117. I Am Imposter Syndrome

There are two important things I’ve learned about people as a result of owning an online registration company.

1. Most people don’t read carefully – and/or they don’t care to understand what they’ve read.

2. Never underestimate the extent to which humans can lack common sense

Am I being harsh? Maybe. But I can give you thousands of examples that support my argument for the above so, at best, I think we’d end up with a hung jury.

I’ve spent the majority of my career in entrepreneurial endeavors, and the other part working for large public companies. I’ve been on both sides of the fence and can tell you, with absolute certainty, that the grass is green wherever the heck you want it to be.

Entrepreneurialism is a lonely job. Oftentimes I felt like I was reinventing the wheel. Whether it’s marketing, project management, sales or any other aspect, it often felt like I was winging it and hoping for the best.

So I winged it. (Wang it? Wung it?)

I got asked to speak at conferences, to write articles, to lead webinars and, frankly, it felt weird. I did them all, and just about every time I felt like an imposter.

The world, I knew, was filled with better people and smarter people than I.

I continually feared being outed as a fraud.

Imposter Syndrome

It’s a stressful journey when you believe everybody is better and smarter than you.

Imposter Syndrome is a real thing. It is a psychological state in which, despite clear evidence of a person’s competence, they still doubt their skills and fear being exposed as a fraud.

It can happen to anybody. Some people who have admitted to experiencing it are Maya Angelou, Tom Hanks, Sonia Sotomayor and Emma Watson.

I have a theory about it. (Surprise surprise)

Imposter Syndrome, from my armchair psychologist point of view, is when a person’s expectation of how they should feel on the inside does not match the validation they are receiving from the outside.

You may have heard that saying, “don’t compare your insides to other people’s outsides.” I believe Imposter Syndrome is a first cousin of that idea.

I’ve started three companies from conception to acquisition. I never had a business partner or a co-leader. I led it all myself. Yet still, I doubted my business abilities for decades.

I was a fraud and it was only a matter of time before everyone else found out.

As it turns out, feelings aren’t always facts. In a sense, we’re all children inside. We are the people we were when we were kids. The fears, the insecurities, the strengths – sure they develop as we grow older, but the core of our being remains the same.

So to Tom and Maya and Sonia and Emma, you are not alone. And you are not imposters.