When I wrote my memoir, the publishers were really confused. Was it about me as a child refugee, or as a woman who set up a high-tech software company back in the 1960s, one that went public and eventually employed over 8,500 people? Or was it as a mother of an autistic child? Or as a philanthropist that's now given away serious money? Well, it turns out, I'm all of these. So let me tell you my story.
Kada sam napisala memoare, izdavači su bili jako zbunjeni. Bave li se o meni kao djetetu izbjeglici ili kao ženi koja je pokrenula softversku tvrtku davne 1960-te koja je postala javna tvrtka, te naposljetku zaposlila preko 8 500 ljudi? Ili kao majci djeteta s autizmom? Ili kao filantropkinji koja sada dijeli velike svote novca? Ispada da sam sve to. Dopustite mi da vam ispričam svoju priču.
All that I am stems from when I got onto a train in Vienna, part of the Kindertransport that saved nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Europe. I was five years old, clutching the hand of my nine-year-old sister and had very little idea as to what was going on. "What is England and why am I going there?" I'm only alive because so long ago, I was helped by generous strangers. I was lucky, and doubly lucky to be later reunited with my birth parents. But, sadly, I never bonded with them again. But I've done more in the seven decades since that miserable day when my mother put me on the train than I would ever have dreamed possible. And I love England, my adopted country, with a passion that perhaps only someone who has lost their human rights can feel. I decided to make mine a life that was worth saving. And then, I just got on with it. (Laughter)
Sve što jesam, proizlazi iz trenutka kada sam ušla u vlak u Beču, tokom spasilačke misije "Kindertransport" koja je spasila oko 10 000 židovske djece iz nacističke Europe. Imala sam pet godina i stišćući ruku moje devetogodišnje sestre nisam bila svjesna što se točno događa. "Što je Engleska i zašto tamo idem?" Živa sam jer su mi tada pomogli velikodušni stranci. Imala sam sreću, dvostruku sreću, da sam kasnije ponovno spojena sa svojim biološkim roditeljima. Ali na žalost, nikad se više nisam s njima povezala. Ipak, u sedam desetljeća od toga nesretnoga dana kada me majka stavila na vlak, napravila sam više nego što sam ikad mogla zamisliti. I volim Englesku, moju posvojenu zemlju, sa žarom kojeg može osjećati samo netko kome su oduzeta ljudska prava. Odlučila sam da ću učiniti svoj život vrijedan spašavanja. I od onda samo to i činim. (Smijeh)
Let me take you back to the early 1960s. To get past the gender issues of the time, I set up my own software house at one of the first such startups in Britain. But it was also a company of women, a company for women, an early social business. And people laughed at the very idea because software, at that time, was given away free with hardware. Nobody would buy software, certainly not from a woman. Although women were then coming out of the universities with decent degrees, there was a glass ceiling to our progress. And I'd hit that glass ceiling too often, and I wanted opportunities for women.
Dopustite mi da vas odvedem u rane 1960-te. Kako bih zaobišla problem tog vremena o neravnopravnosti spolova, pokrenula sam vlastitu softversku tvrtku, jednu od prvih te vrste u Britaniji. Bila je to tvrtka sačinjenja od žena, tvrtka za žene, rani oblik socijalnog poduzeća. Ljudi su se smijali toj ideji jer u to vrijeme softver se dijelio besplatno u paketu s hardverom. Nitko ne bi kupio softver, pogotovo ne od žene. Iako su žene završavale fakultete s diplomama postojala je nepremostiva barijera u našem napretku. I ja sam udarala o taj zid prečesto, i htjela sam prilike za žene.
I recruited professionally qualified women who'd left the industry on marriage, or when their first child was expected and structured them into a home-working organization. We pioneered the concept of women going back into the workforce after a career break. We pioneered all sorts of new, flexible work methods: job shares, profit-sharing, and eventually, co-ownership when I took a quarter of the company into the hands of the staff at no cost to anyone but me. For years, I was the first woman this, or the only woman that. And in those days, I couldn't work on the stock exchange, I couldn't drive a bus or fly an airplane. Indeed, I couldn't open a bank account without my husband's permission. My generation of women fought the battles for the right to work and the right for equal pay.
Zaposlila sam kvalificirane žene koje su napustile posao nakon udaje, ili kada su ostale trudne i organizirala ih u udruženje koje radi od doma. Bile smo pioniri koncepta povratka žena na posao nakon pauze u karijeri. Bile smo pioniri u svim vrstama novih i fleksibilnih metoda rada: podijeli poslova, podijeli zarade i konačno, suvlasništvu kada sam četvrtinu tvrtke dala u ruke zaposlenika na ničiji trošak, osim mog. Godinama sam bila prva žena u ovome ili jedina žena u onome. U to vrijeme nisam mogla raditi na burzi, nisam mogla voziti autobus ili avion. Nisam mogla niti otvoriti račun u banci bez dopuštenja mog supruga. Moja generacija žena se borila za pravo rada i jednakost plaća.
Nobody really expected much from people at work or in society because all the expectations then were about home and family responsibilities. And I couldn't really face that, so I started to challenge the conventions of the time, even to the extent of changing my name from "Stephanie" to "Steve" in my business development letters, so as to get through the door before anyone realized that he was a she. (Laughter)
Nitko zapravo nije očekivao išta od ljudi na poslu ili u društvu jer su sva očekivanja tada bila usmjerena na dom i obiteljske obaveze. Ja to nisam mogla prihvatiti i zato sam počela izazivati norme tog vremena do te mjere da sam mijenjala svoje ime iz Stephanie u Steve u pismima poslovnog plana kako bi prošla kroz vrata prije nego li bi itko shvatio da je on ustvari ona. (Smijeh)
My company, called Freelance Programmers, and that's precisely what it was, couldn't have started smaller: on the dining room table, and financed by the equivalent of 100 dollars in today's terms, and financed by my labor and by borrowing against the house. My interests were scientific, the market was commercial -- things such as payroll, which I found rather boring. So I had to compromise with operational research work, which had the intellectual challenge that interested me and the commercial value that was valued by the clients: things like scheduling freight trains, time-tabling buses, stock control, lots and lots of stock control. And eventually, the work came in. We disguised the domestic and part-time nature of the staff by offering fixed prices, one of the very first to do so. And who would have guessed that the programming of the black box flight recorder of Supersonic Concord would have been done by a bunch of women working in their own homes. (Applause)
Moja tvrtka, koja se zvala Honorarni Programeri, a upravo je to i bila, nije mogla početi kao manja: na stolu blagovaone, i bila je financirana ekvivalentom današnjih 100 dolara, financirana mojim radom i zajmom na moju kuću. Moj interes je bio znanstveni, a tržište komercijalno. Stvari poput platnih lista meni su bile dosadne. Zato sam trebala naći kompromis između razvojnog-operativnog posla, koji mi je predstavljao intelektualni izazov i zanimao me, i komercijalne vrijednosti koju su cijenili klijenti, što su bile stvari poput izrade rasporeda teretnih vlakova, voznog reda autobusa, nadzor zaliha, mnogo, mnogo nadzora zaliha. I naposljetku, posao je uslijedio. Prikrili smo zaposlene koji rade od doma i one na pola radnog vremena tako što smo ponudili fiksne cijene. Bili smo jedni od prvih koji su to učinili. I tko bi pogodio da je programiranje crnih kutija nadzvučnog aviona Concorde napravila hrpetina žena koje su radile od doma? (Pljesak)
All we used was a simple "trust the staff" approach and a simple telephone. We even used to ask job applicants, "Do you have access to a telephone?"
Sve što smo radili baziralo se na jednostavnom principu povjerenja i telefonu. Znale smo i pitati kandidate za radno mjesto: "Imate li pristup telefonu?"
An early project was to develop software standards on management control protocols. And software was and still is a maddeningly hard-to-control activity, so that was enormously valuable. We used the standards ourselves, we were even paid to update them over the years, and eventually, they were adopted by NATO. Our programmers -- remember, only women, including gay and transgender -- worked with pencil and paper to develop flowcharts defining each task to be done. And they then wrote code, usually machine code, sometimes binary code, which was then sent by mail to a data center to be punched onto paper tape or card and then re-punched, in order to verify it. All this, before it ever got near a computer. That was programming in the early 1960s.
Rani projekt zasnivao se na razvoju softverskih standarda za protokole kontrole upravljanja. Softver je bio i još uvijek jest zastrašujuće izdržljiv, što je bilo od velike vrijednosti. I mi same smo koristili standarde i bile plaćene da ih ažuriramo tijekom godina, te ih je na kraju usvojio i NATO. Naši programeri -- sjetite se, samo žene, uključujući homoseksualce i transeksualce -- radili su sa olovkom i papirom kako bi nacrtali dijagrame koji su definirali svaki zadatak koji je trebalo napraviti. A onda bi napisali kod, obično kod za stroj, ponekad binarni kod, koji bi se tada slao poštom u centar podataka kako bi se zapisao na papirnatu traku ili karticu bušenjem i onda ponovno izbušio kako bi se provjerio. Sve to, prije nego što bi došao i blizu kompjutera. To je bilo programiranje u ranim 1960-tima.
In 1975, 13 years from startup, equal opportunity legislation came in in Britain and that made it illegal to have our pro-female policies. And as an example of unintended consequences, my female company had to let the men in. (Laughter)
Godine 1973., 13 godina nakon početka, donešen je zakon o ravnopravnosti spolova u Britaniji zbog čega je pro-ženska politika zapošljavanja postala nelegalna. I kao primjer neželjenih okolnosti, moja ženska tvrtka bila je prisiljena primiti muškarce. (Smijeh)
When I started my company of women, the men said, "How interesting, because it only works because it's small." And later, as it became sizable, they accepted, "Yes, it is sizable now, but of no strategic interest." And later, when it was a company valued at over three billion dollars, and I'd made 70 of the staff into millionaires, they sort of said, "Well done, Steve!" (Laughter) (Applause)
Kada sam započela svoju tvrtku za žene, muškarci su govorili: "Kako zanimljivo, uspijevaju zato što su mala tvrtka." Kasnije, kada je postala veća, prihvatili su: "Da, sada je veća, ali bez strateškog interesa." I kasnije, kada je tvrtka procijenjena na preko 3 milijarde dolara, i kada sam 70 zaposlenika učinila milijunašima, rekli su nešto tipa: "Dobro napravljeno Steve!" (Smijeh) (Pljesak)
You can always tell ambitious women by the shape of our heads: They're flat on top for being patted patronizingly. (Laughter) (Applause) And we have larger feet to stand away from the kitchen sink. (Laughter)
Uspješnu ženu uvijek možete prepoznati po obliku glave: spljoštene na vrhu jer su bile potapšane podcjenjivački. (Smijeh) (Pljesak) Imamo i veća stopala tako da stojimo što dalje od sudopera. (Smijeh)
Let me share with you two secrets of success: Surround yourself with first-class people and people that you like; and choose your partner very, very carefully. Because the other day when I said, "My husband's an angel," a woman complained -- "You're lucky," she said, "mine's still alive." (Laughter)
Podijelit ću s vama dvije tajne uspjeha: okružite se sa vrhunskim ljudima i onima koji vam se sviđaju; i izaberite svog partnera vrlo, vrlo, pažljivo. Neki dan kad sam rekla da je moj suprug anđeo, žena se požalila rekavši: "Ti si tako sretna. Moj je još uvijek živ." (Smijeh)
If success were easy, we'd all be millionaires. But in my case, it came in the midst of family trauma and indeed, crisis. Our late son, Giles, was an only child, a beautiful, contented baby. And then, at two and a half, like a changeling in a fairy story, he lost the little speech that he had and turned into a wild, unmanageable toddler. Not the terrible twos; he was profoundly autistic and he never spoke again. Giles was the first resident in the first house of the first charity that I set up to pioneer services for autism. And then there's been a groundbreaking Prior's Court school for pupils with autism and a medical research charity, again, all for autism. Because whenever I found a gap in services, I tried to help. I like doing new things and making new things happen. And I've just started a three-year think tank for autism.
Da uspjeh dolazi lako, svi bi bili milijunaši. U mom slučaju došao je tijekom obiteljske traume i krize. Naš pokojni sin Giles, jedinac, bio je divno, mirno dijete. Kada je navršio dvije i pol godine, poput mjenjolika iz bajke, izgubio je i malo govora što je imao i postao divlje, neobuzdano dijete. Nije to bila dječja zloća, već teži oblik autizma i više nikada nije progovorio. Giles je bio prvi stanovnik u prvoj kući dobrotvorne ustanove koju sam pokrenula da pruži usluge za ljude s autizmom. Uslijedile su alternativna škola "Prior's Court" za đake s autizmom i medicinsko istraživačka ustanova, također za autizam. Uvijek kada sam našla rupu u usluzi, nastojala sam pomoći. Volim raditi nove stvari i realizirati ih. Baš sam pokrenula trogodišnju neprofitnu istraživačku organizaciju za autizam.
And so that some of my wealth does go back to the industry from which it stems, I've also founded the Oxford Internet Institute and other IT ventures. The Oxford Internet Institute focuses not on the technology, but on the social, economic, legal and ethical issues of the Internet.
Tako se dio mog bogatstva vraća odakle je i došao. Također sam osnovala institut Oxford Internet i pokrenula druge IT pothvate. Institut Oxford Internet se ne fokusira na tehnologiju, već na socijalna, ekonomska, pravna i etička pitanja vezana za internet.
Giles died unexpectedly 17 years ago now. And I have learned to live without him, and I have learned to live without his need of me. Philanthropy is all that I do now. I need never worry about getting lost because several charities would quickly come and find me. (Laughter)
Giles je nenadano umro prije 17 godina. Naučila sam živjeti bez njega, i naučila sam živjeti bez njegove potrebe za mnom. Sada se bavim samo filantropijom. Nikada se ne trebam bojati da ću se izgubiti jer će neka od dobrotvornih ustanova brzo doći i naći me. (Smijeh)
It's one thing to have an idea for an enterprise, but as many people in this room will know, making it happen is a very difficult thing and it demands extraordinary energy, self-belief and determination, the courage to risk family and home, and a 24/7 commitment that borders on the obsessive. So it's just as well that I'm a workaholic. I believe in the beauty of work when we do it properly and in humility. Work is not just something I do when I'd rather be doing something else.
Jedna je stvar imati ideju za poduzeće, ali kao što mnogi u ovoj sobi znaju, ostvariti ju jer vrlo teška stvar. Zahtjeva ogromnu energiju, vjeru u sebe i odlučnost, hrabrost da se riskira obitelj i dom, predanost 24 sata/7 dana koja graniči sa opsesivnošću. Baš poput radoholičara. Vjerujem u ljepotu posla kada je napravljen kako treba i u poniznosti. Posao nije nešto što se radi kada bi najradije radio nešto drugo.
We live our lives forward. So what has all that taught me? I learned that tomorrow's never going to be like today, and certainly nothing like yesterday. And that made me able to cope with change, indeed, eventually to welcome change, though I'm told I'm still very difficult.
Živimo ovaj život gledajući naprijed. I čemu me je to sve naučilo? Naučila sam da sutra nikada nije kao danas, i nikako kao jučer. I to mi je omogućilo da se nosim s promjenama, i da naposljetku prihvatim promjene iako mi je rečeno da je još uvijek sa mnom teško.
Thank you very much.
Puno vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)