Imposter Syndrome is a behavioral health phenomenon described as self-doubt of intellect, skills, or accomplishments among high-achieving individuals.
A lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome, I do too.
But I learned to turn the self-doubt into something powerful.
Imposter syndrome is a really complex feeling.
It combines the good: You’re in a position where you recognize other people are better or smarter than you.
We’ve all heard the saying: surround yourself with great people.
And the bad:
I am not good enough - I don’t deserve to be here.
Fortunately, I only joined companies where people genuinely wanted to help each other succeed. Maybe if you’ve experienced more hostile environments, it’s harder to believe this. I’ve never really seen that side of things.
Most people actually want to help - unless they’re in a really bad spot themselves.
I quickly learned to turn my imposter syndrome into the complete opposite - a supercharge for my learning. Once you realize that others are actually happy to help, you can flip any negative thought into a positive approach.
When someone knows more than you? That’s not a threat - it’s the best opportunity to learn from them.
Sure, learning something just by yourself is super rewarding as well. But think about how much faster you learn when someone with good intentions takes you by the hand. They tell you all the pitfalls to avoid, the shortcuts to take.
You can compress years of learning into days.
I feel like most things I learned as an engineer came from talking to other engineers about solving a problem. It’s such an awesome feeling if you see every interaction and every conversation with someone else as a learning opportunity.
I always try to figure out what they know better than I do, then have a conversation about it to bring myself up to speed. Often those topics are technical, but they can also be about a hobby, a skill - almost whatever.
The moment you realize someone knows more than you about something? Switch to learning mode.
You also build way stronger relationships this way.
There’s nothing more engaging than when someone asks you genuinely good questions - when you feel like they actually care to know more about you.
As times goes by you will notice things you might know more about and return some of your wisdom you gathered.
So … You’re not an imposter. You deserve to be here, someone else already made that decision for you, someone wants to give you a chance.
You’ve just realized there are things you don’t know - and you have someone within reach who can help you learn more quickly.
Isn’t that actually the best position to be in?