We had the good fortune of connecting with Raj Rawat and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Raj, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I wanted to serve, and inspire more than I could in corporate America which paid well and planted skills, training, and culture reserved for big companies. Working through tough challenges of turf battles, budget crunches, closing time windows, and competing for talent, I wanted to share my lessons with people who were struggling to find their purpose, authenticity, and engagement. Life lessons come from surviving hardship. I had seen hunger as a poor and struggling undergraduate who bicycled to school in the day and worked at a hotel at night. My corporate career was built on turning around projects others considered career-killers. They were progress catapults for me. I rose from the bottom to contain risk and find opportunity in solving global problems for Xerox and IBM CEOs. As an immigrant I wanted to bring my lessons to youth and ambitious individuals who yearned to connect their potential and energy to deep satisfaction from investing themselves fully – intellectually, energetically, and emotionally.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
All my works provide tools to chip away layers upon layers of life’s crud, regret, errors, shame, guilt, and fear. My book, talks, and mentoring focus on discovering our inner immortal light, that merges with our authenticity. Once we find our authentic selves, we never unsee our true potential. I use my talks at companies, conventions, schools, and prisons to inspire people to have the courage to look within themselves. My book is a scaffold to find motivation, and my consulting and mentoring are about serving as a trusted companion to earn legitimacy to rise based on evidence-based tools and skills. Every part of my work lights up my life. I feel energetic, focused, and engaged. This work is my passion, and I ask all my clients to listen, contribute, and inspire so that they can also do this work of mentoring right now. This is what they all want: to be trusted to uplift others. Their progress journey also changes their trusted companions who are observing their growth. The whole ecosystem around them experiences positivity and progress. This work offers me the opportunity to grow and become better every day.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First, our greatest blessing is our friends. We would host a dinner at our home to introduce them to our friends. Next, at least one dinner would be at an Indian restaurant because it’s named for the city of my birth and they make more authentic, less greasy food than most, Jaipur. For exotic meat eathers, Biker Jim’s Gourmet Hotdogs in Denver is a no brainer. For health conscious vegetarian and vegan friends, The Flower Child restaurant in Boulder; for coffee, the locally owned community oriented Trident Bookstore and Cafe, and for a friendly awesome mixed foods options, another local restaurant, 24 Carat in Erie, and for pizza, Cosmos Pizza on Baseline.
Colorado’s grandeur is in its majestic outdoors. Everyone should hike the Pikes Peak and Estes Park, climb to the top of at least one of 59 fourteeners, and rock climb the beautiful Flatirons. If the rivers are flowing, a whitewater adventure on the Colorado river or tubing at Boulder Creek, and if the weather is warm, a trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park would round up the week.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I arrived in America at age 20 and almost immediately faced financial hardship. I was alone, confused, and depressed. Countless mentors forged and chiseled my life and are still connected to me 40 years later: Professor Dr. Wallin shielded me from anxiety so I could start acing courses. Prof. Varshney’s family fed me dinners so I would not starve. Ralph Lennon, my American Airlines mentore when I was an intern found a way to pay me $5000 when internships were unpaid. Then the Chancellor Melvin Eggers put me on a scholarship when foreign students were not eligible for one. Arnold Joseph took me to basketball games to uplift morale. Finally, Robert Mehr, one of my friends invited me to live in his tiny apartment until I got my feet under me in Houston so that I could get an MBA there. All the time, each of these mentors taught me life lessons. These honored champions of goodness are still in my life today. More mentors, too many to list here are the true architects of my life. It’s their debt that I am working so hard to unload on unsuspecting good souls who seek my help.
Website: www.rajrawat.com
Linkedin: rajeev rawat
Other: https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Everest-Someone-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B01L6ZEOEU#customerReviews
Image Credits
Photo credit: Bob Carmichael School of Mines.