Tony Robbins explains how to build wealth

Generating wealth is something that people don’t like to openly talk about — especially in the current economy. One person who hasn’t had that problem is Tony Robbins, the most prominent leader in the self-help industry. The companies that Robbins has founded or partnered with have a combined annual sales of more than $6 billion. Now Robbins is ready to explain how he gets things done with his new book “MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom.” I talked to Robbins about some of the ideas and strategies he details in the book.

What did you learnfrom Charles Schwaband Carl Icahn about creating wealth?

What I learned that all of these people have in common is that the greatest investors in the world are obsessed with never losing. Most investors are trying to win. Their view is no matter how smart they are, they’re going to be wrong and they can’t afford to lose, so knowing this they have a plan to protect themselves.

How can a recentcollege graduate, with student loan debt,benefit from your financial action plan?

The first step of course is to make sure you’re paying the least amount of interest on your current debt. The second step is to start automating a pattern for growing so that you can start tapping into compounded growth and move from being a debtor to an owner of the world’s greatest businesses.

This is your first book in nearly two decades. Why did you decide to write a book about financial freedom now?

Well, I’ve spent the last 37 years of my life obsessed with helping people find answers to improve the quality of their lives — to create breakthroughs. I help them to create change in minutes that might have taken them months or even years, compressing decades into days. And when you look at it, there are only really a few areas of life that impact you most: your emotions, physical body, relationships and, of course, money.

What are your top three pieces of career advice?

No. 1 is decide what matters to you most. Everyone is different. For some people what matters most is position and prestige. For some people it’s money, and for others it’s fun. For some people it’s free time, for some people it’s the ability to express their creativity unedited. You’ve got to know what’s most important to you. Secondly, everyone says, “Live your passion and the money will come.” This simply is not true! It’s possible to live your passion and the money will come, but only if the way you live your passion adds more value to other people’s lives. In my case, I was able to find a way to have my passion and my work be one in the same. Third, if you’re going to succeed, there’s only one secret: Every day, work harder on yourself than anything else. If you keep growing, then you’ll have something to give.

Dan Schawbel is a workplace expert, keynote speaker, and author of the New York Times best-selling book, “Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success.”