What I Learned From a Nobel Laureate on Impostor Syndrome
Do you ever feel like you are not good enough? Do you ever feel like you aren't worthy of what you accomplished? In psychology, this phenomenon is known as impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome is defined as a psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". I sometimes suffer from this, as well. The other day I was on Reddit and came upon a thread about Nobel Laureate and former Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. It is worth reading.
A Once In a Life-Time Lecture
Back in grad school, I was sitting in class one day discussing my own problems with imposter syndrome with a friend; I felt like I wasn't good enough to be in the program I was in, and was waiting for my adviser to realize her mistake and fire me from my lab.
Our instructor, a tenured professor, overheard me and came over. She then shared the following story:
A few months prior, my instructor had given a keynote talk at a conference about a research project her lab was working on. That evening, she went out for drinks with a couple other scientists, including Steven Chu. If you're not familiar, Dr. Chu is a Nobel Prize winning physicist and served as the the US Secretary of Energy. At the time the story takes place, Chu had recently resigned as Secretary of Energy and taken a position at Stanford, where he'd been given a huge lab and a mountain of funding.
As my instructor and the scientists are chatting over drinks, Chu turns to my professor. The following conversation ensues:
CHU: I have to say, I found your talk today very frustrating.
INSTRUCTOR: What? Why? Was there something wrong with my research?
CHU: No, no, the opposite! It was perfect!
INSTRUCTOR: ...I don't follow.
CHU: It's just...I've just been given this huge lab, right? All the this funding? Everyone's expecting great things from me. Except...I have no idea what I'm doing! I had one big success early in my career, and I feel like I'm still riding the coattails of it. I finally thought I had an idea for a decent study to do, but it turns out that's exactly what you're already working on, and you're doing it way better than I could've! I feel like any day someone is going to realize they made a mistake and fire me.
After reading this, I wanted to share some of my takeaways from this story.
Everyone suffers from impostor syndrome. Steven Chu is one of the most accomplished physicists in the world. If he sometimes feels undeserving, I think it's safe to say that we all feel this way at one point or another. I always believe it's essential to trust in the process. Everything you have done up to this point has put you in the position to be where you are today. Don't discount that. You earned it, and you deserve to be here!
Don't let it control you. While Steven Chu might have suffered from impostor syndrome, it did not dictate his life. His accomplishments are lengthy and distinguished: Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, Nobel Prize in Physics, Secretary of Energy, Chair of Physics Department at Stanford, director of a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory, and president of the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences. We all have self-doubt, but if you can break through it, you can be just as successful as Steven Chu.
Be honest with who you are. While it's important to believe in yourself, you will sometimes have gaps in your knowledge. This gap is where you can make the biggest strides in your life. Figure out what you need to learn and how you can learn it. Steven, a far-more accomplished physicist, had the self-awareness to admit that he wasn't knowledgeable about a specific topic. His vulnerability showed the presenter that everyone has impostor syndrome. What's even more compelling is that he turned a perceived weakness into a strength by confiding in the presenter, which will help build the foundation for a meaningful relationship.
Steven Chu's story inspired me to be open in my writing and in my relationships. I realized that everyone suffers from not being good enough, but if you keep persevering in both your personal and professional life, you can accomplish anything.