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No, imposter syndrome isn't necessarily a bad thing…
Recently, I came across a profile about Sacha Michaud, one of the founders of Glovo. This delivery company was founded in 2015, and today, the business, which the profile describes as “the fastest growing multicategory player across Europe, Central Asia and Africa”, is in 22 countries, and every year, billions of dollars in sales pass through the platform.
Enough about the success the business enjoys. What stood out for me was something that Michaud said towards the end of the feature.
He said,
“At Glovo and in business, I’m surrounded by smart, talented people, smarter than me. Often, I think I still have imposter syndrome, sensations that I am the dumbest person in the room. It’s good because it makes me improve myself continually.”
Co-founder and Vice-President Global Affairs Glovo, Sacha Michaud.
To clarify what I’m getting at, before Glovo, Michaud had founded other successful companies, which were later acquired by other entities, making him a billionaire. A billionaire who struggles with imposter syndrome…
I read a lot, and especially enjoy reading about other people - I can tell you for a fact that it is not often that I come across high-achieving people who confess to the inability to fully own their success, their capability, the belief that they are not as competent as others perceive them to be. I always find this vulnerable confession to be inspiring, a reminder that even those people many of us look up to and admire and believe are infallible and unfailingly self-assured, are human too, that they too still struggle with certain insecurities in spite of their outstanding accomplishments.
I don’t know about you, but such stories encourage me to keep trying to reach for the stars, to constantly remind myself that I am good at what I do, I wouldn’t be at the stage I am at. Imposter syndrome is not foreign to me; I cannot even begin to count the times that I have doubted myself and questioned whether I delivered to the best of my ability, long after the delivery. Sometimes it has been wondering whether I am the best person for the job, or even wondering what someone saw in me to nominate me. If imposter syndrome sometimes visits you, you can borrow from Michaud and look at it as an opportunity to continually improve yourself, whatever form this self-improvement takes. Could be reading more about that topic you don’t fully feel confident about commenting on, taking short courses related to your job, or even going back to school to update your skills and knowledge in the space you are in.
That comment also led me to the conclusion that it takes a very confident, successful person to publicly admit their innermost fears, or even to say that, yes, ‘there are people at the table who are smarter than me, even when I am the one seated at the head of the table’. Talking of smart, I once read an interview of a certain CEO (I don’t recall his name), who said that when he is hiring, he looks for people who are smarter than him. I remember thinking, ‘Now that is smart!’ Smart because those employees will take his good ideas and turn them into brilliant ideas that will translate into more success for his company.
Don’t you think it’s time you stopped getting intimidated by people who are smarter than you and instead use their skills to your advantage? And isn’t it a relief to learn that imposter syndrome isn’t such a bad thing?
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