Joshua Zatcoff was born in Glendale, Arizona and moved to Gilbert, Arizona at the age of six years old. After graduating high school he attended Brandeis, University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He then attended law school in Boston, Massachusetts, after two years working for the Department of Commerce. He studied abroad in London, England, and has traveled throughout Europe. He is conversant in French, Spanish, and Italian, and can read and write Hebrew and Yiddish. He passed the Uniform Bar Examination and remains licensed as a lawyer in good standing. His bar examination score surpassed the requirement for all 40 jurisdictions requiring the Uniform Bar Examination, and outperformed the average for all test-takers from every law school. He worked in the Department of Financial Remedies (financial crimes prosecution) at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona, and as a pro bono lawyer for indigent victims of domestic violence in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also a licensed teacher certified in secondary History and English, and has taught courses such as Advanced Placement Government, Advanced Placement Economics, Advanced Placement Art History, and Advanced Placement Language and Composition, and English immersion for French-speaking children.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
Every day is different in its tasks or objectives, but each day has some underlying essential components, universally applicable to all situations. Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” I begin each day with that in mind: “What can I learn today? How does what I learn affect the way the world functions? How can this information improve me as a person? How can I pass this knowledge to others?” It is impossible to be truly productive without deep understanding, and each day reveals newer, greater, and more layered opportunities for comprehension growth, for connection to previous learning, and for pathways to applying it in various contexts.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Discussion with others is one of the best ways to take an idea and make it manifest in the world. We are each a single data point with connections. Extending a profound thought from one person to the next can create a chain reaction of realization and see an idea blossom manifold beyond its originator.
What’s one trend that excites you?
It is hard to look at contemporary events without noting the emergence of artificial intelligence and the myriad knowns and unknowns it may bring; it will likely be utterly transformative to human existence and experience, comparable to or greater than the Industrial Revolution, at least in its potential. This could be exciting—it also leaves cause for concern.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Listening to music and avoiding all other distractions—being in a quiet place, often at night, where human interruption is minimized, allows me to concentrate on a task or goal at hand, while also setting personal quantitative goal posts by which my progress can be identifiably measured.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Interact wisely — especially with those whose intentions or ambitions do not align with or detract from your own—time is an invaluable, zero-sum commodity, and we must ration it judiciously to our benefit, or we will find it could redound to our detriment. This is not to say that those on differing paths are necessarily “wrong” or “misguided” in any way; simply that we must each chart a course that best fosters our own abilities and objectives.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
Sunshine is overrated. I’m nocturnal by nature, which is a minority disposition.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Learn as much and as widely as you can. Knowledge acquisition makes you a better, more complete, more enriched person, regardless of when and where it is immediately used. It also gives us all the ability to have more rational, thoughtful conversations when contemplating any given topic.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Taking a nighttime walk is always the best way I can clear my head and re-center myself. The quiet atmosphere of the night allows me to think more deeply and broadly, while also pumping oxygen and blood through my body to stimulate my mind.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Always seek learning and knowledge. You never know where a piece of information can be applicable to an unforeseen situation, perhaps allowing you to make a connection with someone from a different background, a different part of the world or a different culture, who speaks a different language, or who has been immersed in another way of thinking. Building and growing connections with others when needed is a key sociological function which underlies all human endeavors, including business, career climbing, and so forth.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
Only following the first step of the “trust but verify” model; placing too much trust in any one person or system creates too much chance for fallibility. We must overcome our human tendencies to rely unthinkingly on that which we believe we can trust—while also avoiding unadulterated cynicism as best as possible.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
I try to read as widely and deeply as possible, which also includes listening to podcasts, so it is a nearly impossible request for me to select only one as a favorite. Generally, however, I like biographies, in the non-fiction realm, as I am always looking for insight from the lives of others, and short stories which create parables of lessons learned in the realm of fiction. As a general matter, though, the “Principal Doctrines,” by Epicurus, is a great book featuring classical enlightenment from ancient philosophers, especially as I am someone who has always enjoyed learning from the Greek and Roman world.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
“The White Lotus” is a recent series which has provided a pretty good study of human nature in its many complexities, ironies, and clashing dynamics. It is somewhat caricatured, but entertaining nevertheless.
Key learnings
- As Einstein said, “The important thing is to never stop questioning.”
- Use questioning as a basis to learn more about yourself, the world, and the way things work, and to make connections between these things.
- “Trust but verify.”