zaynpatel.com. linkedin/in/zaynpatel. twitter.com/thezaynpatel.
Externally, these items portray projects I’ve worked on, thoughts I have, and what I want to do in the future.
Internally, they mean nothing.
This month I was fortunate to meet with tons of incredible people in edtech, on deck, etc and after I introduced myself the pattern I recognized was praise for the work I’d done, my ability to put thoughts in public, etc.
I’ve always appreciated praise but have never inputed any cognition into thinking that I was great.
The goals, aspirations I have are so macro that the work I’ve done in the past is work I’ve done in the past doesn’t carry much mass. I live with a Day 0 mentality. I wake up everyday with the mindset that nothing I’ve done in life matters. I have to prove my worth to myself repeatedly. This is done through the ideas I create, projects I ship, ability to create sustainable relationships, etc. But, when I sleep, none of the achievements from the day matter, at all. It’s a cyclical process.
Reflecting on my past is my ego. It’s an excuse for me to glorify an idea I had yesterday and mentally re-play that moment in my head. Visualizing my future is my pride, it’s an opportunity for me to day dream about moments that are so far away that it doesn’t even make sense. Reflection and prospection have intentional places in my life but the present moment is when I’m the most humble. I’m so focused on completing one item at a time that I don’t have the mental energy to theorize about the past/future.
Day 0 is an opportunity for be to focus on the hunger I have for opportunities in life. The process of applying, the internal pressure of securing it, whatever it is. Day 1 is too late because I’ve already received the opportunity and the excitement is omnipresent.
Day 0 is an opportunity for me to remain authentic with myself, measure progress in micro-elements and be methodical with my life. Too often I rush to the following week and waste time in the macro thinking bubble. Day 0 helps me double-down on the needle-movers for the day.
Why does this all matter? All time compounds. If I spend the majority of my time in the present, executing on a micro level, it will scale to the macro. If I spend the majority of my time thinking about the future, executing on a macro level, it will scale to the micro. Day 0 is an opportunity to make intentional decisions about the only thing you can control.
tl;dr on month
- Wrote 7,500+ words for my book Gamifying Education - it’s progressing incredibly well. Here’s a tweet thread on my progress.
- Built a landing page for my new company - Disruptor Labs. Also, wrote a whitepaper on the business idea and I’m doubling down on my MVP from now - August as I’m hoping to have a waitlist ready by September.
Landing Page | Whitepaper | Twitter Thread
- Worked with a Toronto-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) company, BenchSci, to develop virtual clinical trial frameworks to help with the efficiency of physical clinical trials.
Website Mockup | Recommendation Deck
growth in public - favorite moment
background: I’ve been using twitter as a method to make my ideas more tangible and scalable - allowing me to reach more people with my thoughts.
This month, I thought a ton about capital - financial, human, decision, idea, and social.
Money is the fuel for our choices. Here’s a thread about my thoughts on capital allocation/accumulation and why it’s an incredible resource when deliberately placed.
Excited for today. Day 0, I haven’t achieved anything.
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