Glenn Harper: Hello everybody. Welcome to another podcast of Empowering
Entrepreneurs, The Harper Company Way.
I'm Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith: And Julie Smith.
Glenn Harper: Well, welcome. And we've got a special guest today.
We've got Shawn Parikh, a fellow entrepreneur, of course,
has multiple companies.
One is Entigrity, an accounting staffing company
headquartered in Texas that has multiple offices across
India. And in his spare time has MyCPE, which is a global
content education platform.
Thanks, Shawn, for being part of the show today.
Shawn Parikh: Hey, thank you. Thank you, Julie, for inviting me to this
program. I'm really looking forward to this interaction.
Glenn Harper: Well, I think the listeners their first question is, when
you're in India, what's your favorite food to eat?
Shawn Parikh: Well, I have I mean, I have been friends with a lot of U.S.
People and they are really fond of Indian food.
Food, and they like that spicy taste.
So my favorite food in India, I mean, you can say Bhaji,
which is basically a curry and and bread that we typically
make. So that's that's my favorite food.
We often make it in our home.
Glenn Harper: That sounds fantastic.
When you're back in the US, what's your what's your
favorite food that you're jonesing for?
You're like a Taco Bell guy, a KFC, White Castle barbecue.
What do you go for?
Shawn Parikh: Well, I'm a vegetarian, so.
Oh, wow. I'm a vegetarian.
So. Taco Bell and Subway's and Chipotle is these are the
places I typically have to go where I find meat free meal.
So I.
I'm very fond of chipotle bowl.
Oh yeah. That when I used to travel in the initial days of
my career in U.S., probably early 2012, 2013, that used to
be my staple meal.
I used to take a stop at Chipotle and make some calls and
it's the best one and then get going, you know, so and so
yeah.
Julie Smith: We should preface with Glenn is talking all about food
because he's done a time difference and he realizes that
it's dinner time for Shawn right now.
So he's very curious about his dinner.
Glenn Harper: All right. Now, the other question we have to know is, are
you a cricket like traditional soccer or an American
football fan?
Shawn Parikh: Well, in India, you should not be asking this question.
Glenn Harper: I know it's all cricket.
That's why I said.
Shawn Parikh: Cricket is the religion in India.
So, you know, with 1.5 billion people, I'm sure there would
be no child or no kid in India who would not be an expert
in analyzing cricket.
So everybody, you know, has an opinion on cricket, whether
they play or they do not play, you know, physically.
But yeah, cricket is perhaps the most followed sport in
India and I am a cricket buff as well.
I still play cricket a lot.
Oh really? I mean, yeah, every week, at least twice I play
cricket. I'm not a gamer.
I'm a little lazy that way.
So I play sport. So I play tennis and cricket almost
weekly, like twice and thrice.
Glenn Harper: How about that? I caught some kabaddi tournaments on ESPN
the show last night.
I didn't know if you if that's a sport that you play at
all. I know that's picking up steam.
I just didn't know if that's something you're into.
Shawn Parikh: When you have done your research.
Yes, that's picking up steam in India.
Glenn Harper: That's the new one.
Shawn Parikh: Yes. I've been following Cup of Tea Sport and of late it has
got kind of commercial attraction as well.
So PE sponsors are coming in, franchisees are coming in to
sponsor players and then it is picking up.
So any new ecosystem building around sport is good for the
nation as a whole.
So yeah, I mean, I follow Kabaddi as well, but I'm not a
company player or I don't play that.
Glenn Harper: Gotcha. Well, you know, it's always fun to have people rally
towards something versus being worried about everything
else. So that's always exciting.
I noticed on, you know, I guess you're a chartered
accountant and as a fellow accountant, we can make fun of
each other a little bit. And I suspect that means you
probably have a green visor and a ten key somewhere in your
office. Right close by, I would suspect.
Is that true?
Shawn Parikh: Sorry. What you said.
Glenn Harper: A ten key adding machine and a green visor that the
accountants usually. Where do you have any of those laying
around.
Shawn Parikh: You can say I'm an odd one out of that accounting community
that reminds me of one of the incidents I have studied in a
college called Indian Institute of Management course.
I did my post-graduation there and my specialization was
marketing management instead of financial management.
If you are a chartered accountant, typically you end up
doing that specialization.
That goes without saying, it's obvious that you'll be
specializing in financial management in your MBA.
Well, when you when I started college, I went there.
It was an inaugural speech you need to give there.
So I went upstairs from the podium and then my words were
like, you know, I am a chartered accountant.
My friends are chartered accountants, my brother is
chartered accountant, my wife is chartered accountant, my
brother wife is chartered accountant and I'm fed up of
chartered accountants. So this is the place I am where I
have no accountants around me.
So, you know, and people started laughing and there were a
couple of accountants there who kind of felt offended a
little bit. But yeah.
Julie Smith: So, Shawn, I have to tell you a story that I don't think
I've shared with you in our conversations last year.
Glenn was so excited that he remembered my birthday.
We've only been working together for, you know, a little
over seven years.
And for my birthday, as you know, I'm not an accountant and
I don't even understand numbers.
Right. He gave me a ten key and it's been almost a year and
it's still in the box.
Glenn Harper: Very disappointing. Very disappointing.
Shawn Parikh: Uh. So, yeah.
Glenn Harper: There's nothing we can say about that.
It's exactly right. Well, Shawn, I just heard some news on
your LinkedIn that you guys just hit your 1,000th employee.
I didn't tell you. That is kind of a big deal.
That is awesome.
Shawn Parikh: Fortunately, the number is bigger than that.
Actually, that number is just for the Gujarat region.
So it is just one state that we are talking about.
We have offices beyond that state as well.
So we have that was a post actually shared by one of our
employees in that state.
So yeah, but yeah, a pretty big feed for all of us.
And congratulations to the team as well.
Julie Smith: So about.
Shawn Parikh: How.
Julie Smith: About how many employees do you have then?
Shawn Parikh: About 1500 plus in total.
Julie Smith: Okay. Wow. Good for you.
Glenn Harper: You want to share a little bit about what you do and what
your business.
Shawn Parikh: Sorry, we are interrupting just to kind of come and come on
that question of ten key.
Well, I never had a ten K in my in my on my table even when
I was practicing.
But, you know, what I've realized is accountants are big
enablers of, you know, in journey of entrepreneurs.
So and globally, you know, I am a big, big believer of
small businesses and entrepreneurship, if you want, you
know, real big, stable world, so to say.
And accountants play a very big role there.
And I'm happy that in some small way I'm helping that
community, although I'm not an accountant myself.
But I consider myself fortunate that I have been an
accountant where I have enabled those entrepreneurs who
have been either starting the business or wanted to grow
the business. So that role is key where you use you act as
a as a booster.
Yeah.
Glenn Harper: I agree. I think the accounting industry is getting more and
more people that are not accountants that are augmenting
and helping the accounting industry, which is fantastic
because accountants, you know, we think just one way and
it's really hard to get out of your own way.
So it's nice to have other perspectives come in and give us
all of these little aha moments.
Shawn Parikh: Yep. Yep, absolutely.
Glenn Harper: Do you want to share a little bit about what your businesses
do just as a little introduction?
You just take a couple of seconds to talk about that and
then we'll get into the meat of the matter.
Shawn Parikh: Yep, sure. So the first business we talked about was the
degree of short staffing we help with.
The challenges of staffing were so high and it has just
aggravated post pandemic.
So we started way back probably seven, eight years back and
we started to address this challenge for midsize and
regional accounting firms, small midsize and regional
accounting firms, and help them building their offshore
team to mitigate this, number one challenge of staffing.
So that's the simple thing that we do, and we have been
successfully doing that so far and helping firms.
Our objective was to empower the firms with by providing
them the right access to global staffing and then and
trying to help them.
The second business kind of came through while we were
doing this, which was continuing education.
What we are trying to do there is there are already a lot
of continuing education platform.
What we are trying to do is we are trying to truly become
one place continuing education platform for all, kind of
continuing education.
You know, with all all avenues of learning.
That's what we are trying to do.
Hopefully we will do it one day.
So so that's the second business we are at.
Glenn Harper: Nice. Which one do you do?
Which one runs better on its own right now versus which one
do you have to spend more time on?
Shawn Parikh: Well, both, you know, you have to be actively involved.
And honestly.
Glenn Harper: That's a trick.
Shawn Parikh: Question. I would like to have somebody who can run it on an
autopilot mode, but I think I think I'm not able to find
the right guy or still it is not ready.
I don't know. I'm still confused.
We can say that a little bit, but yeah, both of them are
very growing businesses.
Both businesses, fortunately, are on the right side of the
post-pandemic world.
Offshoring just kind of skyrocketed because of staffing
challenges and remote working become so normal that
offshoring became a buzzword in accounting world.
So so that's that's kind of where integrity remains on the
right side of the business and and right side of the
post-pandemic world.
And all those in-person webinars, in-person seminars and
chapter meetings and events kind of vanished overnight
because of the COVID. And that's where people migrated
online more and more.
And we kind of where on the where in that space before
pandemic. So fortunately that was also something that that
went in our our favor.
However, one thing which I would like to highlight is CPA
certified public accountancy is truly becoming a global
designation. Yep.
Let me tell you something. Post-pandemic.
There are more than a couple of dozen institute teaching
CPAs, CMS and CIOs that have started in India.
So this is really building a big ecosystem for this
designation. And and a lot I mean, just to give you a
number, probably two years before, there would be 1000 to
1500 people every year in India becoming certified public
accountant and enrolled agents.
That number is going to grow ten times in 2022.
Speaker1: Oh, my.
Speaker3: Wow. Yeah.
So that's the kind of change we are seeing in India and
that's the kind of demand we are seeing in India for, you
know, those global accounting firms, large accounting
firms. So yeah, this is a big game changing transition.
You can say transformation time for for for us.
Speaker1: Do you as an entrepreneur, you know, you obviously didn't
start off as an entrepreneur, but we'll kind of just skip
ahead to being an entrepreneur in India and also being in
the United States.
Is there challenges one way or the other that makes it a
little easier or harder in one country or the other?
Or is it pretty much a universal thing?
Speaker3: Well, one thing.
One, let me tell you one good thing about it.
I can take vacation in the name of work if I want to try
it. So that's a good thing about being in both countries.
Yeah, yeah. That's all jokes apart.
I think it's tough to leave sometimes family back and
travel for months together.
I used to stay in the US.
I stayed there for about 5 to 6 years.
But, you know, leaving family behind and traveling without
them is the tough part personally.
Otherwise, I don't see any challenge.
For me. It's learning both ways.
I have traveled to, let's say between 2014 to 2019.
I have traveled in 28 states in the US with about 150 plus
voting cards and staying in probably 250 plus Airbnb
apartments or homes.
So that's what my memory is with us.
Speaker1: Right in the heartland.
Do you go as far as your how did you decide what was your
journey before you became an entrepreneur?
Did you already know you wanted to be one when you were
just a kid, or is it something you kind of just graduated
into? How did how did that trigger you get a real job and
then decide to be an entrepreneur?
Or did you just use a real job as a stepping stone because
you knew you wanted to be one?
How did that happen?
Speaker3: So I when I started my career, I used to work as a retailer
in a couple of mid-sized companies.
So that gave me an opportunity to fight on the side, start
my entrepreneurial journey as well.
So while I had a fixed income who I call them as my anchor
clients who gave me like a fixed income every month and
kind of consume me every week as well my time.
But at the same time I had a certain time on my plate where
I used to kind of invest it into an entrepreneur
entrepreneurial venture as well to build my own public
practice in India.
So I have built and operated a public practice for about 3
to 4 years in India and eventually I felt that I want to
get jump into corporate.
So my journey is a little reverse.
So it's not coming from corporates and Big Four and getting
into public accounting.
It was first public accounting and then I thought that I
would, I imagine myself building a corporate going forward.
So let me get the big exposure of how large teams are
managed. And fortunately, at that point of time, I get an
opportunity with I get an opportunity to work with one of
the CEOs closely wherein we built a company from for I
mean, I would not say we built it.
He built an I was kind of an enabler there from a for people
you know to about 4000 people that gave me an exposure of
all kind right from man team challenges strategy so so that
kind of mentored me a lot.
I was fortunate enough to be part of that four or five year
journey and, and that kind of gave me kind of courage
strategy to build integrity as well.
So, so before integrity and after, after that, that, that
went to where I was a CFO, by the way, that company I'm
talking about, I actually started as an accountant and I
eventually became a CFO of that company.
And then I left.
I started another venture into pharma space, which failed.
I lost almost 50% of my wealth there before starting
Entegrity. So while I started a degree, it was under
tremendous social pressure because almost 50% of your
saving is gone. And when you come out of a middle class
family, that is a kind of a big shock that you are doing
well. Why you want to take an entrepreneurial journey and
take those risks. So being in entrepreneurship was never
something from the very beginning.
It just came through it.
You can say your dream changes while you be on your
journey. It was like to have a home and to have a car
before and now it's something else.
And it was then to build wealth.
And now it's like today I'm doing this because I have a
team around me which is aspiring to grow and now I am that
medium. You know, just, just want to add one more thing.
Sorry, I'm extending this answer, but today, you know, we
were surveying this and how much this is impacting, how
much our actions are impacting, you know, these people who
are working in integrity or these accounting firms or let
me give you a couple of data points.
About 30% of our people, our team member, bought their
first car with integrity.
About more than 40% of the people bought their first home,
first family home after joining in dignity.
So this is the amount of socioeconomic social impact we are
trying to make collectively as a team.
So that is more satisfying after you have taken care of
your own and family well-being.
Yeah.
Speaker2: That gave me goosebumps.
Like what an impact you've made so quickly.
But one of the words that you use that we believe in and we
believe that entrepreneurs believe in that is that team
concept. How quickly were you able to figure out that it
wasn't about you?
It was about your team and what you were able to build and
aspire around you.
Speaker3: Probably, I would say about two years before I realized.
I mean, it's like you can say that you talked about that
aha moment. Mm hmm.
I went actually into I went into a house of one of our team
members. It was a housewarming party.
And I saw the happiness on the face of the parents of that
child. And I realized that that in some small way we are
trying we are contributing to the social the social
upliftment of people around us.
So that's where I realize that, you know, this is not this
journey is now not just economic prosperity.
It's about making a larger impact that we are making.
And it is going to those people who are economically
deprived. So that is more fulfilling that we are trying to.
Trying to I mean, we are trying to be contributing in a
small way to bring that balance.
So that's that's that's where probably it happened.
Speaker2: Yeah. What what an incredible story.
And then I have one more question to kind of follow up that
you had mentioned before.
So the person that kind of took you under their wing and
you build it from four employees to 4000.
Do you think that that person just had a huge impact in
regards to mentorship as you kind of changed your journey
into, you know, that entrepreneurial?
Speaker3: Julie, you speak my mind.
He has tremendous influence on me today also.
I used to fight with him, but he never used to kind of take
it negatively because he thought that my fight with him was
in the interest of the business, even though I was wrong.
Most of the time you can say always so.
Yeah. So still, probably we may not be in that much connect
with each other right now because of the business
commitments and personal commitments, but that that CEO of
that company had a tremendous amount of impact on my life
as well. My professional learnings and the way I approach
and the way I deal with people.
I never had the vision.
Let me tell you, I never had the vision of building this
kind of company if I would not have been with that company.
You know, my thinking was small.
My exposure was small.
I would have been into this.
I mean, I would have not built this company unless I would
have got that exposure that I had.
Speaker1: Which is definitely one of the things we try to encourage.
All the entrepreneurs out there listening to this is quest
for knowledge.
Quest for knowledge.
You don't know what you might want to do.
You don't know your potential until you go and break those
chains and go out and see what's out there.
And and you'll be surprised and amazed at what you can
accomplish. Do you know this?
This story that you have is absolutely going to ruin the
stereotypes of entrepreneurs who are successful because
you're not supposed to be caring about your teammates.
You're not supposed to be caring about families, caring
about social stuff. You're supposed to be out there just
making money and just, you know, raping and pillaging
everything. You know, how how does that, you know, that
mindset change? I don't think most of us ever want to do
that. I think we always have a greater good in our in our
hearts of what we want to accomplish.
I don't think you ever did it probably for the money.
You probably did it for the challenge because you did it
for the money. You probably wouldn't have started that
started again the second time after you lost the second
piece. Right. So is it just a unbridled just belief in
yourself and your character and who you are?
What what kept you going and saying, no way, nobody's going
to stop me. I'm going to keep going.
How did you decide that?
What was that in you that made that happen?
Speaker3: So most of the entrepreneurial journey are never for I mean,
not just for the money.
It is it is it is something more than that.
In my case, when I mentioned about a business failed.
And and so let me give you a little bit of anecdote.
I start I started a practice.
Then I left the practice and went into corporate.
So it was a good practice.
But I decided, you know, I'm not liking it.
We are making good money.
So understand, you come from a very middle class family.
You started getting economically, you started getting
stronger, you started building up savings.
And suddenly you tell that, you know, I'm not liking it.
Let me just leave. Let me jump onto something else.
So my mother used to scold me.
Like what? What? What are you up to?
Why are you doing this?
That's your career. It has been a difficult time that we we
have come out of. And now you want to play with your
career. Now, I went into corporate stage to spend about
four or five years there and then started from a normal
accountant, the CFO.
Great journey. Well, you started drawing handsome, handsome
salary, position, salary.
All. All perks, everything.
And all of a sudden, in your mind, you started decide to
get into some kind of a venture.
So, again, you know, and and, you know, failures are not
very, very.
Failure is a little taboo here where we stay.
So it's a social pressure that creates.
If you fail, people will start saying something.
Well, I have no problem with it.
But when you live in a joint family, what happens to your
mother and then people around you matter.
So. So I left the job.
And then it was a good job, well-paying job.
You leave that, and then you go and venture into something
and it fails and it does not fail.
It takes away the job from you.
It takes over 50% of your savings that you have built.
And it gives you all kind of disappointment and frustration
and lack of confidence that when are you really good
enough? You know, you start doubting yourself.
So that was a stage when that venture failed.
Thankfully, my wife and my brother kind of still kept that
confidence in me that, you know, this is just one, one and
one half year. Don't worry about it.
You know, you have, you know, seven, seven, eight years.
There have been great success.
Well, you know, this is just one piece of the failure.
Now where Entegrity happened.
Previous motivations to grow.
Where all organic.
Where you you know you are growing from you continuously
growing from your base every year, every month.
Now, this is a dip that that has come to you.
So now it's different.
So now the thing is the journey starts is you have to come
back to place where you were.
So. So that was a little difficult journey.
And the motivation was now that if I don't build this up, I
would be permanently tagged as a failure.
In my community.
Speaker1: That is amazing.
I mean, we we never use the term failure as an
entrepreneur. We always use a setback and a retool and come
back stronger in a different way and pivot.
But I guess the social pressure, you know, back in India,
that is probably a big deal.
Right. And that has that added pressure.
We just I don't know if we feel that here or not in the US.
I mean, people still judge us, but when it's the whole
family coming at you, that has to be pretty hard.
So is the I guess the motivation is that, hey, this was
just has to be a setback.
You can't look at it as a failure.
You have to come back stronger, right?
I mean, you had to do that.
Was there a choice? Did you ever think that you're going to
stop or do you feel like I got to keep going?
Speaker3: Well, Glenn, honestly speaking, we are talking this in
retrospect, in hindsight.
It's it's okay.
It was very agonizing for me and my wife, everyone, you
know, losing 50% of your and then then, you know, starting
all over again. So good that we have made a comeback and we
have done it. Well, when you look in hindsight, I think a
lot of things have happened to me because of destiny.
I mean, I went to another country, started all over again.
All of this is took some good decisions, got some great
people by my side. Everything is okay.
I met some great people in the U.S.
who kind of supported me all of this, you know.
But if I see that, you know, building this company, there
were probably in hindsight, I always reflect and
introspect. And I see there are 250 things that have
happened to me which were beyond my control and there was
no contribution in my in that.
So, you know, this has it was meant to be this way.
So if people often ask that, you know, you know, would you
like to live the life the same way that has come to you?
Well, I always think that it has to I made a lot of
mistakes, but if I wouldn't have made that, this wouldn't
have come through. So in hindsight, I would think that I
would have avoided those mistakes and probably tried to be
more prudent and more sane and more conservative on things.
But it has to be that way.
Coming back to social pressure thing.
But I was not the guy who took that pressure that much.
But my family around, you know, you live in a joint family
in India. So the culture is a little different there here
and. As I said, I would have been easily tagged as a
failure. And, you know, one more thing I would like to
highlight here, and you will see this article coming very
soon in Indian media that we built.
I was a chartered accountant.
But today we have built a company out of out of.
You can see it, dropouts and failed professionals.
80% of the people that we have hired are not chartered
accountants. Because in India.
You know, if 100 people join chartered accountancy, only
five or ten people can actually become chartered
accountant. What?
So in America, the result is about 40 to 50%.
That is in India, it's very competitive.
So although the internship, they have to undergo three
years of internship with the accounting firm and they have
to prep for it.
Those are really quality talent, but they have missed by
five or ten marks and could not become chartered
accountant. So I had a special place in empathy for that
because a lot of my friends could not clear and I have seen
them very working very hard.
And I sometimes thought that they were more deserving than
me. And I was fortunate enough that I could clear that exam
and they could not. In an order of five years, the
compensation gap in that career becomes very high if you
are making like $100.
Being a chartered accountant in five years, that guy who is
C internal C, a dropout with same amount of knowledge, same
amount of internship experience, same amount of prep that
he has done for c final examination would be drawing like
$20. Oh my God.
This is the kind of compensation gap happens.
Yeah.
Speaker1: Well, we always like to say that, you know, you fail forward
and it's not what happens to you, it's how you react to it.
And, you know, entrepreneurs are just, you know, we try to
inspire as many people that listen to this podcast as
possible that, you know, if it was easy, everybody would do
it. And yeah, because it's hard, you really get to get down
and just decide what kind of character do you have?
How hard are you willing to work to do it?
And sometimes you got to you get lucky and you get a
mentor. Sometimes something happens that makes you look at
things in different perspective, and sometimes the hard
work and the planets align and things work out.
And it seems like that's probably what's happened with you,
which is an amazing. But you didn't do it by just sitting
on your laurels. You went out there and made it happen.
Do you think what is your like?
I know that's a trick question, so I'm just going to tell
you so you don't get to feel like you're being tricked,
but, you know, what's the end game for you is you want to
grow your company to 5000 employees, 20,000 employees.
You want to turn around and sell this thing.
You want to buy, do some more businesses.
Once you make $100 Billion, what is what is the end game?
Which I know the answer, but go ahead and try to tell me.
Speaker3: Oh, I actually, you know, I mean, I've tried to ask that
question to myself and actually never gotten that kind of
clear answer that I wanted.
But I have kind of realized what I don't want to do.
I don't want to kind of just pursue any opportunity for the
sake of, you know, let's say I want to continue making
social impact while doing what we are doing.
So definitely we want to do that.
So I just don't want to do something for the sake of
business opportunity and only with my CP, what we are doing
is for every credit you take, we are donating one meal, one
under-served person.
So that's the social objective.
And so far we have distributed more than a million meals in
our short journey of two years, and that has been a
wonderful program that we have.
And in India, you have that problem, which is genuine.
Plus, we are working with a food bank of New York food bank
of South Jersey, and then we are taking help from there as
well. And continuously, month on month, we are donating
funds there. So my objective or my way of looking at I, if
I if I grow my ICP, my object total objective will continue
to grow with it. With with Entegrity what we are doing.
And you know, just it would be great for you as well to
listen with integrity.
What we have we are starting we were planning to start this
two years before school closed and pandemic.
All schools were closed, kind of went online.
So. With every employee or every staff that a firm hire.
We will be taking care of entire education of an
underserved person.
One person. So as we grow a number of staff, let's say we
have 5000 people, we would be supporting 5000 children's.
So this would be part of our objective and it grows as the
business grows. So if you if you if I can highlight this is
what I would like to do with whatever I do from here.
Not really know what I'm doing.
I think whatever I'm doing, if I'm able to justify that
itself, it's great.
But this is a little bit of thought process in executing
what we are doing.
Speaker1: I think the the stereotype, again, of entrepreneurs and
people that run businesses is just so not fair in the media
because I have yet to find entrepreneurs that don't truly
care about their teammates, their employees, employees,
families. It really is about trusting and empowering and
having everybody rise up with you.
Right. I mean, what fun is it doing it by yourself?
And it's great to hear that you believe in the same
concept. And again, a lot of trainers may be their own sole
proprietor, maybe a couple employees.
You've got, you know, quite a few employees.
And you guys basically have grabbed them all in and said,
hey, these are my extended family and you're taking care of
them. But but they're getting rewarded.
They're getting smarter.
They're making an impact.
They're helping their clients out.
They're helping the company out.
I mean, what a great success story to have that happen,
because I would imagine anybody that's a part of your team,
I'd imagine they're not going to want to leave your team
very time soon.
I think I think you probably treat them pretty well.
Speaker3: Well, I'd like to believe that.
But if staffing is a challenge even in India now and but
yes, team is going to be the cornerstone or the backbone of
any businesses that you're building.
And I have realized it hard hard base know sometimes in
your journey growth comes with little bit of you can say
loneliness fast growth in fact.
And if you ask me what are the biggest regrets that
probably I would have is during this journey of this
entrepreneurial journey, probably lost a few colleagues on
its way. And and I would say that if they would have been
by my side, I would be you know, they would be happy as
well and then I would be happier as well.
So those were hard working colleagues of mine.
And then yeah, it's it's unfortunate that, yeah, they are
not together in the success, but yeah, their contribution
to this business have been invaluable.
Speaker1: Yes. Sometimes it just doesn't fit and you can't force it.
One thing we always like to ask our entrepreneurs on the
guests on the show is, you know, is there any you mentioned
regrets about bringing some colleagues along, but is there
anything that you would think back and go, wow, if I knew
what I know today back then, or if somebody would told me
the shortcut I'd have got here a lot quicker is and again,
there's nothing to replace a school of hard knocks, of
course. But is there something that you could point to
sometime in the past that said, Man, if I just knew that
that would have been the key, what would that have been?
Speaker3: Well, one thing that happened operationally on the back and
side of what we are doing is.
Well, one thing let me tell you which probably would be
more relatable to this conversation.
So I thought initially when we started working with and
started integrating, I have to visit every accounting firm
and close them. So I cannot because I my accent is heavy
and I cannot lose accounting firm without meeting them in
person and giving them the trust.
So I used to travel a lot, go to all conferences, etc.,
etc.. But but in the year 2015 or 6 to 10, 16 or 17, a guy
named Michael Dell, who is also a CPA, is also in New York.
And then and happened to be he came to my booth.
And he's an entrepreneur, too, apart from being an
accountant and and a great brain.
And I'll tell him he was my guide in America.
I learned a lot from him.
So he told me that I'll be closing clients for you without
visiting them. And just for you, you have to pay me as much
commission. I said, Why not?
If I am not required to pay anything to you without
clients, well, go for it.
And that break the mindset that I was open to that.
But it was a big mindset shift.
So if I would have known that three or four years back,
probably we would have been probably two of what we are in
that crazy.
Speaker1: We we call that getting out of your own way, right?
Recognizing the strengths and and we'll call them
weaknesses that all of us have.
But it's really hard.
It's not true. We're bullheaded, we're stubborn.
We believe we know it all and we want to do it.
And the second we step back and augment that with some
other people on our team, magic can just happen.
Speaker3: Yeah, I was so wrong.
Speaker1: But you know what? If you got it earlier, maybe it wouldn't
have meant as much because you didn't have to work so hard.
You never know, right? You don't know who you're going to
be. But boy, it would be neat to go back and and fix that.
Well, I you know, I think the the end game question is an
open ended question, because I don't think there is one.
I think if you love what you do, it's really not work.
You're probably going to just keep going.
Why would you stop?
Again, the money at this point really doesn't matter
because you have your lifestyle you want.
You're helping people you enjoy, getting up every day,
going to work. That literally to me is the entrepreneurial
dream to have that it's not about you anymore.
It's about everybody you impact.
And I think you've probably achieved it.
So congratulations.
But I feel like you've got so much more to do.
Speaker3: Yeah, well, I mean, we have we are continuing to do what we
are doing right every day.
So that's what the motivation is to get up every day and
then do what you're doing like a job, but with a lot of the
light fun and then results.
So yeah.
Speaker1: There's nothing better. Well, it's, we're going to enjoy
sitting back and, and helping you participate and watching
you participate and watching you build this empire.
And I can't wait to imagine how high it's going to go.
So we're excited for you and appreciate you coming on our
show today. And I hope an entrepreneur is are listening to
this realize that it ain't easy.
And but if you stay with it and you and you keep working,
you acquire that knowledge, it'll happen for you.
So just believe in yourself.
Surround yourself with people that believe in you and who
knows what you can accomplish.
Speaker3: And I'm really thankful to you, Glenn and Julie, first for
inviting me for this wonderful, wonderful interaction.
And second, you are helping small businesses.
You are celebrating entrepreneurship, which is most
important. It's it's very is very, very important.
You guys are doing that.
And I would like to applaud you for that.
So please continue your search efforts.
And and that that really is bringing good, positive results
as a whole.
Speaker1: Well, thank you, Shawn, for those kind words.
We appreciate you. Again, there's nothing better than
watching somebody have that dream in their eye and it makes
it happen. It's it's the best it's the best feeling ever.
Well, get back. Hopefully you have your midnight snack here
back home at your time zone and we're getting ready to
start the day. So again, Sean, thanks for coming in and
we'll have this podcast out there for everybody to listen
to directly.
This is Glenn Harper signing off.
Speaker2: And Julie Smith.