summarize. The best way is add more value. I'll tell you where I learned this. Jim Rohn, my original teacher, I went to him one day and I finally got personal access to him for a lunch because I performed so high and I was at this lunch with a group of just five people. I said, Mr. Rohn, I have a burning question. I said, you know, I had four different fathers. They were all good people, but we were always broke. And he knew about the experience of my childhood when we got no food at Thanksgiving, and I said, you know, that was a great experience, but I said, the thing I can't understand is like, they were good, and yet, you know, three of them were laid off. My other father, you know, he went up and down. He was in sales, and I don't understand. I said, I don't understand how a school teacher in those days was making $35,000 a year. I'm showing how old I am. And some guy in a hedge fund made a billion dollars this year. I mean, that is so unfair. And he said, Tony, listen to me. You're right. We're all equal as souls on this planet, but we're not equal in the marketplace. So what does that mean? He said, if you go to work for McDonald's and you complain about having minimum wage, you don't understand in life, in business, and in enterprise, not your soul's value, and your economic value, you're valued by how much value you can add to others. If you go to work at McDonald's, it's not designed to be your ultimate job. It's an opening job to learn because anyone can do it. Anyone can learn to do that job in a few hours. In fact, today, it's robots starting to do it, right? We won't even need humans. It's that simple. So he said, it's not that valuable. Don't complain. He said, Tony, think about this. Is it possible to make 10 times as much money in the same amount of time? Do people do that? They say, well, yeah. A hundred times the amount of money in the same amount of time? I said, I get people do it. A thousand times? I said, how? He goes, that's the question you have to answer. And you think the schoolteacher is underpaid, but the schoolteacher is a good person, but they're not all equal in their skills. He said, did every schoolteacher change your life? I said, well, no, but I had some great ones. He said, name them. So I thought and I named three teachers in my entire schooling history and one really influenced me. And he goes, that's really wonderful, but they all wanted certainty. They weren't willing to bet on themselves. So if you have to have certainty, you earn less. He said, they're not willing to keep adding value. And he said, and many of them will not improve because they don't have to. They get tenure. And they've worked with a small number of people. If you help a billion people a little bit, you're going to have an unbelievable life, both emotionally, spiritually, financially, and everything else. He goes, that guy you're complaining about who made a billion dollars, he made a 40% return for his investors. Those investors are paying for college tuitions. They're providing retirements. They're for companies providing corporate retirements. He said, nothing moves. His value, the average person in those days was giving an 8% return. He just saved people 30 years of compounding, 20 years of compounding, 10 years of compounding. He's worth a billion dollars. He said, so your goal should be to find a way to do more for others than anyone else in your category. If you keep getting smarter, stronger, better, if you fill up the skills and you add more value than anybody else, you will not have to worry about anything economic in your life. But more importantly, you'll feel good about who you are as a man. I never forgot that. And today, I have 121 companies. We do $12 billion in business across industries as different as AI, education, hospitality. I mean, all these different industries I'm in. And the one common denominator I've done in every company that I've ever taken over or become a partner in is we figure out how do we do more for anybody in the industry than anybody else? And that's what builds your brand. VAM, value-added marketing. That means do more for others. So you should think if you work in a company, not how do I demand more, how do I do more? By the way, how do I add value that people want? Well, that's the time you go, I did all these things for you, but that's not what they want! What do they want? What do they need? If you do that, you're going to build a brand. And I'll give you a quick, simple example. Because you're building a brand in business, for example, say you had your own company. You don't have to have a brand that's worldwide. It's just like the area you market to. So I have a friend that years ago, his name was Mike Glickman, and I was, I think, I think there's a couple of years' difference between us. So I think I was like 20 and he was like 17 or something like that. And I met him because he was so passionate. He was passionate about real estate. And I was early in my career, and as you can imagine, I'm super young. And I'm this kid going out there trying to talk to people while they can succeed. Like, who are you to tell me this? Well, it's not me. It's Jim Rohn. You know, I was representing him. But he ran into the same problem. First of all, he was 17, loved real estate, so he couldn't get a real estate license till he could sign till he was 18. So he used to take his bike and then finally a car, and he'd deliver those little magazines, you know, that show all the homes that are for sale, just so he could be part of it. Then at 18, he becomes a realtor. And he goes to work in a place called Encino, California. It's in the valley outside of Los Angeles, upper-income community. And he's knocking on doors, trying to get people to list with him or, you know, be able to sell real estate with them. And nobody's buying. I mean, nobody's buying. And after six, seven months, he's doing a job on the side to pay his bills, but his career is real estate. Who's ever been really frustrated? Like you worked your tail off and it seems like nothing's working for you whatsoever. Anybody like that? So he's at this level of frustration and he came to me and he goes, how do you do it? Like, people look at me and they go, he's too young. He doesn't have the experience. I don't wanna list with him. But you're advising these people, and I said, the way I've done it is results. If I got results for somebody, you can't argue with that. They don't care how old I am at that. And that's how I did it initially. I said, but what I did is I add so much value. I do more than they expect. I don't just do what they've asked me to do. And that's starting to build me a brand. And I said, if I were you, don't do what every other realtor does. If you do what every other realtor does and you do it a little bit better, you get a little bit of advantage. What do they all do? Even if you're not a realtor, you know what they do. They advertise. They do open houses. Today, they do social media, right? Same basic things. I said, but if you do something no one else does, you'll stand out. And I said, you should find a way to add value to the community you work in. You don't have to have a national brand. You just need your community. In real estate, they call it a farm, the number of streets within a city that they work on. And I said, if I were you, I would say, what can I do that would add massive value to the community that I just do because it's right? And I'll do those things over and over again while I'm selling my real estate. And people will start to know that you're more than just another realtor, another salesperson. So he thought about it, thought about it. He didn't come up with anything. And one day he came to me and he said, you know, I think I've got a great idea. I said, what is it? He goes, well, you know the trash strikes going on. There was a trash strike in California and the LA area. And it had been going on at that point for almost three weeks. Well, you can imagine if you live in a really wealthy community and every day the trash doesn't get picked up each week and it starts building up and it's on the curb and dogs get into it and cats. And I mean, all of a sudden your community smells and it stinks and it's ugly and you're mad. And every day you come home and it says on the news, day 27 of the trash strike. He said, Tony, I thought about it. And he goes, there's no end in sight for this, and people are angry, and it's also making it so the community looks terrible. No one wants to buy during this time. He said, I had an idea. What if I hired a private trash company just to take out all the trash of the little community that I serve, these whatever it was, number of streets. He goes, and then, and then I go over to everybody, and I get them to pitch in. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. I said, this is a genius idea, but I said, don't ask him to pitch in. Just do it. He goes, well, Tony, it's gonna be expensive. I don't remember how much it was. I'm gonna make the number up. $3,500, $4,000. It was a lot of those dollars at that time. And I said, you could never advertise for this. I said, just do it. Just do what's right, and it'll eventually get it. He goes, not tell people? Don't take their money. I said, here's what's gonna happen. They're gonna go home, and they're gonna be anticipating the smelly yard, smelly streets, the horrible place. They're gonna drive home, and everything's gonna be clean and beautiful. And that's gonna change their what? Their state. They're gonna feel so happy. Oh, my gosh. They're gonna sit down on the TV that night. They're gonna turn on the news, and they go, day 32 of the trash strike continues. And I said, and they're gonna wonder where their trash went. In fact, people go, who stole my trash? Right? That's what people start to do in their head, right? And I said, and he said, and then, but I'm gonna tell them. I said, no, you're not gonna tell them. Let them figure it out on their own. And I said, and when they call you, because they eventually will, I said, do not let them pay you. That's exactly what happened. People call them up, and they said, but when they call you, you say, listen, people would say, well, why didn't I think of that? I should, I wanna pay my fair share. He goes, no, no, no, I can't. Are you the, yeah, I did it. Well, that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? Let me pay you. No, no, no, no. Why not? Listen, I'm a realtor in this area. I just wanna take care of the community here. That's making everybody crazy, and I thought, this is something I could do to make a difference. But I gotta pay you my part. No, no, no. Well, what can I do for you? Well, if you ever wanna list your house or you wanna sell a house or you know somebody who does, I hope you think of me. What do you think that did to his brand overnight? He became the most popular realtor in that community over the next three years. A guy who had made no money made $1.2 million in commissions and was 90% of all sales in that community. Give it up to Mike Lickman, everybody. Really, God.
Here’s a concise summary of your story:
The key lesson Tony Robbins learned from Jim Rohn is value creation: your economic success is directly tied to how much value you provide to others, not your inherent worth as a person. Rohn explained that everyone is equal as a soul, but not in the marketplace—those who add more value and help more people succeed earn more, emotionally, spiritually, and financially.
Tony applied this principle across his 121 companies: always ask, “How can I do more for others than anyone else?”This builds a brand and ensures long-term success. The principle isn’t about demanding more from others but about giving more than expected and understanding what people truly need.
A practical example is Mike Glickman, a young realtor. Instead of doing what all realtors do, he solved a real problem during a trash strike—he hired a private company to clean the streets for his community without asking for payment or advertising. This act of adding extraordinary value built his reputation, made him the most trusted realtor in his area, and earned him $1.2 million in commissions over three years.
Core takeaway: Focus on helping others in ways no one else does, solve real problems, and keep improving yourself—financial and personal success will follow naturally.
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