Tony Robbins (SEE): Personality Type Analysis

Tony Robbins, born Anthony Robbins, is an American Philanthropist, Businessman, Motivational Speaker, and Life Coach, that claims that he has never lost anyone during his entire professional career.

Tony, in his own words, had a fairly abusive home-life and was quickly on his own at 17 years old. Although he left on his own accord, he still provided for his family working as a handyman until he began his professional career under the tutelage of Personal Development Guru, Jim Rohn. Rohn taught him about happiness and success further propelling Tony’s desire to help others do the same.

The most obvious and present theme in Tony’s life from then to now is about breaking personal barriers with a strong emphasis on “pushing through obstacles.” Not only is this his prime message, but it’s also how he naturally displays himself on stage, in his seminars, and even during intermissions. It is as if this theme is ever present in his life. The following quotes further exhibit this attitude toward the world:

• “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” 
• “If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can.”
• “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
• “Knowing is not enough! You must take action!”

By these few examples it is very clear that Tony values getting things done through determined physical action - even over one’s own knowledge. It is important to note that most of his methods assume that this amount of willpower is inside of everyone - almost as if he isn’t aware that not everyone can muster this type of energy into whatever it is they want to do. Tony’s singular action focused attitude strongly suggests that Tony best fits in an F valuing World-Rejecting quadra over a S, World Accepting quadra. With these examples, it would be safe to assume that he’s an F-Ego type in the World-Rejecting Quadras (SEE, SLE, LSI, ESI).

Unlike his natural ability to take massive action, he spends a lot of time teaching others how to find their vision and direction - which he positions as central to finding “fulfilment” in life. However, he demonstrates a lack of flexibility to instruct others on specifically how to do this as it pertains to their situation, preferring to teach others to do this in the same manner he did, which was surrounding himself with people who provided him with this meaning behind such determined action. This possibly indicates Super-Id for this particular piece of information. He stated that the best place to get your vision or purpose is from your role-model, as if one cannot produce this on their own and must rely on others to acquire such purpose or vision. This inflexible, lackluster curriculum of “just hand it off” supports possible experiential information metabolism (1D) of T. All of this suggests T being in the Super-Id Block, and 1-Dimensional, therefore T5.

When given a strong vision you can create change, but according to Tony, change is short lived without strong, meaningful relationships. He has spent an incredible amount of time navigating the connection between couples and helping them ignite the same early-relationship passion in their later years. He rests most of his advanced content around the bonds between oneself and other people and he stresses the importance of nourishing such bonds. This strongly supports that he values R. Furthermore, the following quote may reveal more about Tony’s type:

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”

Tony stresses that the ability to keep working on your relationships and yourself is a means to gaining personal power. He strongly believes that all the answers to life lie within one’s own strength. In other words, getting better at being you makes everything else come together. This points in the direction of beliefs that are about the power of the individual. Such beliefs most strongly represent Gamma-Quadra values versus a more collective rallying, world-changing Beta-Quadra set of values. 

He is easily able to read the emotional states of others and affect them long enough to get them to listen to him. He uses vast amounts of high-energy emotions on a wide spectrum to infuse a crowd with excitement, passion, and enthusiasm -- and seems to never fail at doing this. This may indicate high dimensionality for E. However, he shows no real need to teach people how to generate excitement, nor does he place any stress or importance on influencing any collective assembly at all. For him, it is best depicted as something he is good at and takes for granted. He easily brushes his strength in this area aside and places emphasis on developing a sense of personal power - and becoming the “Giant Within". In fact, he has admitted that he goes into client sessions as a “Trojan Horse", allowing them think he’s going to give them what they want, but he instead gives them “what they need to grow". That supports his value of R+F over E. That being said, his ability to control the mood of a crowd effortlessly, appears to be 4-Dimensional, subdued E (E8). 

Knowledge is not enough for him, he clearly wants to see evidence that you actually know what you’re talking about through empirical proof (P). Simply to know is not enough! Knowledge is not beyond it’s application; this indicates subdued L, as he isn’t keen on using these ideas to navigate and crush opposition, but simply to disregard them until they’ve proven proper utility and real-world application. This attitude toward theoretical knowledge would also explain that his method for coaching, which is a mixed combination of “practical things” he’s learned over the years. In his book Mastering the Money Game he sought the advice from not just one Billionaire, but many! He used multiple sources of information attempting to get at the underlying idea of what actually works in the financial world. They taught him how to acquire financial success in the stock market and how to prevent personal financial downturns when the market changes. Interestingly enough, instead of spending an incredible amount of time tweaking this advice and/or formulating a system of his own, he simply defers his authority to these experts with some spin of his own. This further suggests P being in the Super-Id block, but valued. More importantly, although using the advice of people he sees as experts, he attempts at mastering this “by his own will” by projecting his own independent authority on it. In other words, he simply doesn’t hand it off like he does with T information, but would rather take a shot at it himself. This suggests P6.

As a life coach, he is still not able to get nationally recognized with his current coaching model. It is not because of his lack of performance or results, but his natural resistance of any standardized coaching model, as every case is situational. His alternative to these international coaching standards is called “Strategic Intervention” which is not based on anything directly, but rather years of combining techniques to see what has worked in real life. Strategic Intervention is a model that is based on keen observation and flexible adapting rather than a strict structure, allowing the coach to be much more supple in his approach. Especially when compared to more rigid personal coaching models. He has said that his system delivers more results for less effort, indicating a preference for results-oriented efficiency (P). However, he had challenges putting this in a packaged system that was easy to sell without the help of Cloe Madanes, who had experience in developing therapy models. His consistent rebuking of “rigid” models and challenges packing his system suggests L4. 

He has admitted that he does not go into coaching sessions with a series of canned techniques, but he delivers specifically what that case requires. When dealing with an uncertainty, he will begin to explore possible hidden motivations behind behaviors. Once these hidden motivations are identified, his exploration ends and his practical, face the problem head-on approach begins. This is standard behavior of what you’d expect with someone who has Extraverted Irrationality in the Leading and Role functions, more specifically the off/on relationships that is demonstrated with F and I. Tony shows the ability to read body language and the emotions with the metabolism of I and E elements. However, once he’s assessed the situation, he quickly resumes control of the coaching session. This outlines his rather short, quick usage of I, then returning to F.  All of this supports I3.

Lastly, his recent Netflix Documentary labeled “I Am Not Your Guru” is a way for him to free himself of hierarchy, even his own status above others. This theme of independence saturates Tony’s entire disposition. In other words, he is simply empowering others to lead their own lives, not having some “leader” that people can follow. 

Concluding with F1, R2, I3, L4, T5, P6, and E8, a strong preference of Gamma quadra values, and his F+R approach of teaching others how to be free, living through action and devoted relationships, I strongly support his TIM being nothing other than SEE. 

To learn more about SEE, click here.

If you are confused by our use of Socionics shorthand, click here.