Tony Robbins got tired of commercial airline delays and lost luggage, so he chartered a Learjet, then upgraded to a Global and eventually a Boeing Business Jet. He says private aviation lets him sleep, work, eat well, and spend time with family while traveling.
Chapters
What happened to you when you moved from commercial airline travel to corporate jets? You can imagine my body all crumpled into that little monkey seat, you know, for my size body. So I booked a flight to LA. Of course, the flight was late. Then the LA flight to Denver, and of course they lost the luggage there and they were delayed. And then Denver to Aspen. Well, by the time I got to Aspen, it was like 8 hours later. So I turned to my staff and I said, get me a jet. That was the moment. And I remember, get me a small jet, charter it. And I said, but I got to sleep. And they go, they don't have beds on those Learjets. It's too small. I can't even sit up in the Learjet. Yeah, right. What if I was dying? I said, you put me on a gurney, get a gurney in there. I got to sleep because I can't get up on no sleep and do another seminar for thousands of people. I said, if we leave at 2, it'll take 3 hours to get there. I'll sleep during those 3 hours. I get some sleep under my belt, be over there. They told me it couldn't be done. I wouldn't accept that. We finally found a guy and we got a stretcher, you know, that they transport a body in. He put in that little Learjet, they locked it all down. I finished the seminar, came in. I'll never forget. I can't believe you fit in there. I get in there, I can't even sit up in the thing. So I crawl out on that thing. They locked me in the stretcher. And then, you know, you can practically touch the captain right there. It's so small, right? You know, when we lifted off and I'm lying in a bed and we turned down and saw Santa Monica Bay and then turned up and saw the moon, I was like, this is the way to live. So I made the budget. I called you. Should know the ultimate guy over here. Start moving me up. I got that phone call from you when you landed. I was like, I'm never doing that again. I want the range. And so I came to your amazing office, and anybody who's not seen it, I'm sure they've seen it if they follow you. You got your walls, and you've been to my seminar the day before, so you had it all decked out with me on stage. You're so good, Steve. And then you started showing me my options, and we got to the Global. I've been on a Global once before. It's like a living room compared to, you know, even the Gulfstream. All right, we got to find a way to do this, and you helped me get an unbelievable deal, the best deal I could possibly find thanks to you. But I love that Global, and we flew it for 5 years. And then I remember when we were closing that deal, you took me in your little closing room as a BBJ, and I was sitting there looking around going, someday I gotta do this, you know. I'll tell you the other thing that private aviation does besides giving you unbelievable freedom, and I get to sleep in the nighttime, you know, we're traveling, great food, all those things, be with your family, have meetings and so forth.
