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My first day as a manager was at Digital Equipment in Atlanta. I was a sales rep. I was promoted from among my peers, so one day I was a peer, and the next day I was their boss.

Well, I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in show business for a long time. I was a singer and a dancer and then I got a job as an actor.

I worked in a boutique after work, my second job, selling women's clothes. And that was a way of not just making money but meeting women. That was very exciting job. I loved that job.

The fact was that I had always been considered a leader in my scholastic career. It just never dawned on me that this was any kind of preparation for the business world. Like most young women of my background and education, I always performed on demand and never anything else.

It's taken me a long time to get back into the industry. People were not really open to me working, or being a part of the industry.

I don't think of being a woman in an industry of men. I didn't walk into the kitchen and go, 'Ooh, I'm a girl!' I didn't get into my chosen profession. I wanted to be good at something.

I studied business in school, so I worked for Chanel in marketing. And I also worked part-time in an office. So I had office jobs. And then I realized I needed to get the hell out of there, just realizing there was no fulfillment.

When I took my first job, I was among only a handful of women. It was isolating at times. My love for technology kept me going, and I got to where I am today driven by my passion and self confidence.

It changed my life in a lot of ways - before I got that role I was just going from job to job, not really having enough money to be able to do what I wanted to do.