My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I grew up in Dallas, and my dad works for IBM, so I grew up in the environment of Silicon Prairie.
I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.
My mother worked in advertising and my father was a journalist. But they split up when I was three and I grew up in a single-parent family. My mum brought my brother and I up.
When I was young, I grew up in a family of working-class people. Not just my parents, but my extended family, as well.
The amazing thing about IBM is that it's a company where I have had 10 different careers - local jobs, global jobs, technology jobs, industry jobs, financial services, insurance, start-ups, big scale. The network of talent around you is phenomenal.
My mother took care of us until my father scrammed, and then she ended up working in the small-factory sector of New Jersey with a lot of other immigrants.
My family were all entrepreneurs, including my parents and grandparents.
Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I can only remember knowing one child, ever, whose parents got a divorce, and hardly any whose mother 'worked' at anything besides raising her children.
My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.
I had a working mother. She worked for IBM. My dad lived in another town - not very far away, but another town. So food was - I guess food was my friend.