I think everyone suffers from some amount of imposter syndrome symptoms at some point in our lives, and it's super annoying when you're not used to it.
It started for me when I started my second career in tech startup after working for ten years in laboratory science. Suddenly, my lizard brain is telling me that I shouldn't be here.
I don't hear those internal words much these days, but occasionally, I still hear the words "you don't know enough to be here" in my head.
I've been in my career for years. I know what I'm doing. I have oodles of experience that prove to me over and over again that I know how to solve a problem (by thinking, learning, engaging with others, and by seeing connections that others don't see)
Yet two weeks ago, a potential investor told my co-founder that we were never going to raise money because of me. I don't have enough experience. I. Don't. Have. Enough. Experience? (more below)
It wasn't delightful to hear. It was wrong, but it was still horrible to hear. And because I heard those words, they started to sit in the back of my lizard brain. When I'm tired, when I'm stuck, when I'm feeling low, those words start to bang around my brain.
How do I deal when those words start banging around my brain?
I say, "thanks for sharing, but you are wrong," or "duck off!"
After a few days, those words fade away, but occasionally they creep back, including now, when I'm writing this reply, so I try not to recall the instances that caused me to think I'm less-than or that I don't deserve a seat at the table.
And I remind myself of a couple of things:
Hundreds of thousands of mediocre men with fewer skills have succeeded. I'm not the imposter; if they can succeed.
Just because my lizard brain is talking doesn't mean the words it's speaking are valid.
If I was managing a person like me, would I think that person was an imposter?
I'm not going to let someone else's ignorance of my talents stop me from moving forward.
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More on my experience, that's not enough for the idiot who said I didn't have enough experience:
-I have 25-years of experience in startup
-I am a co-founder of a startup that has raised money
-I wrote our business plan, product features document, operational plan, pitch deck, complete 5-year proforma, and sales and marketing materials.
-I built our MVP.
-I taught myself how to code a mobile app (so we could save money), and I am building our mobile app (set to launch in early June)
-I built our marketing and sales funnels in the CRM, and I hired and trained contractors who worked for us. I've created our business dev partnership plan.
-The last job I held was the Product Director for the same product yet in a different industry. (there are no competition issues with my old company).
-I literally have experience!
He meant to say that I'm too old, too woman for the industry my startup focuses on, too didn't-graduate from a top business school, too not someone he knows for him to invest in our startup. Or he just didn't want to invest in our startup. Fine. But yea, dude, I don't have enough experience.
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