Imagine a broke, teenage janitor sitting in the front row of a crowded seminar, desperate for a way out of his struggles. This is the pivotal moment where a young Tony Robbins scraped together his last dollars to hear the words that would change his life forever.
So, rewind to 1977. Tony is just a kid, 17 years old, working as a janitor and really struggling. He picks up a weekend job helping a wealthy family friend—a guy who seemed so happy and successful while Tony felt miserable and stuck. Tony finally asks him, “How did you turn your life around?” The guy tells him about a man named Jim Rohn and a seminar that’s coming to town.
Tony gets excited until he hears the price: $35. Now, to a kid making $40 a week, that was a fortune. He pulls the classic excuse: “I can’t go, I don’t have the money.” And his friend looks him dead in the eye and says the line that started it all: “Tony, if you can’t afford the $35, you certainly can’t afford not to go.”
That hit home. So, Tony scrapes the cash together, goes to the seminar, and he is mesmerized. He hears Jim Rohn say, “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job, you’ll make a living; if you work hard on yourself, you’ll make a fortune.”
Tony decides right then and there: This is it. He approaches Jim Rohn and says, “I want to work for you. I want to learn everything you know.”
Jim looks at this scruffy kid and says, “Great. I have a leadership program. It costs $1,200.”
$1,200. That was an impossible number. That was like a million dollars to him. But Tony was possessed by this idea now. He had the “hunger.” So, he puts on his only suit, slicks back his hair, and walks into a bank in California. He sits down with a loan officer and asks for $1,200.
The loan officer looks at his application—no credit, no assets, a janitor’s income—and naturally, he rejects him. Tony tries another bank. Rejected. He tries again. Rejected. He’s feeling defeated, walking out the door of the last bank, head down.
Suddenly, he hears a voice. “Young man!”
It’s a woman who worked at the bank—I believe she was one of the loan clerks. She had been watching him. She calls him over and says, “I heard you talking. I saw your passion. I don’t know if you’re crazy or if you’re a genius, but I believe in you.”
And then she does the unthinkable. She reaches into her purse, pulls out a checkbook, and writes him a personal check for the money. She loans it to him from her own pocket.
Tony takes that money, runs back to Jim Rohn, pays the fee, and that was the moment his life actually began. He didn’t just buy a course; he bought his future because a stranger saw that he was willing to do whatever it took.
So, I’m telling you this because you’re standing at that same door. The price isn’t the problem. The question is: Are you willing to show the world that kind of hunger?