As the American aircraft lifted her and many fellow Vietnamese refugees to safety overseas and distance from their families as well as the ravages of war and its consequences of poverty, she brushed away tears. That was the last time she cried “but just a little”—perhaps, as she looks back to that memory today, “for the past I was leaving behind for good.”
Young and recently employed as a computer keypunch operator with an American company in Saigon, she was suddenly thrust into America, in the Washington metro area, no less, a place waking up to the stirrings of the information technology economy.
“My sister and I stayed temporarily with an American—not an Asian-- family. We had nothing. I had to get a job fast. So, I got myself a bicycle to ride to work,” she reminisced in an interview that brimmed with her upbeat and cheerful spirit. “I found a job as a keypunch operator in Alexandria. I worked hard, deep into the night. I would return home biking. I was not afraid. When you have nothing, you are fearless.”
Exuding courage, determination and working hard are values at the core of TiTi McNeill’s life. The oldest of six brothers and sisters, she helped, at an early age, to run the family restaurant and took care of her siblings while her parents worked.
Today, Ms. McNeill is the president and CEO of TranTech, Inc., a professional and technical services firm that specializes in information technology. The Alexandria firm (www.trantech-inc.com) was founded by TiTi in December 1989 and became certified as a Small Business Administration 8(a) –a small, minority, woman-owned business—in 1993. TranTech has received numerous recognitions and awards over the years and has become well-known for its reputation as a leader in knowledge, creativity and performance in the region’s info-tech industry, especially in federal and industrial sectors.
TranTech’s clients are top-heavy federal agencies—the Pentagon, the Commerce Department, the Treasury Department, the Census Bureau, Transportation Department, the US Army, the US Navy, to name a few.
“I always have this curiosity about success, about what makes successful people tick,” she confided. “I ask myself, what did this person do to be where he or she is today? How did he or she moved up the ladder of success?”
Role Model’s Principles
Always, she would find an answer or two to her questions and diligently saved them as role models’ principles.
The most basic lesson to succeed she gathered was “to go, study, get your education to the next level.”
She did But first, two years after coming to the States, she moved on to a new and better job as a computer operations worker with a great potential for career growth at a large software engineering company in Alexandria.
Again, she worked long hours and gave the best of her efforts “to prove herself.” She became more exposed to the computer profession and fell in love with her career as a computer programmer.
With an eye to the future prize, she began to take night classes in data processing at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria.
She was so fascinated with computers that she would work and study tirelessly into the night until the school closed its computer center at 10 p.m. In 1979, TiTi was promoted to a junior computer programmer position at a starting salary of $5.25 an hour. In 1981, she married Captain Patrick McNeill and took his name “as mine forever. My Vietnamese name is something difficult. I did save a part of it by adding it to my company’s name.”
Tran, TiTi’s middle name, is the other half of TranTech, Inc.
Another lesson she learned is to value time. For her, time truly is gold, more precious than one’s cash, in a way. She would use up every ounce of time to work and deliver excellent service, impressing her employers and improving herself. She also multi-tasks in an organized and focused fashion.
Even today, as an attractive multi-millionaire, she has no time to fritter away. “My day begins at 6 a.m. I wake up, and I go to my basement gym for a workout. As I workout, I listen to the news. Then I read my e-mail. And I dress up for work, after a light breakfast. I am at my office by 8 a.m. and I work until noon, if I have no appointments. I have lunch at my office or with my colleagues and I continue to work unless I need to go out for client visits and presentations. I return to the office and stay there until dinner time. Sometimes, I attend an evening function briefly, but I am mostly at the office or at home. I do not cook anymore, I have food ordered and I find time to read a serious book before I sleep.” She is currently reading Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and The Olive Tree.
TiTi said going to a gym for workouts is a time-guzzler, so is cooking a meal. It is better to order a carryout or have a delivered meal, she said. On weekends, she would find time to relax and unwind, watching a movie or going to an ethnic shop in ordinary togs “so people get a chance to think I am a poor immigrant woman out to buy an expensive thing.” She gets her kicks out of these weekend shopping trips but “I do not complain, when a shopkeeper tells me ‘Oh, you are holding a very, very expensive thing’ and suggests that perhaps I have no money to pay for it. I would smile and quietly walk away.”
If they only knew what TiTi McNeill has built 12 years after she became a naturalized American!
Hard Work Pays Off
In 1987, TiTi became an independent software consultant specializing in Oracle software applications for large businesses. She was about to complete ten years of part-time computer studies at night. After NOVA, she earned through hard work and efficient time management a Bachelor’s degree in computer systems from American University in uptown Washington. In 1988, she finally won her Master’s in Computer Systems and Applications also from American U.
The following Christmas season, she formally incorporated her company TranTech, gearing it to provide high-end IT consulting services in areas ranging from Oracle database design and development to local and wide area network management.
Working late into the night at home, she grew TranTech into a multi-million corporation. At day, she continued her consulting job. She would put long hours of “sweat equity” into her “dream to grow a vibrant and enduring TranTech.”
Her working into the wee hours of the morning would be reflected in the faxes she would send to clients. In fact, an early client wondered at one point if she always worked so late into the night, noticing the late hours her faxes were sent. She would reply that, she had programmed the fax machine to send documents at late hours.
In reality, TiTi McNeill had programmed herself to work hard, redeeming time to build TranTech into a successful, world-class company.
She started TranTech with what she already had and amassed during her early years in America. “I have the technical knowledge and experience, a history of hard work, drive, passion and determination,” she said. “I always want to take more responsibility, always willing to work longer hours, always having a very positive attitude about life. I was very committed to what I was doing and I always believe that where there is a will, there is a way.”
She firmly believes that an entrepreneur is an achiever, “someone who is willing to take a huge risk for personal and financial independence.”
Becoming an Entrepreneur
When she became a computer consultant in 1987, the idea dawned on her that she could also become an entrepreneur.
“I saw so many potential business opportunities in the software services industry and I enthusiastically pursued them. I started TranTech on my own, from scratch, all by myself. I had no inheritance. No investor. No partner. No family involvement,” she said.
“I also felt that the time was right to launch my business. The market for software service was tremendous and every company was looking for people with Oracle database experience. I seized the opportunity. I did not quit my consulting job right away. I worked during the day and I stayed up late at night to build the foundation for my company. I planted the proper business seeds while I was still employed. However, it was so difficult to find work fulltime on the client’s project while launching a business.”
So, TiTi used up her own savings of $25 thousand to establish a credit line with the bank. “I earned their trust”
The rest of TiTi McNeill’s and TranTech’s story is one lined with success, vigor, hard work and determination to grow, succeed and serve others well. But three words are central to her personal and corporate philosophy: perseverance, integrity and a positive attitude.
Giving Back Generously
TiTi McNeill, now divorced, finds time to give back to the community, including George Mason University, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Regional Professional Women and Women in Technology Industry. TranTech has since been named the “2001 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year”, a recipient of the “Top Minority-Owned Federal Contractor Award” and TiTi, herself, has won the “Women in Technology Leadership Award”—among other things.
Today, TranTech boasts of $20 million in revenues for the year ending December 2000.
“I want that $20 million to become $60 million, and that $60 million tripled over time. I believe that TranTech is going to get it,” she said passionately, adding that another important lesson she learned as a woman entrepreneur has been this—“Dress conservatively, subtly but powerfully. Making a good impression happens at the first meeting. So, dress up in a dignified tailored suit, in a conservative color and wear a minimum of jewelry, say pearls and a smile. That’s it.
“Oh, be sure to remember names and to say them correctly,” she added. “I am a very organized person, I take down notes, and I organize all my e-mails,” she said.
TiTi McNeill also finds time to give back to the community’s cultural activities, such as concerts, staff picnics, holiday celebrations and diabetes, leukemia and lymphoma support societies.
There is a small Catholic church in the neighborhood she once shared with her husband, she said, where she would go for a quiet time and meditation.
Raised a Buddhist, she, however, has taken some of the graciousness of her husband’s Catholic faith. “I still go to the church sometime during the week, I find time to sit there and be quiet and thank the Heaven for everything that I have. I also give back a little gift to the church but it is always done anonymously,” she said, saying she still takes care of her little sister and her siblings back home.
The memory of her flight from Vietnam no longer hurts her. She has reached a future that is bright and beyond the reach of her war-torn days. She was also able to get her beloved father out of Vietnam in later years and now lives with him in the house she recently bought.
“I say never, never quit because persistence never loses,” she said, chuckling lightly. “I tell myself to be honest, you can attract people to your business if they can trust you and your reputation. I want to keep my integrity because one never gets lost taking the straight path. I also always remember that the race is not always given to the swift but to those who keep on running. The competitive road ahead will be very long, very rough and winding. But I tell myself that if I fall now and then, that’s how life goes. If I don’t fall, I’ll never learn. Yet, if I fall, I must not stay fallen. One must not stay down. One has to get up, keep going, keep moving.”
