Interview number fifteen with Dr. Gad Saad.

Justin Higgins:  "Hi Dr. Saad, what life advice do you have for young adults?"

Dr. Gad Saad:  "Hi Justin.  Firstly, pursue a career that you are passionate about.  Life is short and every moment is precious. It is an immeasurable tragedy to spend a sizeable portion of one’s waking hours doing a job that does not excite you nor infuse you with a sense of purpose.  

Secondly, commit yourself to lifelong learning.  I have been a professor for twenty-two years and yet I learn new things on a daily basis. If anything, I am immensely passionate about my profession in part because it allows me to traverse countless intellectual landscapes.  My personal growth stems from the humility with which I navigate the world, namely with a reverence for all of the knowledge that I’ve yet to learn but that is out there available to me.

Thirdly, never cower to group conformity, political correctness, and other forms of thought policing.  I am willing to bet that all of the contributors to this series share one reality in common:  Their success in their respective areas of expertise was partly shaped by the courage of their convictions.  Memorable people do memorable things. Followers are seldom remembered. The herd mentality is the killer of innovation. When appropriate, be bold in your undertakings.

Finally, live your life honestly and with dignity. Pursue the truth and in doing so shed any hints of a tribal and ideological mindset.  Don’t be a member of the blue team or the red team; instead belong to Team Truth, of which its members are guided by science and reason alone. Now go forth and live life to its fullest!"

. . .

Dr. Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), and the holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He has held Visiting Associate Professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California–Irvine. Dr. Saad received the Faculty of Commerce’s Distinguished Teaching Award in June 2000, and was listed as one of the ‘hot’ professors of Concordia University in both the 2001 and 2002 Maclean’s reports on Canadian universities. Saad was appointed Newsmaker of the Week of Concordia University in five consecutive years (2011-2015), and is the co-recipient of the President’s Media Outreach Award-Research Communicator of the Year (International), which goes to the professor at Concordia University whose research receives the greatest amount of global media coverage.

Professor Saad has pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. His works include The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature (translated into Korean and Turkish); The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption; Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences, along with 75+ scientific papers, many at the intersection of evolutionary psychology and a broad range of disciplines including consumer behavior, marketing, advertising, psychology, medicine, and economics.  His Psychology Today blog (Homo Consumericus) and YouTube channel (THE SAAD TRUTH) have garnered over 4.1 million and 4.2 million total views respectively.  In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad often writes and speaks about topics as varied as postmodernism, radical feminism, cultural and moral relativism, political correctness, the thought police, and Islam.

He received a B.Sc. (1988) and an M.B.A. (1990) both from McGill University, and his M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (1994) from Cornell University.