5/12 - Unmasking The Root Cause of Imposter Syndrome
“What - it’s not just me?”
That was my immediate internal reaction as I watched nearly every entrepreneur in the room raise their hand.
I was in my early thirties, part of a high-growth entrepreneurial programme. Around twenty of us, each leading companies expanding rapidly. We gathered periodically for teaching and peer support while our businesses scaled.
During one session, a finance expert was speaking about capital structure and growth mechanics. Then, almost casually, he paused and asked:
“Do you ever feel like you might get a tap on the shoulder one day - and be told you’re not actually good enough, that it’s time to stop pretending?”
The words landed immediately.
I knew that feeling.
The quiet fear of being found out.
The subtle anxiety that success might be a mistake.
The internal voice that whispered, you’ve somehow fooled them all.
I had felt it many times before.
I had never spoken about it.
So I raised my hand.
What shocked me wasn’t my own admission.
It was that nearly every other entrepreneur in the room did the same.
In that moment something shifted.
This wasn’t personal weakness.
It wasn’t private instability.
It wasn’t just me.
The speaker named it: Imposter Syndrome.
Suddenly there was language for what I had carried silently for years.
He went on to explain that this phenomenon was especially common among high performers - founders, executives, senior leaders, those carrying visible responsibility and invisible pressure.
The higher the responsibility, the more acute the fear of exposure.
After that session, I remember Googling the term. There were articles. Books. Research. Entire conversations happening around something I had assumed was uniquely mine.
I began speaking about it publicly on LinkedIn.
The response was immediate.
Direct messages from leaders saying:
“I thought I was the only one.”
“I’ve never admitted this to anyone.”
“Thank you for saying it out loud.”
One particular message stays with me. A woman wrote:
“I’ve struggled with this for years. Hearing someone as established as you speak about it makes me feel less alone.”
At a conference not long after, I spoke with a senior, world renowned leader from Google. The conversation naturally turned to imposter syndrome.
He smiled and said, “Oh yes. I experience this. It’s very common, many in my team battle with it too.”
This wasn’t fringe psychology.
It was endemic.
Following speaking with Avinash Kaushik, I wrote an article titled “I am a global thought leader waiting to be found out”, in reference to Avinash as a world renowned thought leader experiencing imposter syndrome. In this post I outlined “6 ways to no longer be held back by your imposter”.
Realise you are not alone
Realise you are in very, very good company
Talk openly to people
Stop comparing yourself to people who are more experienced than yourself
Turn it in to a positive for your life
Talk to children about this
And to be clear - in some seasons, that worked.
Fear became drive.
Anxiety became preparation.
Doubt became diligence.
But as I look back now with deeper clarity, I can say something plainly:
Imposter syndrome is fear-based.
It may produce high performance.
It may create sharpness.
It may even catalyse breakthrough.
But its root system is fear.
And fear, left unaddressed, slowly shapes the architecture of a life.
Up until my collapse in 2019, fear - in various disguises - was a significant undercurrent in my inner world.
Fear of exposure.
Fear of failure.
Fear of being seen as inadequate.
Fear of losing position.
Fear of not being enough.
Fear of my past mistakes becoming known.
Fear of an on-going secret addiction becoming known.
From the outside, it looked like ambition.
Inside, it was tension.
Imposter syndrome is not a productivity strategy.
It is a signal.
And perhaps the real question is not whether we experience imposter syndrome.
But what deeper fear is it pointing to?
Because when fear becomes fuel, it may still move you forward.
But it never allows you to rest.
