In this motivational clip from Evan Carmichael’s “Best of Tony” series, Tony Robbins explains that the true driver of action is not merely belief but absolute certainty. He describes a four‑box model—potential, belief, action, results—that creates a feedback loop: higher perceived potential leads to stronger belief, which fuels massive action, producing great results that reinforce belief and expand perceived potential. Robbins illustrates the concept with historic examples like Roger Bannister’s 4‑minute mile and modern anecdotes from entrepreneur John Reese, who used obsessive visualization and daily rituals (reading business magazines, picturing his dream car) to turn belief into certainty. The discussion emphasizes that without certainty, people linger in a “maybe” zone, leading to inaction and a downward spiral. Robbins argues that cultivating certainty through mental rehearsal, rituals, and making goals a “must” can generate momentum, explaining why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The segment ends with a call to viewers to identify non‑negotiable goals, adopt daily rituals, and maintain a state of momentum to transform belief into tangible success.
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What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe that you have the ability to do something special, and I'm trying to help have a small impact on your growth with these videos. And so to help you on your journey today, we're continuing the Best of Tony series where we look at some of the best clips that Tony Robbins has come up with. Today's theme is believe, and I hope you enjoy.
Think about what's the holy grail between somebody taking action or not. It's one word: certainty. When somebody is absolutely certain, they, you know, the common word is believe, right? But you know, you can believe at a general level or you can believe with certain. When you're absolutely certain that if I do this, it's going to get that result and that result's going to change my life, you'll do it. When you think it absolutely is not going to work, you're never going to do it. The middle no man's land of maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, that's the piece that kills people, right? So If it's a must for you, you've got to make it work, right? In our case, right? As an example. If it's not a must for you and you're not sure, you don't know what to do. So years ago, I'd look around and say, okay, how do people get themselves to follow through that haven't been following through? What's the difference? And I started interviewing hundreds of people, literally, and eventually thousands, because I had thousands in my events. So I'd ask the group to give me their feedback. I came up with this model. It's like the holy grail of belief or the holy grail of momentum. It's like the difference between What makes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, right? And the difference we all know is mindset, but like, how's that built? So this is what I did. I created these stupid little 4 little boxes, and I'll scribble it here for you. You think about the first thing that determines whether you can do something or not, and I put that in this first box at the top here on the left side. It's potential. Like, what's the potential of a human being? Like, when you guys started, you proved something no one had done in history. You ran the 4-minute mile, right? For golly knows how many centuries, they're trying to run a 4-minute mile. Roger Bannister does it. How did he do it? Do you remember? You did it in this industry, right? You made a million bucks in a day. No one had ever done that in history, right? After you did it, a bunch of other guys are doing it because it became possible. Roger Bannister didn't just go physically practice. He made a shift in his head. He practiced in his head because he could never achieve it physically, so he had to change in his head first so that the result became certain enough he believed it, and then his body got him through. After Roger Bannister ran that 4-minute mile, Within 2 years, 37 people ran a 4-minute mile. When no one in history had ever done it. Now here's how it works. The potential for anybody getting your product is extraordinary. They could do what you've done as much more or less. They can do whatever they want to do. The potential's there. The market's proven that. Whether or not they tap into that potential has a lot to do with what action they take, which is the question you came to me with, right? Like, you know, God, they have all this potential, but they're not taking action. And we all know that the action they take is going to determine the results they get. That's pretty obvious. So most people have a belief about what their real potential is no matter what you tell them. And that affects how much action they take. And of course, that affects the result. And then ironically, that result reinforces their belief. And then that belief affects it. So I'll give you an example. Let's say a person has unlimited potential. We all agree. But they take little action, little results. Why? 'Cause they have to start with a problem with their belief. They don't believe it's really gonna happen for me. Maybe for Frank Kern, 'cause he's got the cool hair and stuff, or maybe it's for you because you're so driven, but it's not me. Maybe Tony Robbins 'cause he's a freak, got these big teeth. Whatever their thought process is, right? They got this thing, right? But what happens is, if you believe that there's very little potential, how much action are you gonna take? Nothing, little. And when you take little potential with a little action, what kind of results do you get? Lousy little results. And when you get little results, what does that do to your belief? You go, "See, I told you this was a waste of time. Told you this wouldn't work." And then what happens? You tap even less potential. You take even less action. You get even worse results, and your belief gets even weaker. And this sucker feeds on itself until you are in a downward spiral.
It's poisonous.
It's poisonous and it's self-fulfilling. Now, what if something could happen that could come along and fill you with a sense of absolute certainty? Not like, "I believe," but I mean where you know In you guys' case, mine as well, we knew because we had to. Because we burned the boats. There was no other option. We had to find a way. We weren't going to live that way. We all did it in different ways and for different reasons, but in essence, that was it. If you get yourself in a state of certainty that this is going to work, I'm going to find a way, and if this doesn't work, I will make the way, then you tap a lot more potential. And when you're certain in your potential, you take massive action. When you take massive action, you really believe in something, you get great results. When you get great results, your brain goes, see, I told you I was a stud. I told you this thing would work out. Now you're even stronger. You tap more potential, take greater action, greater results. That's how you went from $300 in a week to $2,500 in 5 days to $100,000 in a month to $1 million in a day. Same thing with you. And we get momentum. That's why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Now some people go out and they go, well, I'm gonna take a bunch of action, all right? I'm gonna open this product, I'm gonna try it. And they'll say to you, I even did it. But it's like a salesman who goes and knocks on the door and he knocks on 100 doors and says, "You don't want one of these, do you?" Yeah, exactly right. And even if he doesn't say it verbally, his face says it because he doesn't believe it's going to work. So his voice, his body, the execution is so weak. Maybe if he talks to 100 people, somebody's going to buy out of pity. They don't want his kids to starve, right? But he's not going to get the result. So the core difference in people is how do you produce certainty when the world isn't giving it to you? You go out and you try and you try. In your case, you're $100,000 in debt and nothing's working. How do you keep yourself going? The way you did it, the way I did it, the way you're doing it— we may not have done it consciously— is we didn't change our potential that was there. And it wasn't even taking more action. Taking more action with a belief it's not going to work, it's not going to change anything. We got results in our head that made us feel certain as if it had already happened. True or false for you?
True.
Right. So give me an example so people know I'm not just making this crap up.
Well, I mean, just like when I had nothing, I already knew I was driving like Ferraris and Porsches and stuff because I always wanted those cars. I already knew I was going to have them. It was inevitable, right? I inevitably, you know, that was just my inevitable outcome.
But how did you do that? Did you have a ritual? Did you think about it regularly? Was it one time you thought about it, or was it something you had an obsession towards?
I had an obsession towards it. I mean, I used to go— I used to work at a video store, which is the last job I ever had in my life.
Thank God.
And, uh, I used to go to work almost every day I used to bring 2 magazines with me to read on my breaks. Entrepreneur Magazine, just to read about business and everything else, to read about what other people are doing, look for role models. I used to carry an Auto Trader with me. I used to look at Porsches that were for sale. People always used to ask me, "What are you doing with that Auto Trader magazine?" I'm like, "Well, I'm just picking out the Porsche that I'm going to buy." Which probably got you a lot of crap. I did. People made fun of me. I actually had a boss at that job tell me, You know, you really shouldn't do that to yourself, John, because it's very, very likely that that is never going to happen. It's very likely that you're never going to have that car. That's the kind of belief he was trying to put in my head. And I was like, no, you don't realize that it's inevitable that I will drive here sometime in the near future with that car when I'm not working for you and drop movies off for you to put back on the shelf.
And anybody who wants to succeed has got to know it doesn't just happen. You can buy a product, but you also, with that product, have got to condition yourself. You got to make it a must, and you got to get a ritual. And if you do it, whatever you used to dream about, you thought was so huge, you'll just live it. You'll live it like you lived this yesterday. Like, we're all living the life that we envisioned because we had to, and because we played this game with our head. We got the belief to be real by seeing it enough times and feel it enough times to our brain believed it, and then it made it happen, which raised the potential, which made us take more action, which got us better results.
Which raise our beliefs again.
That's right. And then that's why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So instead of bitching about it, change it. This process is the Holy Grail. It's where the whole game changes. And anybody can do it, and they can do it in a few minutes. And if they do it a few minutes each day, then they get a different life. They do it a few minutes at one time, their life changes for the day. It's— we're defined by our rituals. Everybody's got rituals, certain things they do every day. And what we have in common, and anybody that I know of who has a life that they're living that was once a vision, is we saw it again and again and again, even when it didn't work, even when you lost $100 grand, even when I'm working as a janitor, there's something we would not give up on. And if somebody watching wants to change their life, they gotta decide what they won't give up on and then put themself in the state of momentum by a couple little rituals.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you think of Tony's message? It's one that I obviously agree with in that it's believe, but I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. What did you learn from this video? Please let me know. Leave it down in the comments below. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. See you soon.
