The gospel according to Robbins

A self-help guru spreads the word

by Dorie Clark

WOULD YOU buy a used car from this man?

The business-suited people crowded outside the FleetCenter last Thursday looked slightly embarrassed to be just standing around in the rush-hour sun. As commuters brushed past, they clutched their briefcases. A few late arrivals tentatively asked, "Is this the line to see the speakers?"

By 8:30 a.m., all hesitation had been wiped away. The crowd of 13,000 was safely inside, and the Goldstar Dancers -- five high-kicking young women in sequined halter tops -- had taken the stage to welcome them to Results 2000, an all-day personal-improvement extravaganza.

The event, which costs up to $229 per person and hits several cities each year, is the brainchild of Anthony Robbins, the six-foot-seven infomercial king and author of such books as Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within. The day's line-up of motivational speakers (Robbins, Brian Tracy, tax attorney Sandy Botkin) was supplemented by pop-culture celebrities such as former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden, retired Celtic Bill Russell, and Christopher Reeve.

At times, Results 2000 felt a lot like Super Bowl Sunday. The Goldstar Dancers were followed by the national anthem and an indoor fireworks show. Robbins entered the arena to Tina Turner's "Simply the Best." And there were plenty of commercial breaks, though here they all took the form of Robbins and his cohorts pitching their collections of audiotapes. (Robbins gave a special plug for his Lighten Up! weight-loss kit, which costs $89 and includes "Prime pH Liquid Lightning Colloidal Drops.")

Robbins frequently got the audience to jump up and shout, "Yes!" And his staff threw out beach balls, quickly snapped up by souvenir seekers, that were imprinted with a Robbins motto: "Everything in life happens for a reason and a purpose and it serves us."

Such antics proved popular with the mostly white, mostly middle-aged crowd. "As a physical experience, it was great," said Diane Boylan, a management consultant from Dover.

As an intellectual experience, it didn't provide many surprises. Robbins stuck to tried-and-true themes, including his belief that "you change the body and the mind goes there." He told audience members to write down one specific life-improving action to take in the next 90 days, and he offered this incantation: "I am the voice. I will lead, not follow." But he did all this with such chest-thumping panache (he gives Celine Dion a run for her money) that he easily kept the audience's interest, even among long-time fans who'd heard it all before.

Kevin Rillovick, a recruiter for 7-Eleven, says that he's been listening to Robbins tapes since the early 1990s. "A lot of it you could classify as kind of hokey or packaged stuff you could get from anybody else," he says, "but if you hear it enough, it'll sink in." As for Robbins himself: "This guy, he's a great communicator. He gets the message across. I'd buy a used car from him."

Believers in self-help often seek to spread the gospel. Dave Flaherty, president of a Springfield-based software company, attended a Robbins seminar with his wife six months ago in Hartford, and he returned for the FleetCenter event -- with 11 employees in tow.

"We were very pumped up after the Hartford show," he says. "We're spending three or four thousand dollars to bring all these people. We wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was worth it."

In the end, the self-help gurus leave a lot of questions unanswered. Although they speak in lofty, general terms about "improving your quality of life," the specifics always seem to involve money. One of the day's speakers, Brian Tracy, rhapsodized about how many people had come up to him in airports, thanking him for the huge salary increases they got after following his prescriptions. There's not much room in that world view for folks who choose careers like teaching -- where, even if you improve at your craft by one thousand percent, your salary probably won't change.

Still, in today's go-go society few people are addressing the issues that Robbins did last Thursday: "What is the purpose of your life? Things happen for a reason. What did you come here to decide, to resolve? Do not settle, my friends. Do not settle for less than you can be."

At least, no one else is addressing these issues accompanied by a bugle-heavy soundtrack, on a stage festooned with palm trees.