Well, I started this thread on a web hosting site I frequent, and I figured it’d be a hot-button issue. For those of you who aren’t interested in reading the whole thread, I asked “Why do you think only 1% of our dedicated server and colocation customers are female?” (Actually, it’s worth noting that we have no female colo customers, and believe me, we have enough customers to make that judgment at this point. I’d say the percentage there will be less than 1% even as we continue to grow.)

We do have several women who utilize our shared and reseller hosting plans, but they don’t seem to make the leap from there to dedicated servers or colocation. So I asked why, knowing “women in IT” is a hot-button issue, but wanting to hear opinions regardless.

Before I post my opinion, I’d like you to see what some other people said. It’s important to single these out so those of you who are male and reading this will get a glimpse of what women in this industry hear on a daily basis.

“Because colo or dedicated servers are more complicated to handle for the typical women?”
“Well there aren’t too many guys working at the flower shops either. Some markets are just gender specific.”
“I personally think women…are less likely to take risks…”
“Fact: Men in general are bigger risk takers than women.” (Side note: I love how this was presented as a fact.)
“I think the thing here is that, generally the males use the computers a lot while the females are out putting on makeup…”
“The majority of [women] can be rather emotional compared to men (and yes, I do believe that statement is a proven fact)…” (Side note: What does being emotional have to do with leasing a dedicated server?)
“Women like pretty things. Us men like technical stuff. I really can’t see a woman drooling over the latest GeForce graphics cards and AMD processors can you?”

Now that you’ve heard some of the “facts” that are perpetuated in this industry, I’d like you to hear some actual analysis. I’ll present some of the opinions by others first:

“The fact is that the number of men in the IT field is far greater than the number of women, so naturally it will appear that it is the men who are constantly doing well in the field; its very easy for the small number of women to be left unnoticed and lost among the crowd. The few women I know who actually dared to depart from the norm and enter into this male-dominated industry have done just as well as the men (if not better in some cases), and they enjoy their jobs just as much as their male-counterparts.

As mentioned before, not many people deviate from societal norms. Men who show great interest in IT, gadgets and the like, are conforming to societal norms, women who do the same are going against societal norms. You will always find that very few people bother to, or are willing to ‘go against the grain’.”
(written by a woman who runs a web hosting company)

“Are there more men in IT? Yes. Is it because men are better suited for it? There are studies I’m sure, that go both ways on this, and a professor at Harvard just recently got himself in a bit of trouble with his observations. The fact is, I see women in IT, and have worked with women in IT, who do a far better job than most, of not all, of the men. The biggest thing that I see in IT that women need to overcome is sexism. This conversation, thus far, does not surprise me at all. Men, in general, think that women are not “made” for IT.

My input into this conversation, to answer the original question, is simply that I think society has geared women in one direction for centuries, and 80 years (since they got the vote in the US) is not going to change that. The next generation, however, will be different. Our daughters will be able to do more than their mothers could, but still not everything that I believe they should be able to. Society takes a while to catch up.”
(written by a man who runs a web hosting company)

What I wanted to showcase here is the shocking assumptions that make their way through this industry as “fact”. “Fact: Women aren’t risk takers.” “Fact: Women would rather put on makeup than use a computer.” “Fact: Women just aren’t good at math.” (I’m actually surprised that third one didn’t pop up in this thread, but give it time and it probably will.) Taken out of context, these “facts” seem almost laughable, but they are sadly the norm in this industry. Why is this, and what can we do to change it? I will address that in my next blog (which should be posted in just a few minutes.)

Well, it’s been three weeks and no update from me.

As a brief run-down, a couple weeks ago I got sick with a nasty stomach flu (as in, couldn’t hold any food down for about 2 days.) I had to cancel a bunch of appointments.

I recovered and immediately took off to LA for my third IBI. Spent 7 intense days there. I got so little sleep over the course of the week that on Sunday I couldn’t take it any more and crawled into bed sometime in the afternoon (skipping lunch) and slept for about 3 hours. I staffed this time, which meant that I was either 1) at class 2) working for IBI or 3) doing capital team presentations for my company.

Speaking of capital team, we should have our current round of investment capital raised before the end of the month. (If you’re interested in investing in Simpli, drop me a line and I’ll explain the deal to you… it doesn’t require much capital.) People at IBI were excited about investing in a cash-flow-positive, profitable business. This round of investments should take us to the $450,000 mark in revenue this year. From there, the next big target is $1 million, which I’m looking forward to hitting in 2006 or 2007.

I’ve received my first patent (an idea I had for another IBI-based company), which I am excited about. It’s the first of many patents I’ll hold. The patent gained me 1% of the company, which is worth nothing right now, but the company has a chance to make it very big. Definitely worth it for 1 day of work.

We re-incorporated as Simpli Hosting, Inc. I’m going to send out an email notifying everyone of the change soon. The state of California required us to re-incorporate since there is already a Simply, Inc. here and they don’t allow phonetic equivalents. A slight pain in the rear (to change all of our documents), but not a show-stopper.

Cal is still going strong as our COO, and we’re getting ready to hire at least 2 and possibly 3 more people this year (mostly support people, but my goal is to hire a full-time salesperson as well.) We are also about to undergo a profitability analysis, which will help us see where to best spend our marketing dollars. I’m looking forward to that.

I’m exhausted. Hopefully I will have time to write again soon!

So I’m doing the Landmark advanced forum, which is going to be pretty intense. If you’ve done Landmark, you know that it involves a change in your perspective. That’s the best that I can explain it, since the actual changes vary from person to person.

It took me two Landmark forums to realize that I am a powerful person and that I’m hiding that because I think that no one wants to hear it.

A long time ago, my dad told me a saying that was meant to impart the wisdom to not brag about your achievements. He said, “Nobody wants to hear that you’re successful, Erica.” Of course, I took this very personally and have carried it around for some 10 years or so. Every time I opened my mouth to say who I was, that annoying voice in my head stopped me with the words, “Erica, nobody wants to hear it.”

Now that’s silly. But don’t we all do that in a way? We talk ourselves out of the things that matter most to us because we believe that no one cares about us, or that it couldn’t possibly work out well.

I got up in front of 84 people today. The instructor asked who I was, and I opened my mouth, not knowing quite what would come out. What came out of my mouth was the following (word for word):

“Who I really am is a passionate, motivated, kick-butt entrepreneur who is already successful at the age of 23.”

After I said it, I just stood there for a minute with my mouth slightly open, as I heard cheers from the audience. And, for the first time in my life, I knew it was true. I AM a passionate, powerful entrepreneur — running an amazingly successful business that a lot of people could only dream of. And all this at an age when most people are struggling to find jobs that pay more than $10 an hour.

All of the rest of what I portray — my supposed lack of self-confidence; my “aw, shucks” attitude when other people praise me; my “I don’t need anybody” routine — it’s all an act. It’s an act that’s meant to cover up who I really am, all because of that one silly voice in my head that I let stop me from being the amazing person I always knew I was.

Tonight, I am creating the possibility of being an inspiration to others. I am not too young to inspire and motivate other people. I am not too young to get up in front of an audience and motivate the crowd. I am not too young, too naive, or too inexperienced to do anything that I set my mind to and work hard at.

I hope that tonight, reading this inspires and motivates you to do something that you haven’t had the courage to do. Until tonight, I haven’t had the courage to drop my act and be strong and powerful. Until tonight, I thought I needed to hide behind “I don’t need any help” or “Nobody wants to hear that I’m successful.”

I don’t.

The act stops here.

Go out and be that strong and powerful person. The world needs more people who are willing to be independent, motivated, and outgoing. Don’t be afraid to be who you really are. It’s the only way that you will truly shine in this life.

Mooneer and I were talking on AIM and he told me how to correctly hard-reset my Treo (I was doing it wrong, or something.) I Hotsynced it again and all seems to be well. Yay!

My first Treo 650 is officially dead after just less than 3 months as an active and much-loved member of my family.

I’m still not quite sure why it died. One minute it was Hotsyncing, and then the next minute it had disconnected from the computer. As I went to push the Hotsync button again, I noticed it was rebooting. And rebooting. And rebooting. And rebooting…

Unfortunately, it doesn’t even get far enough into the boot process to perform a hard reset (yes, I said hard reset, as in the “performing convoluted button presses while holding down the Reset button, which is very inconveniently located as far away from the keyboard as possible.”) So it’s officially kaput, and will be replaced for free at a Sprint store tomorrow (unless they have some previously-unknown miracle tool to fix it, which I highly doubt.)

Ah, well. Treo 650, it was fun while I knew ye. Bring on the new 650!

By the way, for those of you who have a 650, don’t forget your free 128MB SD card. I ordered mine today.

It’s also worth noting that even with this minor setback, I still think the Treo 650 is by far the best phone on the market for people like me (that is, people who like to play silly games, talk on wireless headsets, check email, and instant message from a cell phone.) In fact, the reason that I Hotsynced tonight was because I was getting ready to install $65 worth of games onto my Treo, including Bejeweled, Shape Shifter, and Text Twist. I don’t buy too many video games in general, but I’ll sure as heck pay $65 to have something fun to do on planes and while standing in line. 🙂