Many people talk about imposter syndrome like it’s a terrible experience you need to eliminate immediately. They recommend you just breathe in, breathe out, and rid yourself of it as soon as you can.
I think a lot of people misunderstand what imposter syndrome actually is. Sometimes, you feel like an imposter because you haven’t earned the confidence you need to not feel it. It doesn’t mean you’re not worthy, capable, or very talented. You’ve simply stepped into a room full of people who are operating on a whole other level.
But I think that’s a great thing.
One of the fundamentals of chess is that you can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent. That’s true of everything in life, especially business.
Growth only happens when you’re exposed to people who expand your perspective — people who force you to think bigger and whose results challenge what you currently believe is possible.
There’s a massive difference between hearing someone talk about success and seeing it up close with your own eyes. When you just hear it, degrees of separation make that reality seem far away and almost unreal, eliciting no emotional response.
Hearing someone talk about making $1 million? Whatever. But seeing a $1 million check? Shattering the barriers that turned that thing from something theoretical to something tangible? That effect is priceless.
We see this constantly in the Crisp Coach groups we work with.
A firm owner who’s never invested heavily in marketing before and thinks spending $20,000 a month is aggressive sits across from someone spending $1 million a month on it, and suddenly their entire perspective changes.
That simple proximity is enough to change their reality.
That’s why feeling uncomfortable in high-level rooms is often a sign you’re exactly where you need to be.
You’re stretching, expanding, and evolving. Of course you feel inadequate surrounded by people further ahead than you. That’s the point.
If you see that discomfort as evidence that you don’t belong, you’ll miss all the opportunities that could come from it.
One of the biggest moments of perspective for me was being invited to give the keynote presentation at a Harvard Business School alumni event. I spent years feeling inadequate in rooms full of Harvard MBAs while I hadn’t so much as taken an online business or marketing class. But instead of rushing out when I felt that discomfort, I forced myself to stay in the room, learning, developing skills, and raising my own standards.
When I got the invite to present to them, I wasn’t cowering with fear. I was up on the stage, full of confidence in my knowledge.
That’s the thing about imposter syndrome: Unless you run away from it, it isn’t permanent.
It’s just temporary evidence that you’re still becoming, and when you lean into it with curiosity, over time the room becomes less and less scary. Then it will be time to find a new room that challenges you all over again.
If you keep placing yourself in environments that demand more from you, your growth will never end.
So if you feel small right now, good. It probably means you’re surrounded by people who can make you bigger.
