Hetal Mehta

I definitely think my parents influenced me. My dad was always, as we were raised, made sure that we had 3 sisters, so all the girls were always encouraged to be independent. As I think back, that definitely - mom and dad, as they were always showing that. And then there is something like you're born a certain way. I do believe that you have that within you, and the other things are just nurtured by where you grew up, who are your peers, friends. So I think all of that is what makes a person who their person is. It's always nurture versus nature, I believe in that. I also had family having businesses - my brother-in-law had his own company, so I had that around me, so I give that points to that influence again. That gave me the nudge that, okay, it's possible, they are all doing it, I can do it.

First, definitely be very clear, and you may not be clear at that age when you're starting out - I understand, sometimes you're not clear - but stay with it. That's where the perseverance comes. From a technology standpoint, I have been encouraging, and I do that with my kids, get extremely sophisticated with AI. It is only there to help. I always urge people to get very savvy with AI. It's not there to take your job, at least not for the most part that I've seen. It's going to make you more successful. So adopt technology, adopt changes. Keep learning, and keep adopting. I have seen personally how much AI has helped me because I do a lot more now, and this is helping me do things much faster because I adopt. So adopt to changes, don't resist, don't complain. And stay with the goal. It has to come from you within. You have to have that desire, but then stay persistent, keep learning, keep adopting. From a work standpoint, network at work, go to your bosses, be visible, FaceTime, always show up, and do more than you are given.

Opportunities are plenty. I always look at the positive, so I think everything is an opportunity, personally or on business front. From a business perspective, challenges - the environment, specifically from a business standpoint, it's always challenging to keep teams motivated when there are cycles where things get influenced by market conditions or government changes. We have seen it in our business with the change in leadership in the country, governing leadership - it impacts. So from a business perspective, to keep everybody motivated sometimes can be a challenge, but cultivating a culture where we look at it positively and any growth is still a positive growth. From that standpoint, I would say that's potentially the only challenge. I personally have not faced otherwise - I don't look at things as challenging. I have been very positive, and I think it was always positive from every support that I have seen from customers, be it from customers or as an employee when I was working. So personally, I haven't seen anything short of support.

Honesty is always a given. I think perseverance has been the most important and the most valuable thing that I have seen, whether personally I wanted to get to a goal, whether it was in a health process, hitting a certain weight, or on a business. Absolutely, perseverance is what is required - no matter what, if you stick with it. And to that point, I also like to always highlight, at some point, if things are not working, you can't just keep persevering. So making a change to get the goal, and at a certain point, re-evaluating if it is really going to work, and then should we adjust. It's a combination of that, setting the expectation but staying persistent. Personally, I like to keep relationships. That also ties into business in that sense, and cultivating that same values and sharing it with my kids. Keeping relationships, no matter what, and putting in time and effort, even on a personal scale, is the most important thing in personal life or business.