Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is an American author, motivational speaker, and life coach whose four-decade career has made him one of the most-iconic American self-help-and-personal-development figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was born Anthony John Mahavoric on February 29, 1960, in North Hollywood, California. His parents divorced when he was seven, and he was raised primarily by his mother across multiple stepfather relationships in difficult financial circumstances. He left home at 17 and began working various sales and motivational-speaking jobs in his late teens.

His break came in his early twenties when he started promoting Jim Rohn motivational seminars in Southern California. He launched his own seminar business in the early 1980s and published his first bestselling book Unlimited Power in 1986 at age 26. The book — which introduced the Tony Robbins approach combining neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) with personal-development techniques — sold over 1 million copies in its first year and established him as one of the American self-help authors of the 1980s.

His 1991 second book Awaken the Giant Within sold over 4 million copies and consolidated his position as one of the American self-help authors. The 1992 launch of his Personal Power infomercials — featuring Robbins delivering 30-minute self-help motivational presentations — expanded his American audience and produced an estimated $200 million in 1990s revenue.

His continued seminar business — particularly the Date with Destiny, Unleash the Power Within, and Life Mastery multi-day events — has continuously drawn American and international audiences for over three decades. His 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology research collaboration on the neuroscience-of-motivation work expanded his intellectual reach. He has been complicated by 2019 Buzzfeed News exposé reporting harassment-and-misconduct allegations from multiple former Robbins seminar attendees and employees. He has continued his seminar-and-publishing work into his sixties and has been active in American philanthropy.

His name Tony is the English short form of Anthony (from the Latin Antonius, an old Roman family name). Tony has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for decades.