People with Impostor Syndrome are
unable to internalize their
accomplishments […] convinced that
they are frauds and do not deserve
the success they have achieved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
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First off,
before I get too far,
I should say—
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I’m not the most qualified
person to give this talk.
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I’m not the most qualified person
speaking at this conference.
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No one invited me to speak.
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I’m not a professionally
trained speaker.
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I hope no one finds out that I’m
faking it.
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Actually—now that I think about it—
I’ve given talks at conferences before.
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People that I respect seemed to like them.
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Surely I’m more of a
con-artist
than a public speaker.
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I’m probably not qualified enough
to speak at any conference.
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Oh, God—I’m sure I shouldn’t
have talked at those meetups.
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Meetups have Q&A—
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—it’s harder to fool people
during Q&A.
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There will not be Q&A
after this talk.
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Okay, to be safe I just won’t
do any more speaking.
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Maybe I should have written a blog
post on this topic instead.
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It’s safer on my blog. I can edit
and proofread and rewrite.
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No one will know that I
make mistakes.
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But—my blog post ideas feel
unoriginal and derivative.
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and the Web is
huge.
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My post has to compete with
the rest of the world?
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No one is going to read it.
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There are far better
writers.
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Sure, I’ve written a few posts that people seemed to like.
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My personal web site has had over 1.3M page views.
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I’ve convinced almost
6,000 people to subscribe
to my blog.
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Surely I’ve pulled the wool
over their eyes.
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Okay, to be safe I just won’t
do any more speaking or
blogging.
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Maybe I’ll stick to tweeting
instead.
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Twitter is ephemeral.
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The half life for mistakes is
about 20 minutes.
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Sure, I’ve posted a few good tweets.
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I’ve convinced a few people to follow me.
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I basically got my job through Twitter.
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But maybe it’s easier to
fool people on Twitter.
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If Justin Bieber can get 45M
followers, the bar must be
pretty low.
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My followers probably have
me on Twitter probation.
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I’m sure my next tweet
will get me unfollowed.
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“It's better to keep your
mouth shut and appear
stupid than open it and
remove all doubt.”
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“It's better to keep your
mouth shut and appear
stupid than open it and
remove all doubt.”
—Mark Twain
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Okay, to be safe I won’t
speak or blog or tweet.
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To beat Impostor Syndrome,
I can stop participating.
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But that certainly won’t
make me happy.
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I need to create
to feel alive.
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The best way to beat
Impostor Syndrome is
to participate.
“I have written eleven books, but
each time I think ‘Uh oh, they’re
going to find out now. I’ve run a
game on everybody, and they’re
going to find out.”
—Maya Angelou
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Impostor syndrome
doesn’t go away.
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But if we recognize it,
we can begin to deal with it.