If You Don't Feel Like a Fraud, You're Not Risking Enough
Real frauds never question themselves
Frauds never feel like frauds. They charge ahead, all confidence and smoke. The rest of us? We sit with that voice in the back of the head.
That voice says: “You are not ready.” “They will find you out.” “One mistake and it all crumbles.”
At 24, I was thrust into IT management. I sat in Department Head meetings with thirty leaders, all of them twice my age. Bachelor’s degrees, MBAs, years of experience I didn’t have. And me, wondering every minute if I belonged.
For years I kept thinking, “I don’t deserve this seat.” But ten years later, after multiple layoffs and corporate downsizing, I was one of the few still standing.
That’s the paradox. The ones who question themselves are often the ones who last. Feeling like a fraud means you care enough to measure yourself. It means you’re pushing into territory with no guarantees. Real frauds never stop to ask those questions because they never put themselves on the line. The voice never goes away. The work is hearing it and moving anyway—using it as calibration, not as a stop sign.
So if you never feel like a fraud, maybe you’re not risking enough. And if you do feel it, take it as a signal that you’re stepping into something that matters.
What about you? When has imposter syndrome been proof that you were doing something real?
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Living with doubts has kept me focused for most of my life. Often, the only one who doubted me was me, but it was real.
I agree, and I can say especially for myself that being able to move forward without letting these questions within us manipulate us is a separate achievement.