Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, talks about overcoming obstacles and the high-profile support her organization has received to continue making low-cost infant warmers for mothers in the developing world — donations inspired by her team’s dedication to the mission. Chen emphasizes this point by quoting novelist Paulo Coelho: “When you truly believe something, the universe will conspire to help you achieve it.”

Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, points out the freedom we have to focus either on the negative or the positive, and how choosing the latter can carry you through tough times. Immersed in grinding poverty as she sought to supply India and other developing nations with low-cost infant warmers, Chen says her inspiration came from seeing mothers with very little do whatever it takes to save their babies.

Embrace Innovations Co-Founder and CEO Jane Marie Chen describes how the sudden loss of a corporate customer threatened to end her organization’s operations and served as a wake-up call that a more sustainable business model was needed, prompting Embrace to adopt one where its humanitarian efforts would be supported by the sale of baby products intended for retail consumers.

Midway through sharing some takeaway lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, Embrace Innovations CEO Jane Marie Chen explains how courage and persistence are critical because failure inevitably lies ahead. She also warns against becoming too personally attached to certain outcomes: “We are not defined by our successes or our failures. We are defined by our values and the journey that we take.”