3 Lessons Learned from My Dad about Life and Business

For Father’s Day and Every Day

My dad was a self-employed attorney with his own practice to his name in Northern New Jersey for over 40 years. A proud Buckeye, he collected undergraduate and law degrees at The Ohio State University and instituting a scholarship in his name for aspiring lawyers in the Tri-State Area. He was my model of entrepreneurship long before I struck out to do anything on my own — and when I did, he made it clear just how hard and rewarding it could be. My father was ballsy, candid, eloquent, crazy — and sometimes an asshole. And despite the look of him with a pot belly that accompanied him most of his life, he was a fighter. People like to say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” David Zendell never stopped.

Until the moment he had to stop, that is. My father passed away this year on April 1, 2020.

If there’s one thing my father loved in this world — even if to a fault — it was his work. So of all the things I could have written for Father’s Day, his favorite holiday, to honor his memory, the thing that made the most sense was this: a small reflection on a three big things I learned from him in matters of work and life.

1. A good education is no substitute for doing the work.

If you asked me father about the proudest moments of his life, I have no doubt he would have told you that watching me graduate from Princeton and MIT were somewhere in the top 10. My dad valued my education exceptionally highly — and I value it in turn. However, my dad would always be quick to remind me that his degrees from OSU and his hard work were what enabled me to go to the charmed institutions I was privileged to attend.

While at Princeton, while working at Harvard in my first job after graduation, and then while studying at MIT, I interacted with many people who acted as if their prestigious degrees made them entitled to something — whether it was a job offer, a promotion, or even a first date. These people were waiting for their degrees to open doors for them without having even having to lift a finger to turn the handle.

Thanks to my dad, I relished my education but never believed that a certain brand on my resume would guarantee me anything. (If anything, I notice that I have to work 10x harder to prove that I’m not stuck up because of all the fancy educational pedigree)…