20 under 40: Mani Grewal

Favorite quote or saying, why?

“Dream big, work hard, and stay humble.”

I believe that the three characteristics summarized in this quotation are the most important not only for personal success but also to make positive changes in almost any setting – within a family, a business and even our community. Humility is key because more gets accomplished if you don’t care about who gets the credit. Hard work should speak for itself, but I am concerned that the link between hard work and success is not being rewarded and recognized in our culture like it once was. My parents always encouraged me to think big; they said they moved to the United States because you could think big and actually accomplish goals, which definitely is not true everywhere in the world.

Community or professional highlights:

In my life, I chose to focus first on building businesses and only in recent years on community involvement. Over both periods, though, a common focus has been on my faith, as my family has been practicing Sikhism for many generations. My service on the board of directors of the Stanislaus County Interfaith Council has introduced me to so many wonderful persons of faith in our community, has been an inspiration and has allowed me to play a small role in helping people understand my faith.

In recent years, I expanded my community involvement by serving on the city of Modesto Planning Commission and joining the board of directors of worthy organizations like the Children’s Crisis Center and the California State University, Stanislaus, Foundation. I enjoyed my service on the planning commission and have a real passion for making Modesto better. That resulted in me running for Modesto City Council last year. I was very grateful and humbled that the voters in District 1 elected me to represent them on the council. I am learning about many new topics on the City Council and really hope I am representing my constituents well.

Before my deeper community involvement, I worked with my wife – an accomplished dentist – in building businesses, most within our community. We love living and investing in our community so we can help build more prosperity.

Your life changed when:

I got married to my wife, Jas! She has always been my best friend and the most positive and supportive person in my life. It can be a cliché to say “I am a lucky man,” but I truly, truly am a lucky man to have Jas as my wife and the mother of our four children.

What do you want people to know most about you?

My parents continually sacrificed for their children. They moved to a new country, always worked hard, and taught us strong values and morals. I constantly strive to make my parents proud; therefore, I analyze my decisions to make sure I meet their expectations.

What do you like most about living here?

I love most everything about living in Modesto. Modesto is the city I was born and raised in. I cherish my friendships. I cherish the generosity of the people here. I cherish the acceptance of persons here who could look at me with my turban that I wear as a sign of my faith and have reason not to be accepting and loving and generous. It is a fantastic place for Jas and me to raise our children. It’s terrific to enjoy the bounty of our agricultural industries. People that move here are amazed by the farm products that we who were born here take for granted.

I even love the challenges we have to make our community and life here better. I love being on the California State University, Stanislaus, Foundation board and helping first-generation university graduates get access to the American dream. National Public Radio conducted a study last year that showed that Stanislaus State was in the top five with Harvard and Stanford and MIT as universities that did the best job of propelling graduates to upward mobility in the our country. How fantastic is that? I love Modesto and I love helping make Modesto even better.

Why is community involvement important?

Community involvement is important for so many reasons. Community involvement brings people together who otherwise would not know each other. And this is at a time when many people are concerned about what the future holds and understandably prefer to “hunker down” instead of building bonds. Community involvement builds the ability for us as individuals and families to overcome some of our challenges that are unmet and that government does have the money to take on. Community involvement allows an individual to share his or her special talents for the benefit of others. Community involvement allows us to have a positive impact while fulfilling our social responsibility to make our communities even better for our future generations. I am really happy that I expanded my community involvement in recent years.

This story was originally published August 21, 2016 at 5:33 AM with the headline "20 under 40: Mani Grewal."