Mahaveer Jain, President & CEO, SourceSelect, Inc.
Entrepreneurship is a difficult path to pursue and failure is a part of the journey. Very few entrepreneurs make it big without first experiencing some massive failures. Whether it’d be running a business into the ground or getting fired from a job, a lot of successful entrepreneurs have seen huge failures before ever accomplishing their dreams. Believing in creating his own roadmaps, Mahaveer Jain, the President and CEO of SourceSelect is one of the zealous entrepreneurs who is leading the company to new heights. The company’s core service is in creating and managing a cost-effective global supply chain infrastructure to help small to mid-sized businesses distribute their products to their end-users and B2B customers worldwide. Mahaveer states, “We simply take the headaches out of supply chain and allow our customers to focus on what they do best which is designing and creating new products while we manage all of the logistics seamlessly for them.”
Mahaveer’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Mahaveer’s first entrepreneurial endeavour started at a very early age of seven when his dad put him to work at their family rice mill. At first, he handled the bookkeeping and eventually ran the mill, dealing with customers and money. He shares, “It was a lot of hard work, and in fact, I never got a chance to even enjoy my highschool and early college life since I had the responsibility to take care of the mill to the point that I missed my own Sister’s wedding.”
The avid entrepreneur started his career at a networking software startup back in the late 1980s. His life was all about working a day job as a Software Engineer, exploring new things, leading a non-profit group at Stanford and being super active. Unfortunately, the company failed to make it after 5 years and Mahaveer had to move on. After a couple of years, he got an opportunity to co-found a company with his friend and built the first universal messaging platform to retrieve voice, email, and fax all in one place.
“I had to put in a lot of hours at this company as the V.P of Engineering and it took a toll on me and when things didn’t work out I felt hurt and burnt out. The experience looking back was good for me because I learned a lot and also started to think for the first time about balancing my life you know the “mind, body and spirit” thing and that led to my spiritual journey. Along came the opportunity that has been my life till today in ‘SourceSelect’,” recalls, Mahaveer.
Powering through Challenges
Personally, Mahaveer had lost all of his savings due to poor investments and the software startup company which he co-founded did not succeed. Without a job and no income, he was trying to figure out ways to survive and make ends meet. And on the business front, the company was not doing so well and was in debt in the early stage. Mahaveer learned to operate the business with little or no money while dealing with legal challenges and private investors who wanted out. He managed to find new customers, learn the legal system to work around the lawsuits, and get creative with banks to get factoring just to keep the business afloat.
Mahaveer says, “I have to thank a number of my close friends who helped me tremendously during this time and just allowed me to stay above water. My spiritual practice which I started during that time has become my anchor even to this day, am grateful to my spiritual masters.”
The foundation of his entrepreneurship lies in Mahaveer’s upbringing and work ethic. He learned a lot and gained unique experiences in running and managing a business. Over the years, he also ran a non-profit organization called ASHA at Stanford University for four years which helped him become a good communicator and a leader. With no salaries, it was another challenge for him to connect with people’s hearts to make them see the goal of the non-profit group.
Essential Traits of an Entrepreneur
According to Mahaveer, true entrepreneurship is all about making a difference, solving problems, and doing it in a way that fills your heart. It requires having strong faith, perseverance, strong will, patience, and the ability to come up with creative solutions and keep the ship sailing. He goes on to say that it is all about the journey but please know that anything is possible if you can put your mind to the task at hand.
Mahaveer has always believed in creating a harmonious workplace where people enjoy coming to work because they love to work. He has created a family atmosphere in the company and as a smaller company, he feels that it is easier to bond and create a team. “I have always loved to see my customers happy and have preached the same to employees. I hope the employees felt happy going out of their way in taking care of customers,” asserts Mahaveer.
Sharing Advice
To the youthful entrepreneur, Mahaveer has a very simple maxim to share: be true to who you are, believe in what you want to accomplish, and put your heart and soul into what you do. To achieve success, be humble, listen and always be willing to learn and use your heart to guide you and your mind to execute.
“First, I am young at heart and have always felt that way. I have always enjoyed working with younger people because they make me feel young. I am searching for my next life venture and honestly doing a lot of soul-searching to find my real-life purpose on this planet. I would love to share my experience of running a business from a spiritual plane as alien as it may sound. I would love to collaborate with anyone who resonates with my journey and ideas and see where it can go,” concludes, Mahaveer.