I’ve written before about how I love obituaries. They tell a lot about how folks challenged problems in the past.

The obit on Stephanie Shirley, known as Steve Shirley, was telling. She died at 92 and came to England from one of the last kinder trains, a British rescue operation that brought approximately 10,000 Jewish children to the United Kingdom leading up to World War II. She was as great at math as she was at programming.

In her time, women were fired if they got pregnant or married. Women were also paid much less than men. They were often sexually harassed in the workplace.

Shirley worked at computer development. She protected herself against unwanted sexual harassment. But what annoyed her most was that her input was ignored. When this happened once too many times, she resigned and set up her own company.

That company was unique. It employed women. She took the negative on how women were employed and built a remarkably successful business. The best women candidates were available because men wouldn’t hire them. She could pick the best. These women only needed a telephone and a pad and pencil. Her staff worked in teams, and they shared ownership in the company. When she went public in the 1990’s, she had 8500 employees. By 2000, her company was valued at 3 billion pounds, pre-inflation!

She offered fixed prices, unique back then. NATO adopted her management control protocols. She programmed the black box flight recorder for Concorde.

She changed her name legally from Stephanie to Steve and was especially pleased when she showed up for a presentation when men were not expecting a woman. Yet they did business with her because her finished product was superior.

Steve Shirley illustrates the point that nothing is out of reach if you only look at the possibilities and can turn a negative into a positive.