Have you ever felt like what you have to say isn’t worth saying because you either:
- Feel like you are too young and inexperienced to have a valid opinion?
- Feel like you need to have a master’s degree in the topic for your opinion to matter?
- Feel like the people who are already kicking-ass in your sector will laugh in your face, and try to shoot you down in flames?
Maybe you have felt all three, like me.
It’s tough trying to make yourself someone of influence in an industry that already celebrates the success of existing entrepreneurs, and business people.
Imposter syndrome is probably one of the leading causes of failure in businesses worldwide because it makes you believe that you have nothing of value to bring to the party.
Imposter syndrome is an illusion though.
And someone told me, that you are only impacted by the feelings you allow yourself to feel – if you feel like a nobody who doesn’t have anything of value to say, then you are a nobody with nothing valuable to say, right?
The first step to overcoming imposter syndrome is pushing through the fear of being shot down by allowing yourself to be vulnerable in the first place.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear.
Whether you are a person with many years behind you, or only a few it need not matter if it’s something you love and feel competent in, so why do we worry so much about what other people think?
“Ask the man if he has 25 years of experience, or 1 year of experience repeated 25 times”.
Stephen Covey.
The truth is, when you start to make a name for yourself in an industry you love, you create a ripple in the pond where the big fish are at and many of them won’t like it.
You may see resistance, you may see nasty remarks that shake you to your core, and question your self-worth, but when it comes down to it, the only thing we ought to really fear is OURSELVES – what we think, and what we believe.