Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City, United States

The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many endeavors (or artforms) united by their employment of the human creative impulse. The term implies a broader range of disciplines than "art", which in modern usage usually refers only to the visual arts.^[1] The other major constituents of the arts are the literary arts, more often called literature – including poetry, novels and short stories, among others – and the performing arts, among them music, dance, theatre, opera and film.^[2] Literary arts and creative writing are actually interchangeable terms.^[3] These divisions are by no means absolute as there are artforms which combine a visual element with performance (e.g. film) and the written word (e.g. comics). This list is by no means comprehensive, but only meant to introduce the concept of the arts.

Whether or not a form of creative endeavor can be considered one of "the arts" can be contentious due to the cultural values attached in Western culture to the term "art", which can imply that it is a field elevated above popular culture.

Definition[link]

Collins English Dictionary defines 'the arts' as "imaginative, creative, and nonscientific branches of knowledge considered collectively, esp. as studied academically".^[4] The singular term art is defined by the Irish Art Encyclopedia as follows: "Art is created when an artist creates a beautiful object, or produces a stimulating experience that is considered by his audience to have artistic merit."^[5] So, one could conclude that art is the process that leads to a product (the artwork or piece of art), which is then examined and analyzed by experts in the field of the arts or simply enjoyed by those who appreciate the arts. The same source states:

Art is a global activity which encompasses a host of disciplines, as evidenced by the range of words and phrases which have been invented to describe its various forms. Examples of such phraseology include: Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Visual Arts, Decorative Arts, Applied Arts, Design, Crafts, Performing Arts, and so on.

The term art commonly refers to the "Visual Arts", as an abbreviation of creative art or fine art. For example, the history of art is described as "the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and literature. It is also one of the humanities. The term sometimes encompasses theory of the visual arts, including aesthetics." In the article for fine art, we read:

Confusion often occurs when people mistakenly refer to the Fine Arts but mean the Performing Arts (Music, Dance, Drama, etc.). However, there is some disagreement here: e.g., at York University (Toronto, Canada) Fine Arts is a faculty that includes the [visual arts], design and the "Performing Arts".^[6] Furthermore, creative writing is frequently considered a fine art as well.

To illustrate the previous statements, the College of Fine Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, TX) consists of the Schools of "Art, Music and Theatre",^[7] while one of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees at the University of British Columbia is attached to the Creative Writing Program.^[8]

More work would be required to standardize the use of the terms "art" and "fine art", but for the purpose of this article the definition of "the arts" is not problematic, because it includes all the arts. One artist has even suggested that "[it] would really simplify matters if we could all just stick with visual, auditory, performance or literary – when we speak of The Arts – and eliminate “Fine” altogether".^[9]

History[link]

For all intents and purposes, the history of the arts begins with the history of art, as dealt with elsewhere. Furthermore, the history of the Performing Arts and Literature have been described in other articles --(Please see: Outline of performing arts; History of literature; prehistoric music). Some examples of creative art through the ages can be summarized here, as excerpted from the history of art.

The arts might have origins in early human evolutionary prehistory. According to a recent suggestion, several forms of audio and visual arts (rhythmic singing and drumming on external objects, dancing, body and face painting) were developed very early in hominid evolution by the forces of natural selection in order to reach an altered state of consciousness.^[10] In this state, which Jordania calls battle trance, hominids and early human were losing their individuality, and were acquiring a new collective identity, where they were not feeling fear or pain, and were religiously dedicated to the group interests, in total disregards of their individual safety and life. This state was needed to defend early hominids from predators, and also to help to obtain food by aggressive scavenging. Ritualistic actions involving heavy rhythmic music, rhythmic drill, coupled sometimes with dance and body painting had been universally used in traditional cultures before the hunting or military sessions in order to put them in a specific altered state of consciousness and raise the morale of participants.^[11][12] More generally, evolutionary psychology and applications in fields such as evolutionary musicology, Darwinian literary studies, and evolutionary aesthetics have given several different explanations for the evolutionary origins of the arts.

Ancient Greek art saw the veneration of the animal form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features (i.e. Zeus' thunderbolt).

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church insisted on the expression of biblical and not material truths.

Eastern art has generally worked in a style akin to Western medieval art, namely a concentration on surface patterning and local colour (meaning the plain colour of an object, such as basic red for a red robe, rather than the modulations of that colour brought about by light, shade and reflection). A characteristic of this style is that the local colour is often defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet and Japan.

An artist's palette

Religious Islamic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead.

The physical and rational certainties depicted by the 19th-century Enlightenment were shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by Einstein [1] and of unseen psychology by Freud,[2] but also by unprecedented technological development. Paradoxically the expressions of new technologies were greatly influenced by the ancient tribal arts of Africa and Oceania, through the works of Paul Gauguin and the Post-Impressionists, Pablo Picasso and the Cubists, as well as the Futurists and others.

The various arts[link]

In the Middle Ages, Artes Liberales (liberal arts) taught in medieval universities as part of the Trivium: (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy), and the Artes Mechanicae (mechanical arts) such as metalworking, farming, cooking, business and the making of clothes or cloth. The modern distinctions between "artistic" and non-artistic skills did not develop until the Renaissance.

In modern academia, the arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. Some subjects in the Humanities are history, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. Newspapers typically include a section on the arts.

Traditionally, the arts are classified as seven although the list has been expanded to nine. These being Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, Dance, Theater/Cinema, with the modern non-traditional additions of Photography^[13] and Comics.^[14]

Visual arts[link]

Drawing[link]

Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a draftswoman or draughtsman.

Gastronomy[link]

Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food. It is often thought erroneously that the term gastronomy refers exclusively to the art of cooking (see Culinary art), but this is only a small part of this discipline; it cannot always be said that a cook is also a gourmet. Gastronomy studies various cultural components with food as its central axis. Thus it is related to the Fine Arts and Social Sciences, and even to the Natural Sciences in terms of the digestive system of the human body.

Architecture[link]

The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, "a master builder", from αρχι- "chief, leader" and τεκτων, "builder, carpenter")^[3] is the art and science of designing buildings and structures.

A wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of creating furniture. Architectural design usually must address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The term can be used to connote the implied architecture of abstract things such as music or mathematics, the apparent architecture of natural things, such as geological formations or the structure of biological cells, or explicitly planned architectures of human-made things such as software, computers, enterprises, and databases, in addition to buildings. In every usage, an architecture may be seen as a subjective mapping from a human perspective (that of the user in the case of abstract or physical artifacts) to the elements or components of some kind of structure or system, which preserves the relationships among the elements or components.

Planned architecture manipulates space, volume, texture, light, shadow, or abstract elements in order to achieve pleasing aesthetics. This distinguishes it from applied science or engineering, which usually concentrate more on the functional and feasibility aspects of the design of constructions or structures.

In the field of building architecture, the skills demanded of an architect range from the more complex, such as for a hospital or a stadium, to the apparently simpler, such as planning residential houses. Many architectural works may be seen also as cultural and political symbols, and/or works of art. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the successful (and sometimes less than successful) design and implementation of pleasingly built environments in which people live.

Painting[link]

The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the Western world.

Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a vehicle (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas, wood panel or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.

Colour is the essence of painting as sound is of music. Colour is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, Newton, have written their own colour theory. Moreover the use of language is only a generalization for a colour equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the spectrum. There is not a formalized register of different colours in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as C or C#, although the Pantone system is widely used in the printing and design industry for this purpose.

Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage. This began with Cubism and is not painting in strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer.

Modern and contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft in favour of concept; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work.

Conceptual art[link]

Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The inception of the term in the 1960s referred to a strict and focused practice of idea-based art that often defied traditional visual criteria associated with the visual arts in its presentation as text. However, through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, its popular usage, particularly in the UK, developed as a synonym for all contemporary art that does not practise the traditional skills of painting and sculpture.^[15]

Video games[link]

A debate exists in the fine arts and video game cultures over whether video games can be counted as an art form.^[16] Some cite games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Myst and Journey as prime examples of video games as an art form.^[17] Others, such as game designer Hideo Kojima, profess that video games are a type of service, not an art form.^[18]

In May 2011, the National Endowment of the Arts included video games in its redefinition of what is considered a work of art.^[19]

Literary arts[link]

Shakespeare wrote some of the best known works in English literature.

Literature is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of writings, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, other forms of oral poetry, and as folktale.

Performing arts[link]

The performing arts differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object.

Performing arts include acrobatics, busking, comedy, dance, magic, music, opera, operetta, film, juggling, martial arts, marching arts such as brass bands and theatre.

Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting and stagecraft.

Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, etc.

There is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called Performance art. Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the Modern dance era.

Music[link]

A musical score by Mozart.  Play (help·info)

Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art.

Theatre[link]

Theatre or theater (Greek "theatron", θέατρον) is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera and mummers' plays.

Dance[link]

A Ballroom dance exhibition

Dance (from Old French dancier, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting.

Dance is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals (bee dance, mating dance), motion in inanimate objects (the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or genres.

Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who does this is called a choreographer. People danced to relieve stress.

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as Folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while Martial arts 'kata' are often compared to dances.

Arts criticism[link]

• Architecture criticism
• Visual art criticism
• Dance criticism
• Film criticism
• Literary criticism
• Music journalism
• Television criticism
• Theatre criticism

See also[link]

	Visual arts portal
	Arts portal

• Culinary art
• Fine art
• Martial arts
• Performing arts

• Art in odd places

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Does time fly?—Peter Galison's Empires of Time, a historical survey of Einstein and Poincare, intrigues Jon Turney. Jon Turney. The Guardian, Saturday 6 September 2003
• Contradictions of the Enlightenment: Darwin, Freud, Einstein

External links[link]

Find more about Arts on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

	Book: Art Book: The arts
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Travis Rice (born October 9, 1982^[1]) is an American professional snowboarder. He is #13 on Snowboarder magazine’s list of the Top Twenty Most Influential Riders,^[2] He has been considered "the Paul Revere" of the big mountain freestyle movement.^[3]

Early life[link]

Rice was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was raised near Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, where he continues to reside. Raised a skier by his father, a member of Jackson Hole Ski Patrol, Rice initially did not understand the rave of the new sport springing up on his mountain. However, he would soon catch on and join the local team.

Competition[link]

In 2001, without a sponsor and only 18 years old, Rice drove to Mammoth Mountain in California to ride at Snowboarder magazine’s “Superpark”. Recognition from the snowboarding world would come at this event, when Rice launched a backside rodeo off a 110 foot gap jump.^[4] Absinthe Films' producer Justin Hostynek immediately approached Rice to begin filming for their upcoming movie, Transcendence.^[2]

Films and Other Media[link]

Rice has filmed outstanding video parts year after year, producing jaw-dropping shots like his switch 540 over Chad's Gap in Utah, a 120 foot backcountry gap jump. On top of that, he has won several US Opens, an X-Games gold, and an Icer Air gold, where he landed the first double rodeo 1080 in competition.^[5]

In 2008, Rice co-produced (with filmmaker Curt Morgan) and starred in the snowboarding film That’s It That’s All. This film featured Troy Blackburn, Jeremy Jones, Mark Landvik, Terje Haakonsen, Nicolas Müller, Scotty Lago, Pat Moore, John Jackson, Jake Blauvelt, Danny Kass, and fellow Jackson Hole residents Bryan Iguchi and Kyle Clancy.^[6] Rice’s part in That’s It That’s All, which included the first ever double cork 1260, heavily influenced his sweep at the Transworld Magazine Rider’s Poll. He won Rider of the Year, Video Part of the Year, Standout of the Year, and Readers’ Choice award.^[7] On September, 07 2011, Rice released The Art of Flight, a film made in collaboration with the same team behind 'That's It, That's All, including John Jackson, Mark Landvik, Nicolas Müller and Jeremy Jones,Scotty Lago,Mark McMorris. The film divides the snowboard community, described as one of the best snowboard movies ever made, with a budget being well into the millions of dollars by some, and seen as a boring and soulless display of budget, far from the snowboard spirit and the respect of nature by others. It truly is one of the most inspirational movies ever filmed.^[8]

His sponsors are Quiksilver, LIB Tech, DC, Red Bull, Union bindings, Bluebird Wax, Contour, Jack’s Garage & Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.^[9]

He is also a downloadable, playable character in SSX. He is the first "real-life" snowboarder to ever be featured in the franchise.

Highlights[link]

Travis Rice's professional snowboarding career started in 2001. Various competition results taken from EXPN.^[10]

2008–2009

• 1st in X-Games Big Air Competition
• 4th - CJ - 5Star Red Bull Snow Scrapers (Ticket to Ride (World Snowboard Tour))
• Transworld Rider of the Year

2007–2008

• 11th, Nokia Air & Style Big Air Competition ^[11]
• 1st, ICER AIR, San Francisco, CA (Big Air event). With a best run score of 95^[12] for his Double backside Rodeo 1080.^[13]
• 1st Winter X Games Big Air Double Cork 1080

2005–2006

• 12th, FIS World Cup #1, Valle Nevado, Chile (Halfpipe)
• 8th, Nokia Air & Style, Munich, Germany (Slopestyle)
• 51st, Chevrolet US Snowboard Grand Prix Halfpipe #1
• 26th, Chevrolet US Snowboard Grand Prix Halfpipe #2
• 9th, X Games 10 (Slopestyle)
• 2nd, Honda Session at Vail, Co (Rail)
• 3rd, Honda Session at Vail, Co (Slopestyle)
• 33rd, Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour (Season End Rankings, Overall)

2004–2005

• Transworld Rider of the Year
• Named by Faces Magazine as one of the Top 20 Greatest Athletes Now
• 2nd, X-Trail Jam, Tokyo, Japan (Quarterpipe)
• 3rd, X-Trail Jam, Tokyo, Japan (Straight Jump)
• 1st, US Snowboard Grandprix, Breckenridge, Co (Rails)
• 2nd, US Snowboard Grandprix, Breckenridge, Co (Halfpipe)
• 8th, US Snowboard Grandprix Season End Ranking (Halfpipe)
• 10th, X Games 2005 (Superpipe)
• 3rd, X Games 2005 (Slopestyle)
• 2nd, Abominable Snow Jam, Mount Hood, Oregon (Quarterpipe)
• 3rd, Abominable Snow Jam, Mount Hood, Oregon (Slopestyle)

2003–2004

• 1st, Arctic Challenge, Trysilfjellet, Norway (Quarterpipe Overall)
• 9th, Arctic Challenge, Trysilfjellet, Norway (Slopestyle)
• 1st, Boost Mobile Pro-Jam (Rail)
• 1st, Boost Mobile Pro-Jam
• 4th, Winter X Games 2003 (Slopestyle)
• 21st, Winter X Games 2003 (Superpipe)
• 1st, Abominable Snow Jam (Slopestyle)
• 1st, Abominable Snow Jam (Quarterpipe)
• 1st, Grand Prix, Breckenridge, Co. (Rail)
• 1st, X-Rail Jam Tokyodome 2003 (Jam Session)
• 1st, US Open Rail Jam
• 1st, The Session, Vail, Co. (Rail)
• 4th, The Session, Vail, Co. (Slopestyle)
• 1st, Montana Christchurch Big Air, New Zealand

2002–2003

• 1st, X-Games (Slopestyle)
• 1st, Grand Prix, Breckenridge (Big Air)
• 4th, World Snowboard Federation Season End (Slopestyle)
• 4th, The Session, Vail, Colorado (Slopestyle)
• 1st, The Session, Vail, Colorado (Rail Jam)
• 2nd, Toyota Slopestyle, Kijimadaira, Japan (Slopestyle)
• 3rd, US Open, Stratton, Vermont (Slopestyle)
• 1st, US Open, Stratton, Vermont (Rail Jam)

2001–2002

• TransWorld Rookie Of The Year
• 1st (FIS Halfpipe), FIS, Park City
• 2nd, Vans Triple Crown Series, Breckenridge, Colorado (Slopestyle)^[14]
• 3rd, Vans Triple Crown Series, Snow Summit, California (Slopestyle)^[14]
• 4th, World Championships, Vail, Co. (Slopestyle)
• 1st, Yahoo Big Air, Breckenridge, Co. (Big Air)
• 7th, US Grand Prix, Mount Bachelor, Oregon (Halfpipe)
• 9th, Vans Triple Crown (Season End, Overall)

Video parts[link]

• The Art of Flight - Brainfarm (2011)
• Neverland - Absinthe Films (2009)
• That's It, That's All (2008)
• DC MTN.LAB 1.5 (2007)^[15]
• Billabong - Lines (2007)^[16]
• DC MTN.LAB
• The Gap Sessions
• First Descent
• The Community Project^[17]
• Pop
• Night of the Living Shred
• The Prophecy (2002)
• Revenge of the Grenerds
• Futureproof
• More
• Full Metal Edges
• Saturation
• Vivid (2002)
• Deeper (2010)
• Transcendence (2002)^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Posts tagged 'Travis Rice' on SuperStoker
• Posts tagged 'Travis Rice' on THEBLEND

This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (September 2011)

Anthony "Tony" Robbins
Tony Robbins in 2009
Born	(1960-02-29) February 29, 1960 (age 52) North Hollywood, California, United States
Occupation	Author Actor Professional speaker Peak Performance Coach
Years active	1978–present
Height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[1][2]
Spouse	Becky Robbins (m. 1982–2001) «start: (1982)–end+1: (2002)»"Marriage: Becky Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins) Sage Robbins (m. 2001) «start: (2001)»"Marriage: Sage Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins)

Anthony "Tony" Robbins (born February 29, 1960) is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within. Robbins writes about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships. Robbins began his career learning from many different motivational speakers, and promoted seminars for his personal mentor, Jim Rohn. He is deeply influenced by neuro-linguistic programming and a variety of philosophies.

Robbins's work has been featured in major media including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Life, GQ, Vanity Fair, Business Week, Tycoon and Success magazines, the CBS Evening News, NBC News, ABC's Prime Time Live, Fox News, CNN and A&E as well as newspapers, radio programs, and Internet media worldwide.^[3][4] Robbins has been mentioned or featured in 15 major motion pictures, including a cameo role a romantic comedy film Shallow Hal, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, and Jason Alexander.^[5] In 2007, he was named to Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" list.^[6]

Robbins' programs have reached over 4 million people from 100 countries around the world.^[7][8]

Robbins was ranked among the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World” by Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change.^[9] Robbins has spoken at Harvard Business School^[10] and was ranked by the school among the “Top 200 Business Gurus” (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).^[11][12][13] It was estimated by Forbes Magazine that Robbins earned approximately USD$30 million from his various business activities in 2007.^[14]

Early life[link]

Robbins was born Jay Mahavorick in North Hollywood, California, on February 29, 1960. He later moved to Azusa, California, and attended Glendora High School. Robbins says that he lived in a small low-rent apartment in the Los Angeles area during his early twenties and had dreamed of living in a mansion for years. In 1984, as his career began to take off, he bought the Del Mar Castle, designed by Richard Requa, for $1.7M. He sold the property in 1988 for $3.25M.^[15]

Career[link]

Robbins began his career promoting seminars for Jim Rohn. According to Robbins, Rohn taught him that "happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. What we do with the things we have makes the biggest difference in the quality of life."^[16]

Later Robbins began his own work as a self-help coach. He taught neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and Ericksonian Hypnosis after training with NLP co-founder John Grinder. In 1983, Robbins learned to firewalk from Tolly Burkan^[17] and began to incorporate it into his seminars.^[18][19]

Robbins promoted his services as a "peak performance coach" through his books and TV infomercials, gaining strong public recognition and lucrative sales. He conducts a large range of seminars and live events around the world dedicated to achieving greatness in his participants by unleashing their personal power and helping them align their values with their individual life goals.^[20] In 1997, Robbins began the Leadership Academy seminar, in which participants learn to "[c]reate an identity for them self as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be."^[21] Robbins is a featured speaker on the seminar circuit sponsored by Learning Annex. Robbins appeared as a featured speaker at the 2007 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. His talk is among the top ten TED talks viewed online.^[22]

Robbins is involved with the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention, which focuses on personal, family and organizational psychology, and claims to help people "find breakthrough strategies and solutions for overcoming the problems that confront us all."^[23]

Seminars[link]

Tony Robbins giving a talk at a Twitter conference in 2009

Robbins also conducts seminars, including his four-day Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminar, Mastery University and Business Mastery.^{[24][25] [26]}

The UPW is also known as his firewalk seminar, during which the participants walk barefoot over hot coals at the end of the first evening. The aim of the seminar, demonstrated in the firewalk, is to illustrate that the main quality shared by those who achieve greatness is the ability to take action ("Personal Power").^[27]

Mastery University is promoted at the UPW seminar.^[24][25] Mastery University is composed of three seminars:

- Life Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a healthy lifestyle, and has in the past featured guest lecturers including Deepak Chopra and John Gray.

- Wealth Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a wealthy lifestyle.

- Date With Destiny, the only Mastery event at which Robbins is present for the entire event, is said to be designed to help participants align their values so that they are not in conflict, but rather are aligned with the participant's individual goals.^[28]

In 1997, Robbins initiated his Leadership Academy seminar,^[29] in which he invites participants to learn the skills he uses, with the stated goal of the program to enable the participant to "[c]reate an identity for yourself as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be".^[21]

In 2009 Robbins created his Business Mastery program,^[26] designed to provide business leaders with tools to manage and grow their businesses. The seminar is conducted live by Robbins and features entrepreneur guest speakers. Past speakers have included Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts,^[30] Peter Guber (Chairman & CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group)^[31] and Tony Hsieh (CEO and Founder of Zappos.com).^[32][33]

Books[link]

Robbins has published two best-selling books, Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within.

Unlimited Power, published in 1987, discusses the topics of health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships.^[34] One reviewer called the book "uplifting and idealistic" and referenced the "dynamic enthusiasm" of the book;"^[35] and another describes Robbins as “a persuasive communicator who spends more linage on step-by-step details of his recommendations than in self-boosterism."^[36] while another reviewer said it's "too wordy" and "reads like a transcript of a series of talks."^[37] Other reviewers dispute the book's originality, pointing to ideological similarities with Maxwell Maltz, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie, all of whom Robbins acknowledges in his book.^[38] Some have criticized the chapter called "Energy: The Fuel of Excellence" which includes information on food combining, lymphology, and deep breathing to promote health. Robbins makes reference to the book Fit for Life and its authors, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, whom he refers to as his "former partners".^[39] The National Council for Reliable Health Information wrote a critical review of the chapter and called his sources unreliable.^[40][41]

Awaken the Giant Within, published in 1992, was an expansion of his personal development techniques and strategies taught through a motivational self-help type approach. Robbins made the distinction between his techniques, coined as Neuro-Associative Conditioning as distinct from Neuro-Linguistic Programming because the trademarked difference is defined by the application of "conditioning" to a newly learned personal development technique and/or skill or strategy rather than "being programmed" and suggest-ably fixed once and for all by someone else who had more power than the individual to make a change.^[42]

Movie appearances and TV show[link]

Robbins has cameo roles in the 2001 movie Shallow Hal, the 1994 movie Reality Bites, three episodes of The Roseanne Show and an episode of The Sopranos.^[43] In July 2010, NBC debuted Breakthrough with Tony Robbins, a reality show that followed Robbins as he helped the show's participants face their personal challenges.^[44][45] NBC canceled the show, after airing two of the planned six episodes, due to low viewership of 2.8 million.^[46] In March 2012 the OWN Network picked the show up for another season beginning with the original first season set to re-run and thereafter leading directly into the new 2012 season.^[47]

In April 2012, Robbins began co-hosting "Oprah's Lifeclass" on the OWN Network ^[48]

Anthony Robbins Foundation[link]

In 1991, Robbins launched a charity, the Anthony Robbins Foundation.^[49] It is dedicated to empowering students and prisoners through food drives and learning programs based on his teachings.^[50] According to the official website, the foundation has "products and programs in more than 2,000 schools, 700 prisons, and 100,000 health and human service organizations."^[51] These programs have been written about and featured in many dozens of articles, appearing on various websites, like Cherish Our Children International^[52] and Harmony With No Limits.^[53] The independent charity watchdog, Charity Navigator, gives the foundation a rating of two out of four stars.^[54] The official website states that "the Foundation is committed to make a difference in the quality of life for children, the homeless, the prison population, and the elderly through its various programs". The foundation has subsequently led to the forming of "Basket Brigades" across the world that occur each Thanksgiving. Individuals and groups have joined together to assemble and deliver dinner baskets to needy families.^[49]

Lawsuits[link]

Federal Trade Commission: In May 1995, Robbins Research International (RRI) responded to Federal Trade Commission charges of misrepresentation of potential earnings to franchise investors. RRI and the FTC entered into a stipulated settlement agreement, in which RRI agreed to pay $221,260 (USD) in consumer redress. RRI did not admit guilt under the settlement.^[55]

Wade Cook: Financial seminar guru Wade Cook also sued Robbins for copyright infringement and plagiarism, alleging that Robbins used proprietary terms in his seminars and in his book Wall Street Money Machine. In 1998, a Tacoma, Washington, jury ordered Robbins to pay Cook US$650,900 in damages. The order to pay damages was temporarily withdrawn^[56] until 2000, when the ninth circuit court ruled that the trial judge has misinterpreted the statutes.

The verdict and damages were reinstated with a statement that "The Court found that U.S. District Court Judge, Jack Tanner, erred in "finding a conclusion contrary to the jury award" and sent instructions to reinstate the award. "This is a landmark decision by the 9th Circuit Court because of the high profile players and issues at stake" said lead attorney and Wade Cook General Counsel, Troy Romero. "The Court is telling individuals that, no matter who you are, the protection of copyrightable material will be preserved." Robbins was forced to pay the entire amount.^[57]

In 2001, Robbins filed a lawsuit against the Vancouver Sun newspaper, alleging defamation and libel. The judge determined the Vancouver Sun defamed Robbins when it called him a hypocrite. Awarding Robbins $20,000 in damages, the judge wrote "While damages are presumed, the plaintiff's failure to take the witness stand and to testify about his feelings and the impact of the defamation upon his reputation leaves the court somewhat in the dark about these matters". The court awarded Robbins his attorneys' fees and costs in addition to damages.^[58][59]

Celebrity status[link]

In his book Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins recalls meetings with various celebrities, saying he was a student of their success. People he mentioned were Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Princess Diana.^[60] In Robbins' infomercials, celebrity appearances were made by Fran Tarkenton, Pamela Anderson, Quincy Jones, Erin Brockovich and Anthony Hopkins. Robbins stated that they came without any compensation.^[61]

In 1994, President Bill Clinton invited Robbins, Marianne Williamson and Steven R. Covey to a meeting at Camp David. All parties "refused to divulge the substance of their meeting with the Clintons".^[62]

Personal life[link]

In 1984, Robbins and his ex-girlfriend, Liz Acosta, had a son, Jairek Robbins.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Robbins and his first wife Becky Robbins (née Jenkins) separated. Their divorce was finalized on June 21, 2001. Becky already had three children from two former marriages. Robbins considers them his own children.^[63]

In June 2001, Robbins married Bonnie Humphrey (now known as Sage Robbins)^[64]

Robbins alludes to his personal belief in God in Unlimited Power, giving the grand complexity of life as evidence of an intelligent designer.^[65]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Psychology portal

• Kaizen, the continuous improvement philosophy
• Self-help

References[link]