I have Imposter Syndrome

Fellow founder and MIT grad here, and I also feel like an imposter from time to time. I get it the worst just before recording an episode for the IH podcast.

It's very easy to look around and find people who are better than you are. Who've gotten further than you have. Who know more than you do.

In fact, society is pretty much structured to thrust these people into the limelight and make them more visible than anyone else. They aren't normal, and they certainly aren't the low bar!

It always helps me to take a minute to think about that.

Great post & identify 100% thank you for posting.

Honestly, just fake it till you make it.

Good read. The line that hit me was the "What’s improved is my self-talk." Really thoughtfull.

Sam, really appreciate your honestly and willingness to expose your emotions.
As someone who knows Sam and spent time watching him build his company, I thought it might be a useful contrast to understand one person's perspective as an outsider to fully grasp what he's going through.
To me Sam has always been a consistently confident voice and leader. From organizing social events to giving necessary (and sometimes tough) feedback, he always seemed like the type of person who pushed through when the future was less than promising. I still remember the day he stood in front of 3000 people— many MIT alumni, investors, and accomplished folks—to deliver an articulate, impassioned pitch that still resonates today.
To now read about the realities behind that public persona makes me understand even more fully how much Sam was willing to dedicate to both help others and strive for success.
Proud of you Sam and always rooting for you and the team!

I think there is a bias with a lot of this. Not many people with no traction, no funding, no customers are writing/blogging. Therefore if you are in that situation, you feel like you are the only one when in fact they are just as silent as you are.

Great post! It really resonates with me, as I often have the same feelings of crippling self doubt.

Part of why I write about what I'm doing/making/launching, is because it's kind of therapeutic to put yourself out there.

Not that we should revel in others failures, but it is refreshing to read about people failing at stuff. There's been a few articles about that recently on Medium (check out closure of Design Inc. for example). Really makes you just look at people as other 'humans' all on the same journey of varying paths.

Wrote about something similar recently: https://medium.com/unubo/i-dont-know-what-i-m-doing-and-that-s-ok-e22880f974f3

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