Lessons - Getting Over Imposter Syndrome. | Guy Kawasaki - Chief Evangelist at Canva

In this lessons episode, explore the realities of imposter syndrome, why it disproportionately affects women, how societal biases reinforce self-doubt, and why successful individuals still struggle with feeling undeserving. Learn how to document your achievements, reframe negative thoughts, and surround yourself with the right people to combat imposter syndrome and build lasting confidence. I wanted to talk about imposter syndrome because it's brought up in the book. It's something that impacts everyone. I want you to speak about your own experience with it. I want to speak about thoughts on it. And then I thought you brought a really interesting point about why it impacts women because I literally had this conversation with somebody about three hours ago. This woman sold her company for it was a nine figure exit. It's a notable brand. So that's over a hundred million and she still has imposter syndrome. Please help us and her you don't know her. Maybe one day you will. She's a good friend, but please help us understand why it impacts women to such a degree and how to get how to solve for them. My observation having interviewed 200 remarkable people is that imposter syndrome is primarily a problem for women. Like I can honestly tell you no man has ever come on my show and said I have imposter syndrome when I was named CEO or when I was appointed to the board or when I you know achieve all this great success. I really questioned whether I deserved it and whether I would be exposed that conversation has never occurred. So a lot of it is just about the shitty way that males treat women and society treats women. They're operating from a you know a disadvantage. And so the women who had imposter syndrome I mean I go into great detail about how you know like document your accomplishments. And not necessarily to put them out but you document your accomplishments or your own mind your look at it and you say okay yeah I wrote down this and this and this only shit I really did do good stuff right. And then you know you need to surround yourself with people who are supportive who understand what you're going through and they tell you that you need to believe I mean wake up honey I mean. If you're kidding so your company for a hundred million dollars what do you worry about these dickheads are telling you that you shouldn't be a CEO or a board member like what. The big issue I think it's the circles that you surround yourself with because that was one example of another friend who was a again like a Forbes whatever I think 30 under 30 he sold her company was it was another different person less and she thought after she sold her company. She would be invited into deals and she would have access to you know these great VC opportunities for these awesome companies that are usually background deals like Google and the other seed round or something like that and nobody would put anything in front of her to the point where she actually started a private equity firm herself. And she would just iced out of a lot of conversations so there's an issue there's a big issue because that type of behavior then reinforces that I'm not good enough. I don't know what to say I mean I think what you said is absolutely true and it's just unfortunate really. It is and it's suboptimal it's certainly not ethical capitalism. It's always a lot of people's potential and it's basically because men are insecure seriously. Yeah I know if it really is I mean it goes down to that like. I don't know how else to put it man are you ever had did you ever have did you ever have imposter syndrome when you took on anything in your career at all even at a young young age. When you're hired to apple or you're like I this apple I'm better than apple they're they're blessed to have me. Well I have never thought any places blessed to have me. Can I tell you I ever had really serious imposter syndrome and you know there's a lot to unpack here but first of all I've never been the CEO of a billion dollar company. I've never been on the board of directors of you know a fortune 500 company so I was never in the position where I said only shit. I'm on the board of directors of Procter and Gamble do I deserve to be here because I never been on the board of directors of Procter and Gamble. So one way to prove the one way to solve the imposter syndrome is. You just not put in positions of high stack. It be you did cat you. But you're discounting your own success too. When a brow like a canva or Mercedes these are not these are not like mom and pop brick and mortar try a million dollar businesses but I think. Like if you said guy you have a choice you can either have imposter syndrome or you can have entitlement syndrome guess what. Yes that much better to have a imposter syndrome and wonder if you deserve it then have entitlement situate syndrome and say of course I deserve it if I deserve more. I think I think most guys have entitlement syndrome. I think so too. I think that's it's a sad truth that I think that that's what allows them to take the risks and the chances in their career because they feel they deserve it. Yeah. I know but now listen it's not an easy thing to solve for it's just it's just a matter of it's a matter of surrounding yourself with the right people that's really it. Well I give you a and your listeners a real and you're the one who said you wanted the hard questions these are the hard questions people are solving I can ask the easy questions I can ask what Steve jobs was like. But wait I'm going to give you a real good tip about the imposter syndrome. I have to first tell you a story that you might think is unrelated. So you're very very good. Julia Cameron has this fictional negative friend called Nigel. So Nigel dear Julia Cameron is the art like the way I don't know. She wrote a book called the artist way like 20 million copies sold she is the mother of creativity Julia Cameron. So she has this fictional negative friend called Nigel and Nigel says oh you know you're writing isn't that good you're speaking is not the good you're not really helping people you know this draft socks whatever whatever this is an imaginary friend. And one of the ways I think she uses Nigel is she has compartmentalized negativity and imposter syndrome into Nigel. She kind of have sectioned him off in her life. And I think there's a tip there that if you have imposter syndrome first you realize that there is this thing called imposter syndrome so you're not alone it's not like every other blow hard in the world isn't thinking this like lots of people think this. So number one it's common it's so common my god it's a syndrome you don't get to be a syndrome if only one person has it right Stockholm syndrome lot of people got it I think anyway so number one is this is a real thing it's called a syndrome so that's number one and number two I think if you can label it. Then you can reduce its impact on your brain because you can say oh you know I was appointed to the board of directors of Procter and Gamble I went in the room and I looked around and there's the seal of Nike and there's the seal of Mercedes Benz and there's the you know Nobel Prize winner there's a MacArthur award fellow and you know and I got imposter syndrome. When I became appointed to the board of Procter and Gamble but I think what you can say is you say first imposter syndrome is a thing and then you say then I think you can trivialize it more and you can say oh that's just the imposter syndrome I can just you know I can just put it in a box and say label it imposter syndrome oh yeah next what's next. I love it address it though really address it like like face it basically well you should also in a sense you should thank God did you say you know what I got it imposter syndrome I'm not sure I deserve this but that's a lot better than having entitlement syndrome where I'm the asshole who thinks I deserve this and more that's harder to fix thanks for tuning in if you found this valuable don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode and if you want to dive deeper into this conversation check out. The links in the description to watch the full episode see you in the next one.