Tony Robbins: How Carl Icahn, Wall Street's Activist Investor, Protects Shareholders | Big Think.

How Carl Icahn, Wall Street's Activist Investor, Protects Shareholders

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When preparing to write his new financial advice book, "Money: Master the Game," Tony Robbins paid a visit to the man often known as "the activist investor": businessman Carl Icahn. Robbins explains how Icahn's investment philosophy influenced the writing of the book.

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TONY ROBBINS:

Tony Robbins is a life coach and bestselling author who has published five books in 14 languages. He is the creator of the #1 personal and professional development system of all time, Personal Power; more than 40 million audiotapes have been sold worldwide. His best-sellers include Unlimited Power (1987) and Awaken the Giant Within (1991). His latest is Money: Master the Game (2014).

Since fathering the life coaching industry, Robbins has produced the #1-selling audio coaching system of all time. He also is a corporate Vice Chairman, and Chairman overseeing five private companies. Robbins has been honored by Accenture as one of the "Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World"; by Harvard Business Press as one of the "Top 200 Business Gurus"; by American Express as one of the "Top Six Business Leaders in the World" to coach its entrepreneurial clients; by Forbes as a Top 100 Celebrity; by Justice Byron White as one of the world’s "Outstanding Humanitarians"; and by the International Chamber of Commerce as one of the top 10 "Outstanding Young People of World."

Robbins has met with, consulted, or advised international leaders including Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa. He has consulted members of two royal families, members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines and three U.S. Presidents, including Bill Clinton. Robbins has had the unique opportunity to identify patterns and model the underlying strategies generating consistent results for some of the most successful individuals in the world.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Tony Robbins: Well one of my favorites is Carl Icahn. Time Magazine called him the master of the universe on the cover of Time Magazine. And I’ll tell you when I first went to meet Carl most people know him as a pretty intense guy. I walked in that day with my video crews you guys have here and he says I want all these guys to leave. I said what? He said I don’t want a video crew. I said but you agreed to it this morning. He said I don’t care. I don’t want it. I said okay, well how about if my audio team comes in. And he said no audio team. I said well what am I supposed to do here? He goes bring a pen and paper. You’ve got ten minutes. And, you know, I scheduled my meetings for 45 minutes and to go deep they usually go three hours. But to his credit, you know, he’s had so many people attack him that he needs to know what you’re really about. When he saw I was sincerely about teaching what he knows to individual investors and really empowering them he became very passionate and he gave me almost three hours. He endorsed the book. He’s been extraordinary ever since and has actually become a friend.

So Carl is a teddy bear underneath and he really does care. But his results are unquestioned. As I said earlier how about a 1600 percent return if you’d invested with him over the last 13 years versus 75 percent for the S&P. As I said since 1968 a 30 percent compounded return if you’d been with him during that time, outstripping even Warren Buffet. But what’s interesting about him is he really believes that the challenge in stock and in business is that it’s an old boys club. That’s his view. And that what happens is the people that get elected are the people the most liked and the board does what’s best for the board. And that, you know, there’s so much that isn’t really looking out for the individual investor so that’s what made him an activist and he’s very intense and he goes in and he buys enough stock to have an impact and shakes their world. Lets them know that they’re going to be fired unless, you know, they make some significant changes. And the results of what he’s produced though are incredible. A lot of people say he’s just got in and out so that’s why I put in the book an actual track record. You see he stays with most of these investments for a very long time. There’s very few that he goes in and out. ...

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