The Root of Impostor Syndrome in Creative Business (and Two Steps to Temper It)

The Root of Impostor Syndrome in Creative Business (and Two Steps to Temper It)

Reader Comments (10)

  1. A great article Stefanie, and one that’s so close to my heart. I suffer from impostor syndrome every day and it’s prevented me from moving forward with any type of creative business.

    But notice I said ‘prevented’… I’m slowly learning to embrace my flawsomeness and in 2019 I know I will break the binds of impostor syndrome and will create and grow my web content writing business. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

  2. Great stuff… I recently started reading your work and I’m quickly becoming a fan. Keep it up! I’m a newish freelancer and have dealt with imposter syndrome just as you describe. My efforts to work through it relate to my efforts to simply feel intrinsically worthy as a human, rather than base my worth on what other people think of what I do or create. I’ve had high highs and lows lows… It’s quite a ride!

  3. Great post!

    I’ve never heard of “Impostor Syndrome” before I read this article. And in fact, I am also a victim of this syndrome.

    I have many ideas and posts in the draft that I always hesitate to publish because I think that they are just rubbish and of no use at all. But this post has encouraged me to publish those seemingly rubbish things on my blog.

    Thanks, Stephanie, for this fabulous post. You’ve changed my way of thinking.

  4. I’m pretty sure Neil Gaiman and Kate Winslet have openly discussed suffering from imposter syndrome in the past. I get it as an author, looking at other people and thinking “they seem to find it so easy – one of these days people will realise I don’t know what I’m doing”, but you just have to remind yourself that those same people are probably looking at you and thinking the same thing!

  5. I don’t work in a creative field, not really. Back end computer programming does not involve much style, but choosing the right style of programming can mean one or both of how quickly can you write it, and how quickly will it run, to end in ‘way too long’.

    I often worry that the work I am doing will be replaced by someone who writes code that will do the same thing in less time.

    But I keep going, because it is what I do.

  6. Wonderful topic! Where Imposter Syndrome really hits home for me is in my billing. At industry meetups, I frequently meet less experienced, less accomplished folks who charge double my fee and think nothing of it. Yet, too often, I will undercharge and over deliver on projects. As you mentioned, some of us suffer from this ‘syndrome’ because we don’t yet feel that we measure up: 1) we can identify industry leaders whose abilities appear to exceed ours and 2) we are well aware of areas we want to improve at. But another reason may be that, after years of studying, working and honing our skills, our abilities (which may appear overwhelming and intimidating to others) seem mundane and unremarkable to us. Thanks again for your excellent, thought-provoking post.

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