The Secret Most Successful People Keep
In 1978, psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes gave a name to something millions of people had been quietly experiencing without being able to articulate it. They called it the impostor phenomenon: the persistent internal experience of intellectual fraudulence, the sense that your achievements don’t reflect genuine competence, and the fear that at some point others will discover the truth.
What surprised Clance and Imes — and continues to surprise people when they encounter this research — is who their original subjects were. Not anxious beginners or people who’d stumbled into roles they weren’t qualified for. The original study focused on high-achieving women who were objectively successful by any external measure. The impostor feelings were strongest in precisely the people who had the most evidence against them.
Why Achievement Doesn’t Fix It
The counterintuitive feature of impostor syndrome is that success doesn’t reliably reduce it. For people prone to it, each new achievement can paradoxically increase impostor feelings by raising the stakes of eventual discovery. If you weren’t sure you deserved the junior role, wait until you get promoted to a senior one. The expectation of being exposed simply moves to a higher level.
This is partly because the attributional patterns of impostor syndrome are self-sealing. Successes get attributed to luck, timing, or fooling people. Failures get attributed to genuine incompetence. This asymmetry means the internal ledger never balances in the person’s favour, regardless of the objective track record. The evidence that would disconfirm impostor feelings gets dismissed, and the evidence that would confirm them gets retained.
Who Gets It Most
Subsequent research has found impostor syndrome across genders and demographics, though the experience varies. It tends to be stronger in competitive high-achievement environments, in people who are members of groups underrepresented in their field (where a lack of role models makes the sense of belonging more fragile), in people with perfectionist tendencies, and in people entering genuinely new roles or contexts where uncertainty is high.
Approximately 70% of people report experiencing impostor feelings at some point in their lives, according to research by Clance and colleagues. Among high-achieving groups — academics, executives, medical professionals — the rates are consistently high. Maya Angelou famously said she always felt that someone would eventually “find out” she wasn’t as good as people thought. Tom Hanks has made similar comments. The list of people who’ve described the experience is extensive and impressive, which is itself instructive.
The Difference Between Impostor Syndrome and Legitimate Self-Doubt
Not all self-doubt is impostor syndrome, and it’s worth distinguishing between them. Genuine skill gaps exist. Being new to a role and uncertain about your competence is often appropriate calibration. Impostor syndrome is characterised by the persistence of fraudulence feelings in the face of objective evidence of competence, the specific fear of being “found out,” and the consistent dismissal of genuine achievements as something other than evidence of ability.
What Actually Helps
- Normalise it: Learning how common impostor feelings are — especially among people you respect — reduces the sense that you’re uniquely defective.
- Document your evidence: Keep a record of genuine achievements, positive feedback, and problems you’ve solved. This creates an external counter-narrative to the internal one.
- Challenge the attribution pattern: When you succeed, practise attributing it partially to your competence, even if it doesn’t feel natural.
- Talk about it: Expressing impostor feelings to trusted colleagues often produces the response “me too” — which is both validating and reality-correcting.
- Reframe as information: Impostor feelings tend to increase when you’re doing challenging things. That’s appropriate. Discomfort at the edge of your competence is the sensation of growing.
Key Takeaways
- Impostor syndrome is the persistent feeling of fraudulence despite objective evidence of competence
- Achievement doesn’t reliably reduce it — the attributional pattern dismisses successes and amplifies failures
- It’s extremely common, especially in high-achievement environments and among people entering new roles
- Documenting evidence, challenging attribution patterns, and talking about it are the most helpful practical strategies
- The discomfort of impostor feelings often signals that you’re doing something genuinely challenging — which is where growth happens
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Sources
- Clance, P. & Imes, S. (1978). The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice.
- Sakulku, J. (2011). The Impostor Phenomenon. International Journal of Behavioral Science.
- Young, V. (2011). The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. Crown Business.