Raj grew up in the deserts of Rajasthan where the temperature reaches 120°F at 8 o’clock in the morning. Twenty years old, he arrived at Syracuse University to study business. Unable to grasp the curriculum and facing unforeseen financial hardship, he struggled alone in a dark isolated silo, making mistakes and learning lessons, bouncing between pride and fear.
With the guidance of one mentor after another and one-step at a time, Raj started experiencing the grandeur of what makes America the top nation on the planet – kindness, brilliance, and opportunity. After finishing an MBA, he worked for Xerox and IBM where he received massive doses of professional skills and leadership training. The era when companies invested heavily in their employees’ growth prepared Raj for his many diverse ventures.
Today, he looks back with gratitude while remembering having the cleanest fridge because money was short, riding to school on his second-hand Schwinn road bicycle, hauling groceries and books in a US Army second world-war knapsack that belonged to his housemate’s father, and working as a night auditor at a hotel in Houston while taking college courses during the day.
Like clockwork, mentors kept opening doors for Raj. On a mentor’s recommendation, he joined Xerox sales as a campus-hire and rose from customer-facing sales roles to critical problem-solving roles of worldwide impact before joining IBM.
After twenty years of fixing corporate problems on-command, Raj started his work of passion to serve and uplift companies and professionals as a consultant and published his first book, Find Your Everest before someone chooses it for you. It is proving to be a powerful provocative-thinking tool for those who are not tapping into their full potential, inspiring them to take action.
Raj delivers inspirational talks at conventions, companies, schools, and prisons. He serves invisible-to-society veterans without social connections or skills and is on the board of a school for students who need non-traditional academic and social instruction.
Raj’s two children attended public schools (Boulder Valley School District, in Boulder, CO), where incredible teachers prepared them for higher education. Son has a Ph.D. in Cancer Genomics and will get his M.D. credential in 2021 from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. The daughter is working on a Ph.D. in Neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Their family-owned company, Hanuman Chai makes healthy beverages using six thousand-year-old Ayurvedic practices.
Raj is constantly seeking new ways to present his messages of positivity and inspiration. His radio show, Positive People, which he co-hosts with Sam Sussman on KGNU, the local community radio station, is currently halted due to COVID. He is developing a new initiative to launch in 2021.