Is Tony Robbins a scam or con artist? – Quora

Would Tony Robbins be a good president?

very few people are going to admit if they didnt like a Tony Robbins seminar if they just blew 8,000 dollars on one when they should have been going to a reasonably priced CBT therapist. Its in this way that Tony verges on just evil by how he preys on the most emotionally vulnerable in society. These are people that should be learning about psychological incongruity, CBT therapy, mindful practices that are proven to be efficacious. But instead he says without any scientific evidence that he has the answers and its exponentially more expensive. This is a bad person.

Experienced people, or people who are highly skilled in a particular area, can provide specialist advice and support. Coach training provides structure around how to do this while also injecting the normal therapeutic human interaction aspect.

The people that would defend Tony Robbins are people that do not have good critical reasoning skills, or those people who are easily taken in by scam artists or self-help gurus. Beware of anyone that says hes authentic and a business leader. What business does he run besides the business of tricking you into giving him money?

Duraiswamy Vaidyanathan ChandrasekarIs Tony Robbins legit? Can he actually make someone change their lives in his expensive seminars?He may be legit but neither he nor anyone can change lives with their expensive seminars. Why? Change has to come from within. And it needs constant reinforcements like the daily routine one has to do with exercises to keep oneself trim. And that requires sat sangs – like minded groups who meet every week or fortnight like in AA to keep the focus alive. With just one seminar you may hear the pep talk and come out with I can do it attitude. But, the feeling will soon fade away unless constantly refreshed. Just think of all the warnings on the cigarette packs and all the spiritual outings/lectures the gurus conduct and recollect how many really heed them and become a changed individual later? Just a few that you can easily count on your finger tips! So, adopt self motivation and avoid being fooled by such motivational experts with lofty testimonials which are there only to support their expensive jet setting lifestyles.

Charisma is amoral – neither good or bad in its own right. So I am not passing judgement on this post on how good or bad, sincere or insincere he is- simply that he is one of the most charismatic guys out there which is the foundation upon his success rests.

If you look at various therapeutic techniques deeply, you just notice that a lot of things that work well in the counseling room are similar to what Robbins teaches. Noted giants in the field of psychotherapy such as Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, and Albert Ellis acted in much the same way. They have not been criticized in the same manner because they did have academic backgrounds and the research to back them up.

And for the record, I am a licensed psychotherapist and direct three programs in a psychiatric hospital as well as the writing and coaching that I do. I see this academic arrogance all the time. The field of mental health often complicates how results are gained. I like to think of the expression Whatever works, works. If Tony Robbinss stuff works for you then its legit. If not, then revisit the strategies. They do work, I use them regularly with my clients as part of a comprehensive strategy to initiate change.

Tony Robbins has no product. He just tricks you into giving him 8,000 dollars. He puts on a fancy light show designed to evoke an emotional response in you so you believe you are getting transformative change. But youre really just getting an 8,000 dollar laser light show with your own evolutionary biology used against you. In studies, its shown that we look to the tallest man with the deepest voice as our natural leader. Tony Robbins as the tallest man, and the deepest growly voice in the room fits that description naturally, so he doesnt have to say anything of actual meaning or value. Our human biology hears the deep growly voice and feels like something meaningful is said, when in reality its a lot of empty calorie affirmations.

I do think in some ways that some of his products are sold on a slightly fraudulent premise, a conference will not change your life in itself without some real work on your end. You go home to your normal environment and habits and still have to put into place what you have learned. I do worry that some people after his big, bombastic conferences might have a low afterwards and blame themselves if the miraculous changes they expect dont happen.

PEOPLE – not those who are mental health professionals, just average people – work with each other therapeutically all the time. Humans are social creatures, being with each other and expressing our feelings and receiving care is therapeutic.

He has worked with far too many important people for him to be a fraud and not get caught. He has worked with A-list celebrities such as Oprah and Usher, lords of the finance world, and the Pentagon, where he participated in a program to drastically increase pistol accuracy.

and then at the end of it all after spending 8k on a seminar you have to outwardly pretend it worked – who wants to be the sucker that laid down 8k for nothing? Tony knows by charging this much money people have to become complicit in the lie or else the alternative is for people to openly admit they get suckered. He actually says as much in his book.

, psychotherapist, coach, self help author, owner

Does Tony Robbins ever feel like crap?

What is it like to attend a Tony Robbins seminar?

I agree though with what another commenter said, a LOT of the most famous psychoanalysts and psychotherapists came up with their methods creatively and they dont have a lot of scientific backing although clients will report they are helpful and they are still taught to psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers and psychotherapists.

What do you think about Tony Robbins?

This being said, on can notice that Robbins tends to milk it a little bit, and when hes trying to explore different fields, his psychological and human skills dont make up for his lack of expertise.

, author of The Rock Star Paradox on Kindle at Gilles Snowcat (1988-present)

Doesn he cure depression on stage? Maybe. Is it an arranged show? Maybe. Most likely a bit of both.

You need to look at the history of this person to understand him. In case of Tony Robbins it seems to be the history of exploration. He is constantly exploring the topics that sell well and tries to capitalise on it. Got to give him credit – even if he doesnt know much about the subject his talks sound well.

How can I train with Tony Robbins for free?

How did Tony Robbins become famous?

Whats wrong with Tony Robbines voice?

What are the Top 5 Lessons from Tony Robbins?

What he says has some feel good vibes, which doesnt mean that its only feel good. Up to you to be smart enough to take what works for you and throw what doesnt.

What do you think about Tony Robbins?

Some people actually find coaching more helpful for issues they have been to psychologists about before because coaching is more informal and less clinical, its more human. Psychologists also are not perfect just because they have more status, I could think of a bunch of stories but I know of one who fell asleep on a client who was baring her soul and the other day a friend of my husbands was directly propositioned sexually by his.

What is it like to attend a Tony Robbins seminar?

What should I do if I think my boss is a con-artist?

Why does Tony Robbins always wear black shirts?

The end of the seminar appears very cultish and that is the pure mechanics of charisma at work.

Big time scam. Most businesses have a product, or purpose. For example, Walk into an Apple store, and you walk out with an iphone after you give them money.

What should I do if I think my boss is a con-artist?

Note however that he is not a genuinely amazing psychologist or a financial advisor who decided to share wisdom with the world. He is a person who is organising seminars on topics that sells, delivering content readily available on the internet and thats what he was doing for his whole life. He spends multi million marketing budgets to get you to the free seminars so he can upsell his paid seminars and coaching.

I personally dont care much if Robbins is a genuine soul or a fraud, as long as what he says can resonate with me somehow. Its a bit like a song that touches you and makes your life better: who cares if the composer wrote it drunk with the only goal to make money? The song is bigger than that. Same with pop psychology, it has a life on its own. What you do of it belongs to you and doesnt depend on the authors intentions.

Why does Tony Robbins always wear black shirts?

In one video he is shown to do an intervention with a woman who goes through a long list of life problems she has and at the end says that she feels as though she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. He responds by saying what if you take that weigh off your shoulders, doesnt that feel better? The look that comes over Tonys face when he says this, Ill never forget. Its like he just said the most clever thing one could possibly imagine, and it appears as though it works. The woman is relieved. time to celebrate. But what happens when the women goes home and realizes Tony just blew smoke up her ass and didnt actually provide her with an intervention that will actually help her manage her life or her emotions?

I just watched IAm Not Your Guru and loved it. Why? Because I write extensively on charisma, and Tony Robbins has true charisma.

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Robbins has no academic background. Unless some mistaken, I believe he is merely a high school graduate. There is a lot of arrogance in the field of mental health. If you dont have at least a Masters degree, are published author, and can provide statistics proving the efficacy of your work, then you get criticized. I believe that this is why many criticized Tony Robbins.

For 2 decades Tony Robbins was giving random and not so random advices in anything that sells: finance, real-estate, health etc. Now obviously factual BS is easy to uncover (and as internet got more popular it was uncovered as pointed out here and in many other placesInfomercial king Tony Robbins wants to tell you what to do with your money. Be very afraid) So after giving random advices on what to do with money got dangerous he started giving advices around what to do with your life and picked up trendy topics like healthy lifestyle. I guess life coaching is a great topic, because no one will come to you a year after a seminar and say i totally failed at life, its your fault, no, most people will feel good that they did something to get better and Tony Robbins gets the money. Well deserved, right?

How can I train with Tony Robbins for free?

Would Tony Robbins be a good president?

Is it a Scam? Depends on how you look at it if you are looking to unleash your power from within it is probably a scam as youd be hard pressed to prove that your power is now unleashed.

I love watching the mechanics at work and he uses all of it – every single hallmark of charismatic rhetoric, the complete reliance on emotional appeal to cement follower loyalty, the physicality (tallest male in the room, classic masculine symmetrical facial features, deepest voice), classic use of story telling, central use of music, ability to raise testosterone, adrenalin and endorphins in seminar participants so they literally go home walking on air, keep the days long and intense, sleep limited, food limited, distal (long range) goals and vision (this is a journey you will go on, etc), and followers with insecurity and unmet emotional needs, looking for a rescuer.

These people have really good shit detectors, and if he were anything less than what he says he is, he would have gotten called on it.

Im currently getting a counselliing and psychotheraphy qualification and when I did my coaching training I was very surprised how much overlap there is. When coaches say make sure not to cross over into counselling part of me laughs a bit because there is a natural cross over – youre working on someones mindset and behaviour! Really what should be stated is dont go into a PSYCHIATRISTS realm, where medication is required or a person needs an assessment for whether they are at risk to themselves or a risk to others. But NO other people in the helping professions should go into that realm alone and all should know how and when to assist a client with a referral.

I believe that Robbins techniques and strategy can work well if applied consistently and correctly. Self-help is not a short-term fix, but a lifelong pursuit. If one is looking for a 30 day cure for problems in their life, then its not going to happen.

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What is it like to work for Tony Robbins?

Well he is some kind of phenomena because he managed to get rich and have lots of people like him from a pretty humble and awful starting place. I have to give him credit for that.

The thing about his (and all seminars and programs) is that you get out of it what you put into it. If you just sleepwalk through his seminar, you wont be able to expect much growth. If you read his books without doing the exercises or taking action, you wont change.

What is it like to work for Tony Robbins?

Tony prefers the term Neuro-Associative Conditioning (NAC) to Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), because the former connotes conditioning and continuous exercise, while the latter takes all responsibility away from the subject; he is being programmed like a computer and doesnt have to make any effort. Tony discussed a man who accused him of fraud because he went back to smoking after Tony supposedly cured him of his addiction. Tony talked to the man and found that he actuallyquit smoking for 2 1/2 years, but then got back into smoking because he felt it was a one-time thing rather than a continual process.

Tony Robbins is one of the most controversial figures in personal development and self-help. I dont believe that he is a scam or con artist, I believe his work is incredibly powerful and valuable. Where Robbins is open to criticism is in his promotional methods and commercialization.

Ive written about charisma for so long I feel quite removed from it when I see it these days, but as I said before, I love seeing the mechanics at work.

Does Tony Robbins ever feel like crap?

There is no evidence to support the idea that his seminars have long term positive changes in people that go to them. And people are going to them because there is something about themselves that they want to change. There are other options and modes of therapy that are far less expensive that have been proven to be efficacious.

How did Tony Robbins become famous?

Even if Tony Robbins views on diet and money management can be debated, even if his infomercial attitude sometimes leads him into the con artist category, hes really good when it comes to psychology made available to the masses. Sure he doesnt say anything new that hasnt been said by people like Napoleon Hill or Maxwell Maltz or by common sense since human being came on Earth, sure he still relies a lot on NLP that isnt a new thing either, but you have to give him credit for having taken all those principles and strategies and turned them into usable tactics. Plus, he conveys an almost tangible energy that makes his messages powerful. Powerful, so does it mean that it works? Yes and no, depending in what sityuation you are, how you want to improve and how you can use his strategies to your own life. You can improve everything with or without Robbins, its really up to you.

Would I personally want Tony Robbins as a coach. No. I find him slick and it makes me question what is lurking underneath the exterior. I also dont take to people who yell enthusiastically all the time. BUT for someone else he might be just the ticket. If he was a total dud his career would be over by now, hes been doing it successfully for a long time.

Is Tony Robbins life coaching a worthwhile investment?

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