Tony Robbins Issues Financial Collapse Warning
August 23rd, 2010Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update: My Commentary Is Off Topic
I don’t know what came over me with the commentary below about my absurd attempt to make it as a real estate agent. Robbins’ voice is powerfully associated with my grim End Day experience in that real estate office and when I heard him all of that just came out.
Since I’ve spent the time to write it, I’ll leave it there for its possible comedic value. Definitely feel free to skip down and just listen to the material.
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Around 2002 to 2003 I tried to force myself to become a real estate agent. I got the license and went through an extensive sales training program with a large broker. I just held my nose through most of it, and kept trying to convince myself that, “I can do this.”
During one of the classes, the instructor tried a role playing scenario with me.
“Kevin, I want to help you make a decision, I’m not trying to sell you anything.”
I said, “Well, you just lied to me, so I don’t think that I can trust you to ‘help’ me do anything.”
The reaction around the room ranged from stunned silence to laughter.
Larry, the instructor, said, “Come on, work with me here. It’s a good script.”
I said that I’d never be able to deliver such a ridiculous line as, “I’m not trying to sell you anything,” when the whole point of all this nonsense was to sell houses to people (and get listings). I pretty much loathe slimy salespeople and this class was trying to turn all of us into slimy salespeople.
(I feel ill just thinking about this.)
So, I managed to finish the class and wound up in one of the firm’s busiest offices (Irvine, CA). Within about two weeks of actually being in that office, I was having severe difficulties maintaining appearances.
And then, one morning, a “trainer” from the Tony Robbins organization came to the office. She brought balloons.
“Oh no,” I said to myself. I’m sure my face must have looked ashen. I remember the sickening feeling of bile climbing up my throat. I pretended that I was busy doing a deal when the manager asked me to go join the meeting.
Think, Kevin, think. There has to be a way to maintain appearances, even to do just one deal to get back the money you’ve sunk into this boondoggle.
The Tony Robbins trainer person had also brought a portable stereo system that was now blasting some hideous music and the voice of Robbins himself. The alcoholics / real estate sales people in their 40s and 50s started swaying and convulsing like a pack of zombies. They thrust their arms up into the air and yelled some crazy shit that I—thankfully—can’t remember now. It was like those Pentecostal revivals on YouTube. Some of the younger people gave themselves over to the total ecstasy of the motivational revelation. Others looked… not so motivated.
I was shaking.
The last several months of dealing with, what I came to refer to as, “Cadillac and cuff link people,” in that racket flashed in front of my eyes.
Then, in crystal clarity, without any doubt at all, the wholeness of my being cried out to me, “Go. Go now!”
I packed up all of my stuff, walked out of there and never went back.
So, that’s the sum of my experience with Tony Robbins and the real estate sales industrial complex.
With that as a lengthy disclaimer, I have to admit that I pretty much agree with what he says below.
Re: the story — I think we’ve all been there in one religion, corporation or another.
The 21st century Mr. Potter speaks to the George Baileys.
He is on target, but who is he talking to, at this point?
The folks with money already know this. The folks without money are already finished.
George Sorors?
Blah Blah Blah!
I looked at youtube users who put this page up and he/she is a Ron Paul supporter.
Kevin – I know you can think.
Ron Paul is a Nazi if I’ve ever seen one. I’d much rather have the devil I know run things than Ron Paul and that group. If you don’t think he’s a Nazi, or the real problem, then you might want to spend some time investigating it, seriously.
Ron Paul on Gold Seek Radio!!!!!
Come on! We are going to deflate like there is no tomorrow. Buy as much gold/silver as you want an once will still buy a suit, but the dollar will purchase much more.
I don’t trust “celebrities”, Tony Robbins, since the ones I know don’t even pay there bills (or me). This guy is talking about George Soros, who in 1993 predicted the drop in the GBP and made something like 10 billion, well good for him.
Tony Robbins can Kiss my AS_!!!!
I hope I don’t get ban for saying this.
Just don’t know what to make of this commentary. The black shirt, its unique.But I watched both parts. Refreshing to see someone talk about money without a guilt trip attacjed to it. The old saw that this double dip is the fault of the ordinary human is a joke. I think it is awesome that the people are paying down their debt and don’t give a flying fluck about what that means to the “economy.” When the media talk about the economy anymore I visualize large birds flying out of their butts.
Kevin, I don’t think its a joke or funny what you shared re “trying” to become a real estate agent. Sounds like you knew you’d be trying to sell a lie. Kudos to you for your integrity.
@shoe2one
It takes a lot more to get banned from here than leaving idiotic comments.
@Eileen
Sounds like you knew you’d be trying to sell a lie.
I thought that I’d be able to carve out a niche for myself with buyers who didn’t want to deal with the Cadillac and cuff links people. I think that there are opportunities in that line of work for honest people. My sister, for example, went into that business and she doesn’t have a swindling bone in her body.
The stench of the environment, however, was too much for me to handle. The fact that it was Southern California didn’t help either. I might have done ok in that business in another area, but probably not.
I howled with laughter while reading your story. We suffered through both ends of the housing market in California, and I remember thinking many, many times, that I’d seldom met a group of people I liked less on the whole than the horde of realtors we dealt with during our buying and selling experiences.
If you’ve never seen ‘Glengarry, Glen Ross’, then I recommend it.
I can completely see where you’d think that providing a non-BS, no-schmooze real estate service might be a niche you could carve out. But from our experiences in the small market of N. California, I have to say I think all the other realtors would hate you and do their best to hamstring your operations. And in a market where it all seems to operate by ‘Who knows who’, that’s deadly.
When we were buying, I ended up writing perl code to scrape and maintain a list of recent MLS listings because our agent was miserably slow to twig to new houses on the market. It was an introduction to just how inept most of the agents are, and how much they resent being ‘scooped’.
Next time we buy property, I’m not going to give a damn whether it has good resale value or not; I just want a place we like to put down roots and build our own house, preferably out of something like cob.
Zeke
Not trying to be judgmental here Kevin, but instead of holding your nose and participating in one of the largest real estate feeding frenzies in the history of western civilization and profiting putting under capitalized people into overvalued houses, you, instead, helped with the backroom operations that enabled shady wall street companies to loot not only people but pensions & municipalities up to countries as well, right? Again, not being judgmental, but how did you justify that to yourself? Playing with cool technology and not having to deal personally with the suckers/clients?
I see from the comments, your line of thinking regarding real estate. I tried the same line during a stint of unemployment when I attempted to sell insurance/annuities. Had the same reaction as you and thankfully found another IT gig before my money ran out. Didn’t have the pleasure of listening to any Tony Robbins drivel as Tony wasn’t around yet.
@jon
I tried to hold my nose over the Cadillac and cuff links aspects of real estate sales. It wasn’t the fact that a bubble was underway that caused me to get out.
As for unclean nature of that other job:
First of all: I was placed there through an IT recruiter. I’d never heard of the company before, and, considering my financial situation at the time, it wouldn’t have mattered what it was. I would have taken the job. I hadn’t had a decent paying job in over two years at that point, and I had about $80 in my bank account.
Second, I didn’t immediately know what organization was behind that thing, or what it was doing. The details came out slowly, over a period of months. I didn’t fully grasp what was happening until after about six months. I was gone after about a year.
Third, I’d never had a “clean” IT job, and I never knew anyone who’d had a “clean” IT job. I’m sure they exist and I’m sure people get paid to do them. I wasn’t in a position to be picky.
Forth, I didn’t justify anything to myself. Desperate people do desperate things. Showing up to any IT job was an act of desperation for me. My goal was to stop playing the game on those terms.
Anyway, this line of questioning is interesting considering the organization that you’re associated with. Pot calls kettle black, I guess. Look in the mirror before you get on my case again.
Kevin,
With your track record of honesty, as well as major efforts to contribute something toward the good, anything you have to say has value. It’s appreciated that you left the story up about your real estate career. The comedy aspect is a real bonus.
It’s easy enough for people like “jon” to verify my first sentence, by reading some of your cryptogon archives going back many years, or reading your efforts on farmlet.co.nz . Sounds like he’s lashing out to try and soothe his own conscience, unless that is, he’s included in the 4% of the population born without one.
Just a second here. For the record, our site owner, Kevin, is a person I hold in high esteem. I’ve contributed to his wife’s site and that’s something for me, being the cheap sob I am. Heck, he’s done just about everything I wished I could have done and is the model I would like my little brother to follow. In other words, he’s managed to break free of the matrix without an 8 figure net worth by marrying a native Kiwi (they didn’t make Australia the port of call in “On the Beach” for nothing) and is carving out a simple and wholesome life for himself and his family. I’m far from being a sociopath, though I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t on occasion fantasize about being the Jack Black character in “Enemy of the State.” The point I was trying to make was: there was quite a bit of money to be made in Cali real estate 2003-2006, Kevin’s instincts about that were right. He could have probably been an ethical RE agent like his sister and profited handsomely, but, like me, he likes computers. Wasn’t trying to make any moral judgment about hia taking a job with the squid or a wannabe squid outfit.
@Kevin – I don’t know what you mean about the organization I’m with, it’s not like I work at the crystal palace. Here at Faber college, we just trade worthless pieces of paper; the students give us their FRN and we give them their degrees. Sure those four years are for the most part wasted and debt is incurred, but there are worst places for the young to while away their time, the military for one comes immediately to mind. And the more prescient ones even manage to get degrees in subjects that actually have a future. It’s not my fault we have to beat the native borns away with a stick for entrance into our shitlaw school while the foreign born Koreans and Chinese fill our polymer grad program.
@kevin
So much for people not commenting! LOL. Wonder how you know who jon is affiliated with?
and
@jon never seen comments from you before, so take a hint from Avatar(the movie): “you cannot teach people who’s cup is already full. You should go away.” I say this because your comment about Kevin is SO NOT KEVIN.
Or maybe in another line from the movie (and if you read here more often): Perhaps we can cure your insanity.
@jon
I don’t know what you mean about the organization I’m with
HA. Ok, so you’re a liar, like Larry the real estate swindler in the post above.
Sure those four years are for the most part wasted and debt is incurred, but there are worst places for the young to while away their time, the military for one comes immediately to mind.
Why don’t you look up some of the DOD grants that go to “Faber College” as you call it—don’t worry, I’m not interested in providing the real name—and get back to us. HAHA. What a hypocrite you are!
@Eileen
Wonder how you know who jon is affiliated with?
I just looked at the IP address that he uses to access Cryptogon most times. It’s at his quackademic institution that’s stuck to the DOD tit like all the rest. They have videos posted about how balls deep the DOD is with that institution. And this bozo wants to know how I justified working for the mother ship… Incredible.