a video of this woman I'll never forget. He goes, this woman, I'll tell you in advance, she's just not an atheist. She's a New York atheist, not a California atheist, where maybe there's some form of God in. You know. He was like, there is no God.

Yeah, get the out of here.

And he said, she. And he showed me a video for her. She was pretty intense and angry because she's dying. Terminal cancer, right? And then, you know, they, they give you a placebo one time and they give you. And they try to trick you and Then they give you the actual experience, and it's guided. It's not like going to some party or something. And it was unbelievable. You saw her afterwards and she's crying and she's going, you know, I felt God's presence. I know there's nothing to fear. And he said, most people say it's one of the top three experiences of their life. So I went down with his recommendation down to Brazil, into the Amazon, and I did it there, Ayahuasca, and found it to be really profound. I do not have that fear of death anymore, so I find it could be useful. But now it's become like a party drug a lot of people use, and a lot of people microdose and so forth. It's kind of unfortunately out of control because set and setting makes a huge difference in how you process these.

That's what Tim Leary said, right?

That's exactly right. But people forget that they just started. You know, it's a party situation. So there's. There's some definite applications, and there's so much research now at ucla, you know, again, NYU and several other places. I think that we'll see more breakthroughs in the future.

And I'm curious about. The ayahuasca experience you had is probably too personal to talk about, but that is. I don't think of you as being a fearful person. You had mentioned you were when you were younger, but having a fear like that, breaking through a fear like that, Is there a way to talk about that? I mean, did what.

What do you think I just experienced? I did. I did ayahuasca, but I also did that toad experience. I forget what it's called.

Oh, yeah.

And. And that was the most profound experience, one of the most profound experiences of my life. I experienced the idea of dying, and I. I experienced what death would be. And it was. There was. It was so much beauty and it was so real and associated that there's no more fear of it. I wouldn't have said I was aware that I was a fear of death. It wasn't like showing up every day. But there's probably a reason why I was as driven as I was. And part of it is, life is short. I don't want to waste the moment. I still feel that way. But the difference is, I don't know, I have more a sense of certainty in my nervous system that this isn't the end.

Yeah, interesting. And you're right. Life is short. Thank you for repeating that phrase. I really appreciate that. Free advertisement. Yeah, well, you know, I Think that I think about death. Thank you, Tony. I think about death a lot. And one of the reasons we named the show that was. I just like the reminder. I like saying that phrase because I do want to live life to its fullest. And I'm now curious about the impetus for your time to rise Summit in January. What is your, I guess, level of societal optimism for 2024 and beyond? It seems a common perception that things are bleak now. And so how do we turn around that around? What is your prescription for that?

The biggest challenge we have is people do not study history. And most people, especially college kids, don't have a clue anymore. And the general population doesn't either. I'm a student of history, and there are cycles in history that are like clockwork. And if you understand them, you understand patterns. You no longer have as much fear. So, for example, what changed humanity from hunter gatherers who lived in fear, trying to constantly hope we could get food or not, was one, pattern recognition. I always tell people there's three skills you need. Pattern recognition, pattern utilization, learning how to use those, and then pattern creation. So once understood the seasons, we didn't have to run around anymore, because you can do the right thing at the wrong time. And you don't get rewarded, you get paid. You plant in the winter. I don't care how hard you work, it's not going to work. Or you plant in the spring, and then you just think in the summer it's going to be fine. You don't take care of it. Or you go to the fall and reap it all and not save any for winter, you're in trouble. So these seasons change humanity so we can stay in one place, build communities. Eventually countries shift the world. And then the same things happens in history. There's winter times. Think about if you were born in like a 1910. Those people were protected. Their parents looked out for them. World War I, we won. All this new technology came about. Cars and radios and airplanes and the roaring 20s. Well, when these kids were turning, you know, 2021, 19, 2021, they thought, they're gonna have a car, they're gonna party. Well, GUESS what? At 19, if you were born in 1910, it's 1929. And the whole world changes like that, right? Spoiled brats as they were thought of now they're, you know, these were kids were not respected. Kind of like millennials were thought of by older generations or. Or the Z generation is thought of by others is like, they've had it so easy. They have. They don't know it. It's not their fault. They just have no reference. They don't have a real war. They haven't had to face anything. They think words are violence, right?

They're like tick tock flappers.

That's right. Chris Rock. Chris Rock said, if you think words are violence, no one has slapped the out of you on national television. Right? That's violence. Right. Anyway, those kids grew up in a different environment. And so they had to get tough because all of a sudden 10 years of depression and then by the way, now they're 29, 1939, and they're going to World War II, which looked like we're going to lose. And they grew. So here's the history of the world in four steps. Good times creates weak people. Weak people create bad times. Bad times create strong people. Strong people create great times. You can study history over and over and see this cycle. And right now we're in a wintertime. It was really easy money, easy everything. Now it's scary and fear. But we're about half, halfway to two thirds of the way through it. No one knows for sure, but we're going to face some form of probably cyber war with China, at least some form of pieces. And this generation is going to have to get tougher and they will. So I'm not worried about them. So I'm optimistic to answer your question. Not because of just things like AI, which you can think is going to kill us all, but we're going to become more productive, we're going to have more resources. But also the challenging times are going to make people stronger. Why I created this program called Time to Rise. It's a free program. I do. It started with COVID I want to reach people at home where money isn't a problem, where they're all so fearful right now. I need to help them. And so I ran this free seminar and I did it for three and a half days. And I said, okay, I'm going to show people the best tools. No charge. Just help them in their home for like three hours a day for three days. And it was incredible. First year we had 458,000 people. Last year had 1.5 million people.

Oh my God.

And I'm changing this, the format of this one this year. So it's going to be three days and anyone can come. There's absolutely no charge. It's not partially free. It's totally free. It's coming up on January 25th through the 27th. January 25th through 7th starts at 2pm Eastern. But we have people from 195 countries participating. And all you have to do is go to timetoriseummit.com wow.

Incredible. Well, what, what are you working on next, Tony? Do you have. I mean, I imagine I am just imagine you constantly working.

Well, the good news is I have, I have five kids and five grandkids.

Oh my God.

But my biggest thing now is my new book. Actually, it's right here, the little plug. It's called the holy grail of investing. I've written two previous number one New York Times bestsellers on finance. This is the third in the trilogy. And you know, I interviewed all these brilliant people from my previous books. None of it is my ideas. All of it is from the greatest investors in the history of the world. Liter. The whole secret, if you understand this, and I learned this from all the people I interviewed, is number one, don't lose money. That sounds stupid, but most investors trying to make money. If you lose, you know, 50% of your money on a, you know, a stock that drops, let's say, for example, it takes a hundred percent to get even. People don't realize that it was a hundred thousand dollars. You lose 50%, it's 50,000. If it goes up 50%, it's 75,000. You're still in the hole by 25%. He goes, so the best investors know they're going to be wrong and they work to not lose money by having what's called the right asset allocation. That means of money you're going to invest, how much of it you're going to put in, what type of assets, real estate, stocks, bonds, what percentages, because each one carries a different amount of risk and a different amount of reward. Obviously, bonds are producing a little nicer return now, but for years produce nothing. Stocks potentially have more upside, but they also have more downside. They're more volatile. So the secret is to find 8 to 12 uncorrelated investments correlated. Means if things move together or drop together, they're correlated. So the idea, most people tell you, here's how you're going to reduce your risk. You're going to put 60% in, let's say the market and stocks, and you're going to put 40% of bonds is a typical type of balanced portfolio. And he explained to me that's not balanced at all. First of all, stocks are, are three times more volatile. So you're really not 60, 40, really like 90, 10 in terms of your risk. What you really need is 8 to 12 uncorrelated investments. And you reduce your risk 80% and increase your upside. But then how do you do that? Because the problem is today most people put their money in stocks, bonds, maybe some real estate. They're supposed to be uncorrelated. But if you saw what happened in 2020, they both went down. 2008, they both went down. So I started doing my homework, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but alternative investments are much better in producing results. In the last 35 years, 35 out of 35 years, private equity, for example, or companies buy private companies and they build them up and then sell them to a bigger company or take them public. Private equity has outstripped every stock market in the world in its return. I'll give an example. In the US, most people have heard the S&P 500, the top standard four stocks. The S&P 500 has produced in 35 years a 9.2% average compounded return, which is fantastic. But private equity, Average private equity, not. The people I interviewed for the book, the average has done 14.2. That's 50% more results every year compounded. Now, most people understand compounding. So let me give you an example. If you had a million dollars, you could do with $100,000. But I use a million just as a. A large number to give you a sense. If you invested a million dollars 35 years ago in the stock market and left it in, it's worth $26 million today. That's insane. But if you put the same million dollars in private Equity, it's worth $139 million today. I've been coaching Paul Tudor Jones, one of the top 10 financial traders in the world, for, I guess now, 25 years or 26 years. And he's not lost money during that time. He's a genius. I've learned so much from him. And so he said, tony, I want to tell you a secret that most people know about. He goes, it's pretty wild. He goes, this is where I put most of my money. He goes, tony, there is a way to not just be an investor in a single fund, but own a piece of the firm that has all these funds. And these funds charge you 2% per year for just having your money with them, whether they make you money or not, which gives them guaranteed cash flow. It's called GP Stakes. When you invest in one of these funds, they call you a limited partner. That's just what they call investors, LPs, when you own the fund, when you're the CEO CFO. The people that own it, they're the general partners. You can buy a piece of the general partnership. I couldn't believe it. Today I own 65 of those firms and the returns are insane. The diversification is insane. And I get the 2 and 20 as if I started the firms. So I show people how they can do that in this book to give an idea something most people will never dream of. So this is my favorite of the three books that I've done, I'm really excited about. And it comes out. You can pre order it now on Amazon or if you go to the holy grail of Investing.com, the holy grail, Investing.com. the name of the book, if you want. If you order it and you show the receipt or send us a digital copy of the receipt, I give you the first chapter on audio for free. So you can listen to it if you want to before the book even comes out.

I can't wait to read this. Where did your business acumen come from? Tony, how are you?

So I had no business background, no business school. I learned it all the hard way. But I learned by studying. You know, I was coaching some of the greatest investors and some of the greatest businessmen. So, for example, Mark Benioff, if you're familiar with salesforce.com he came to, like, I think eight of my UPW seminars and like five in a row. He'd sit in the front row. He's as big as I am. And so at one point he caught up and he goes, you know, I want to introduce myself. I'm Mark Benioff. And he goes, I want you to come on this journey with me. You convinced me to leave Oracle. I'm going to start this company called salesforce.com and he said, we're going to change business around the world. I'll never again. He said, we're going to do $100 million of business, I promise you. Now he's doing 32 billion 15 years later.

So it's like the reverse of Dr. Evil.

I'm not a dummy. I don't just coach them. I learn from them. Right?

And so, yeah, all the people I've.

Learned from, I've applied it. And so now I'm fortunate enough to have. I have 111 companies. We do $7 billion a year in sales. Wow.

God, Tony, I. I can't read. Wait to read. I need this book. I. I feel like I'm. I'm gonna call my business manager right away and just play for her. Yeah, I can't it's easy read too.

You can read it quickly. But I promise you, you'll be blown away because it'll show you things you're going to find anywhere else. The holy grail of investing life could be a dream.

Sweetheart. Hello. Hello again.

Shabooming up and we'll meet again.

Tony Robbins. These are the real questions. What is your go to emo boy? What is your go to emoji? You're texting one of your kids, your wife.

Fist bump, a heart and prayer hands are the three biggies. For me.

That makes sense. And in terms of the six needs, which one is most important to you?

To me, it's love and growth. It's contribution, love and growth. Those are the top three for me. They're all important. You got to meet them all. But if you make certainty first, you are trying to always hold on to things and life's always changing so you're stressed if you're trying to be significant, that's what social media does. And then you have to compare yourself to everybody else constantly. And you have to lie to yourself and say you're better than everyone else, which you're not. Or you have to surround yourself with people that you're better than, and then you don't grow. So they're very valuable. All six needs are important, but it's best to lead with love or growth or contribution if you want to have an extraordinary quality of life.

Who was your first celebrity crush when you were a kid growing up?

Barra Fawcett.

Oh, yeah, sure, sure. Classic. And who, what is your least favorite condiment?

I'm not an onion guy.

Oh, yeah, me either. Do you cook?

A little bit. Not. My life is so full. Not really.

Yeah, but I did growing up. Yeah. And what animal did you have? Pets. Do you have any pets?

Oh, yes, dogs.

Dogs.

I grew up with dogs.

Yeah. And what is an acclaim movie you're embarrassed to admit you haven't seen or maybe shame you for? Any movie that people shame you for for not having seen? Why do you haven't seen? I hadn't seen Pretty Woman for a long time.

I don't give a shit what anybody thinks about my movie selection. It should not stress me out. I think I need to go get my head examined.

That's right. So there's not a source of shame. That's a great answer. What is a source of shame? When do you feel shame?

I really don't. That's not an emotion I feel.

I don't think.

I don't think it really serves, because what it does is shut you down. If I make a mistake, I go correct it. You know, If I screw up, I go correct it. You know, I don't hesitate to correct it. And I'm not trying to be perfect. I don't pretend to be. I don't think anybody is. I think people are so starving for something real. And even reality television is bullshit, right? So it's like real is what I think people really are hungry for. That's what I'm hungry for, and that's what I am. So it's like I'm not here to try and to pretend I'm something I'm not. And when I screw something up, I acknowledge it and actually usually connect you to people. When you try to pretend you're perfect, people know it's not true and they just push you away.

Great answer. And you're at. You had mentioned the seasons of life. You are now facing the winter of your life. How is that going to affect you and your behavior in the world as you walk through the world?

Well, I'm at a stage of life where I think probably in my 30s, I was trying to. Late 20s, 30s, I was trying to prove myself to myself as well as other people. In your 40s, you start to understand a bit of who you are. By my 50s, I still was like, I haven't done enough. I remember my birthdays from 40 to probably 55. I was like, I haven't done enough. I hope tens of millions of people. But by the time I got to my 60th birthday, I don't know, something changed. I was like, you know, I wake up and I've helped tens of millions of people. I've had a really beautiful life. I got the most incredible children and grandchildren. I've got the most incredible wife. I've got good health. I mean, you know, what could you really allow yourself to be stressed about? So it's really about contribution, and it's really about, you know, how can I help? That's if there's a question that I'm asked every day, how can I help? And I get what I do on events, and I've got people that I coach, you know, athletes, business people. But I also have. I get a phone call at least two to three times a month from somebody who's got cancer or somebody's had a stroke, unfortunately. I wrote a whole book called Lifeforce where I interviewed 150 of the greatest regenerative scientists in the world, Nobel laureates, top doctors. And so I know people that have breakthroughs that, you know, it takes about 18 years from the time there's a breakthrough in science till it gets to your clinician. So I wrote that book so I could show people the answers that are happening right now. And I'm on the cusp of all that because I want to stay as young and strong as I possibly can. I mean, I'm able to run faster, lift more now than when I was 27. I'm going to be 64 in a few months.

Oh, my God. Okay. What is the worst injury you've ever gotten? How did you get it, Tony?

Probably the TED Talk there. Quincy Jones invited me to come speak, and I was like, schedule's full cue. And I love him to bath thing. You got to come. This TED thing. And there was no TED site in those days. It was more private, right? It was for the top people in Silicon Valley. And so he goes, come, Tony, it'll be worth the time. And you'll meet so many great people and they're going to love you. So I get there, and the guy that didn't create Ted, but he bought it, his name is Chris, and we're friends now, but I walked in and he goes, oh, the motivator has arrived. And I've never been a motivator. I hate that term because it's like, somebody up. I'm a strategist. If you're all motivated but you don't have a strategy, you're running east, looking for a sunset. Doesn't do any good that you're motivated. Right. You need the right strategy. So it's like trying to explain that.

Term has been used. So. So it's that. That's interesting.

It's because people see a giant crowd of 10 or 20,000 people and they're clapping or jumping and they're happy and they go, oh, you know, it's motivation. The reason that Stanford shows it works a year later and never seen them again is because we've made a biochemical change in people and we give them the strategies, this combination of the two. But. But when I went in there, he goes, you know, I. He says to me, he goes, I don't. I hear that. He goes, just, by the way, I want you to know you have 18 minutes. And I was, like we said earlier, 18 minutes. Like, my shortest event is like five days, you know?

Yeah.

You're a goddamn Quincy Jones.

What the hell? It's like 18 minutes. Are you serious? No one told me this, right? So I'm scrambling, and I go sit in the audience and I watch as this woman got up who's a brilliant professor teaching string theory, which, you know, it's extremely complex.

In 18 minutes, people are him.

And 18 minutes, and people in the room are hemming and hawing like, oh, this is boring. And I'm like, she's teaching you string period. 18 minutes, you know, come on.

Right.

So I get up and he goes, so after that, I guess we need some motivation here. And he goes, so Tony Robbins has motivated a lot of famous people. And, you know. Yeah, here he is. Tony Robbins.

Yeah. Well, thanks for the introduction. It's a great introduction.

So. So we blew the audience up. I bet most viewed TED talks out of hundreds of thousands in the last, you know, so 10 years.

So, Tony, when somebody like that introduces you that way, how quickly do you explain you're not a motivational speaker? How quickly do you pivot to. This is a strategy I try to impart on people.

Well, most people don't introduce me that way anymore. Most people know I'm a strategist. But at the time, I just came out and I said, well, I don't think you guys need any motivation. I'm not a motivator. I said, everybody's motivated. I'm interested in finding your drives. Motivated to eat. Everybody's motivated. The question what are you motivated to Relax. What are you motivated for? I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in finding your deeper drives and showing you how you can ignite those, because that's the only thing that lasts. Motivation's like a warm bath. Feels good. You should probably take a bath every day or a shower, but it doesn't last. You gotta do more than that.

That's great. Yeah. And speaking of that motivating, do you drink coffee or tea? And how do you take it?

I don't drink anyone. Sometimes tea, but I don't drink coffee. And I drink alcohol. Again, I'm not a prude. I just. Early in my life, I couldn't imagine me on coffee. My wife couldn't imagine me.

That's a good point.

That is a really good people.

I can't. I can't either. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy. And do you play football? Did you grow up playing football?

Yes, I did.

Yeah, I bet. And did you play in school? In college?

No, I never went to college. I. Right out of high school, I got. My mom kicked my dad out. She kicked me out. She thought I was on his side. So I went to work right away, and I started my first business when I was 19. I went to work with other people at 17 when I got kicked out. So I didn't have any background. But in high school I played. Yeah, but I was five one in high school and I was a linebacker, But I could stick people pretty good. But I wasn't big enough. I remember my senior year, the coach comes like, where'd you come from? Because I was, you know, 65 by that point. Right? Some are 10 inches. Yeah, but I was real skinny in the beginning there. I didn't fill out till later.

Who are you? Your face looks a little bit like that little Tony Robbins guy that used to run around here. What is it? I'm sure you've been all. I know you've been all over the world. You live in Fiji part time. Incredible place in Fiji, which you kindly invited me to. What is at the top of your travel bucket list?

Gosh.

A place you haven't seen.

The only place I haven't gone that I want to go still is Nepal. Actually. I've been all over the world, but I haven't spent any time in Nepal yet. So I'm looking forward to that. You know, the unique culture there. I love that they measure happiness there, you know, instead of, you know, the. The economics of the country. It's like, what's the gross national happiness of the country? I think it's fascinating. I want to meet the people there and have some conversations. I'm going to go there next year.

Oh, good for you. And the Dalai Lama would be.

I know the Dalai Lama. He's a beautiful man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I bet he's not there anymore, obviously, you know.

Yeah. If you could change one thing about yourself, do you feel like you do need to change anything about yourself? Is there anything?

I do work on it. The only thing I struggle with times is time, because I always know wherever I'm there, I'm 100%. I get immersed. But I don't know that I'd want to change that. I kind of like it. My wife might want to change it a few times, I bet.

I bet. Well, you're going to have plenty of time for the holidays. I'm so happy for you. If you had a sandwich named after you, the Tony Robbins sandwich, what would be on it? What would it be comprised of?

I know it'd probably be a veggie burger at this stage, Big Mac, the big tea or something. I don't know.

Oh, nice. Any special bread?

You know, I actually have this bread that we have manufactured. It's in Canada, and it's coconut bread and it doesn't have any other grains in it and actually taste good. Most things like that taste like cardboard, so probably have to be made out of that.

Oh, delicious. And what song would you like played at your funeral if you've thought about that song?

Maybe Release by Pearl Jam or maybe Time to say Goodbye with.

Oh, REO Speedwagon.

No. And Andrew Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. It's a really cool.

Oh, okay, good. Better than REO Speedback, I guess. And if you need a guaranteed laugh, you were in one of the funnier movies, Shallow Hal. What movie makes you laugh the hardest?

Oh, my gosh, I love to laugh. So many different ones, you know, I like so many different types of humor. I don't know which movie I'd say it's made me laugh the most.

Like, like you, you were excited to introduce your kids to. Maybe.

Oh, that's different.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. There's been so many of them. I think, you know, we, you know, I have kids in various different stages of life at this point. Yeah, My daughter, you know, I love to take her. And we just like we're watching. I'm watching Rudolph the red nose ranger 5000th time.

Isn't that crazy? Silver and gold. I don't get sick of it. UConn Cornelius. I missed. I love the way he licks the little pic. I can't wait to watch that. I think we're gonna watch that memory.

I have that clear. Trust me, I've seen that Damn thing like 30 times.

I have a great memory, Tony. Okay, we're almost done in toilet. Roll over or under?

I think probably under. I'm not sure. I think it's under, perhaps.

Really? Okay, a rare under.

You're asking important questions.

These are the hard hitting ones. And lastly, if you would. Tony, I'm sorry, Life is short. If you would just complete this, finish this sentence for us. Life is short.

So don't waste the moment. Yeah, don't waste the moment. Life's too short to suffer. You know, most people suffer. Look, pain's part of life, but suffering's a choice.

I love that. Don't waste a moment. And I love what you said about bad times creating strong people. And you are one of the shining examples of that. So I thank you for your strength and for all your great advice and your lights.

Thank you, brother.

And for your time.

Thanks for. It's great to see you after all these years.

Likewise, Tony. I know I look forward to the next time. And I can't wait to read this book. We're going to talk about it on the intro and outro the holy grail of investing. But truly, thank you for all you're doing for the world.

I hope people join me for the summit, January 25th through 27th. Again, just go to time to rise summit.com time to rise summit.com and I love to be able to serve you, your family, your friends, anybody. You're welcome to join.

Thank you. Thanks, Tony.

So.

So that just happened.

That just happened.

Clear. And. And I listened to the Josh Gad episode and I realized I was going much further down. I was going lower. Am I just doing that naturally? When I'm in the case of Tony, I imagine I might go lower just because he's so big and impressive.

I had a thought about his voice, and I'm a little reluctant to say it because I don't want it to sound insulting because I have so much respect for him.

Well, I think that's a good disclaimer if you qualify it that way. I don't. I don't know. He doesn't sound like he's insulted by anything.

Well, he doesn't have shame, which I'm extraordinarily jealous of.

I know. Imagine that. Imagine a world with no shame. It's like utopia.

It's hard to imagine.

It's a mental utopia.

You need to imagine like a Tuesday without shame. No, I can't. It's crazy.

I can't get frozen yogurt without shame.

Oh, my God. Well, all right, I'll just say it. His voice sounded a little bit like, you know when they do, like on Dateline or some show like that where they're using a simulated voice to hide. To hide someone's voice.

Yeah.

To protect their anonymity.

Yes.

It sounded a little bit. He sounded a little bit like that. A little.

Oh, you're right. A little bit like.

Yeah, well, they had me running.

Sound a little bit like. Like Ryan Philippe.

Now he's a little bit like he is.

A little bit like that, I guess.

My son deacon's been doing DJing and music.

He attended his first Golden Globes award the other day.

Did you see that, Ryan?

No, Deacon.

Oh, that's funny.

There was like a moment on the red carpet where he fixed his mom's hair or something. Everyone was a buzz.

Oh, yeah. Well. Well, yeah. You know, I think it's. It does.

He's so big in every way. You know, it doesn't seem like the way he looks physically seems to really match his Huge personality and like vast amounts of generosity, compassion.

I know.

And information that he had. He's just. It's all. He almost. Bless you.

You mentioned Tony Robbins sneezing.

No, I don't think he sneezes.

Yeah, I know.

It's like he's a superhero. Like he was bit by something and it made him like altered his biochemistry. Doesn't he seem like his biochemistry has been alter in such a good way?

Yes, he seems like an. Like a human. Like an actual superhero who's like. Who's also saving people.

I mean, he might not be human. He's like the. He's like not. He doesn't seem fully human to me.

I was so surprised when he told me he had gotten really sick, you know, because I'm looking at him and he seems. He. He just looks like. You said he's like the superhero. Looking at. It's like hearing like Superman lamenting his downfall from kryptonite. But. But then I thought, well, what is his kryptonite? His kryptonite is mercury. That he ate too much fish.

But he also had. He talked about that tumor which.

Yes, my God.

Which caused him to. That was amazing. It caused him to grow 10 inches in one year. He had a tumor in his pituitary gland.

I mean, that. I know we're like sort of joke, but that does sound like it could be the origin story of some kind of. I mean, all of those superhero stories require some anomaly, like whether somebody was, you know, stuck in a radioactive chamber or got bit by a spider, or they had some near tragic occurrence befall them and they ended up overcoming it. I mean, that is kind of what happened to him.

Well, also a really difficult childhood, which is.

Oh, God, yeah.

Completely shaped him. Shaped his worldview and his drive and what motivates him. It's like. It's like the opposite I was thinking of when I was listening to him. I was thinking of Anderson Cooper's book about the Astors and how generation after generation, they would create all these offspring who were completely entitled and had all this wealth that they didn't earn themselves. And as a result, they floundered and they didn't do much for the world. But he had almost the exact opposite upbringing where they didn't have food on Thanksgiving. And so it really shaped his view. And I think he definitely wouldn't have become who he is now had that difficulty not occurred.

He must have a strength, like an inner strength, a core that compels him to go this way instead of that way. Because the that way is probably the most common way for people in his. From his upbringing, his type of circumstance to go. I mean, to choose good, to choose the higher path. He's got, like, such an impressive core.

I think when you asked him about his optimism, or lack thereof for 2024 and beyond and the way our society is right now, and he was talking about history and how it's cyclical and how too much good is dangerous for society because it will inevitably create a culture of apathy. And like what happened during the pandemic, you know, people need to be on comfortable in order to change things, to change the world. So it's interesting. It's almost like his prognostication for the future of society sounds similar to his own life, where in order to achieve what he achieved, he had to experience a lot of negativity to overcome it. So. But that. That's part of his worldview clearly now for all of society, you know, that we were in such a dark time now that. But we'll use that darkness in order to motivate, to get better and pull ourselves up as it's interesting. I'm very curious to take that seminar. I'll be available during those three days. It's free, and I like free things. But he is an inspirational person. I'm really curious.

Yeah, me too.

It sounds like something I'm gonna do.

I would like to do it. And now I'll do it vicariously through you if you do do it. Yeah, well, let me know.

And I'm also curious to read his book because I know piss on nothing about investing, and he is so good at explaining things.

I know.

And you paid him this compliment to his face, but I will echo that, that he is really good. Obviously, he's really good at explaining things, but making a complicated thing sound relatively accessible. So I think that book, reading his finance book could really help me because I am pretty, pretty lost.

Me too. I am. I'm so deficient when it comes to math and numbers and business that even him explaining it in as impressive a way as he did, I was still scrambling to understand what he was. I still need. In other words, like, a book would be great because I would need to read those sentences like four or five times to really get it in there.

You know, I kind of like, in your silence, I heard. I heard you struggling to keep up. You know, every once in a while you were like, okay, okay. He's like, and of course, the bonds and the real estate, I don't know about.

I don't really even know what a bond is. A bond, something that the government just promises to pay you for later.

There's very little interest. Right. But you don't. It's a low risk. It's a low risk, low reward. I mean, I know basic. Basic things like that.

Yeah, I guess I do too. Or like the stock market.

But when he was throwing a lot of numbers out there, that I was like, whoa, holy about. Yeah, just about all of it.

Alternatives.

I could stand to learn. I could stand to learn.

Me too.

He doesn't drink coffee or drink booze, which is big surprise, of course.

Yeah.

Yes. A brain like that can't. Can't handle booze.

No. Got to be clear. Got to be sharp.

Also, now that I know he puts the toilet roll under, I'm by far the best argument for toilet roll under that I've ever heard. Oh, Tony Robbins puts toilet roll under.

I know.

I have to rethink everything.

I know, I know. After everything he said. And then, since then, I've done a bunch of interviews where, you know, people have the same incredulity about going over with it, and I. I keep thinking, yeah, but after hearing Tony's method. I know. That was so funny, and it really threw me, too. What incredulity?

Should we read a letter?

Let's get to a letter. This is a letter from Christy Gough. Who's that great actor. Is it Go G O U G H. Is that. Is that Goff?

Go golf. You know, golf. Go.

Subject ghost. Oh, yes. Ghost encounter. And correction from long ago. Okay. From Christy. Hey, Justin, Christian. I'm apologizing in advance because I have a tendency to ramble. Here we go. Okay. I do too. Christy, Fellow rambler. Hey, man, we got a fellow rambler here on the show. All my ramblers. All my fellow ramblers, welcome. Come on, ramble on in. See, I'm rambling now, and it's not even my letter. My name is Christy. Go. Pronounce. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Pronounced like Gough. Shit. So I wondered.

Goff.

Jared Goff. Yeah, Jared Goff.

Like turn your head in. Golf.

Yes, yes. Yeah, Golf. Okay. Thank you, Christy. It's pronounced golf. And I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the. In the winter and. Whoa. And spend my summers on Mackinac Island. Pronounce Mackinac. I'm really striking out like a Mackinac peach. Oh, yeah, Jerry. The Mackinaws only once a year. I can't taste the Mackinaw. Jerry. The island, which is located in How Cool Lake in Lake Huron between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas is super unique. The city of Mackinac island banned automobiles in 1898, so there are no cars.

That is so I didn't know there was an island between the two Upper and Lower Peninsula.

I didn't either. How that's so cool. Horses are king on the island and horse drawn carriages are the primary mode of transportation, along with bicycles. It's a summer tourist destination and it's very picturesque, but that's not why I'm writing in. Okay, I'm going to write this down because that is I would love to go there. That is so cool, she says. Chrissy says I first started listening to Life is short in 2021 when I was burnt out on all my usual True CR podcasts and needed something light. Justin, I've always been a fan of your movies and when I saw you and Christian had a podcast, it was instantly one of my favorites. Thank you Christy. That's so nice. And yeah, it a little lighter than True Crime. She said. While I still love the main Life is Short episodes, I think I like the Life is Shorter episodes even more. No, she didn't. She didn't capitalize ER in shorter like I am want to do. And now very aware of shorter episodes, she likes them even more. I do have one small correction that has been on my mind for months. In one Life is Shorter episode from June of 2023, an Australian woman wrote in I apologize since I can't remember her name and I'm having trouble finding the specific episode in question. But in her letter, this woman mentioned something along the lines of how she wished the Life is Shorter episodes were a bigger, longer insect. Oh yeah, I remember that this comment confused the hell out of the two of you, and you guys speculated that maybe it was a reference to Australian slang that you weren't familiar with. I think what the woman was to referring referencing is that she wishes the shorter episodes were longer. And since the two of you call the sections of the podcast the Head, Abdomen and Thorax, the woman was inferring that the podcast sections are named after insects bodies. So bigger insect means bigger abdomen and thorax, therefore longer episodes. I must agree with her. Oh, see, I think maybe she might be right. I I think our confusion was that they were longer. Wasn't it specific sections of insects that were longer, like one that might have a longer thorax than abdomen?

Yeah, I think so. But I I know what she's talking about. There was an Australian. I forget her name. Now an Australian woman who wrote in and I. And she used a word that I think did. Did confuse us at the time. And in the moment, we weren't. We didn't understand that that had translated directly to the length of the episode. Yeah, I think, I think we've talked about how we've. We made that mistake already.

Yeah, I think so.

Prior to this. I think.

But anyway, now it's a good point.

Yeah.

And thank you, Chris. And she says now on to Mike Gilson.

It's also a nice thing. It's also a nice thing to say. It's also. She.

It really is.

We shouldn't. Yeah. That she wishes they were longer.

Well, like. Well, like the last one we recorded, I thought I was into it. I thought it ended up being like close to an hour and a half, so maybe we have to cut it down a little bit. But I thought, no, let's keep it. So I agree with Christy.

I think most people have a shorter attention span these days, so. And there's so many podcasts to listen to.

I know, I know.

The idea of being like, oh, these two guys talking for an hour and a half. I don't know if I can do that.

I know. A self proclaimed rambler. Okay, now onto. Yes, she says. Now onto my ghost story. My boyfriend and I moved into an. I love these, so I'm so excited. Are you excited? Are you excited about these?

I am not as excited as you are, she says.

My boyfriend and I moved into an old farmhouse seven years ago, and I started having strange experiences almost instantly. And nothing super crazy or threatening, but we would often catch glimpses of human silhouettes out of the corners of our eyes and other minor things like lights. I would say, that's minor. And then she says, okay, so the silhouettes and other minor things like lights turning on or off on their own or small objects getting misplaced moved. We chalked most of this up to the house's shoddy old electrical systems and our general uneasiness of getting used to a new space. One evening, however, I was in the laundry room when I felt a presence behind me and heard ha ha in my ear. I whipped around expecting my. Oh my God. Expecting my boyfriend to be the culprit of a weird joke, but nobody was there. I have chills. My boyfriend was a few rooms away and had no idea what I was talking about. A few days later, I was asking my uncle about the property and farmhouse when he told me that the man who built the farmhouse had died of a heart attack. In the house. This man's name was Oliver Hinds. H I N T Z. Ever since. She didn't say that. Ever since we learned his name, when weird things would happen around the house, we started acknowledging Oliver. Okay, Oliver, that's enough. Or, hey, Oliver, maybe it's all in our heads, but the strange occurrences have all but disappeared. Ever since we started acknowledging Oliver, I like to think he was just annoyed that someone moved into his house without even acknowledging he was there. That's really interesting. I mean, that kind of makes sense. You know, I often think of. I was going to say we, but I often think of ghosts as having some big grand. There's some grand plan, maybe just because I've seen too many movies, but a spectral presence, a paranormal presence, may come down to. May have the same kind of feelings of annoyance or inconvenience or social etiquette that. That we have. So if somebody were to move into your space that you feel, obviously still feels, maybe even an entitlement to a possessiveness of, you would want at least to be acknowledged, like, we're sharing this space now. That's why when. When. When we were in that. That hotel room at the Red Line Inn, we made a point of when we came into the room saying, if anyone's, you know, letting ourselves, like, kind of inviting ourselves in and like, acknowledging the potential presence of something. And then that's right before the bed shook. And then right before the lights flickered, like a second before the lights flickered, Kate had said, had thanked whatever was in there, thank you for letting us be here. And it was like. Like the light went. It was almost like. Okay. It was a communication.

I wonder why the haha, though?

I know that's the case.

If he had a problem with someone living in his space, why. Ha ha. Also, what do you think the scariest version of haha to hear would be for you?

Ha ha.

Oh, really?

Oh, no, maybe not.

That's the opposite. Cartoonishly sinister. You know, for me, I think it would be. For me personally.

Would it be, like, delicate?

It would be like a child's haha.

Yeah, I was thinking that because there's.

So much joy in a child laughing, which would. Makes for a more terrifying ghost version of. Of that. You know, like an innocent haha, maybe. I'm thinking of.

I don't think the Omen speak no evil.

Kids. Kids are just the scariest.

That was a crazy scene. And speak no evil.

Yeah. Yeah.

He just opened his mouth. Oh, boy. I wonder why the haha. Maybe she did something. She was in the laundry room. So maybe she. Maybe it was a Haha. Maybe it was like a Nelson.

She like mixed her whites and coloreds together and he's like, you messed it up, the colors are going to bleed.

Yeah, he was kind of anal about laundry. That is really cool. I love that story, Christy. You know, it's kind of also, I know I'm thinking about my other paranormal experience this year. The citrus, the little lemon wedge that was flicked. We had just been talking about the playful, the rascally ghost and I don't know, maybe there's something to that if you acknowledge something.

I had a lemon wedge fall off my drink on vacation and I was like, oh, ghost. And we were. Funny moment, but it was not a ghost. It was just. I don't know.

Did you move the table?

No, no, it just fell off. It just fell off.

Oh really?

So I guess it could have been a ghost, but it just seemed like something that happened, you know?

I know what you mean. I know this lemon wedge was.

But your lemon wedge, like, like it did.

It kind of went into the air. Yeah, it was like a doink.

Mine just fell down.

It was like somebody went flick. I just did a flick. I forgot it was a podcast. Back to Christy. All right, for my. Would you rather. In this scenario, for some reason you have to move out of your home for a year and you only have two options. Would you rather move back in with your parents or move into a lightly haunted old farmhouse like mine? Lightly haunted. Thanks for reading Christy and Oliver. Well, thank you. That's really funny and good. I, I feel like I already live.

In a slightly haunted old.

Yeah, I, I would, I love my parents and I would love to visit them, maybe move nearby, but I would rather live in a. I would like, I would kind of like to live in a lightly haunted old farmhouse. I want to live in a farmhouse.

You'd get used to it. You want to live in an old farmhouse, you said?

Yeah, I mean an updated old farmhouse.

Uh huh. Yeah. I definitely would pick that if the question is forget lightly. If it's just a haunted house, like a legitimately haunted house, like a malevolent or your childhood bedroom. It's more interesting debate, I would say. But yeah, I feel like I'm already there, I'm here. And moving back in with our parents would be just life wise, a pretty significant step backwards. And nothing against them, it's just. It would be a step backwards.

Well, thank you, Chrissy. That's a really.

Wow.

You know, we love ghost stories and I love that one. I thank you for this. And I'm going to check out Mackinaw.

Yes. And if anyone else would like to write into the podcast, our email address is lifeishorty.com and a very, very big thank you to our guest, Tony Robbins. I hope people join me because I am planning on doing it. His seminar, his Time to Rise Summit. Time to rise summit.com I believe is where you could check out all the information. And you can pre order his book the Holy Grail of Investing, which I'm also thinking about doing because like I said before, I know piss all about investing and it's a man in his 40s or a person in his 40s should have some grasp of that stuff.

I think any person.

Oh, there you go.

I am doing the same thing. You both have to want to be better equipped when it comes to finances and understanding business. Thank you for all of it. Thank you for sharing your valuable time with us, Tony. And again, another thank you for all those years ago, your kindness to me when I was going through a hard time. Thank you. And we will talk to you all on Friday.

Life could be a dream. Life could be a dream.

Life is Short is hosted by me, Justin Long.

It is co hosted and produced by you, Christian Long.

It's also produced by Jen Sulkas and Megan Monaco, senior producers.

Michelle is lands audio engineer and he is Sergio Enriquez. And the executive producers are Dave Easton.

And Marshall Louie for a company called Wondery.

Okay, what are these called? Incoherence.

Incoherence.

Okay, this is an incoherent. You ready? Here, Maggie, see if you can get this. Okay. Lie fits horse.

Lie fits horse. Life fits horse. Life fits horse.

Lie fits horse.

Lie fits horse. Lie fits horse.

Life Source. Life is.

Life is short.

That's stupid. Was that too easy?

What's a voice memo?

What did I say? Life is forced.

Life is coarse.

That's funny.

Life.