Book Review
Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins Published 2014 Read May 2015 Reviewed November 2018 |
2015 was an eventful year for me. One of the things I did then was read this book . . . but I got so busy that I never got around to writing a review of it.
Meanwhile I benefited mightily from it, especially by being introduced through it to Ray Dalio, whose book Principles I reviewed earlier this year. After writing that review I said to myself, hey wait a minute . . . Dalio's book was great, and the review was worthwhile . . . but what about the book that introduced me to Dalio?
Nope. Oops. Well, better late than never.
One of the reasons I hesitated to write a review of Robbins' book is that the seven simple steps mentioned on the cover aren't really that simple. In the guts of the book, each step leads to its own complex outline. I struggled to distill the content because I found the "simple steps" weren't really as simple as presented on the cover.
But here goes. Let's begin at the end (609), and see if we can distill Tony's seven simple steps.
The Seven Simple Steps
- Decide to save and invest, not just consume.
- Understand real Return on Investment. He calls this "knowing the rules" of the game and dispels nine myths about risk, return, and expenses.
- "Make the game winnable" by doing the math: income, expenses, surplus, & ROI necessary to afford your life. Make necessary changes, including career & residence.
- Figure out your asset allocation: security vs. growth.
- Create a Lifetime Income Plan. (This presupposes that you've saved & invested adequately. The "income" described here is passive investment income, not active earned income.)
- Invest like the .001%. Here he refers to experts interviewed in the book like Warren Buffet, Charles Schwab, Jack Bogle, Ray Dalio, Kyle Bass, etc. (I found these guys so fascinating that I lost track of where I was in Tony's outline and became fixated on them, especially Ray Dalio and Kyle Bass.)
- Act.
So much for the Seven Simple Steps. There they are, listed simply sans hyperbole and complex elaboration.
Robbins' book is 638 pages long. Of those, he devotes fourteen (Chapter 3.4, pages 259-272) to improving income.
14 out of 638: that's 2.2%.
Yet everything else - the other 97.8% of the book - hinges on that income. Without it there's no surplus to invest, nothing to allocate, nothing to plan.
In that chapter he emphasizes the importance of becoming more valuable and serving more people. He credits Jim Rohn for teaching him this, and he gives a few examples of innovators like Korean teacher Kim Ki-hoon, Nick Woodman of GoPro, Sara Blakely of Spanx, and a woman named Daniela who did a great job making herself more valuable to her employer, figuring out how to do the work of four people by being more efficient.
This is all good stuff, but it barely scratches the surface of the solution to the problem of improving income. I would have liked to see him devote 20% - 50% of the book to it, not 2.2%.
Considering how vital income is to everything else, I felt his coverage of it was really frustrating and paltry, and that is probably another reason why I put off writing a review. When I finished the book I thought to myself, "That was all really great, but something is missing somehow." In retrospect, when I do the math on the proportion of pages covering income and see that it's only 2.2%, I realize that is why I hesitated.
Robbins' book is 638 pages long. Of those, he devotes fourteen (Chapter 3.4, pages 259-272) to improving income.
14 out of 638: that's 2.2%.
Yet everything else - the other 97.8% of the book - hinges on that income. Without it there's no surplus to invest, nothing to allocate, nothing to plan.
In that chapter he emphasizes the importance of becoming more valuable and serving more people. He credits Jim Rohn for teaching him this, and he gives a few examples of innovators like Korean teacher Kim Ki-hoon, Nick Woodman of GoPro, Sara Blakely of Spanx, and a woman named Daniela who did a great job making herself more valuable to her employer, figuring out how to do the work of four people by being more efficient.
This is all good stuff, but it barely scratches the surface of the solution to the problem of improving income. I would have liked to see him devote 20% - 50% of the book to it, not 2.2%.
Considering how vital income is to everything else, I felt his coverage of it was really frustrating and paltry, and that is probably another reason why I put off writing a review. When I finished the book I thought to myself, "That was all really great, but something is missing somehow." In retrospect, when I do the math on the proportion of pages covering income and see that it's only 2.2%, I realize that is why I hesitated.
There's a lot to be learned from this book: both from what is in it, and from what is not.
The individuals he interviews in Section 6, "Invest like the .001%", are doubtlessly amazing. They so outshine the rest of the book that for me, they were distracting and for quite some time I became so focused on them that I lost sight of Tony's program.
But they're outstanding luminaries, they're not average folk. For almost everyone, their feats are out of reach. We can just gape at them in awe.
What about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to live and manage ourselves?
Short answer: low cost, no load index funds.
The people in Section 6 are what really give the book its heft and credibility. As for the rest?
Well, that's another lesson. Tony has an angle. So does everybody. His angle is, he came from a poor background, he's a very emotional guy, and he wants to excite, inspire, encourage, give, and persuade others to give, too.
His agenda is emotional. If you've seen him at his events, he jumps, hoots, hollers, sweats, gets into people's faces; and lately, I've noticed he has added surgical profanity.
Compare and contrast him with the people in Section 6, the actual examples of excellence. They are cool, calm, and collected, dignified, professional. They're all substance, zero hype. They're studious introverts . . . composed, quiet people who are accustomed to Lonely Work.
That's quite an instructive contrast. It certainly teaches me a lot about energy management. Even though Tony wrote the book, if I want to be successful I need to emulate those boring introverts, not the entertaining extrovert who brought them to my attention.
Ironic.
Another thing to be learned from what is not in the book is the difference between a true book and a glorified brochure. A true book is complete. There are few if any omissions. Great examples of this would be Gary Keller's books Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Millionaire Real Estate Investor. In those books, Gary spells it all out. He holds nothing back. When you've read those books, you know all you need to succeed in real estate sales and investing.
But this book? Everything in it hinges on having ample earned income, which is addressed in only 2.2% of its pages. It's a kind of teaser . . . and I notice how, in the back, Tony promotes several of his businesses, including one called Cloudcoaching International that deals in sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which are key to improving income. And of course he has seminars to sell . . . .
So caveat emptor: even though by its length it appears thorough and complete, as far as I'm concerned it's a teaser, a lengthy brochure designed to sell you Tony's products and services.
Another thing to be learned from this book is its emphasis on "giving" and on "giving back" without being very specific about how to "get" in the first place. As I have aged, I have learned to be more careful and skeptical about charitable giving. I've gained a lot of respect for the old saying that it's better to teach someone to fish than it is to give them a fish. Since Tony comes from a background of poverty, of course he's going to have a huge soft spot in his heart for doing nice things for the poor, complete with ready tears and emotional pleas.
But we have to be careful. We have to be on guard against emotional manipulation, and we need to remain focused on what is truly effective. If we're not careful, we can stumble into making the problem worse. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
How attentive to the needs of the poor is it to publish a 638 page book about mastering money, and devote only fourteen pages of that book to improving income, and the rest to lofty investment strategies? It's frustrating, perplexing . . . almost cruel, really.
Don't get me wrong: I feel a lot of respect for Tony and have benefited mightily from his work over the years. On the whole, I recognize his credibility and competence.
I guess what I am trying to express in this review is that, in view of his overall credibility and competence, I am surprised that he devoted only 2.2% of it to the subject of income, when under-earning is a profound nation-wide problem and everything else in the book hinges on having enough of it.
It seems to me like he ignored the elephant in the room, and that to really master the game of money, one must glean all that is useful from this book, but don't expect it to help you understand how to earn the adequate income that makes all of the rest possible.
For resources that address the problem of improving income more thoroughly, please see my reviews of Jeff Fox's books on Rainmaking and Dollarization, and The Conversion Code by Chris Smith, and the Improve Income page on this web site.
Respectfully submitted,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322
The individuals he interviews in Section 6, "Invest like the .001%", are doubtlessly amazing. They so outshine the rest of the book that for me, they were distracting and for quite some time I became so focused on them that I lost sight of Tony's program.
But they're outstanding luminaries, they're not average folk. For almost everyone, their feats are out of reach. We can just gape at them in awe.
What about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to live and manage ourselves?
Short answer: low cost, no load index funds.
The people in Section 6 are what really give the book its heft and credibility. As for the rest?
Well, that's another lesson. Tony has an angle. So does everybody. His angle is, he came from a poor background, he's a very emotional guy, and he wants to excite, inspire, encourage, give, and persuade others to give, too.
His agenda is emotional. If you've seen him at his events, he jumps, hoots, hollers, sweats, gets into people's faces; and lately, I've noticed he has added surgical profanity.
Compare and contrast him with the people in Section 6, the actual examples of excellence. They are cool, calm, and collected, dignified, professional. They're all substance, zero hype. They're studious introverts . . . composed, quiet people who are accustomed to Lonely Work.
That's quite an instructive contrast. It certainly teaches me a lot about energy management. Even though Tony wrote the book, if I want to be successful I need to emulate those boring introverts, not the entertaining extrovert who brought them to my attention.
Ironic.
Another thing to be learned from what is not in the book is the difference between a true book and a glorified brochure. A true book is complete. There are few if any omissions. Great examples of this would be Gary Keller's books Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Millionaire Real Estate Investor. In those books, Gary spells it all out. He holds nothing back. When you've read those books, you know all you need to succeed in real estate sales and investing.
But this book? Everything in it hinges on having ample earned income, which is addressed in only 2.2% of its pages. It's a kind of teaser . . . and I notice how, in the back, Tony promotes several of his businesses, including one called Cloudcoaching International that deals in sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which are key to improving income. And of course he has seminars to sell . . . .
So caveat emptor: even though by its length it appears thorough and complete, as far as I'm concerned it's a teaser, a lengthy brochure designed to sell you Tony's products and services.
Another thing to be learned from this book is its emphasis on "giving" and on "giving back" without being very specific about how to "get" in the first place. As I have aged, I have learned to be more careful and skeptical about charitable giving. I've gained a lot of respect for the old saying that it's better to teach someone to fish than it is to give them a fish. Since Tony comes from a background of poverty, of course he's going to have a huge soft spot in his heart for doing nice things for the poor, complete with ready tears and emotional pleas.
But we have to be careful. We have to be on guard against emotional manipulation, and we need to remain focused on what is truly effective. If we're not careful, we can stumble into making the problem worse. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
How attentive to the needs of the poor is it to publish a 638 page book about mastering money, and devote only fourteen pages of that book to improving income, and the rest to lofty investment strategies? It's frustrating, perplexing . . . almost cruel, really.
Don't get me wrong: I feel a lot of respect for Tony and have benefited mightily from his work over the years. On the whole, I recognize his credibility and competence.
I guess what I am trying to express in this review is that, in view of his overall credibility and competence, I am surprised that he devoted only 2.2% of it to the subject of income, when under-earning is a profound nation-wide problem and everything else in the book hinges on having enough of it.
It seems to me like he ignored the elephant in the room, and that to really master the game of money, one must glean all that is useful from this book, but don't expect it to help you understand how to earn the adequate income that makes all of the rest possible.
For resources that address the problem of improving income more thoroughly, please see my reviews of Jeff Fox's books on Rainmaking and Dollarization, and The Conversion Code by Chris Smith, and the Improve Income page on this web site.
Respectfully submitted,
Kris Freeberg, Economist
Making End$ Meet
[email protected]
(360) 224-4322