What I learned about imposter syndrome
We all feel like a bit of a fraud sometimes. About 80% of adults experience “imposter syndrome” at some point in their lives.
Whether at work, in school, or in other areas of life, imposter syndrome makes us feel that we don’t deserve to be where we are, that we haven’t fully earned our success. We feel like our achievements are a result of good luck or circumstance, rather than our own efforts and skills.
But here’s what I learned about imposter syndrome, in grad school and then later on working in one of the most competitive environments in my field.
It’s irrelevant.
The question isn’t whether you’re a “fraud” or “the real deal”. You are a fraud. And you are the real deal. I learned to stop trying to classify myself as one or the other. And here’s why.
1. My worth and my abilities aren’t binary. I’m a human being with an array of strengths and weaknesses. I’m both skilled and unskilled, intelligent and in ways also a bit slow, I’m innovative and also extremely short-sighted — all in the same person. There are so many different types of intelligence and creativity, and I don’t possess all of them, but the parts I do possess are enough for me to add value, and that’s what matters to me.
2. How good I am will vary from one time to the other. It will sometimes depend on the task I’m working on. On my current state of mind. On the time of my life. On personal circumstances. On my health. Even on my mood.
3. I have flaws. Some of them pretty bad. Some of them I will spend my whole life trying to fix, and fail.
4. I will make mistakes. My ability to learn from these mistakes will vary. Some mistakes I will only need to make once. But there will be mistakes that I will keep making over and over again, and that’s okay. My focus is on making them few and far between.
5. I don’t have to be perfect to be valuable. I can contribute to something without understanding everything about it.
6. And, most importantly, yes, most of my success is due to luck. We tend to grossly underestimate how much of our success is based on underlying privilege. We live in an economic system that allows only a tiny fraction of society the chance for upward mobility. Although we like to believe that hard work leads to success, the reality is that the main determinant of success is affluence.
I’m privileged. If you’re reading this on an internet connection, you probably are, too, to some degree. I’m aware that I am where I am now only partly due to my abilities, but mostly due to a variety of factors and circumstances: where and when I was born, what my parents did for a living, our household income.
I’m not entitled to any level of success solely based on my abilities, because there are millions more capable and hardworking than I am who never had the same opportunities available to them. I have to accept that a lot of what I have was handed to me. And I can accept that, because this is not about my ego.
I think the key to overcoming imposter syndrome is a mindset shift from individualism to collectivism. There’s a healthier way to look at your value to society than by measuring your strengths as an individual against others, which is anyway extremely hard to do. Human beings create the most value collectively, through collaboration. The question is how you can add the most value to this collaboration, by capitalizing on your strengths.
