Someone I Would Be Afraid Of

[Jordan Peterson]: We're gonna go back to Boston

Okay

[Jordan Peterson]: Okay. So you said that's really where things started for you. So you moved there when you were 13. First of all, like what kind of kid were you in school?

If ADD is real, I certainly had it
And I was very, very interested in what I was interested in
I was very uninterested in people telling me what to do
Essentially couldn't wait to get out of school
But I would excel at things that I had interest in
Initially, it was art. I wanted to be a comic book illustrator, until I really got into martial arts
Then martial arts became the focus of my life
Around 14, 15 years old, that's when I really became massively obsessed
And it was really the first thing that I ever did where I really didn't feel like a loser
Like I really felt like, “Oh, I actually have some talent. I actually can be exceptional.” It's like something
Because you know I grew up constantly moving, didn't really have a lot of friends, I would be new in this town, I'd get picked on, I wasn't a big kid
And there was a lot of issues with that psychologically
I didn't like being afraid of other kids. I didn't like not knowing what to do if I ran into a kid, and they were gonna bully me and pick on me
You know, martial arts changed that 180 degrees

[Chorus]
And then I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was
And then I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was

So what I was, was someone who was terrified of conflict, didn't know what to do
And what I became was a Taekwondo champion
I became a martial arts champion
I knew how to fight

[Jordan Peterson]: How did it come about?

It was very fortunate
I'd done a little bit of martial arts training
Then one day I was in Boston for a Red Sox game, and as I was walking home to the train station, I decided to go check out the Jae Hun Kim Taekwondo Institute
It was right there
So I went up the stairs and as I was walking up the stairs a guy named John Lee was training
I heard this crazy sound, what it turned out to be this man kicking this bag and slamming his heel into this bag and having the chain snap and rattle and the thud of his heel slamming into this leather bag
I got up there and I watched this guy workout
I couldn't believe a person could do that
I'd never seen anybody kick something so hard in real life
Anybody that had such incredible martial arts skill like this guy did, John Lee, who became a mentor of mine
That changed everything
I was there the next day
I talked to them, they gave me a brochure and a pamphlet
I was probably there every day of my life until I was 22 years old

Just completely by luck, wandered into one of the best schools in the world for taekwondo
I just got lucky
I got really, really, really lucky

[Chorus]
I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was
And then I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was

I had keys pretty quickly
Right away, my instructor recognized that I was pretty obsessed and I was physically pretty talented
So he had me teaching classes instead of paying
One of the best ways for someone to get good at martial arts is actually to teach
It actually refines your technique
You think about it more. I was 14 or 15 by the time I got to that school
I had my black belt by the time I was 17, and I was competing in the adult division by then
I won the state championship when I was 18, and I won it every year from then until I stopped
Luckily with high school, kids heard about it right away
One of the kids you go to school with is flying all over the country, kicking people in the head
They just avoided me
People avoided me, junior and senior year
I'd already become this weird kid that was obsessed with martial arts
I spent most of my life from the time I was 15, till I was 21 training and competing
I've probably fought over a hundred times, a 100% singular, uniquely singular, but I avoided most of the pitfalls, high school partying and all that stuff
I didn't do that because I was scared of getting hurt
I was scared if I showed up for training hungover that I'd get beat up
I was scared of anything that would take even a tiny bit away from my performance as a fighter
'Cause I was obsessed with it

[Chorus]
I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was
And then I became someone
Who I would be afraid of
You know, I became the opposite of what I was