We were lucky to catch up with Dr. PAYAM ZAMANI recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. PAYAM, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from an overarching feeling of fortune. I was born and raised in the best time the world has ever known and in a place where success and prosperity is actually achievable with hard work, unlike many other places in the world. It has never been lost on me how fortunate I have been and with this fortune comes a feeling of responsibility to keep moving forward no matter the hardships I face. No matter how hard I have it, I know many others would kill to be in my shoes and I cannot waste my opportunity in life.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am combing two different worlds to provide to my communities the best orthodontic care imaginable. Historically, if you are a family of financial means you could afford a great smile via orthodontic treatment (braces or Invisalign) for you and your family with great treatment results and customer service in a modern office. This however comes with a hefty price tag. If you are not as fortunate, you need to find the orthodontic practices in the least desired parts of town who offer lower fee based treatment and accept the lower fee dental insurances but you soon realize that the treatment outcome is not the same and there is certainly a lack of customer service and the offices usually lack the treatment technologies to provide the best care. It’s wonderful that parents without the financial means still find a way to have orthodontic treatment of some type for their children as they understand the importance of a great and healthy smile for their children’s future success. But, why can’t these families have it both ways!? From this vision, TruSmile Orthodontics was born. TruSmile provides the most high-tech orthodontic treatments for kids and adults with remarkable customer service in a modern office setting at a price point which competes with the most affordable offices mentioned above. What’s best is TruSmile accepts almost all insurances including PPO, HMO and Medi-Cal/Denti-Cal which is the state sponsored dental insurance that most orthodontic practices dont accept. We are breaking the vicious cycle for the kids from families of lesser financial means getting used to subpar orthodontic treatment, subpar customer service and subpar office settings.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Grit. You must be comfortable being uncomfortable. There will be many naysayers who have the right intention but mirror their own fears onto you. You will have to study/work very hard without a true guarantee of the definition of success which you have placed upon yourself. You will lose office spaces you were certain was yours, you will lose great staff members which you thought were going to be with you for the long run, you will need to forgo opportunities for immediate gratification never forgetting your ultimate goal.
2. Understanding that perfection is the enemy of progress. There is no perfection in this world and you will be waiting a long time on the sideline trying to analyze your perfect opportunity while you could have achieved your definition of success by trying and failing and then trying again. Make a move!
3. A healthy understanding of abundance in the world. Our world is not a zero sum-game, at least your attitude shouldn’t beleive that it is. Don’t focus on your competition, focus on what you can bring to your community and do that to the best of your ability. As long as you focus on giving (vs. losing to someone) to your clients/community/etc. you are going to win in the long term.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
My parents allowed me to be responsible for my actions. They taught me overarching principles like good work-ethic, kindness, maturity, responsibility to family and friends but they did not micro-manage my life. As long as I did not steer far from these core values, they allowed me to make and learn from my own mistakes which really helped develop my sense of independence, maturity and resilience.
Contact Info:
- Website: trusmilebraces.com
- Instagram: trusmileortho
- Youtube: TruSmile Orthodontics
- Yelp: TruSmile Orthodontics
- Other: We have two locations: one in Culver City and one in Long Beach.
