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| Spotlight |
Rajesh Taneja
How a workaholic became the life of the party
by Robin Roberts
 When
other kids were playing ball at the park, Rajesh Taneja was programming
software in his room. He was five. The younger brother of a mentally
challenged sister and son of newly immigrated parents, young Raj sought
solace in the fantasy world of computer games. Concerned that their son
was wasting far too many hours in cyberspace, Taneja's parents wisely
decided to channel his affinity into something useful.
I really grew attached to my friends' Atari gaming system, recalls
Taneja, 29, of his early life in Calgary. I begged my parents to buy me
one but they wouldn't. In 1979, my father bought me a computer for
Christmas, which was the Timex Sinclair 1000. It was like a calculator.
I think they did this because they saw the opportunity for me to be
more creative than just playing games all day. They figured it would
make sense that I have a more challenging system, so I was actually
forced to learn how to program in order to play the games.
Good move. Today Taneja is the North American president of SSID, a
Swiss venture technology firm headquartered in Calgary, which helps
companies with their tech needs. He's also president of the social
clubs Urban Mixer and Social Empire, and founded his own company,
called Clear Choice Technologies, another IT company that meets the
tech needs of various businesses. Not bad for a solitary kid who never
finished high school.
His parents, however, could never have known at the time that their
little nerdling would ascend to such success. I was so computer-focused
that my social life suffered, says Taneja, one reason he later took
such an interest in the social clubs. My parents would lock the
computer away and tell me to go out and play. I wasn't really a great
kid in school; I was always seeking attention, I was fairly loud. Not
violent or nefarious towards anyone but I was outspoken and I
challenged authority quite a bit.
That got him tossed out of public school and into military school. Not
a happy camper at the time, Taneja is philosophical about it all now.
It taught me a lot, he says of Ontario's Wellandport Military Academy.
I look back fondly but at the time, if someone had asked me what I
thought, I would probably have said it was not the best place and I
hate it.
Through the physical and mental rigours associated with military
schools, Taneja quickly fell in line, got fit, and concentrated on
subjects beyond computers. I was taught to focus for three or four
hours on specific scheduled homework assignments, says Taneja. I also
learned how to dress, how to get those razor-sharp creases in your
shirts, to polish your shoes. These have really benefited me in
business. This is the edge I got that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere
else.
After completing military school, he returned home to Calgary, where
his family urged him to go to college and pursue a nice, stable
profession like engineering. He obeyed by enrolling at the University
of Calgary - but he didn't actually show up for class. I went instead
to work for a technology firm [Digital Equipment Corporation] that was
servicing computers and networks, says Taneja. I was the gofer, the
very lowest in the organization. But in 1993, a new CEO came in and
took all non-profitable divisions and divested them. So they shut down
what I was working on, which was the small and medium business sector.
They sold their chip division to Intel, which created the Intel
Pentium. Not like that wasn't profitable! The company was later sold to
Compaq, which is now HP, a huge conglomerate.
Barely a year into his first real job, he was out on the street. But
not for long. He took the contacts he made and that same year started
Clear Choice, which he moved to Vancouver in 1995. In addition to
servicing computers, Clear Choice offers web hosting and consulting for
other large and small companies, including Metasoft Systems Inc. Raj is
technically brilliant and a nice human being, says Trevor Skillen,
president and CEO of the Vancouver imaging and database software
company. It's rare to find that combination in one person. He's one of
the hardest-working people I've ever met. He's one of those people who
can do anything they set their minds to. He's a hard worker but he also
knows how to have fun.
Apparently not enough fun. A workaholic who had little time for a
personal life, Taneja made a serendipitous discovery in 2001: a social
club. Social Empire, designed as a pressure-free place where business
people could have a drink and good conversation without worrying about
hooking up - personally or professionally - was looking for an
investor. Taneja gave his time and money, and soon acquired the company
outright. Heeding feedback from members who weren't entirely averse to
romance or networking, he soon met with the owner of a similar club
called the Urban Mixer, which was younger, singles-oriented, and more
activity focused. When that owner relocated to Toronto last year,
Taneja brought Urban Mixer into the mix.
He works very hard, he's very driven, has a lot of energy, says Frances
Hui, a friend whom Taneja hired to host the club's parties. He's really
good with faces and names. He's good with people; he'll talk to
anybody. He'll talk to street people - anybody, anywhere, it doesn't
matter.
His newfound social life was somewhat downsized last September when
SSID came calling with an offer to head up their North American
division. Still, it appears Taneja's finally found the balance he
needed to juggle business with pleasure.
He
likes to have fun, says Hui. He likes attention . . . I've known him
for about four years, and he's told me things he did before, and I
gathered that in his early twenties he worked very hard and did really
well. I think maybe he didn't do a lot of the things people in their
twenties did . . . so I think he's making up for that now.
Indeed. Taneja says he's out urban mixing six or seven days a week. But
has he found his own true love? I do not have a lot of time to dedicate
to someone, he says, although if it was someone special enough it would
just happen. I really enjoy what I do and if I could figure out how to
continue it, I'd be able to enjoy it forever.
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