More confirmation that I'm in the minority when it comes to Tony Robbins. In Dec. 1's WashingtonPost, Karen Heller mostly gushes over the guy with an occasional snide aside, just to show she's really not as smitten with him as she sounds.
She's another one who thinks he looks like a movie star. This time, it's Ben Affleck of all people. All in all it's a bit unclear what Heller is trying to convey -- she mentions the Robbins "legend" a few times, and tells some of his stories, and repeats some of his name dropping.
Mostly, I guess the point is to let people know that Robbins has written a book about money. This was the opportunist who, back when "believe and it will happen" was big, kept telling stories about people who believed they would win the lottery actually won it, more than once. Back in one of the bull-bubble markets, he was out there hawking seminars telling people to ride it, but probably not telling them just when to get off. Apparently he's worth about half a billion now -- spent $42 million on his last divorce. Not really sure what a guy with that kind of bankroll and that kind of "financial advice" history can teach me managing my money.
My thoughts on his 2006 TED Talk and on Tony Robbins generally are here. I still have no idea how much of that stuff about 9-11 he just made up. It could have happened, so maybe it did.
I wrote this, and then it occurred to me to look at the comments. I rarely do that, because Washington Post commenters are usually a mix of Democrats and Republicans who see politics in everything. But here, they almost all seem to share my view. Maybe it's only the people in the press that are scared to say bad things about him.
Actually, I'm starting to think it's a male-female divide thing, and it's a kind of metaphor for one significant aspect of male/female relationships generally. It's the women who like him (Oprah, Arianna Huffington, Karen Heller, Susan Cain); men generally don't like him much, although some might want to be like him. I have to admit that on some level, Tony Robbins is the ultimate "alpha male" -- he's big, he's rich, he's powerful, he's well connected, and he's the center of a lot of attention (especially at his seminars). So it's probably small wonder that women seem to swoon over him, and men -- puny, pathetic, beta males by comparison -- tend to see him as a sleazeball, and wonder why the women can't see it. The same thing plays itself out over and over again in the love lives of many men and women -- the women are attracted to the alphas, and the betas are left scratching their heads (until, of course, the women get a little bit older and come running back to the safety, security, and fidelity of the beta). So I'm guessing that Tony Robbins's seminars are mostly populated by women who want to swoon over him, and men who want to be like him. Probably why I've never been tempted to go.
The comments from the Washington Post (reproduced below) -- most of which seem to agree that Tony Robbins is a sleazeball -- are overwhelmingly by men:
She's another one who thinks he looks like a movie star. This time, it's Ben Affleck of all people. All in all it's a bit unclear what Heller is trying to convey -- she mentions the Robbins "legend" a few times, and tells some of his stories, and repeats some of his name dropping.
Mostly, I guess the point is to let people know that Robbins has written a book about money. This was the opportunist who, back when "believe and it will happen" was big, kept telling stories about people who believed they would win the lottery actually won it, more than once. Back in one of the bull-bubble markets, he was out there hawking seminars telling people to ride it, but probably not telling them just when to get off. Apparently he's worth about half a billion now -- spent $42 million on his last divorce. Not really sure what a guy with that kind of bankroll and that kind of "financial advice" history can teach me managing my money.
My thoughts on his 2006 TED Talk and on Tony Robbins generally are here. I still have no idea how much of that stuff about 9-11 he just made up. It could have happened, so maybe it did.
I wrote this, and then it occurred to me to look at the comments. I rarely do that, because Washington Post commenters are usually a mix of Democrats and Republicans who see politics in everything. But here, they almost all seem to share my view. Maybe it's only the people in the press that are scared to say bad things about him.
Actually, I'm starting to think it's a male-female divide thing, and it's a kind of metaphor for one significant aspect of male/female relationships generally. It's the women who like him (Oprah, Arianna Huffington, Karen Heller, Susan Cain); men generally don't like him much, although some might want to be like him. I have to admit that on some level, Tony Robbins is the ultimate "alpha male" -- he's big, he's rich, he's powerful, he's well connected, and he's the center of a lot of attention (especially at his seminars). So it's probably small wonder that women seem to swoon over him, and men -- puny, pathetic, beta males by comparison -- tend to see him as a sleazeball, and wonder why the women can't see it. The same thing plays itself out over and over again in the love lives of many men and women -- the women are attracted to the alphas, and the betas are left scratching their heads (until, of course, the women get a little bit older and come running back to the safety, security, and fidelity of the beta). So I'm guessing that Tony Robbins's seminars are mostly populated by women who want to swoon over him, and men who want to be like him. Probably why I've never been tempted to go.
The comments from the Washington Post (reproduced below) -- most of which seem to agree that Tony Robbins is a sleazeball -- are overwhelmingly by men:
When one understands that most, if not all, of one's complaints really have more to do with oneself, your mindset and paradigm of the world, than with the subject of one's complaints, the world of self-understanding and self-awareness opens up. Understanding the brain's selective bias helps shed some light on your assessment of Mr. Robbins.
ReplyDelete