The New Parenting Mantras

My father had a couple of sayings: “It’s better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission,” And, “There’s one thing they can never take away from you: Your capacity to have the next idea.” These quotes speak to the heart and soul of an Ideator. Can you imagine parents today raising their kids with these mantras?

My name is Suzan Briganti and I grew up in Silicon Valley before it was called that.

My father was a physicist at Stanford Research Institute and he loved to tell stories at the dinner table about the challenges he faced at work and how he overcame them. They all had the same plot. He was faced with a bungling bureaucrat and managed to cut through the red tape or other stasis with a brilliant and (to him) obvious solution.

I grew up in the country about 5 miles from Stanford. Our elementary school was kind of a test lab for the Stanford School of Education and, as a result, it was pretty experimental. At home, I had plenty of space and free time, which I filled with making whatever came into my head.

Looking back, thanks to Dad, I guess I was steeped in the methods and mindset of innovation before these all became fashionable.

I have always been very impatient with the status quo and filled with creative ideas. As a child, I couldn’t sleep at night if I hadn’t been able to MAKE something. I would cry myself to sleep in frustration!

Many Careers. One Path.
I have been lucky to have three careers: one in advertising working with some truly brilliant writers and art directors. Another as a fashion designer. And a third career running my own innovation companies: first Totem (a consultancy) and now Swarm Vision (a software company). I tend to approach problems by designing a new (hopefully simple and delightful) system that solves a problem. And nothing makes me happier than seeing people use what we have designed.

Swarm Vision has changed my life because for the first time I invented and built something involving software, and am realizing it in the world. Something that others really love, and that has become part of their lives.

First we built the Swarm Crowd Innovation Profiler. Before that product went live, I was terrified that no one would register! When we got to 18,800 members in 106 countries, I felt we had made a tiny dent in the universe. Now with the Swarm Enterprise Profiler, and our first Fortune 100 customers, we feel the same terror....Will companies adopt it at scale?

I guess being an innovator takes the ability to live calmly on the edge of uncertainty. Despite the cost to one's stomach lining, it makes you feel more focused and more alive! I wouldn't have it any other way.