A desire to change the world helps Accolade CEO Raj Singh make big decisions, but it took time for him to find his why.
Singh initially became an engineer to please his mother, who really wanted him to be a doctor. He admits he was a mediocre engineer who reluctantly agreed to help his brother Steve, who was getting his own company, Concur, off the ground. As part of that work, he went to San Francisco, where he met people building apps and services. Although what they were building didn’t seem to have much significance from outside, what Singh did pick up was that they felt a sense of purpose—something his life lacked.
“I took a bite of this apple that changed my life,” Singh told GeekWire, “and the idea was these people thought they could change the world, and I looked at them and I thought ‘well, I want to change the world; I can do that, can’t I? What’s different about them than me?’ And my ‘why’ became I want to change the world.
Read the full story and watch Singh’s hour-long talk, including a discussion of why he founded Accolade, here.