This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Susie Cranston, CEO of Cresset. It has been edited for length and clarity.
There’s a famous story in my family: my mom and her twin sister were in first grade at a religious school in the Bay Area. When the teacher asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up, all the little girls said they wanted to be nuns, except for my aunt. She wanted to be a doctor. The teacher told her that it was impossible: women couldn’t be doctors.
When my mom and aunt told my grandmother that story, she was determined to prove the teacher wrong. She found the one female pediatrician in the Bay Area and started taking my mom and aunt to her.
In my family, the women haven’t had to be told they were capable of anything because we’ve been shown it by the women who came before.
My grandmother got her master’s degree in the 1940s
My grandmother, as you might have guessed from that story, was a bit of a powerhouse herself. She was raised in Kansas City, in a family with a successful furniture business. There was no male heir, only my grandmother and her sister, so her father talked to them about business in a way that wasn’t typical at the time.
That, coupled with a bit of bravery, was why my grandmother got on a train at 18 and headed to Stanford University. She got her master’s degree in economics there and worked for the Federal Reserve. In the ’40s and ’50s, she instilled the art of the possible in her three daughters.
My mom and aunt both had high-powered careers
My grandmother’s anything-is-possible attitude has paid dividends for our family over the years. Despite what that teacher said, my aunt, Susan Bailey, not only became a doctor, but she was also one of the first female board-certified cardiovascular surgeons in the US.
My mom, Mary Cranston, became a lawyer. When she made partner at her firm, the partnership celebration dinners were still held at a social club that didn’t allow women. She had to arrive at her own party through the kitchen.
My mom likes to share that story to show that, while there are frustrations, the arc of women’s access and equality has moved in the right direction over time. For much of my childhood, my mom was the CEO of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, an international law firm.
My mom was like a career coach when I needed that
I never had to convince myself that it was possible to have a high-powered career and a family, because my mom and my aunt showed me it was. Because of them, I had a head start in my professional life. It takes energy to envision a different future for yourself. Since I didn’t have to expend that energy, I could put my focus on choosing my path forward.
With my mom’s guidance, I decided to become an engineer. I enjoyed it, but for a while, my future felt uncertain: I had a passion for making systems better, but could apply that in a variety of settings. My mom was like my in-house executive coach. I never had to worry that she had my best interest at heart.
My family legacy helps me avoid imposter syndrome
I hear a lot of women talk about imposter syndrome. It’s not something that I really experience, and I think that’s because my mom and aunt have shown me that I deserve to be in the rooms I’m in.
I still have moments of fear, though. Once, I was in my office when the power went out. I looked up to see people gathering outside my office, waiting for me to tell them what to do. I thought, “Who am I to figure this out?” Then I answered my own question: I’m the person best equipped to guess the solution.
That ability to step outside my comfort zone without freaking out has served me very well. And it all started with my grandmother, then my mom and aunt, and their deep-seated conviction that women can do anything.
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