Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s interview at Harvard University, where the host asks: What should students aspire to?
Peterson’s answer is a absolute barn-burner. Watch this 10 minute video. Then please scroll down because I have some very important remarks.
What is your education for?
This question is SO important.
This is what an education is for. What Peterson said right here in this video! Well it’s not just true at Harvard. This is what Planet Perry is all about. This is what a true, noble marketing education is all about.
It’s about learning to THINK and SPEAK and ARTICULATE – so that you become a powerful person. So that you become powerful enough to alleviate suffering in the world.
We don’t just teach you how to sell and persuade here. We teach you how to THINK.
We teach you how to figure out if stuff is true or not.
We teach you: Get to the truth, not the sale.
We teach you how to say things that are true, and then speak the truth in such a way that people can TELL that it is true. With PROOF.
We teach you how to increase the trust that exists in the world, instead of degrading it. Instead of floating more turds in the swimming pool, like so many other people are doing.
And by the way I’m dead serious about teaching people to think. Because good writing and good thinking are one and the same.
Ari Galper of Sydney Australia was and is the furthest thing from an engineer that you can possibly imagine… he’s a pure “heart guy.” He’s also incredibly successful. But the other day he said to me, “Perry, you taught me how to think like an engineer. I picked that up from you learning Google AdWords. And when I need to think like an engineer, I can.”
One of the best things you can do here is pick up 5% of Perry’s engineer hat. Because you need to break things apart and check your numbers and put things back together and figure out how all those clicks and emails translate into dollars in the bank account.
You need to watch your bank account. You need to reverse engineer people and things and systems.
And yes, like Jordan Peterson says, this really IS a heroic journey that you’re on. Even on the bleak and dreary days. Even on the days where there’s no money in the shopping cart and nothing but bills in the mailbox. Because if you’re a serious entrepreneur, what you do every day is every bit as heroic as anything anybody’s doing at Harvard. Maybe more so.
"So many options for growing my business, but what should I do NOW?" Tell me your most pressing business problems and I'll show you your BEST next step.
This is why Planet Perry exists. This is why I roll out of bed every morning and brew the tea and write the emails and newsletters. It’s why we’re always inventing and discovering stuff. This is what New Renaissance is all about.
30 years ago my fave-rave professor at the U. of Nebraska, Dr. Knoll, said almost exactly the same thing as Peterson. Including the part about finding talented people and swinging the doors open WIDE for them.
Knoll was one of the GOOD guys – and one of the most loved and sought-out professors at the entire university. Because he took his job so incredibly seriously. Because he loved his students and he shouldered his God-given responsibility to grow them up into strong men and women.
That’s why I take my job so seriously. If Planet Perry has been a good place for you, you owe a debt of gratitude to my mentors and professors who really understood what education and life is about.
And I am asking YOU today: Take YOUR education seriously. Your brain is not a spam folder. You cannot afford to get your education from people who take their job any less seriously than Jordan Peterson takes his, any less seriously than Dr. Knoll took his, or any less seriously than I take mine.
How many oafs and yoyos are you allowing to pollute your inner space?
This is your one and only life. When it’s done you don’t get to go back and try again. Make something of it. Make your parents and your grandparents proud. And your ancestors and the long-gone and even ancient people who fought to bring us the world we have today – make them ALL proud. And leave a legacy so those who come after you will be proud too.
Seize the Day. With Passion and Fervor.
Perry Marshall
P.S. Subscribe to Peterson’s YouTube Channel. He is one of the rare and precious truth-tellers in this world. And go out and tell the truth today, because if you don’t, there’s no guarantee you’ll get your chance tomorrow.
Post your comments below.
Share This Post
About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
18 Comments on “Jordan Peterson at Harvard: What are you supposed to do with your life?”
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing Perry!
So good. So good in fact I just forwarded the link to this post to my 17 year old son.
Thank you for standing for truth.
God Speed.
Thanks for bringing Dr. Jordan’s great work to our attention. A beautiful message for our times.
In your email that I received yesterday, you said that you were fascinated by the question, “How do you hold conversations that nobody wants to have, because of political correctness or stupidity spasms or hidden agendas?”
I love this question and it’s at the heart of a global conversation we’re having called Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplace. We just published an interview with week with Sarah Rozenthuler, Author of Life Changing Conversations. In her interview, she addresses your question above head on. You can read it here: https://container13.com/right-conditions-stunning-conversations/
Perry, I’d love to interview you for this work.
To your great work life & success!
Bill
Hi Perry.
Have been following Jordan Petersson for a while.
Love his core message, to keep the sole whole by telling truth.
Sokrates truly changed the world by not compromising with that.
Thank you also for all the truths you are transmitting, they are not lost to the world.
I just made myself a promise:
Ill be a part of one of your mastermind groups, if you’ll have me that is, within two years.
See you then,
My warmest regards,
Anders
I will love to have you! Looking forward.
Thanks for the kick-in-the-butt reminder that what we’re doing is important work. We need to think critically and tell the truth.
I saw “Critical Thinker” on a resumé today and it lept off the page! That’s something that is incredibly valuable in any profession, especially marketing.
Sometimes “critical thinking” means thumb sucking critic, and sometimes it means deep insight.
This reminded me of Cardinal John Henry Newman (soon to be a catholic saint), who in his classical book “The idea of a University” (1852) writes that a university should be a community of thinkers engaging in intellectual pursuits. Newman held that narrow minds were born of narrow specialisation and stipulated that students should be given a solid grounding in all areas of study. The aim was to create “gentlemen”.
I’m glad I met you at a young age Perry. I’ve always been a debater and nowadays when I debate with other people I seem to have more facts and to be able to get more granular in my analysis. Being a Planet Perry follower is definitely contributing to this.
Brilliant, inspired – thanks for sharing Dr Peterson, Perry.
One of my most valued books is “Explaining Postmodernism” by Stephen Hicks. I am thrilled you’ve introduced me to a thinker who expands on this thesis – among others. I’m now supporting Dr. Peterson’s Patreon.
You’re doing great work, Perry. It’s posts like this that remind me just how valuable you are in our space.
Thanks again.
Keith I was just thinking about you very same day you posted this, telling someone at a training meeting about what you do. Hope all is well!
Hi Perry,
Im so happy you are still alive, kicking butt and being so honest and transparent. I followed a course from yours some years ago Adwords Copywriting Express. This video https://www.perrymarshall.com/47186/abusive-biker-boyfriend/
has so much value… showing you DO care about your students and visitors and so does this one above that so much resonates with what you are and not only with what you do!
You are one of the three guys I follow and read once in a while on my email (B. Burchard and Chris Winters).
No doubt I will continue following and visiting… Stay well.
Ben
Thanks for stopping by!
Glad to hear you’re also into Peterson, his videos are a rare beacon of truth and knowledge.
I reckon this is one of his best speeches, a particularly motivating section from a speech of his on opportunity and procrastination (shame it’s not on his own channel).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY48e1oDXSU&t=38s
When I meet someone, there’s one thing I’m looking for – and it’s not the ability to make a decision using evidence.
Because if they need evidence, they’d not be believing a fifty something frump like me because fifty something frumps aren’t the kind of people who stand in authority. Evidence is always something that is taught by authorities.
It also means that those who have authority figures in their lives won’t be taking time to speak with anyone else… like me. Because I’m the ultimate in non-authority figures. That doesn’t mean I’m stupid, it just means that most people are stupid enough to think I am – but are stupid because they make that decision based on nothing more than my appearance. Click my name for an exploration of this issue.
The people I’m looking for are able to reason things through for themselves, and that reasoning is self-evident. They don’t need to believe what I say, because the things I say to them make sense to them. They don’t need to believe me – or accept my word because I’m an authority for them. They believe themselves. They trust themselves and they trust their thinking because their reasoning has stood the test of time.
These are people who can think for themselves, and thus need no evidence and no authority figures in their lives.
These are the people who can learn, will always be learning because learning is the one thing that brings light and wonder into one’s world.
As for everybody else…
I like to sell to people who can think for themselves. They’re in the minority.
So what one question would you ask them to know if they can think for themselves? It would have to be the kind of ballsy question that to even ask means you’ve dealt with most of your head trash… a question like my “Would you let Christ wash your feet?” Most Christians are happy to accept Jesus’ death on the cross because he died for all of us.
When it comes to washing the feet, that’s where it gets personal…
Business problems are where things get personal. I know that, you know that… it’s where the philosophy of the business schools falls flat on its face because it’s all about “Jesus died for all of us, it’s not personal, you see. Keep your head trash because the professors at Harvard have.”
So what one question would you ask them to know if they can think for themselves?
Either that, or you need a fifty something frump to do it for you… who nobody believes unless they believe their own thinking.
Which is what clearing out the head trash is all about, right?
Excellent! thanks for sharing this Perry!