Pod Insights The School of Greatness Jordan Peterson on How to Build Confidence, Cultivate Inner Peace & The Psychology of MONEY (Part 2) EP 1094 About this episode “Generally, someone else’s comment is unlikely to bring you to a halt unless you value that comment.”Today's guest is Jordan B. Peterson. He’s known for teaching mythology to lawyers, doctors and business people, helping his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia. His lectures have been viewed by millions of people online. Jordan has published over a hundred scientific papers, transforming the modern understanding of personality. This is actually the second part of my interview with Jordan, so if you haven’t listen to part 1, make sure to go to www.lewishowes.com/1093. In this episode Lewis and Jordan discuss the keys to building confidence and attracting the life you want, how to overcome feeling lazy and unmotivated, what Jordan’s mindset is around money and how you can prepare yourself psychologically to start earning more, and so much more! For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1094Check out his website: www.selfauthoring.comCheck out his book: Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for LifeThe Wim Hof Experience: Mindset Training, Power Breathing, and Brotherhood: https://link.chtbl.com/910-podA Scientific Guide to Living Longer, Feeling Happier & Eating Healthier with Dr. Rhonda Patrick: https://link.chtbl.com/967-podThe Science of Sleep for Ultimate Success with Shawn Stevenson: https://link.chtbl.com/896-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Transcript 10,801 words · 2 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Lewis Howes? This is episode number 1,094 with Jordan Peterson, part two. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.
0:28 Lewis Howes? Sharon Salzberg said, "The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention." And psychologist Ellen Langer said, "It is not primarily our physical selves that limit us, but rather our mindset about our physical limits." I am so excited. If you listened to part one of Jordan Peterson, then you know you're in for a special treat today because Jordan Peterson is back for part two. And he is known for teaching mythology to lawyers, doctors, and business people all over the world, helping his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia. His lectures have been viewed by millions and millions of people around the world.
1:09 Lewis Howes? And he's published over 100 scientific papers transforming the modern understanding of personality. His previous book, 12 Rules for Life, was a massive New York Times bestselling hit, selling millions of copies. And he's now back with a new book titled Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. And this is part two of our episode with Jordan. And if you haven't listened to part one, it is going to blow you away. You can check it out just by going back one episode on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this, or go to lewishouse.com/1093. And in this episode, we discuss the keys to building confidence and attracting the life you want. How to overcome feeling lazy and unmotivated in your life.
1:50 Lewis Howes? Why Jordan believes in cultivating inner peace even when there's chaos happening around you. The skills that Jordan believes everyone should be developing now in their life. And what Jordan's mindset is around money and how you can prepare yourself psychologically to start earning more. And if you're enjoying this, make sure to share this. Was someone you think needs to hear it or who would be inspired by this message? And if this is your first time here, please subscribe to the School of Greatness over on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this and leave us a rating and review sharing your biggest takeaway from this episode as well. Okay, in just a moment, the one and only Jordan B Peterson.
2:31 Lewis Howes? I saw a clip from an interview of your daughter and your wife together. I think it was on your daughter's podcast and your wife was mentioning something about how you were smitten over her for, I don't know, a period of time. Maybe this was years, but she was never showing the interest in return until-
2:51 Jordan B. Peterson? Just glimpses of it, just enough to keep me interested.
2:54 Lewis Howes? Right, but she wasn't going to date you, you know, or be committed, I guess, or whatever she said until there was-
3:02 Jordan B. Peterson? I can tell you what she's like. It's easy. One day I went over there. I was about 13 to her house. I was delivering papers and it was her paper route. I'd taken it over. And, and so, um, she was there with one of her friends and my wife, Tammy, she was very popular among all the boys, even when she was in grade three and four. Like, there was like 10 of us. It wasn't a very big town and we were all in love with her.
3:27 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
3:27 Jordan B. Peterson? Except for one guy who was not just out of spite. And this is true. Like, I can remember this very clearly. Anyways, um, I went over there when I was, she was a friend of mine when I was a kid, but there was always this romantic interest part of it, even when we were very young.
3:47 Jordan B. Peterson? And we didn't see much of each other when we were around 13. You know, girls mature faster than boys and I was also one year behind. In any case, I went over to her place one day delivering these newspapers and she was talking to her friend, Hazel, blonde girl, who was a very attractive girl as well. And they were talking about getting married and they were, you know, being kind of cynical and smart ass about it.
4:14 Jordan B. Peterson? Tammy said to her friend, "I don't want to change my name when I get married. I'm going to have to marry some wimp." And she turned around and looked at me and smiled and she said, "Jordan, would you like to get married?"
4:24 Lewis Howes? Wow.
4:25 Jordan B. Peterson? And I thought, and she was playing, like it was a poke and it was, you know, genuinely a poke. But she knew I liked her. And, and so, you know, it was one of those barbs that's funny because it's close to the bone. Right, right. Well, that's where real humor exists, right? It's right on that cutting edge. And so that was her. She was provocative like that. And I told her that story when we decided to get married. And I said, "Well, you're Tammy Peterson, not Tammy Roberts." And so that, you know, I got the last laugh in that story, but it took like 20 years.
5:00 Lewis Howes? For sure. Well, she had mentioned something like, you know, "He wasn't suitable or ready for me until, until you were."
5:09 Jordan B. Peterson? And I don't know. Oh, she, you know, it's typical, like as soon as she found out that I was attractive to other women because I was vaguely competent, then she swooped in for the kill.
5:18 Lewis Howes? Exactly. So I'm curious, what is the, what are the keys to building confidence? When you feel insecure, afraid, or scared of being embarrassed? Whether it be dating someone, or a career, or anything? What's the keys to building confidence so that you're attracting what you want?
5:37 Jordan B. Peterson? Look, you, I read some of your biographical history before we talked today. And you tell a story about being picked last. And then you compensated for that.
5:48 Lewis Howes? Yes.
5:49 Jordan B. Peterson? Now Alfred Adler, by the way, the psychoanalyst, the associate of Freud, built his whole theory around compensation of that sort. Inferiority complex plus compensation. But it's adaptive, right? Like you got picked last, it embarrassed the hell out of you. So what did you do? You decided that is not going to be me anymore.
6:09 Lewis Howes? Never again. Never again. Yes.
6:11 Jordan B. Peterson? Okay. Now you did say, you know, that you adopted a maybe two. What inflexible model of what it meant to be masculine as a consequence. But when I read that, I thought, yeah, but still you fair enough. It wasn't the the new you that you adopted wasn't optimal in all possible manners, but it was definitely improvement over the previous you.
6:35 Lewis Howes? Exactly. I wasn't picked last again, that's for sure.
6:38 Jordan B. Peterson? Right. Well, exactly. Okay. So, so, so the first thing I would say is that if you feel insecure and less and ashamed and all of that, that you have to take stock. And look, I have an exercise online at selfauthoring.com. It's there's three exercises there. One helps you write about the past, one about the present and one about the future. The present authoring program helps you assess your faults and your virtues. Okay, well, if you have some faults and you feel insecure and inferior because of that, well, you should. Now, it shouldn't be so much that you're crippled by it and unable to take action. You shouldn't be beating yourself into the ground because you're not everything you could be, because no one is.
7:19 Jordan B. Peterson? And if you beat yourself into the ground, then you can't get up and improve. But you, you, you, you have to differentiate. It's like, okay, to what degree am I being hard on myself? Counter productively critical, hearing the voice of my too harsh and angry father in my head?
7:37 Lewis Howes? Right.
7:38 Jordan B. Peterson? Um, adopting inappropriate stereotypical representations of masculine competence? How much of my self criticism is ill advised? Fair enough. And you want to deal with yourself with a certain amount of care. But then, along with that, there's the, well, fix your weaknesses. You know, if you're ashamed of being ignorant, you're showing up at a party because, you know, you claim to knowledge that you don't have and someone exposes you. Well, you can be angry at them and you probably will, but they've actually done you a favor.
8:14 Jordan B. Peterson? They pointed out, an inadequacy is a pathway that you can travel down. Right? A recognized inadequacy is, as soon it's such a gift in some sense, if it's accurate. I'm in it, because you think, well, what should I do? What should I do with my life? That's a real complicated question. Oh, here's an inadequacy. Excellent, you have a, you have a goal now. Rectify it. Now, you still have to think strategically and figure out how to rectify it and do it step by step and, but
8:46 Jordan B. Peterson? Carl Rogers, the psychotherapist,
8:49 Jordan B. Peterson? pointed out that
8:52 Jordan B. Peterson? the person, for therapy to be successful, the person has to want to change. So they have to have recognized that they have a problem. If, if someone is mandated by the court to attend therapy, it's very difficult for the therapist to convince them that they have a problem. Once you're convinced you have a problem, it's like away you go. You know, I know it's still technically difficult, it requires discipline and all of that. There's no magic solution, but if you're plagued by feelings of inferiority, you should rectify the most obvious inferiorities.
9:25 Lewis Howes? Right. Focus on those first, over optimizing strengths, would you say?
9:31 Jordan B. Peterson? No, not necessarily, not, not necessarily. I'm, and you don't have to redress every, like, I can't. I'm a terrible jazz musician.
9:41 Lewis Howes? But it's not, it's not, it's not a thing where you hold shame around or like insecurity.
9:45 Jordan B. Peterson? It's not an impediment.
9:46 Lewis Howes? Yeah, yeah.
9:47 Jordan B. Peterson? I would say that you have to rectify an inadequacy when it's clearly an impediment to your goal. Or you have to shift goals, but if you're shifting goals because of an inadequacy related impediment, then you have to ask yourself, are you, is your desire to shift the goal reliable? Or are you just taking the easy way out?
10:06 Lewis Howes? Right.
10:07 Jordan B. Peterson? You can protect yourself by, by picking a different goal that's more difficult. That, that's a good mental hygiene practice, because sometimes you should switch goals rather than rectifying inadequacies. But you can fool yourself then, and, and that's, that's not good.
10:22 Lewis Howes? And if someone is goalless, lazy, unmotivated,
10:29 Lewis Howes? not sure what they want to do. What would be a few key steps to get started? To, to turn their life around or to find the motivation for something greater than where they're at?
10:41 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, I think a fair bit of that's probably to be found in, you can find it in shame, you can find it in guilt, you can find it in conscience, you can find it in anger, you can find it in interest, and engagement and beauty. There's lots of pathways. If you're angry about something in the world, well, you know, that's an indication that that's, in some sense, your problem. Right? It's speaking to you in a moral sense. This shouldn't be that way. Well, maybe you're the person who should do something about it in some manner. Maybe it'll take your whole life to figure out how to do that. But it's bothering you for a reason.
11:25 Jordan B. Peterson? So, the negative emotions can be a pathway to transformation. I'm not trying to romanticize them. They can crush you completely and leave you with nothing.
11:36 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
11:37 Jordan B. Peterson? Right? For sure. And they can go badly astray, but shame, that's a good one. What am I ashamed of? Well, can you fix any of that? Because you might ask yourself, let's say you're so ashamed and so crushed that you're nihilistic and you can't see any hope for life. You're just done. You might think, well, what if I was less ashamed? Like, I'm not gonna jump off the bridge today. I'm gonna wait a year. I'm gonna not, I'm gonna work on these things that I'm ashamed of. And, and just see, like, does my life improve enough so that I'm not so bitter about it now? Or I'm not so hopeless about it now? And my experience has generally been that that works.
12:20 Jordan B. Peterson? It works. And then, some of, some of it's practical knowledge too. It's like you can get a really long way with very small changes, incremental changes.
12:31 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
12:31 Jordan B. Peterson? Micro habit changes. So, aim low.
12:36 Lewis Howes? Don't have big, big goals or big transformation.
12:38 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, you can, but, but the problem with a big goal is that it's daunting enough so that it might paralyze you and there's a high probability of failure. And so imagine that you're your own child. Okay, now imagine you love this child and you would like him, we'll say him because it's you and I talking, to succeed. Now, you have an ideal for this child. You would like him to grow up to be the best he can be, better than you, the best man he can be. That's what you want for your son, if the good part of you is talking.
13:13 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
13:14 Jordan B. Peterson? You definitely want him to be better than you are, but you want him to be the best he could be, if your vision is unclouded. Okay, but then you offer him a goal. It's like, well, do this. Well, can he do it? Well, if he can do it without a second's thought, there's no challenge in it. There's no developmental impetus. It's not in the zone of proximal development. You want a goal that you can do, but that requires some improvement on your part. Because you want to attain the goal, that's satisfying, but then you want to make yourself into the thing that can attain goals.
13:50 Lewis Howes? That means you have to.
13:51 Jordan B. Peterson? And so you want to push yourself.
13:52 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
13:53 Jordan B. Peterson? You want to push yourself a bit further.
13:55 Lewis Howes? Yeah, yeah.
13:55 Jordan B. Peterson? Yes. And, and, and there, there's an ample psychological literature that suggests that that's where maximal motivation is to be found.
14:03 Lewis Howes? Interesting.
14:05 Jordan B. Peterson? So you're, you're pursuing a goal, but you're also pursuing the goal of transforming yourself at the same time. You're doing both of those at the same time.
14:14 Lewis Howes? Do you need to know that you're transforming yourself in order to attain the goal? Or do most people just think, I gotta take these steps to make it happen, but they don't realize they're becoming better human beings?
14:24 Jordan B. Peterson? They, it depends on what you mean by realize. They, they, they have the sense of satisfaction and confidence that would indicate that, although they might not be able to make what that means explicit. But I would say it would be better to make it explicit. It's, it adds one other dimension of possible motivation.
14:47 Lewis Howes? How do you think people lose confidence? We talk about gaining it, but how does someone? How could someone like yourself, who's accomplished so much, who's got millions of followers, who, you know, is financially successful, has a great marriage? How could someone lose confidence, once they've built it?
15:05 Jordan B. Peterson? Illness.
15:09 Jordan B. Peterson? That'll do it. That's one way.
15:13 Jordan B. Peterson? Death. Of someone. Loss. I mean, there's lots of ways of having the rug pulled out from underneath you.
15:25 Jordan B. Peterson? Moral error.
15:28 Jordan B. Peterson? As the stakes get higher, as we already discussed, the consequences get larger. Ingratitude. That's a big one.
15:40 Jordan B. Peterson? You can succumb to the temptation to believe your own egotism. That's a big mistake.
15:48 Jordan B. Peterson? There's lots of ways that things can go sideways, that's for sure.
15:52 Lewis Howes? So it sounds like, you know, we start off with a lack of confidence. When we're pointed at, you're inadequate in this thing. And we go down a journey of,
16:04 Lewis Howes? you know, building ourselves and overcoming the challenges and diving into the fear to to have these small wins to build confidence. And then the more successful we become, the more we succumb to losing that confidence again. When a lot, one of these things-
16:20 Jordan B. Peterson? No, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say necessarily that you become more susceptible to that. But you asked, how can that happen?
16:27 Lewis Howes? Right, right, right.
16:28 Jordan B. Peterson? Loss occur? I think, I think, I still believe that, you know, genuine accomplishment. But it's ethical, it's always ethical accomplishment. I believe that to be the case. Genuine ethical accomplishment is the best. Source of security, but it's not un- unerring.
16:49 Lewis Howes? When you mean ethical accomplishment, do you mean?
16:52 Jordan B. Peterson? Doing something good, right?
16:54 Lewis Howes? Whether people know about it or not, just good and right for yourself. Is that what I'm hearing you say? Or does someone else need to acknowledge that this was good and right?
17:05 Jordan B. Peterson? I, I, I think if, if you, if you've done it for yourself, that's good. But if you do it and other people are in on it and, and along for the ride, that's also good. Sometimes that's better.
17:17 Jordan B. Peterson? To bring people along.
17:20 Jordan B. Peterson? If it's just a matter of them acknowledging it, well, there's value in that too. I mean, you know, you, people say, well, you shouldn't care what people think of you. It's like, well, of course you should. Psychopaths don't care what people think of them. Now, you shouldn't care so much what people think about you that you're willing to lie to maintain whatever it is that you think they value. Like, there are places beyond which that becomes counterproductive, clearly, but of course, well, I mean, I read the comments in YouTube particularly, and I pay attention to them. And if, you know, thirty people say something like, here's something I do, and I probably did it to you.
18:03 Jordan B. Peterson? When I'm interviewing, I interrupt more than a certain percentage of my audience would like.
18:10 Lewis Howes? I get, that's my comments. It's like, just let them speak. You interrupt them much. So I just try to shut up more now.
18:17 Jordan B. Peterson? Do you know the joke?
18:19 Lewis Howes? What's the joke?
18:21 Jordan B. Peterson? Knock, knock.
18:22 Lewis Howes? Who's there?
18:24 Jordan B. Peterson? The interrupting cow.
18:27 Jordan B. Peterson? Moo.
18:30 Jordan B. Peterson? Sorry, it's a stupid joke, but it's a stupid joke. Anyhow, so, you know, I read those and that's what people think. And, and then I, I think, okay, I should probably try to interrupt less, but I get excited. And, and then with Zoom, there's a lag and that makes it harder. But I do pay attention and you should pay attention, I think.
18:53 Lewis Howes? When, you know, I hear a lot of people say,
18:58 Lewis Howes? Don't let the opinions of other people hold you back from taking action on your goals. Because I think a lot of people will listen to other people's opinions. And they feel scared to do something based on someone saying, "I told you so," or "You couldn't do this," or "You're not good enough." How do we overcome that? Those opinions? That keep us playing small, that hold us from putting our creations into the world or going after what we want?
19:21 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, generally, someone else's comment is unlikely to bring you to a halt unless you value that comment. So imagine you're going to pursue a goal. But you're full of doubts. And so forty percent of you is doubts and sixty percent of you is pursuing the goal. And then five or six people object, and they object using the doubts. Well, you're, you're, it's, that's gonna be really hard on you.
19:55 Lewis Howes? So how do we overcome this self-doubt?
19:56 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, partly what that means is you probably haven't thought it through completely. Like, what are you doing? And why? And if you have a bunch of doubts and they haven't been addressed, then you're vulnerable at that point. And it may be that your goal is not everything it could be. And it may be that your strategy isn't fully fleshed out. And so you have to have a conversation with your doubts and take them seriously and see if you can construct a goal that's, that you're on board with.
20:38 Jordan B. Peterson? And then, then a doubt pops up because someone criticizes you, it triggers a doubt, and you look at the doubt and you think, okay, here's the doubt, and this is why what I'm doing, you know, maybe won't work. But then you think, but I, but this? I've thought this through, and I've thought this through, and I've thought this through. And that all works, and so, no. That, that isn't going to stop me.
21:01 Jordan B. Peterson? You know, so I look and I think, well, I'm, I'm, I'm writing something. Why? Well, I want to figure out this problem. I want to think about this problem. Why? Well, it's an engaging problem, but it's a problem that many people seem to have. So that discussing it and figuring it out seems to be useful. Why? Well, because the more of us who take problems seriously and try to address them and communicate about them, the fewer problems we might have and the less suffering there'll be. And suffering doesn't seem to be a good thing, unnecessary suffering. Maybe we could work towards it and maybe that's what I should be doing. And that seems to be what's ethical and, and that's it.
21:45 Lewis Howes? Right.
21:46 Jordan B. Peterson? And you might say, you might say, well, what if you doubt that doing what's ethical is right? Um, well, it's not that easy to construct an argument that supports the idea that having more unnecessary suffering in the world is good.
22:08 Lewis Howes? Mm hmm. Right.
22:12 Jordan B. Peterson? So I would say, you know, you want to put yourself on firm moral foundations. And people talk about morality all the time. This is what you should do, or you're a bad person. It's arbitrary. You know, it's, it's got this ring of patriarchal tyranny. But that, that's based on a misapprehension of what morality is. It's like, do you want to be tortured by your conscience? Like, how, I mean, how pleasant do you find it to be tortured by your conscience?
22:41 Lewis Howes? It's horrible.
22:43 Jordan B. Peterson? How horrible? Like, is there anything worse?
22:45 Lewis Howes? It's excruciating. Yeah. I don't, I don't know if there's anything worse. I mean, if you've got
22:50 Jordan B. Peterson? It's up there.
22:50 Lewis Howes? You've got to live with it, yeah, for as long as you have it.
22:54 Jordan B. Peterson? Yeah. Well, I think that's a universal experience, a near universal experience. So you, you live ethically when you're not violating your conscience.
23:02 Lewis Howes? Right.
23:04 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, there isn't anything better than that. That might not be good enough. It might not even be good. Like, let's say you manage it. Things can still come along and, and take you out sideways, but, but the purpose of living ethically is so that
23:20 Jordan B. Peterson? So that you have some peace.
23:22 Lewis Howes? Yeah. What are?
23:24 Jordan B. Peterson? And it's real.
23:25 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
23:26 Jordan B. Peterson? The ethical torment and the peace that emerges as a consequence.
23:32 Lewis Howes? Sorry, I want to interrupt. What is the?
23:34 Jordan B. Peterson? No, no problem.
23:35 Lewis Howes? What is the biggest doubt you face at this stage of your life? And how are you
23:43 Lewis Howes? working to overcome it?
23:47 Jordan B. Peterson? The biggest doubt I have is whether or not I'm going to be healthy enough to continue.
23:54 Jordan B. Peterson? By far, that's it's it's and it's a continual, it plagues me continually, continually. Every second.
24:02 Lewis Howes? Really?
24:02 Jordan B. Peterson? Yeah, I'm so ill.
24:05 Lewis Howes? How are you navigating that?
24:12 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, I, I with great care.
24:16 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
24:16 Jordan B. Peterson? And effort, I mean, I, I wake up at eight. Even though I'm not. My sleep is not restorative at all.
24:28 Jordan B. Peterson? It's disrupted and I don't know why. So I sleep, but it's not restorative. I've had my sleep monitored, so I don't go into deep sleep.
24:38 Lewis Howes? Right.
24:39 Jordan B. Peterson? I get up at eight. Period. I sauna for forty five minutes. I walk seven miles. I work out, I write, I do my work, I, I stick to a very specific schedule. And I hope that that's, that I can manage that and that I'll improve across time.
25:02 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
25:03 Jordan B. Peterson? So, but
25:06 Jordan B. Peterson? we'll see.
25:06 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
25:07 Jordan B. Peterson? But it's touch and go all the time.
25:08 Lewis Howes? Yeah. Is there anything you, any skills you wish you would have developed in your twenties? That you didn't develop sooner? Maybe you have, maybe you have them now, maybe you don't.
25:21 Jordan B. Peterson? I've really thought about that. I've really thought about that recently.
25:24 Lewis Howes? What would those few skills be that you wish you would have developed and you wish everyone would develop?
25:29 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, when I, when my health fell apart and I was in the hospital for, or multiple hospitals for long periods of time, you know, I stopped doing everything I was doing. And everything I was doing was difficult. My clinical practice was difficult, the professorial job was difficult, the company I was running was difficult. Writing was difficult, the, the, um.
25:55 Lewis Howes? Getting out of bed.
25:55 Jordan B. Peterson? Podcasting and interviewing was difficult. Yeah, the lecturing was difficult. It was all difficult and I'm not complaining about the difficulty. I actually loved that. That was, that was fine. I'm not complaining about it at all. But because it was difficult, I have to be in really good shape to do it. And so then I wasn't in really good shape. And so because I wasn't really good shape and everything I had done was difficult, I didn't know what to do. And I couldn't get back on top of things because it was like trying to jump into a car going 200 miles an hour. You know, it's like, well, what I did, what I started doing back in December, really, is when I started working again.
26:37 Jordan B. Peterson? Although I had been writing to some degree over the last two years. Um, I started doing podcasts like this and they're not easy.
26:47 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
26:49 Jordan B. Peterson? You have to be, again, I'm not complaining. I love doing them. They're really interesting. But you have to be engaging and you have to be sharp and you have to not say anything stupid. You can't be too emotional and you can't be angry and, um, or that has to be very controlled and you have to pay attention and focus. And you have to line people up and it's technically difficult. You have to advertise it. You have to get the social media right.
27:14 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
27:15 Jordan B. Peterson? You have to monitor the social media. You have to stay up on current events and you have to see who you're going to talk to. And it's complicated and I have people helping me and they're helpful and great. But, but there was no, well, I'm going to go five. There's no beginner have a YouTube channel that a million people watch, right?
27:37 Jordan B. Peterson? So, and it's something you can really screw up publicly and catastrophically.
27:42 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
27:42 Jordan B. Peterson? So it was very daunting.
27:44 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
27:44 Jordan B. Peterson? Very. What I should have done when I was in my twenties and thirties is that I should have cultivated some activities that were less demanding. Look, I went to a baseball game when I lived in Boston. It was the only baseball game I think I ever went to. No, I've probably gone to two or three. But it was the first time I'd gone to a baseball game, a professional baseball game. I thought, Jesus, baseball, who would go watch that? So bloody slow. It's like nothing happens.
28:13 Lewis Howes? It is slow.
28:14 Jordan B. Peterson? It's so slow. It's nothing happens. And I have like 50 other things I should be doing. And, and I went there and then I realized I was looking at all these people and I thought, they're not even paying any attention to the baseball game. They're like talking to their friends and they're drinking beer and they're eating popcorn. And then I thought, yeah, that's the point, fool. That's the point. They're going there for that. Like you get to talk to your friends now and then someone hits a baseball and you can look at that and that's kind of interesting and you can eat popcorn and it's like they're relaxing. They're, they're not, you know, climbing Mount Everest. They're just relaxing.
28:54 Lewis Howes? Right.
28:55 Jordan B. Peterson? And, you know, one of the things I've learned, this is a good thing to talk about.
29:00 Jordan B. Peterson? It's really dangerous to be casually contemptuous.
29:02 Lewis Howes? What does that mean?
29:04 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, I, I've seen many professors who are contemptuous of business people.
29:10 Jordan B. Peterson? Right? Well, they don't have businesses and they're angry that the business people can make all sorts of money. And so, and, and that's a whole skill set they don't have. And so maybe they'd have to feel inadequate about that if they thought about it. And then I've talked to lots of business people who, you know, regard professors as in the ivory tower and, you know, an easy job. It's like, yeah, well, you try lecturing and see how easy it is about a complex subject and publishing. It's not easy. It's really hard, just like your job. Casual contempt stops people from investigating things that might be good for them, you know, and,
29:46 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, when I realized that about the baseball game, I thought there's, there's no contempt, no contemptuousness here, like clue in, clue in, clue in. There's something here that, that these people aren't just stupid and going out to a baseball game because they're stupid. You know, it's very easy for us to call people who are doing something that we're not doing stupid. It's like, don't be so sure about that, you know? And it would have been better for me if I would have had a wider variety of skills that weren't so high intensity. I play ping pong with my son. That works out good. Probably could have had another sport or two.
30:27 Jordan B. Peterson? I could have had some leisure activities that I got good at. Music might have been good. That weren't so demanding. See, what I, I tried to do. If I saw something was difficult, I wanted to master it. I was driven to do that, just to see how far I could go in these multiple directions. And that left me vulnerable to one thing. It left me vulnerable to being in a situation where I wasn't healthy enough to manage it.
30:57 Lewis Howes? So you'd think if you would have had these other leisure hobbies, things that you did for fun and play, you wouldn't be in potentially in this situation or?
31:07 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, it would have been easier to get going again, that's for sure.
31:12 Jordan B. Peterson? It would have, I think, you know, I'm, you know, I'm trying to sort it out. But someone asked me the other day, you know, do you regret the pathway that you've taken? And that's a question that's worth considering. And the basic answer is, well, I don't know, I guess in some sense, because if you, if, if you become extremely ill, especially if it isn't clear why, you don't know what you might have done to contribute to it because you don't know what it is. And people say, well, you know, you went on this 160 city tour in a year. Maybe that was too much. It's like it didn't seem like too much. I really enjoyed it.
31:53 Lewis Howes? Right, right. You had fun. I heard.
31:55 Jordan B. Peterson? It was great.
31:56 Lewis Howes? Dave told me all about how amazing it was and every night in this city and.
31:59 Jordan B. Peterson? It was great, but it was it was also very intense and I did expose myself to a lot of misery. You know, meeting people, so many people, so many thousands of people. I opened myself up to a tremendous amount of misery and and longing and pain and um, that was very emotionally impactful.
32:23 Jordan B. Peterson? But I can't say with certainty that what the consequence of that was.
32:29 Lewis Howes? Right.
32:29 Jordan B. Peterson? I mean, I'd worked as a clinical psychologist for decades and I had to deal with people who were in trouble all the time. And that was actually an extraordinarily positive enterprise because although I was dealing with very serious issues and people were in trouble, they were on a good path and getting better. And we were collaborating in that. So it was lovely enterprise. I loved it. I loved it. In deep conversations, meaningful conversations devoted to making things better. It was great. So.
33:01 Lewis Howes? It's tough to know, I guess, then. Yeah.
33:03 Jordan B. Peterson? I I don't know.
33:04 Lewis Howes? Yeah, it's I.
33:05 Jordan B. Peterson? What I have observed, however, you know, so I've been opening up my day to work more and more. So now I work from three thirty to six fairly intensely every day. And I started one day a week and then it was two and then it was three. And then I could see, was I better when I was working? Or was I better when I wasn't working? And the answer was clear. I was better when I was working. And it wasn't just clear to me, it was clear to the people who were watching me.
33:35 Lewis Howes? Right.
33:35 Jordan B. Peterson? And so it looks to me that that also indicates that it probably wasn't the work that.
33:41 Lewis Howes? Hmm.
33:42 Jordan B. Peterson? Hurt me.
33:45 Jordan B. Peterson? I think it's possible that just too many things happened at once.
33:49 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
33:51 Jordan B. Peterson? That's possible. It certainly distracted me.
33:56 Jordan B. Peterson? Right? And so maybe I wasn't paying attention to the exactly the right thing. So, but, but I don't know. I can't, I don't know yet and maybe never will.
34:08 Lewis Howes? So that's, that's one skill you wish you would have developed, you know, in your kind of your twenties. What's maybe two other skills you wish you would have developed sooner?
34:17 Jordan B. Peterson? That's pretty much, that's, that's as far as I've got with that line of thinking.
34:21 Lewis Howes? Yeah. What do you, what do you think of the skills that people should start to develop in their twenties in general? To make them better human beings, more potentially open to success financially, relationship, health wise? What are two or three things that everyone should focus on in their twenties?
34:42 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, it certainly doesn't hurt to be in physical, good physical condition. So we can walk through it. Stop drinking too much. How do you know if you're drinking too much?
34:54 Jordan B. Peterson? You regret what you do when you're drinking. It's, it's interfering with other important goals. It's, it's causing you financial distress. It's getting you in trouble with your friends or your family. It's getting you in trouble with the police. Okay, so stop abusing substances if you can, right? If you see that they're hurting you.
35:20 Jordan B. Peterson? And alcohol is particularly pernicious in that regard. So
35:26 Jordan B. Peterson? physical health.
35:29 Jordan B. Peterson? Are you in decent shape? Are you strong and coordinated? And if you're not, well, you'd be better if you were. You'd feel better, you'd be more effective, you'd live longer, you'd be less sick. And you really see that mount up. Like if someone's been in shape once in their life, they age way better. And it's also a really good way of maintaining your cognitive ability. Like, you know, you, you hear about those exercises that you can do online to make you smarter and keep your cognitive ability intact. Those don't work. There's no evidence that they work. People keep saying that they make you smarter, they maintain your cognitive function.
36:07 Jordan B. Peterson? Psychologists have studied that for 50 years, hoping that one of those things will work. Trying all sorts of creative tasks, they don't work. Exercise works. Cardiovascular and weightlifting. You start to decline in your fluid intelligence at about the age of 25. And it's a linear trend downhill and it can accelerate as you get older. It's just like this, quite ugly. If you exercise, you stave that off. So that's really useful. Maintain your relationships and foster them. They're un... So when I look at successful people, they're really good at something. They're reliable, right? You can count on their word.
36:51 Jordan B. Peterson? They're generous. And they have a wide, wide connection network, which becomes more and more valuable as you get older. So it's one advantage that older people really have over younger people. They have a connection network and a connection network is...
37:06 Lewis Howes? Huge.
37:07 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, you could be connected to a thousand well-connected people. Okay, that means you are connected to the entire world. Right, it's unbelievably valuable. And that's one of the things that's so absolutely remarkable about the situation that I'm in right now, as far as one of the great benefits is...
37:28 Lewis Howes? The access, yeah.
37:30 Jordan B. Peterson? I can contact pretty much anybody and they'll talk to me. It's like, really? That's so cool. I'm interested in infrastructure, for reasons I won't get into, but I'm interested in infrastructure development. I think it's a good method of wealth transfer. It's a good solution to the problem of inequality and employment. I reached out to a leading expert, a leading expert on infrastructure last week. See if he'd talk to me. I thought, I don't know anything about infrastructure, except that it's worn to a frazzle and we should do something about it. You know, he agreed to talk.
38:08 Jordan B. Peterson? Having a connection network is of an inestimable, inestimable value. Reliability, generosity, you can work on both of those. Philosophical sophistication? It's very useful. Because it orients you properly.
38:30 Jordan B. Peterson? You have a sophisticated sense of the world. You find, for example, that doing things for other people is actually more rewarding than virtually anything else you can do. You know, when you hear you should be of service to other people. Well, if you actually watch yourself, you pay attention to yourself and you do something that helps someone else and it genuinely helps them. I defy you to find another experience that is that satisfying. It's actually quite stunning how satisfying that is. And so that's a very useful thing to realize.
39:11 Lewis Howes? Why is helping another person the most satisfying thing for probably most people when they're, if they're, you know, out of their ego of like, I want to buy more things to make me happy in this moment? Why is that such a satisfying thing for human beings?
39:27 Jordan B. Peterson? There's no better strategy for, there's no better life strategy. I mean, imagine, I could give you a quick sort of technical example. So imagine I take two people and I say, okay, I'm going to give you a hundred dollars and you have to give some of it to the person right beside you. And they can either agree or disagree with the split, but if they disagree, you don't get anything.
39:56 Jordan B. Peterson? Okay, so a classical economist would say that the person should take the hundred, offer the person next to them a dollar, and the person should accept it because why not? They get a dollar instead of nothing. And that's the solution. But what happens is that if you don't offer that other person something close to 50/50, they're likely to tell you to go to hell.
40:19 Lewis Howes? Yeah, and then you get nothing.
40:22 Jordan B. Peterson? You get nothing too. You think, well, why would people do that? Because they just reject $50 and who cares? And the answer is, well, we don't just play one game with other people. We play a repeating game. And so, so imagine we did this. So imagine it's a crowd and they're all watching you. And I offer you a hundred dollars and you have to share it with the person next to you. And you say, would you like to? Take seventy dollars. And the person says, "Oh, I'm not sure that's fair to you, but if it's okay, yes." But then everyone else sees that. And now they all have an opportunity to pick who they're gonna play with next. Well, you're not gonna get picked last, are you? Remember what you told me? You didn't want to get picked last, right?
41:07 Jordan B. Peterson? Okay, so what you did was you turned yourself into an athlete.
41:10 Lewis Howes? A machine. That was all of your purpose.
41:13 Jordan B. Peterson? Okay, great. So, but imagine we expand that game. And we say, "You want to be the person that everyone wants to play with." Well, then, all you have in your whole life is invitations to play. Well, how, and how are you going to be that person? Be productive, straightforward, generous.
41:34 Lewis Howes? Make everyone else better around you, and they're gonna want to play with you.
41:37 Jordan B. Peterson? Absolutely. So, there you go. And then you get to play.
41:40 Lewis Howes? Exactly.
41:41 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, how is that not the best possible deal? It's clearly... See, so, so, the reason... If, if the ethical argument is put properly, it is by far the most compelling argument. It's like, if you want to have everything you could possibly want, and more, then be a good person. The better a person you are, the more likely that is to happen. That doesn't mean you, that you're completely protected against getting cut off at the knees. But, there's no better strategy.
42:15 Lewis Howes? That's it.
42:17 Jordan B. Peterson? And you can even think about it selfishly, and I talk about this to some degree in Beyond Order. Let's say you, let's say that I, you want to be selfish. You think that's the best possible strategy. Why should I care about others? Okay, let's say you should only act in your own best interest. Well, then, it's like, well, what's your best interest? Well, what does interest mean? And what does you mean? What's in your best interest? Your best interest. Three mysteries. What's your, what's best, what's interest? Okay. Well, there's you. But you aren't just you right now.
42:59 Jordan B. Peterson? You're you, and you tomorrow, and you next week, and you next month, and you in five years, and you in ten years, and you when you're a pensioner. You're a community of selves stretched across time. And so if you were enlightened and selfish, you would act in a manner that would benefit that entire community across time. And I don't think that's any different than acting on the best possible part for other people. I think they're the same problem. So I think as soon as human beings discovered the future, we were no longer singular individuals, we're instantly each a community.
43:44 Jordan B. Peterson? And then the community ethic prevails. And the community ethic is, I want to win in a way that makes you win. That's the best possible victory.
43:55 Lewis Howes? If I win and no one else wins, then what's the point?
43:59 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, you think it's a zero-sum game. It's either you or me. Or maybe I want the comparative status. But I would say even if you want the comparative status, let's say you're motivated by that. What would confer upon you even hypothetically more status than to be the most popular person while being chosen for games? I mean, you think about, just think for a second. Because it struck me, that biographical piece. Alfred Adler, who is the psychologist that I talked to you about earlier, he said, one of his claims was that many people have a stark memory that sets the course for their life.
44:43 Lewis Howes? That's true. A few moments, an instance, yeah.
44:46 Jordan B. Peterson? And you have exactly that. So Adlerian psychology would be of great interest to you, I suspect. But partly you see what happened was you had a true revelation. You thought, if I'm being picked last, something is wrong. And that's absolutely right. It's unbelievably right. And you played it out first in the athletic domain, but you have to start somewhere. So that's a good place to start. Jockel was telling me when we talked this week.
45:19 Jordan B. Peterson? He's this tough character, man. You know, and he could have. And I'm not telling tales out of school here.
45:27 Jordan B. Peterson? He could have been a criminal, no problem.
45:30 Jordan B. Peterson? And he knows that perfectly well.
45:31 Lewis Howes? But he's got discipline.
45:33 Jordan B. Peterson? I'm not saying that.
45:36 Jordan B. Peterson? As a slur on his character. Partly because I believe the Nietzschean dictum that a lot of morality is just cowardice. Whatever he might be, he's not a coward. And so. And just because you obey the laws doesn't mean you're moral. Just might mean you're afraid. In any case. So the question is, well, what socialized? This brute?
46:00 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, he was taught in the Navy SEALs.
46:02 Lewis Howes? Yep.
46:03 Jordan B. Peterson? Take care of your team. That's your fundamental purpose. And he noted, and we had a long discussion about this. The successful guys, man. They've, you know, they've got your back. Right, they know that above all. Yeah, and if, and if, if, if you aspire to a leadership position among those brutes, let's say, and you aren't someone they know to have your back. They're not following.
46:33 Lewis Howes? You're not gonna make it, yeah.
46:35 Jordan B. Peterson? Uh-uh. You're not gonna make it. And so that's, this is why the discussions of power that are so prevalent in, in modern culture bother me so much. It's like, you think male hierarchies are predicated on power? You really think that? They are when they've gone rotten.
46:53 Jordan B. Peterson? But when they're not rotten, that's not what they're predicated on at all. The capacity to exercise power, that's really important. You need that. It has to be part of you for you to be admirable. It's like you could be a badass son of a bitch. Yes, I see that. And, and that way I'm somewhat intimidated by you. And that's actually a testament to your moral virtue. That you have enough force and power to be intimidating. But then if you can encapsulate that and take that. Potential for power and harness it to this broader good. Well, that's unstoppable and a real functional hierarchy.
47:34 Jordan B. Peterson? That's what it is.
47:35 Lewis Howes? Yeah. I've got about fourteen minutes to be respectful of your time until you've let me know that that's the, our time we've got. So I want to ask a, I want to ask a different question and get to the final few questions to be respectful of time. And before I ask this question around money and the psychology of money, I want people to make sure they get this book, Beyond Order, Twelve More Rules for Life, and make sure you pick up your, your other book as well, which is amazing, which is Twelve Rules for Life and the Antidote to Chaos. But make sure you get a copy of this book or a few copies and get them for your friends because it'll be extremely life-changing when you start going through this. I haven't heard
48:17 Lewis Howes? a lot of people talk to you about money. Maybe I've just missed it and maybe you've talked about it a bunch, but I haven't seen it.
48:24 Jordan B. Peterson? That's a good, that's a good, that's a good question. Yeah, definitely.
48:28 Lewis Howes? I, I don't want to make assumptions, but if I was making assumptions, college professors aren't typically multimillionaires. Am I fair to say that's semi-accurate? That if you're a professor, you're not making millions, you're not this financially abundant human. You have maybe a good salary, but you're not bringing in financial abundance at the next level. And I'm not going to try to assume where you're at financially before you became more famous and the YouTube and the media sensation and the books. But I'm assuming that you've accumulated a lot more money than what you had, let's say, five years ago.
49:07 Lewis Howes? How have you learned to manage the mindset around the, the wealth that has come to you? The level of wealth that has come to you? How have you managed it? How do you deal with it now as it keeps coming in? I'm assuming more comes in with every book and success. And what were your thoughts about money before this level of money came to you?
49:33 Jordan B. Peterson? I'd never made any bones about being an evil capitalist. But, well, I'll give you an example. So I built this, I told you about this software, the online program that helps people write out their past and their present and the goals goes for the future. We tested the future part of that to see if it worked and it worked quite well. It was effective. And I sell it. Why don't I give it away? Well, because that's not the right price. Pricing decisions, money is very, very complicated and pricing is very complicated. Pricing is value. It's like, well, is the right price for something
50:12 Jordan B. Peterson? zero? Well, probably not, first of all, because it doesn't take zero to make it or sustain it. Like, there's an infrastructure, customer service infrastructure. There are people working on it constantly who could be making new things. If you can't sell it, what makes you think it's worth anything? If you can't sell it, what makes you think you've got your communication right? You can use price as an indication of whether what you're doing works. If no one will pay for it, maybe it's no good. Or maybe you're not talking about it properly. So, I wanted to make things that would work, that would work in the marketplace.
50:53 Jordan B. Peterson? It was a challenge. There's the challenge aspect of it, too. So, I never had contempt for money. And money for me was always, well, it was a challenge, that's one thing. And for many people who are motivated by money, money actually serves as a challenge. It's like, can I, can I make more of this? It's, it's a competition in some sense, like a game. Because you might think, well, they want all the things. It's like, yeah, sort of, no. You kind of, if you're sensible, you sort of max out on things pretty rapidly. Right. Can't wait to buy so much and use it so much. Well, and it, yes. And I'm not hedonistic in a manner that money would...
51:42 Jordan B. Peterson? Aid in some sense.
51:44 Lewis Howes? Of course.
51:45 Jordan B. Peterson? Um, partly because I'm not 16. You know, I'm 60. So what am I going to do with it?
51:53 Jordan B. Peterson? And I've also learned be careful what you buy because it's not clear who owns who when you buy something like I knew this very rich couple. And they had like six houses. Well, the poor woman, the female member of the couple, all she did was worry about the houses like one house is bad enough because it's always falling apart. Six big houses fall apart all the time. So, you know, when you think, well, poor her, she had six houses. It's like, yeah, yeah, I know the problems of the rich, right? Don't we wish, don't we all wish we had those? Yeah, fair enough, but, but there's still a point to be made there.
52:29 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
52:30 Jordan B. Peterson? Um, I put together a financial team. I also had to abandon my supervision of my, my financial affairs because I couldn't manage them. But fortunately, I had put together a team and people stepped in to manage it. And, and that's gone as well as could possibly be expected under the circumstances.
52:52 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
52:53 Jordan B. Peterson? And so, um, and that, that is a source of security. And I have accountants who do taxes and I hate doing my taxes. I, everyone does, but maybe I hate it even more. It seems to bother me a lot. In any case, that's one thing that, that having this money has been useful for me is that I don't have to do my taxes now. I have experts who can do that, but I've farmed it out to people and hopefully not too carelessly.
53:23 Jordan B. Peterson? So, so.
53:25 Lewis Howes? For someone that wants to a, a, attract more wealth, gain more wealth, make more money. What do you think needs to happen psychologically for them in order to create that? Beyond the actions, the doing, the solving the challenges and adding value.
53:41 Jordan B. Peterson? Part of it is, well, discipline, like hard work. What is it? You work 15% more hours, you make 40% more money.
53:51 Lewis Howes? Interesting.
53:51 Jordan B. Peterson? I think that's the data worn feral accumulated. It's part of the reason men make more money than women. Cause they work slightly longer hours, but it, it actually produces a disproportionate return. Um.
54:04 Jordan B. Peterson? People who make money aim at it, generally speaking, you know, I'm not talking about people who inherit wealth, but it's pretty easy to squander money, you know, even if you inherit it.
54:15 Lewis Howes? Talking about earning it. If you don't have it, you want to make more, yeah.
54:19 Jordan B. Peterson? Yeah, well conscientiousness, which is dutifulness, industriousness, orderliness, amount of time, effort put in, that makes a difference, makes a difference. I would say, if you're trying to produce a product and introduce it into the marketplace,
54:38 Jordan B. Peterson? there are things you should definitely know. The product should work, should be reliable, your customer, you have to put your customer service in place. If you despise sales and marketing, you're making a massive mistake. That's casual contempt. It's really hard to sell something. Hardly anybody is a good salesperson. It's an extremely demanding job, and you can, you know, oh, he's a salesman. It's like, yeah, you try it.
55:02 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
55:03 Jordan B. Peterson? Oh, I wouldn't sell out. Well, that's because no one ever offered you the opportunity to sell out. If you have 10 opportunities to sell out and you reject all of them, it's like, great, claim moral victory. Until someone, until you're in that position, you're just not of interest. That's why you're not selling out. You have to understand the marketplace. You have to communicate with your customers. It's complicated and difficult. So, so don't despise the necessary components, right? All of these things are important. The product, the engineers, the people who work on it, the creative inspiration, that's the entrepreneurial end, make the product, that's extremely necessary. All the communication
55:46 Jordan B. Peterson? strategies, those are crucially important because if you have a product and nobody knows about it, then who the hell is going to buy it, no matter how good it is? So you you despise the things that are necessary to your success at the expense of your success. So.
56:05 Lewis Howes? So you gotta reframe, you gotta reframe the way you think about those things.
56:09 Jordan B. Peterson? Yeah, well, you have to look at it. It's like, sales. It's like, okay, well, you're not gonna sell anything then.
56:14 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
56:15 Jordan B. Peterson? So that's, that's the end of that problem. So, or maybe, you know, you have moral qualms about engaging in the capitalist enterprise. Well, you know, good luck carrying that along with you. You know, and if you maybe the qualms are well merit are merited. It's like, okay, put aside a percentage of what you make to do something. You know, um, what would you call it?
56:37 Jordan B. Peterson? Clearly not self-centered and generous with. You can, you can do that. I mean, the products that I'm selling.
56:47 Jordan B. Peterson? Some of them are.
56:51 Jordan B. Peterson? What would you say? They they have less ethical impact than others. I do do some merchandising. Why?
57:02 Jordan B. Peterson? The merchandising of of me was taking place anyways.
57:07 Lewis Howes? You might as well do it yourself, yeah.
57:08 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, I had my, I got my son involved in it. I thought, well, you know, there's a market. People want this. We might, we might as well. Put up a genuine place. I mean, lots of the merchandise that's being produced related to me. I leave it alone. I let people do that. I don't bother them. I don't chase them down. If if they can make a living, you know. Putting my quotes in acrylic blocks or making posters, it's like, that's fine as far as I'm concerned. But we have some things, posters and so on, that and people want them. So if they want them. I don't see that it does any harm. You know, you might think it's kind of cheap. You know what, you know, you know what I mean? It's like, it's it's like the disnification of philosophy, but.
57:52 Jordan B. Peterson? I am interested in community. I'm interested in communicating with the public. This is sales and marketing. You know, most academic work languishes.
58:02 Lewis Howes? Yeah, that's true.
58:03 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, I don't have contempt for my. My readers, listeners, and viewers.
58:11 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
58:11 Jordan B. Peterson? I like them. I hope they do well. If they want a poster of the 12 rules and they find that useful, hey, okay. If they find a lobster tie funny, good, it's fine with me.
58:25 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
58:25 Jordan B. Peterson? And there's a bit of, you know, there's a bit of humor to it.
58:27 Lewis Howes? Sure.
58:28 Jordan B. Peterson? And I can use that. And so can my message. A little bit of levity would be wonderful.
58:33 Lewis Howes? Yeah. Where, where can people get, uh, see some of your, your stuff? What's the best site to go to?
58:39 Jordan B. Peterson? Oh, if you just go to YouTube channel, there's a little bar underneath it that's JBP merchandise. I mean, it's absurd, right? There's also that element of absurdity, which I, I kind of, and surreal element to it that I find kind of interesting and, and ridiculous.
58:57 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
58:58 Jordan B. Peterson? Perplexing and, and hallucinogenic. It's very, very strange.
59:04 Lewis Howes? It's all fun, you know, it's all fun. I want, I want everyone to go buy a lobster tie and posters and the book. I want everyone to get Beyond Order, get a few copies for your friends as well. Uh, I've got two final questions, but before I ask the questions, Jordan, I want to acknowledge you, uh, for a moment because, uh, I know you went through a lot of, you're still going through a lot of pain and challenge and adversity since the first time I interviewed you a few years ago to now. And I also know that you went through a lot of pain and adversity with your, your, your kids, with your daughter specifically, um, and other challenges that have happened in your life. And I acknowledge you for continually showing up in a time of uncertainty, in a time of
59:48 Lewis Howes? maybe a loss of hope at different moments, in a time of physical pain, in a time of lack of sleep, continually non-restorative sleep. The fact that you continue to show up and serve is truly to be acknowledged. And I'm, I'm so, uh,
1:00:05 Lewis Howes? Grateful that you take the time to come on my show and share this knowledge because I know the impact it'll have in the service of the message and all the work that you're doing for your own content and everyone else's that you're being on. I'm really grateful that you've decided to continue to show up.
1:00:21 Jordan B. Peterson? Well, whatever I might be doing for other people, they're certainly doing that for me. So I'm grateful to have the privilege, the immense and staggering privilege of being attended to. It's amazing. You know,
1:00:42 Jordan B. Peterson? it's so, so
1:00:47 Jordan B. Peterson? I don't, whatever I might be,
1:00:52 Jordan B. Peterson? what would you say sacrificing for it, I'm gaining equivalently. I've had so much support from people. It's just absolutely staggering. And so.
1:01:04 Lewis Howes? We appreciate you and you're making an impact on our lives and we hope you're balancing and taking care of your health as well. That's the most important. I asked you two questions in the last interview that I'd love to ask you again. I'm not sure if you're gonna remember them, but I want to see if you have the same or different response. The one question is hypothetical. It's called my three truths question. I would like you to imagine that many, many years away, you get to choose the last day on earth for yourself, but you eventually gotta go. And you accomplish everything you want to create into the world. You see your work come to life, the impact, the family, everything happens and it's magical, right? But for whatever reason, you gotta take all your work with you. So you gotta take beyond
1:01:46 Lewis Howes? order, all your content, your videos, podcasts, it's all gotta go with you to the next place. But you get to leave behind three truths, the three lessons, the biggest lessons you've learned in your life that you'd want to share with the world. And this is all we would have of your content left behind. What would you see, what would you say would be your three truths?
1:02:08 Jordan B. Peterson? I would say have the faith, strive to manifest the faith necessary to
1:02:18 Jordan B. Peterson? make things better rather than worse.
1:02:28 Jordan B. Peterson? Pray that you have enough terror
1:02:33 Jordan B. Peterson? to be frightened out of your own deceit.
1:02:43 Jordan B. Peterson? And strive to be grateful.
1:02:57 Jordan B. Peterson? Regardless of.
1:03:02 Jordan B. Peterson? Regardless, that would be.
1:03:12 Jordan B. Peterson? That's good enough.
1:03:16 Lewis Howes? I think one of your rules is be grateful in the suffering, right?
1:03:20 Jordan B. Peterson? In spite of. That's the last rule and the one that I've wrestled with most, I would say, over the last, especially the last two years.
1:03:30 Lewis Howes? Yeah, that's probably got to be the hardest to find the gratitude.
1:03:34 Jordan B. Peterson? Yeah, well, you know, people have their reasons. I outlined them in chapter 11. Why are you bitter? Well, here are the reasons. Oh, well, those are real reasons. No wonder. You know, you listen to someone tell you about their life. It's so typical, so frequent, catastrophic occurrences, you know, and yet people stumble forward positively. And it's a miracle. And a lot of that is, it's, see that chapter, be grateful in spite of your suffering. It's really a chapter about, in some sense, about faith and courage. And it's, it's an act of faith and courage to be grateful.
1:04:21 Jordan B. Peterson? Because there's reasons not to be. And so it's like, it's a decision. And it's not like you make the decision and then you've got it, you've done it right, and then you have it. It's, it's a constant, ongoing decision. And the temptation to not.
1:04:36 Jordan B. Peterson? To be ungrateful, to be bitter. It's always there.
1:04:40 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
1:04:40 Jordan B. Peterson? And compelling, rationally compelling.
1:04:43 Lewis Howes? It's easy.
1:04:43 Jordan B. Peterson? Emotionally compelling.
1:04:45 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
1:04:47 Jordan B. Peterson? But it makes everything worse.
1:04:50 Lewis Howes? Oh, it's so true. It's so true. It's like eating candy. You know, it tastes good for a moment and then you feel sick for hours.
1:05:00 Lewis Howes? My-
1:05:00 Jordan B. Peterson? So you said you had three questions?
1:05:02 Lewis Howes? No, this is my final question right now.
1:05:04 Jordan B. Peterson? Okay.
1:05:05 Lewis Howes? So my final question is, what's your definition of greatness?
1:05:17 Jordan B. Peterson? The capacity and the capacity to utter and abide by beautiful truths.
1:05:31 Lewis Howes? Jordan Peterson, thank you so much. Make sure you guys get the book, Beyond Order. Subscribe to Jordan's podcast, YouTube, everywhere else online. And Jordan, it's been a pleasure, my friend. Thank you very much for being here.
1:05:45 Jordan B. Peterson? Thank you very much for the invitation and thank you to everyone who's watching and listening. Much appreciated.
1:05:53 Lewis Howes? My friend, thank you so much for being here. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Again, if you haven't listened to part one yet, go back and listen to that right now. LewisHowes.com/1093. If you want to go to the show notes for part one, or just go on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening, back one episode so you can hear the full conversation. And again, if you enjoyed this, please subscribe to the School of Greatness over on Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and review. Let us know the part you enjoyed the most from this interview with Jordan and share this with a friend. You can copy and paste the link wherever you're listening to this podcast, or go to the show notes, LewisHowes.com/1094 and share that out. Also, if you enjoy watching long-form video content, subscribe to us over on YouTube. Over 1.3 million subscribers there
1:06:37 Lewis Howes? and it is growing like crazy right now. So make sure to check out our YouTube.com/lewishouse, this full-length interview. Will come out a week later when it comes out on audio over on video. So make sure you're subscribed to both channels so you can access to both types of content. And if you want inspirational messages sent to your phone, sent to your text every single week from me, then text the word PODCAST to 614-350-3960 to get on my special texting community list where we send updates and prizes as well as inspiration every single week. Again, text the word PODCAST to 614-350-3960. Now I'll leave you with this quote from my friend Nick Vujicic, who says, "Life isn't
1:07:21 Lewis Howes? about having, it's about being. And when you look for happiness in mere objects, they are never enough. Look around, look within." I hope you enjoyed this episode and I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. I'm so grateful for your time today and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.
Previous Jordan Peterson on Marriage, Resentment & Healing the Past (Part 1) EP 1093 Next The Mindset of Success in Marriage & Business w/Tom Bilyeu EP 1095 Page updated September 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
