[Tony Robbins]: I'm trying not to cry. I'm just like, um, I hate suffering. I've suffered myself and so I hate to see anybody suffer. And so, um, this is my mission. This is what I'm made for. And, um, I'm just one guy. I can't do everything, but I can do a lot. Um, I always try to help people say, "How can you turn your worst day into your best day?"

[Host]: Please help me welcome to the stage, Tony Robbins. He's the nation's number one life and business strategist. He's worked with royalty, elite athletes, Oscar winners, scientists, and everyone in between to overcome their limitations and accelerate change. Can you take us back to the environment that shaped you into the man that you are?

[Tony Robbins]: So, I grew up in a tough environment. I had four different fathers. My mom, she drank alcohol and took prescription drugs. We had no money, no food. And then the thing that changed my whole life was a knock on the door on Thanksgiving. There was this tall guy standing there with two bags of groceries and an uncooked frozen turkey in a pan. And my dad saw this man. He said, "We don't take charity." And he went and slammed the door on the guy. But it became a very useful and distinction for me about how he and I process that day differently because there's three decisions you make every moment of your life. And the real problem is the story you have. For example, that day my dad's focus was the fact he not fed his family and he was worthless. However, I took that as strangers care. And so the story is the belief you've told yourself over and over because belief is the invisible force that controls everything in your life. And then there's the third decision. What am I going to do? And so what I decided to do is someday I'm going to do this for others and end suffering where I can.

[Host]: Tony. I was shocked. It was so surprising to me that you had the childhood you had based on the outcomes that you've accomplished in your life. And as someone that has followed you for a very long time, I imagine that there's many other people that have followed you for a very long time that have no idea about the early context. For those people, can you take us back to the environment that shaped you into the man that you are?

[Tony Robbins]: Well, I think, you know, I grew up in a tough environment. My mom was a very intense and passionate woman. Uh we never had any money. We're very very poor. Uh my mom was probably the most important influence in my life by far. Um very loving woman but a very stressed woman and under that stress she drank alcohol and took prescription drugs and when she did that she became very violent. So I took the brunt of that and then figured out how to manage her emotions basically. Uh it's where all my beginning training really happened and yet at the same time she was loving it. She pushed me. She believed in me. Uh she wanted me to be something. So she influenced my life in so many beautiful ways. And then probably what changed my life the most though is my forefather especially made it clear no one gives a damn about anybody else. The thing that changed my whole life a single event was a knock on the door on Thanksgiving. We had no money, no food. My dad's focus was the fact he not fed his family. And my focus was, "Wow, there's food. What a concept." But the second decision you make every moment, the minute you focus on something, your brain has to figure out, what does this mean? And whatever meaning you give, it produces emotion. And out of that emotion, you make the third decision. What am I going to do?

[Host]: I asked you before we started recording a question I almost never ask any of my guests, which is what is the thing that we should be talking about the most? And you told me AI. If I were to ask you what you think maybe the most consequential thing we should be talking about right now is as it relates to suffering and everything that's going on in society, what would that answer be?

[Tony Robbins]: I think it's AI, but it's not just AI, it's nanotechnology, it's how technology, the rapid change in technology. If we displace this many jobs in this short a period of time, jobs are not just money. Jobs are meaning. I was visiting with President Obama 10 years ago and I said, "There's technology coming right now that we can predict is going to displace more than those 8 million jobs." If you go back to like the Ludites, 1800s, they come up with these machines and how did people react? They rioted. They took hammers and they destroyed those machines. The leverage is the carrot and the stick. The carrot is I can make a trillion dollars if I have the right LLM or, you know, if I get to artificial general intelligence. Ray Kerszwell is a good friend of mine. He's been saying 2029 for almost 20 years is when we have artificial general intelligence. In the next 3 to 10 years, this is going to happen.

[Host]: So on an individual level, if you were an 18-year-old Tony Robbins, what would you be doing at this moment? What would you be focusing on work-wise? How would you be designing your life for such a world?

[Tony Robbins]: I'm teaching my kids to be creators. The three most important skills in life now are the ones that allow you to learn more rapidly. Number one, the skill of pattern recognition. When you can recognize patterns, you eliminate fear. Number two is pattern utilization. Anyone who's incredibly successful, they recognize there are certain patterns and then they used them. And then the final skill is you ultimately want to become a pattern creator. When I met Jim Ran, my original personal development teacher, he gave me a lesson that changed my whole life. He said, "Tony, we're all equal as souls, but we're not equal in the marketplace. You have to become more valuable."

[Host]: You mentioned we have six human needs.

[Tony Robbins]: We have six human needs. Certainty, uncertainty/variety, significance, connection and love. The secret to it all are the final two needs. These are the spiritual needs: we all must grow. And contribution. Anytime you meet a belief, an emotion, or a behavior meets at least three of these six needs, you will become addicted to that thought, that feeling, or that behavior. Significance is love attack. The secret to life is to find something you care about more than yourself that gives you that pull motivation.

[Host]: You've spoken to these 50 very, very rich people. What is the pattern that you noticed in those people that you then applied to yourself?

[Tony Robbins]: I found four things with them. Number one, they all were focused on not losing money. Number two is Asymmetrical risk-reward. Their entire focus is what's the smallest amount of risk with the most amount of upside that I can do. Paul Tudtor Jones's approach was 5 to one. If I'm going to risk a dollar, I want to be certain I can make five. The fourth one is diversification. Ray Dalio said the holy grail of investing is to find 8 to 12 uncorrelated investments.

[Tony Robbins]: There's the science of achievement. There's the art of fulfillment. They're two different skills. If you want an extraordinary life, you need both. Success without fulfillment is failure. And fulfillment is an art. It's not a science. It's different for you and me. The richness of life is when you go deeper and figure out what makes you feel like it's a red square for someone else, but this is your thing.