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Lewis Howes"I Got RICH When I Understood THIS..."| Tony Robbins & Lewis Howes
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Chapter summaries
Why Tony Wrote Unshakeable
Lewis welcomes Tony Robbins for their third interview and introduces his new book. Tony explains he wanted a short, fact-based playbook after Money: Master the Game, drawing on conversations with Alan Greenspan and Howard Marks, and says all profits go to feeding people.
- •Unshakeable is a step-by-step playbook to get from where you are financially to where you want to be
- •Tony interviewed top financial figures and hosts a yearly financial event with self-made billionaires
- •Greenspan's answer to what he'd do as Fed head today was "I'd resign"
- •Tony says negative interest rates are unprecedented in 5,000 years of banking history
- •100% of profits go to feeding people, and Lewis read the book in four hours
Rich vs. Poor: Becoming an Owner and the Power of Compounding
Asked about the difference between the financially rich and poor, Tony says the rich are owners who keep a portion of their income to compound. He illustrates with saving rates, hidden fees, the UPS worker who retired with $70 million, and the value of starting early.
- •Everyone trades time for money, which Tony calls the worst trade
- •Decide on a percentage of income you will keep and grow forever
- •Saving 3% and raising it with each raise led average savers to 15% in 14 years
- •1% fees leave $762,000 on $100,000 versus $452,000 at 3% fees
- •Starting at 19 for eight years beat investing from 28 for a lifetime
Diversification and Why You Can't Earn Your Way to Wealth
Lewis asks whether earning more can substitute for investing. Tony cites David Swensen and stories of celebrities and athletes who went broke, then stresses diversification and building a second source of income with no moving parts.
- •David Swensen told Tony you're never going to earn your way to wealth
- •Examples include 50 Cent, Mike Tyson, Johnny Depp and NFL players going broke
- •Diversification is the one free lunch; any market can drop 50–70% in a day
- •The TomTom example shows how technology can erase a business
- •Everyone needs a money machine that works while they sleep
Winter Is Coming: Corrections, Crashes and Ray Dalio's All Seasons
Lewis asks how to invest without panicking and pulling money out. Tony points to chapter two, explaining the facts on corrections and bear markets, Ray Dalio's All Seasons strategy, and why the market's downturns are opportunities.
- •Millennials, burned by 2008 and carrying college debt, are investing far below the needed ratio
- •Corrections of 10–20% have happened about every year since 1900 and last about 56 days; 80% never become bear markets
- •Bear markets come every three to five years, average a 33% drop, and each has been followed by a bull market in U.S. history
- •Dalio's All Seasons strategy made 2% when the market was down 9% early in 2016
- •The snake-into-rope metaphor: knowing the facts removes the fear
Why Market Timing Fails
Tony presents studies showing that missing the best trading days devastates returns and that staying in cash is the worst option. He cites Buffett and Jack Bogle on timing, luck and fund performance.
- •Missing the 10 best days in 20 years cuts a 8.2% return to about 4.5%; missing 20 drops it to about 2%
- •Schwab's study found cash performed worst, while perfect and terrible timing differed by only $20,000
- •Bogle's coin-flipping gorillas illustrate luck mistaken for skill; 96% of mutual funds fail to match the market over 10 years
- •Six of the 10 best trading days came within two weeks of the worst day
- •Stocks have given the highest returns over two centuries, though not everything should be in stocks
From Peak State to Beautiful State
Lewis brings up his time at One World Academy and the book's closing chapter. Tony recounts the conversation with Christian G. that led him to swap "peak state" for "beautiful state" and to reframe lousy states as suffering.
- •Lewis notes the book says 80% of financial success is psychological and 20% mechanical
- •Christian G. suggested replacing peak state with beautiful state and lousy states with suffering
- •Tony says fear is the achiever's word for stress
- •Tony created a 90-second rule to end suffering as it arises
- •Tony explains the brain is built for survival, not happiness
Loss, Less, Never and Trading Expectation for Appreciation
Tony describes the three triggers of suffering and explains that suffering centers on oneself. He tells his airline internet story and the antidote of appreciation.
- •The three triggers are loss, less and never
- •Suffering over others is often really about believing you've failed
- •Trade expectation for appreciation
- •The in-flight internet story shows a miracle becoming an expectation in nine minutes
- •The chances of everyone doing everything right every day are zero
Thoughts as Waves and Killing Suffering Early
Tony explains that stressful thoughts are not personal and compares them to invisible waves like TV channels. He lays out the practice: identify your pattern of suffering, catch it while small, and shift to gratitude.
- •Everyone shares the same stressful thoughts, which are not truly yours
- •Only the stressful thoughts you believe cause suffering
- •Changing your body changes the channel of thoughts coming through you
- •Identify your flavor of suffering and kill it while it's little
- •You can't be grateful and angry at once
Success Without Fulfillment and Real Wealth
Lewis highlights the book's line that success without fulfillment is failure. Tony says happy billionaires are rare, cites Richard Branson, and describes his goal of finding ecstasy in each moment.
- •Lousy states damage relationships regardless of how good a person you are
- •Tony felt he'd be remiss writing a finance book without showing real wealth
- •Richard Branson is cited as a sincerely happy billionaire
- •Someone happy every day is rarer than a billionaire
- •You can be wealthy both financially and emotionally
Audience Question: Vulnerability and Health
Lewis shares a listener's question about what still makes Tony vulnerable. Tony discusses his mercury poisoning and memory lapses, and explains how facing past crises raised his threshold of control.
- •Tony had mercury poisoning that mimics dementia and caused memory lapses
- •His mercury level dropped from 123 to nine on a zero-to-five scale
- •He says he's faced enough hard things that his threshold is high
- •His main vulnerabilities are health and the thought of losing his wife
Audience Question: Choice, Focus Patterns and Depression
Answering a question about whether he chose his life, Tony calls choice a gift and offers three patterns of focus: what you have vs. what's missing, what you can control vs. can't, and past, present or future. He argues antidepressants only numb while focus patterns drive depression.
- •Tony says the one power we have is the decision to change anything
- •About 70% in a room focus on what's missing
- •Focusing on what's missing and what you can't control leads to depression
- •The past is a waste unless you learn from it; the present is where the joy is
- •Gratitude is intelligent, since you solve problems better in a good state
Audience Question: Women Leaders and Adding Value
Responding to a question about women leading without emasculating men, Tony uses Mary Callahan Erdoes of JP Morgan as an example. He says success comes from adding more value to others than anyone else.
- •Mary Callahan Erdoes believes there's no glass ceiling for her, calling it a meritocracy
- •She grew her business 30% and is widely respected
- •The only secret in business is doing more for others than anybody else
- •Everyone has intrinsic value, but financial worth requires adding value
- •Hanging onto injustice keeps you stuck; adding value breaks through
Choosing a Fiduciary: Fees, Brokers and Peter Mallouk
Tony introduces his co-author Peter Mallouk and explains fees, the difference between brokers and fiduciaries, and dually registered advisors. He describes the getasecondopinion.com resource for a free plan.
- •Peter Mallouk was named the top wealth manager by Barron's three years in a row
- •About 90% of 310,000 financial professionals are brokers, who work for the house
- •Only about 31,000 are fiduciaries, and some are dually registered and switch hats
- •Peter built a division for clients with as little as $50,000 at under 1% fees
- •getasecondopinion.com offers a free plan and Tony discloses he benefits from the firm
Lewis's Acknowledgment: Meeting Tony at 16
Lewis recalls attending Tony's event in St. Louis at age 16 and how Tony standing beside him made a profound impression. He thanks Tony for showing him what's possible.
- •Lewis attended an all-day success event with about 15,000 people
- •Tony stopped next to him in the aisle without looking at him
- •Lewis remembers how it made him feel rather than what was said
- •He credits the moment with setting him up for his current work
The Three Truths and Tony's Giving
Lewis asks the closing three-truths question. Tony names adding value beyond yourself, enjoying life through gratitude, and love as everything, then describes his charitable work on food, water, medical education and literacy.
- •Truth one: get outside yourself and add value, being obsessed with learning, growing and giving
- •Truth two: if you're alive and not enjoying yourself you've wasted your life
- •Truth three: love is everything, and money gives portable power
- •Tony's giving includes feeding 100 million people a year and fresh water in India
- •He partnered on an education XPRIZE for literacy and prays each day to be a blessing
