One of my favourite reads of 2020 is an article by PlanGrid’s CEO, Tracy Young, titled “Reflections of Being a Female Founder”. Here are my thoughts on why I believe everyone should read it.
As an Ambitious Woman
The Early Days
I have always been a motivated, ambitious person. Growing up, I set far reaching goals for myself — live in the US, study at an Ivy League school, become a CEO. The delta between where I was and where I wanted to go felt enormous especially because it was challenging to find people who looked like me, a brown girl from Canada, who had successfully achieved these goals.
As a result I developed a keen interest in learning about people’s stories to learn about what adversities they overcame to achieve their dreams. I think that’s where my love for sports came from. Many athletes came from disadvantaged beginnings and had everything within themselves to excel and achieve their dreams. If they could do it, why couldn’t I? As a teenager I would scour the internet to learn about people. Any time I found a new person I admired (especially a brown person or a female) I would excitedly tell my family about them as if they were a new friend I’d just met — Marissa Meyer, Jess Lee.
“Disadvantages”
It actually took me a long time to see myself as “a visible minority female”. I never defined myself that way, and certainly never saw myself as disadvantaged. Maybe it was naiive but my rationale was that I simply needed to work hard for what I wanted in life. I grew up seeing my grandparents, parents and extended family working tirelessly to create a better future for themselves, and I believed my journey was no different.
As the years progressed, I slowly started checking off my goals. As I continued to peddle forward, perhaps it was because I felt I was forging new paths, I internalized that if I let my guard down I would be considered weak. I needed to persist in my ambitions and compartmentalize all non-career-focused parts of my life.
When I read Tracy’s article I realized I was so wrong.
What the article is about
Through her incredible article, Tracy sheds light on her transition into motherhood as the CEO of a thriving tech company with such authenticity, you can’t help but feel every emotion along with her. Here is this Asian, female CEO of a rocket ship tech company who intimately describes balancing pregnancy with growing her company. She documents one of the most vulnerable parts of her life puts it out on the world wide web for everyone to read and there isn’t an ounce of weakness to be found.
What it reveals
Everything from her no-bullshit style of storytelling to choosing this as her first, single, stand-alone article; it only exudes power and strength.
I have never met Tracy Young or had heard of her prior to this article, but through this blog post I feel like I know her. Between the lines it is evident that she is an intelligent, ambitious, thoughtful leader. Someone whom I wish to be one day.
I’m not a parent (quite yet) but thoughts about motherhood and the imminent balancing act certainly are in the back of my mind, as I’m sure they are for many young women. By publishing this article, she exemplifies refusing to compartmentalize her 2 worlds — personal and professional. Instead she brazenly stands directly in her power elegantly articulating every detail of the rollercoaster that she and millions of women go through becoming and being a working Mom.
Why everyone should read it
I’ve always believed that equality and supporting women in tech is a human issue. That both men and women should contribute to and support. From reading Tracy’s article I certainly had no clue this is what it was actually like — whenever I’ve asked Moms about the topic, they generally glaze over the details probably because they don’t want to remember the details themselves and they don’t want to deter you from becoming a Mom yourself one day.
After reading it I was left with the thought “do husbands (and men) know this is what it’s like?”. If they did, could they be better equipped to help women when they need it? I wondered if Tracy would have felt more supported throughout her internal tug-of-war if other people, both men and women, could have understood or anticipated even a tiny bit of what she was going through.
For that reason, I encourage everyone to read it. Men, women, single people, couples, parents and grandparents. It sheds a powerful light on a major life event which I don’t think many have the chance to understand.
Tracy’s article is raw and may feel uncomfortable at times, but I’m very grateful she decided to share it so openly. It takes an exceptional amount of courage, and that in itself is something we can all learn from. I certainly did.
