A new documentary worth watching

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A new documentary worth watching
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• As a side effect of my job, I get to watch TV
  shows, movies, and documentaries so I can stay
  abreast in this everchanging industry (no
  complaints here). Many of the shows and movies
  are not even worth mentioning, but, every now and
  then, I find a jewel, either because of the
  entertainment value or in some cases for the
  inspiration and lessons learned.

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• As I shifted through some of the new
  documentaries available online, looking for a bit
  of inspiration myself, I came across I am not
  your guru, which features the charismatic,
  omnipresent, and energizing Tony Robbins
  during one of his events in Boca Raton, Florida.

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• To be honest, it took me a while to decide to
  watch the documentary. In the back of my mind,
  something was telling that this guy, Mr. Robbins,
  was not worth my time, maybe even a fraud. I
  guess I imagined a guru with a huge entourage, a
  million-dollar smile, and full of wishy-washy
  one-liners carefully crafted to manipulare the
  weak-minded people who would pay thousands of
  dollars to attend one of his events. But
  listening to Tony talk about the doc changed my
  mind.

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• I had heard about this doc a few months ago, in a
  popular podcast, in which Mr. Robbins explained
  how the documentary came to exist. He explained
  how, at the beginning, the producer (who had
  unwillingly attended one of Robbins seminars)
  was so pleasantly surprised after his own
  experience, he proposed to make the film.

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• However, Tony refused, arguing that the cameras
  might be too distracting for the audience. It
  took two years of convincing for the shooting to
  finally begin. At that moment of the conversation
  (maybe I felt for the psychology technique) I
  became really interested in watching it.

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SPOILER ALERTS

• Just after the first few minutes of watching the
  show, the first shocker for me his use of foul
  language. Not because I mind that type of
  language at all (I welcome it) but because the
  reality did not match my expectations of that
  kind of guru in the middle of a live audience,
  so the first time he shared one of his thoughts
  with several iterations of a popular four-letter
  word, people from the live audience dropped their
  jaws, as if they had heard something they were
  not supposed to. Later on the film, Tony explains
  how that type of language breaks through the
  noise in our subconscious and penetrates deeply
  into our brains, definitely achieving full
  attention.

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• In the first intervention, a suicidal young
  German, who looked on the verge of breaking down,
  bravely shared some of his weaknesses and deepest
  thoughts with the whole audience. At that point,
  with a mix of humor and tough parental love, Tony
  managed to break through the timid European,
  basically using tons of energy, a sharp stare,
  and the right combination of words. And it
  worked.

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• The German ended up being lifted by other joyful
  members of the audience, like a matador from one
  of Hemingways novels. I will not spoil the rest
  of the interventions, but, in my opinion, they
  are worth watching, even if it is just for the
  simple fact of watch human psychology 101 in
  action, in front of a live audience. Some of the
  dialogues are quite dramatic.

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• Now, this documentary, or this type of
  psychology, is NOT for everyone. Discussing the
  doc with several of my colleagues, they quickly
  pointed out that some of the people who attend
  those seminars are so gullible that would fall
  victims for any charismatic person with the right
  things to say and enough confidence to sway. So,
  the detractors of the film might find some
  confirmation when they watch some of the scenes.

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• However, in my opinion, I dont see his
  seminars as a scam, nor do I see the attendees of
  these events as weak, naive people. In fact, some
  of them are quite courageous by opening up to the
  world and desperately looking for some guidance
  to get out of their personal black holes.

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• As far as the entertainment value of the
  documentary, if you are looking for people
  uncovering their deepest stories or if you are
  just curious about how a seminar of this
  magnitude looks from the inside, its definitely
  worth watching.

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