Start with a Dream: A Tribute to Mahendra Nath

Normandale Community College advocate and donor Mahendra Nath makes success in life and business look easy. As CEO and President of Nath Companies, a family-owned business in Bloomington, Mahendra leads a roughly $70 million hospitality enterprise encompassing hotels and properties from Minnesota to South Carolina. It’s a business he and his wife Asha Nath built from the ground up.

The Naths received the 1997 Family Business of the Year Award from the University of St. Thomas, and in 2002, Mahendra was inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame. But his life and work reflect a calling broader than business alone. He is dedicated to strengthening our community by volunteering as a board member and advisor for the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Northwestern Health Sciences University, Bloomington Noon Rotary Club, Normandale Community College Foundation, and many other charitable organizations. He also helped envision and fund the construction of the Hindu Temple of Minnesota in Maple Grove, one of North America’s largest and most beautiful Hindu temples.

Mahendra accomplished and contributed in all of these ways while remaining “a truly nice person, always trying to help those around him,” according to fellow former Northwestern Health Sciences Board Member Kent Erickson and scores of other business and community leaders whose eyes light up when describing Mahendra. “The people whose lives he has touched are made better. He is a truly good person,” said Dr. Shashikant Sane, a longtime friend and Hindu Temple of Minnesota leader.

For all this success, there was nothing remarkable about Mahendra’s childhood or early life in India, where he was born and raised. His family wasn’t wealthy or unusual in any way. On the contrary, his parents came from humble backgrounds and relied on a single scooter for transportation. A car was way beyond reach – something they could only dream about.

As a teenager, Mahendra dreamed about owning one of the big, black, American cars he saw coming in and out of the U.S. Embassy next to the library he visited in high school. That dream, and the desire to get the kind of job that would make it possible, propelled him to emigrate to the United States in 1964. When he stepped off the airplane, he had three things to start a new life in a new country: his dream, $800, and the bachelor’s degree he earned at Delhi University. For the next year, he did little more than study and sleep in order to earn a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Minnesota. A job offer and his first car soon followed. And thus began Mahendra’s extraordinary rise in the business world.

Mahendra shares the method behind his success with anyone who asks. It centers on an infinitely repeating cycle that starts with a dream. “Dream. And then focus, make the plans you need to achieve your dream, and work hard,” he says. “Anybody who dreams, plans, focuses, and works hard can make their dreams come true. Learn how to dream. The cycle is infinitely repeating because as you grow and learn, your dreams expand. Once you achieve your first dream, you can dream bigger and in ways that include your hopes and aspirations for family and community.”

And if your dreams have little to do with a car or a successful business career? That is not what matters, according to Mahendra. The cycle of dreaming, focusing, planning, and working hard is the key to building a life that brings you peace and happiness, no matter what your dreams are made of.

Normandale Community College and the Normandale Foundation are deeply grateful to Mahendra Nath for his service and generosity, and the power of his example.