Jonar Nader encourages life-long learning, but he discourages students from attending university unless they are attending with a real purpose. If students do not know where their passion lies, a university degree will merely waste their life. Further below is a transcript of the video.
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Here is the transcript:
Mary Lambie: Welcome to Today Live. Hello. I’m Mary Lambie. Tonight on the show, I’m catching up with rugby legend turned author, Grant Fox. Maria’s corner has another stack of selected sounds up for review. And my first guest tonight, well, he’s been stirring up quite some trouble in Australia with his unconventional business advice.
Jonar Nader: I’m not saying go out and make enemies. I’m not saying go out and be, you know, a corporate bastard and all those things. But just go out and do what is really enriching you.
Mary Lambie: So, are you saying that the people in the modern age are a bit constrained that we’ve taught in the universities to behave in a certain way and we can’t be who we really want to be?
Jonar Nader: Well, I mean you ask people, what do you want to be? They say, ‘Well, I’m studying now and when I grow older I think I’ll be something.’ And you say, ‘Well, are you happy now?’ ‘No, no, no, but I’m going to do a PhD or an MBA.’ Why? ‘So, I can get a better job.’ ‘But you don’t have a job.’ ‘Oh well, but in the future.’ And then forever living in the future. Meanwhile, they’re terribly miserable. They’re unhappy. They’re dissatisfied. They’re forever trying to think that wealth creation is only about money. But what about wealth creation in your heart? We only live once.
Mary Lambie: Yes, but do you think the university environment is also about enriching the soul, isn’t it?
Jonar Nader:
Mary Lambie: Well, you’ve never been there. I have. So, I should know.
Jonar Nader: I have actually.
Mary Lambie: Oh, you have?
Jonar Nader: I went to university for three years.
Mary Lambie: Yes, but not to study though, did you?
Jonar Nader: No, to teach. No, I did actually did …
Mary Lambie: I see some irony in that too.
Jonar Nader: … I did three years of uni.
Mary Lambie: Oh, did you?
Jonar Nader: Yes.
Mary Lambie: I thought you left school at 14 and then actively encourage no one to go near your university.
Jonar Nader: I actually left school at 14. I studied part-time for six years, went to uni for three years then realized the whole thing was a joke, and decided to teach myself what I needed to learn, when I needed to learn it. So, I actually never stopped learning. But what does university and corporate life do to you? They give you these sets of expectations. Meanwhile, they’re robbing you of your own creativity because at uni, if you write a paper the way you really believe or what you really think, you’re not going to get good marks, are you?
Mary Lambie: Oh well, I’m not entirely sure about that because I think in the modern age, the university student is there, the teacher is the facilitator in order to sort of get the degree. And I think that there is a real move towards really trying to expand the mind.
Jonar Nader: Absolutely. I encourage expanding the mind. But I see what comes out of university. I employ people and used to and I used to think what – what do you good at? Or what’s your passion? They don’t know what their passion is. They just say, ‘I have a BSC. I have BBs major in Marketing.’ I say, ‘But what’s your passion?’ They don’t have it.
Mary Lambie: What do you want my passion to be?
Jonar Nader: Yes, you know. I want to – you know, I want to earn about 150 grand and you know, get a good car and live comfortably. That’s all so materialistic. And sure, I love the material things in life. But let’s see what the real value is of living because how are we going to make New Zealand better? How are we going to make Australia better? If all we do is keep taking American nonsense that comes through in these lovely guru books and all these statements and brain-washing type scenarios that sink to the lowest common denominator. You know, and who gets promoted in corporate life today? The backstabbers who know how to do it well enough.
Mary Lambie:
Jonar Nader: You know, the creative people, where do they end up?
Mary Lambie: Where do they end up?
Jonar Nader: You know, outside doing their things that they love most.
Mary Lambie: So, would you actively encourage people not to go to a university, not to encourage higher learning?
Jonar Nader: Let me put it to you this way, in the olden days we used to die at the age of 20 then we used to die at the age of 50. Now, we’re at about 80. But why is it now that you can be 31 and you’re still studying? 31? You’ve missed the peak of your life when you should be expanding to your best passionate. What are you doing at 31?
Mary Lambie: Yes, but just because someone is passionate doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be a great leader, does it for example? You see, if the corporate world was full of the people that you would want the corporate world to be full of, you know, passionate, bold, creative types, I mean what sort of state would it be?
Jonar Nader: Look, university is a lovely place to go when you know what you want to learn. But people who are there doing things that that is automatic. ‘Oh well, I’ll do a Bachelor of Science or Business because I think I might get a better job.’ We are so mechanical. We strip people of their creativity. I admire people who go on and study but it’s only when it’s really purposeful. When they say, ‘I now know what I’d like to do but I’m weak in Math or I’m weak in Accounting. Let me go and become a brilliant accountant so that I can run a better business.’ You don’t become an accountant and then go and look for ways in which to become a better business, you know. Which comes first?
Mary Lambie: You’ve upset some people with your book. How did you respond to it?
Jonar Nader: Well, isn’t it interesting? I did not wish it upon myself but my friends at Dale Carnegie & Associates and they’re lawyers who are called ‘Bare & Upham’ they sent me a letter from New York saying cease and desist, pulp your book, it’s unfair competition. So, I sent back a letter and engaged two layers, engaged the biggest publicist that money could buy and I’m off to the US on the 22nd of June. And I’m on the Today Show by the way and such like. And I’ll be telling them what I think. And I’m fighting. I mean, they’re a huge corporation and law has got nothing to do with justice. It’s all to do with money.
Mary Lambie: It’s good to see you practicing what you’re preaching. That is following your heart, following your passion. I thank you for your time today.
Jonar Nader: Yes.
Mary Lambie: It’s nice to catch up with you and good luck in the States.
Jonar Nader: Yes, thanks.
Mary Lambie: I think you might need it. The Dale Carnegie Tower is really tall, isn’t it?
Jonar Nader: I appreciate that.
Mary Lambie: Yes, thank you.
Jonar Nader: Thanks, Mary.
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