Tony Robbins Dispels Several Common Myths About Investing | Big Think

Tony Robbins Dispels Several Common Myths About Investing

Watch the newest video from Big Think

Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony Robbins, author of the new book "Money: Master the Game," draws on his research with industry leaders to help new investors become acquainted with the basics. Robbins tackles a few common myths such as "you have to already be rich to make money investing" and "my financial planner is always looking out for my best interest."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT:

Tony Robbins: So one of the things that I learned by working with all these investors was that there are some common steps that we all need to take whether you’ve got a thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars, ten million dollars. The idea that most people make, the biggest mistake first most people make is they think they need a lot of money to make a lot of money. And the truth of the matter is the greatest investors started with very little. What they really learned to do is to use the power of what basically when I asked Warren Buffet I said what’s been your secret to wealth. He said three things. He said number one was being born in America. Number two is good genes so I’ve lived a long time. And Number three was compound interest. He said that’s it. And most people don’t understand you can tap that power. If you look at people that make a lot of money and you think that’s what’s going to make them rich you can go look back at like Kim Basinger who, you know, won the Academy Award and she was the highest paid actress of her day. Made ten million dollars a picture and turned around and bought a 20 million dollar town and went bankrupt.

You know Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson made a half a billion dollars and went bankrupt. Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox, you know, a major leaguer, you know, MVP, amazing guy. Made a hundred million dollars, went bankrupt. So it’s not what you earn. It’s taking a small amount of money and consistently investing it is what really matters. There’s a gentleman named Theodore Johnson who was a UPS driver. He never made more than $14,000 in his lifetime and in his old age he’s worth 70 million dollars. How did he do it? He pretended there was a 20 percent tax on his income. He said I don’t have any money to save but if there was a tax I’d have to pay it. He automated taking 20 percent of his money putting it straight into an investment account. Made him worth 70 million dollars. That’s all he did. Never made more than 14 grand. So you don’t want to make that first mistake. You want to become an owner, not a consumer. You don’t want to just have an iPhone. You want to own Apple, right. More importantly you want to own across the market as a whole and become an owner of American business.

But if you decide you’re going to do that and automate, the second step I teach is you’ve got to become an insider...

Read the full transcript at