Ginni Rometty

Don't give me the answer.

I want to figure it out.

So I could reproduce it again and didn't have to memorize.

So it started with that.

And then over time, okay, so I was in university in the 70s.

When I was in engineering school, I was the only woman.

You know, I meet people still to this day and they're like, oh, I remember you.

I'm like, yeah, sorry, I don't remember you.

There were 30 of you, one of me.

And I think you already get that feeling of, okay, I better really study hard because whatever I say is going to be remembered in this class, good or bad.

And it started there.

So in some ways...

I did it for two reasons.

Early on, I think it was a shield for confidence.

The more I studied, the more prepared I was, the more confident.

That's probably still true to this day.

The second reason I did it evolved over time and became different to prepare.

If I was really prepared...

then when we're in the moment, I can really listen to you.

See, because I don't have to be doing all this stuff on the fly in my head.