Meeting The Imposter

Imagine this: you're a high achiever, by all accounts doing well in life, but inside, you're convinced it's all a bit of a fluke. That’s the curious territory of imposter syndrome, a phenomenon where people believe their success isn’t due to their actual abilities but to luck, timing, or fooling others.

Imposter syndrome is that rather odd mental quirk where people, no matter how accomplished they are, feel like frauds. It’s as if they’re waiting for the big reveal—where someone finally taps them on the shoulder and says, ‘You don’t belong here, do you?’

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, there’s this persistent nagging feeling that somehow, they’ve pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. It’s like living life in a perpetual state of politely faking it.

Success is the thing we’re all supposed to strive for. The thing we’re told to chase from the moment we enter school, to the day we retire. But what if, having achieved it, you suddenly feel like you’re not quite as deserving as everyone else seems to think?

Despite external evidence of competence, people with imposter syndrome live in constant fear of being ‘found out’ as not good enough.

It’s a curious phenomenon—this sensation of success mixed with a sense of unworthiness, where you think everyone else has somehow been tricked into believing you’re more capable than you really are.

Everyone’s Faking It

Imposter syndrome doesn’t discriminate. It affects the accomplished and ambitious, the talented and the praised. It lurks beneath the surface, ready to pounce whenever self-doubt creeps in.

“When I won the Oscar, I thought it was a fluke. I thought everybody would find out, and they’d take it back. They’d come to my house, knocking on the door, “Excuse me, we meant to give that to someone else. That was going to Meryl Streep.”” - Jodie Foster

“Every time I was called on in class, I was sure that I was about to embarrass myself. Every time I took a test, I was sure that it had gone badly. And every time I didn’t embarrass myself — or even excelled — I believed that I had fooled everyone yet again. One day soon, the jig would be up…” - Sheryl Sandberg

“Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. 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 me out.” - Maya Angelou

“Even though I had sold 70 million albums, there I was feeling like “I’m no good at this.”” - Jennifer Lopez

Impostor Syndrome is not just for the underachievers, it turns out… it seems to afflict some of the most successful people in the world. Which raises a question: If so many people feel like they’re pretending, does that mean all of us are, in some way, faking it?

Reasonable Doubt

Of course, not everyone feels like an imposter. There are those who seem completely at ease with their success, sure of their talents, and free of the nagging voice that says, ‘You don’t belong here.’

Maybe you’ve never had that moment where you’ve thought, ‘Maybe I’m not as good as people think I am?’ Perhaps you’ve always believed that if you work hard and know your stuff, there’s no reason to doubt yourself. It’s a waste of energy.

It’s a confident, almost enviable mindset. But is it possible that, without a hint of self-doubt, we lose perspective? After all, some of history’s most notorious figures—those who felt no imposter syndrome at all—were often... shall we say, overly confident.

“Humanity is divided into two: on the one hand, those who are improvising their way through life, patching solutions together and putting out fires as they go, but deluding themselves otherwise; and on the other, those doing exactly the same, except that they know it. It’s infinitely better to be the latter.” - Oliver Burkeman

Maybe it’s the doubters who are the real heroes. Perhaps, in some small way, feeling like an imposter is what keeps us human, stops us from drifting too far into our own egos.

But if you don’t feel it? Well… maybe you’re the rare exception. Or maybe… you’ve just not been found out yet.

Fake It ’Till You Make It

There’s something paradoxical about imposter syndrome. In all its intensity, it often strikes those who, on paper, have every reason to feel secure. Could it be that imposter syndrome is, in fact, an inevitable by-product of the pressure we put on ourselves to be constantly exceptional?


It’s tempting to see imposter syndrome as purely negative, a sort of internal saboteur that holds us back. But maybe, in a strange way, it’s also what keeps us grounded. After all, if no one ever doubted themselves, would we still strive to improve, to challenge ourselves, to be better?

There’s something healthy in questioning ourselves. It forces us to keep moving, to keep learning. It could be that the trick isn’t in banishing imposter syndrome but in embracing it as part of the journey. Because, without it, who knows… we might stop trying altogether.

Perhaps that’s the real trick—knowing that those feelings of doubt are just that… feelings. And maybe the next time someone feels like a fraud, they can take comfort in knowing that even their most successful colleagues are probably feeling the same.

See how you score on this Imposter Syndrome quiz.