Tej Kohli Demystified
Job titles are a dime a dozen these days. This phenomenon is a direct result of an ever-evolving and expanding job market. But there are certain job titles–such as “technologist“–that make us raise our eyebrows. And so why does Indian entrepreneur Tej Kohli wear that title proudly?
Who is Tej Kohli?
Tej Kohli is an Indian entrepreneur and investor who was born in 1958 in Delhi, India. Having developed a passion for science at an early age, he went on to study Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. After graduation, during the mid-80s, Tej Kohli moved to California. There, he found success as a real estate investor.
What does Tej Kohli do?
In the years after amassing a fortune as a real estate investor, Tej Kohli realigned his focus to suit new goals. This kind of midlife, post-career adjustment is something that affluent and influential individuals tend to do. Bill Gates is perhaps the best example, as he started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation after retiring as the CEO of Microsoft. For Tej Kohli, he founded the Tej Kohli Foundation after the sale of many of his companies during the dot com boom of the late 90s and the early 2000s.
The Tej Kohli Foundation
The Tej Kohli Foundation was birthed as a result of the Indian entrepreneur’s desire to apply science and technology to solve real-world problems. Although this isn’t a new or innovative goal by any means, the foundation has been in business since 2005, speaking to its success as an organization. Tej Kohli helped the foundation become successful by applying his famed business acumen to make it stand out and help it succeed. Who knew that using the tenets of good entrepreneurship was all you needed to make your charity impactful?
Where other foundations of this nature flounder and fail by trying to do too much at once, Tej narrowed the focus of his foundation down. He knew very well that in the beginning, it would be best to focus on only one or two problems rather than spreading his resources too far and too thin. And so, the foundation’s first chosen focus was blindness. Tej Kohli and his team aimed to use technology and advanced medical research to combat a disability that many were condemned to live with.
Having made a lot of headway in the fight against blindness, the Tej Kohli not-for-profit has expanded its efforts to focus on other problems. These include societal banes like child hunger, education, and poverty. The Foundation continues to do good work and expand at a steady, even pace. Their achievements since their inception have been truly remarkable.
This direct impact is what sets Tej Kohli apart from other entrepreneurs. This pragmatism is why he calls himself a technologist rather than merely a tech CEO. He does not forget the humanist aspect of what he does. He does not cut himself off from the people he hopes to help.