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I once saw Paul Newman in a TV interview say that he always had the fear that one day someone would push through the crowd, grab him by the arm, and say, “It’s over Newman. It was all a mistake. You’re coming back to paint houses.”
 I understood exactly what he meant. He was describing the underlying fear that you don’t deserve your success and/or that someone is going to discover that you are a fraud.
Psychologists call this “The Impostor Syndrome.”
I am not a psychologist nor do I play one in my book by the same title. This book is about my personal experiences and the strategies I’ve used to overcome the self-doubt I lived with for many years.
I thought that once I built a successful business and was receiving international acclaim for my work in the martial arts, the self-doubt would evaporate. Instead, my self-doubt returned with a new name, The Impostor Syndrome.
The Impostor Syndrome is the feeling of being a fraud. Regardless of what is going on around you, there is a nagging feeling people will find out that you are not as smart, talented, or skilled as they think you are. It’s as though you aren’t the person you appear to be to the rest of the world.
The dread that you are to be found out or exposed as being inadequate is always present. This undercurrent of self-doubt makes it hard to strive for excellence because the more you draw attention to yourself; the more vulnerable you feel you are to being unmasked.
Studies in the mid-1980s show that as much as 70% of successful people suffered from the Impostor Syndrome in varying degrees. It’s difficult to know exactly how many people have achieved less or never even tried to succeed due to the Impostor Syndrome.
To me the Impostor Syndrome is “Advanced Self-Doubt.” The Impostor Syndrome is most prevalent in successful, high-achieving people. Most other people aren’t terribly concerned about being exposed because they live low-risk lives.
High-achievers risk on many different levels, and when that risk pays off and the self-image doesn’t match the rewards of the achievement, the Impostor Syndrome takes root.
We have often observed this in entertainers who work to get to the top and then, once they are there, destroy themselves with drugs and alcohol.
For me, a key realization regarding self-doubt and then later the Impostor Syndrome was that every successful person “fakes it until they make it.” No one has all the answers right out of the gate. But you have to get in the gate to get into the race.
Faking ItOne of my favorite programs is a reality show from the UK called Faking It. This show takes someone from one field or background and gives him or her 30 days to learn a new skill and convince experts in that field that they are legitimate.
For instance, they once gave a very conservative young woman, classically trained in music, a month to learn how to be lead singer for a hard rock band. A minister was given the same time to become a used-car salesman, and a chess champion was given the task of passing himself off as the coach of a rugby team, though he had never played the game or even enjoyed sports at all.
Regardless of the success of the participants in that show, you can understand why they would have self-doubts about their place and position. They fear they will be discovered as a fraud. Paul Newman and I had that same feeling but in real life instead of a “reality show.” Regardless of our individual levels of success, lingering self-doubt cast a gray cloud on our clear blue futures.
 John Graden is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author and pioneering entrepreneur. An eighth-degree black belt, Graden is known worldwide as the teacher-of-teachers and master motivator.
He is the author of the book, The Impostor Syndrome, How to Replace Self-Doubt with Self-Confidence and Train Your Brain for Success. How to Replace Self-Doubt with Self-Confidence and Train Your Brain for Success. www.TheImpostorSyndrome.com
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