Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi — Saviours of Education or Just Dabblers?

Cover Photo - Left: Tony Robbins. Right: Dean Graziosi

250,000 people tuned in as Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi went live to announce their “revolutionary” KBB Method.

As someone who decided to tackle the Education issue this year through my writing and through my skill development program, I couldn’t help but listen to what they had to say, word by word. And as I was listening to what they were saying, I went through a wide range of emotions:

At times I was fervently screaming “YES!!” Other times I’d be mad. Other times I was quietly listening, waiting for the big revelation.

Was the event really that intense in emotions?

I’d say it depends on how deeply you care about a better Education (you should) and how deeply you’re involved in changing it. And truly, when you feel these guys’ energy, it’s hard not to be shaken at least a little.

So, now that it’s over, is it what they say it truly is?

The answer is not so simple.

The problem

For those of you not familiar with the matter, I’ve previously written about how now is the time for a revolution, not an evolution.

Yuval Noah Harari summed it best here:

“If somebody describes the world of the mid-21st century to you and it doesn’t sound like science fiction, it is certainly false.” — Yuval Noah Harari

Following up on that, I wrote about what the state Education is currently in and what its pain points are.

And if you think I’m the only one thinking that we’re due for a revolution, think again. Check out these wonderful pieces after reading this:

During the live session, Robbins and Graziosi talked about some of the pain points and further stressed the implications of this archaic system we call “education system”.

Robbins doesn’t have any degree. Today, he’s involved in 52 different businesses that generate 6 billion dollars a year. People consider him an exception to the rule.

(1) he’s far from being the only “exception”, and (2), does it have to be that way?

That’s what he and Graziosi are hoping to solve.

But can they achieve this? Can they bring Education to the next level? Can they make everyone “Tony-Robbins-successful”?

The solution

They call their solution the Knowledge Business Blueprint (KBB). The tagline, from what I could get from the presentation, is this: Extract, Share, Impact, and Profit.

To be honest, it’s not at all what I expected when they pumped me up at the beginning.

When they were mentioning the problems, I was nodding madly and screaming “YES!” When they peeled into the theory of the solution, I was almost heartbroken — in a strangely positive way. I thought they were just about to kill my business in one fell swoop.

I was sad that I’d have to compete with such giants (in all senses of the word!) but so happy that people of such tremendous power would finally wake up and delivery Thor’s Hammer on Education.

You should see the wall of text I was sending to my assistant around that time. I really couldn’t decide if I was happy or mad.

Then they dropped the bomb on us and revealed their secret project. They had spent eight months working on it and claim it cost them $450,000 to build a custom software around it.

No offence on the development cost, but I chuckled a bit. If they worked eight months on it and only spent $450,000, it’s not that big of an effort, given that an engineer easily costs 100,000 a year nowadays in the United States. It’s not that massive of an engineering effort…

Software engineering grumbles aside, the KBB actually sounds interesting, if you can afford the $1,997 price point. I obviously haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t say if it’s any good, but the concept is sound.

The KBB Method is not for the learner, it’s for the “teacher” (we’ll call them trainers or educators going forward). So at least on that part, the consumer wins. But you can bet that at this price point, the trainers will want to make money out of this investment. And they will, I’m pretty convinced about that. I’m also convinced it’s worth the money.

The solution’s problem

I strongly believe in education through experts instead of teachers. So much so that last week I decided to go all in on SkillUp Academy, and more specifically on getting expert trainers to make live sessions on our platform and share them with the world.

I even do my own teaching here about Skill Development. I wrote two of the most comprehensive guides out there on learning skills:

I love talking about skill development because I’ve seen my whole life being completely transformed 17 months ago, simply by learning 3 new skills every month.

But there’s a catch to the KBB: I really don’t think it will make Education more affordable or accessible.

As much as I’d LOVE for expert training to be the gold standard of Education, as they want this to be, the reality is that it’s going to cost a lot of money for the consumer — the learner.

During the live presentation, they kept bragging about the 100 people who had the privilege to use it and how they instantly turned them into profit machines.

Good for them, but what about people who can’t afford these mega expensive trainers?

And I don’t want to get into politics here, so I won’t say that the socialist approach is better or worse, because quite frankly, I don’t know which is better. And does one method have to be better anyway?

An alternative, or complementary solution

For all the things people might discredit Sam Walton or Jeff Bezos on, I think no one can deny their one true power:

“Customers always comes first.”

They breathe that and their businesses bloomed.

Robbins and Graziosi are also doing that with KBB, except, their customers are not the consumers. While it’s true that we need more, better educators, I can’t help but shake the feeling of déjà vu:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” — Henry Ford

Are they simply just providing faster horses?

I think they have the wrong target to change the face of education. By focusing on faster horses, they are going for an evolution. A good one for sure, but certainly not the revolution they want to achieve. This is just an opinion.

“Consumers always comes first.”

We have 7.7 billion consumers on earth. As such, we have 7.7 billion learners, ready to consume content to help them skill up their life. At one point, once we have great educators, we’ll have to focus on them. And that’s where a true revolution will happen.

It’s great that two giants I completely admire stepped up and took Education head on. I’m beyond excited, truly. And personally, I think their biggest impact with KBB might end up being the amount of awareness it will generate on the issue, and less so on the actual implementation.

This will help the little guys like me with SkillUp Academy, Colleen Mascenikwith the BreakAway Learning Project, Ariel Margolis with E-learning Solved, Brett Venoitte with the School Sucks Project, and many more.

Ultimately, whoever puts the consumer first will win. Not that it’s a race, because if one wins, everyone wins.

Saviours?

KBB is a solid idea, built on a solid foundation. The implementation seems stellar, and we certainly couldn’t ask for a better power team.

While directly, it won’t be accessible to everyone — both because of the upfront cost for trainers, and because it won’t be affordable for the everyday consumer — I believe it will kickstart the winds of change we desperately need in Education.

We need more Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi.

We need more public faces stepping up in big ways. Brendon Burchard and Seth Godin, please push this further. Yuval Noah Harari, you’re already doing amazing. Your work will have even more impact in the years to come.

But outside of the self-help business, how about we call out people you may not immediately think about but could have a HUGE impact on spreading the word?

Louis CK, help your daughter get a better education. We need someone who’s not afraid to say it as it is. At that, sir, you are a champion amongst men (that’s a compliment).

Richard Branson, my role model, you could have yet more impact in this world. What a grand-dude you would be to your grand-children if you help revolutionize the Education industry like you have many other industries before.

Elon Musk, you talked about how disastrous AI could be for humanity, and you know innovative solutions to Education could solve a good chunk of the issue. People have been imploring you to forget space (don’t) and focus on where we currently are — Earth. I have no doubt you can be a part of the solution for Education on Earth.

But whoever steps up, as consumers, we should continuously fight for better Education. For ourselves, for our children, and for our children’s children. I strongly believe that revolutionizing Education can change the world for the better.

So I say: “let’s get this party started!”

Let’s do this!