Meet woman who lived in orphanage, married at 16, worked as farm labourer to earn Rs 5; now CEO of billion dollar firm

People who battle adverse situations in childhood and youth, grow up to become so tough in life that nothing can break them and they are bound to attain success. One such inspiring story is of a self-made woman, Jyothi Reddy who fought all adversities to become the CEO of a billion-dollar software company. 

Her childhood was marked by gruesome happenings. The second of five children born in a poor family, Jyothi was sent to an orphanage by her daily wager father at 8, who thought that it would improve her life. Then she studied at a government school while being at the orphanage. 

Thereafter, at 16, she was compelled to get married to a man 10 years older, who worked as a farmer. She then became a mother of two daughters by 18. With all this she was mentally and financially tense, she then worked in farms for a meagre daily wage of just Rs 5. She did this for five years from 1985 to 1990 in the scorching weather of Telangana.

Thereafter, her life improved a bit with a central government scheme which assisted her in getting into teaching. But the money wasn’t enough and she did a tailoring job at night to make ends meet. 

While facing the prejudices and taunts of society and her family, Jyothi completed a BA degree from the Dr BR Ambedkar Open University in 1994 and a PG degree from Kakatiya University in 1997. The degrees helped her get a job with more salary, but at Rs 398 per month, it was just not sufficient. 

The second momentous stage of her life was when a relative visited from US and encouraged her to work in abroad. Jyothi took computer courses and left for the US for work, while leaving her daughters behind in India. 

She had to start from scratch in US by doing menial jobs like working at a petrol pump, babysitting, and so on. Shen then went on to work as a recruitment professional. In 2021, with savings of $40,000 she established her own business, Key Software Solutions, an IT company based in Phoenix, Arizona, US. She became the CEO of the company which grew gradually to earn $15 million and eventually into a billion-dollar company in 2017. She is the epitome of perseverance and to be optimistic even in darkness.