Some companies are already investing in women and thereby betting on a brighter future - for a workforce just waiting to blossom, for emerging economies whose development depends on this new talent, and, of course, for their own financial growth.

All I wanted to do was write - at the time, poems, and prose, too. I guess my ambition was simply to make money however I could to keep myself going in some modest way, and I didn't need much, I was unmarried at the time, no children.

I wouldn't call Loopt a failure. It didn't turn out like I wanted, for sure, but it was fun, I learned a lot, and I made enough money to start investing, which led me to my current job. I don't regret it at all.

It's so difficult to make the money we produce at Jimmy John's.