“I felt the same thing stepping into my first leadership role, surrounded by people who'd been in the industry longer. The thought that saved me was realizing that everyone in that room has felt like a fraud at some point. The feeling isn't proof you don't belong; it's proof you're growing into something you haven't mastered yet.”

“I got a VP role and spent the first 90 days trying to prove I deserved it, which nearly cost me my team. The feeling that you're faking it doesn't go away; you just stop letting it make your decisions.”

“I still get that feeling. The thing that helped me was realizing leadership isn't about being right, it's about being useful: clearing paths, listening, letting people find their footing. You were promoted because someone believed you could do that, not because you already know everything.”

“I walked into my first Georgetown MSFS class with sweaty hands and my heart thumping, convinced someone had made a mistake putting me in that room. Five years later, walking past Healy Hall grounds me instead of shrinking me, because I learned the fear wasn't fraud, it was new-room inexperience. You're not an imposter; you're in training, and belonging is built by staying in the room long enough to earn it.”

“I felt that hard when I joined On Deck and sat next to people I assumed were smarter than me; what changed was proving to myself I could cut it, not faking confidence I didn't have. The promotion already happened, so someone saw something—now your job is to find the first small proof that they were right.”

“I still have days where I look at my calendar and think, I'm a fraud, I just talk to people on the phone. The promotion isn't the mistake; it's your brain trying to keep you safe by convincing you that being chosen means you'll be found out. I call a friend, take a nap, and remind myself what my clients have actually accomplished.”

“I have sat in that exact seat after a promotion, mapping every meeting for the moment someone would finally call it out. The fear is real, but the competence that got you promoted is real too, and the gap between them is where the work actually lives.”

“I still feel that pit in my stomach before big moments, and early in my career I tried to talk different, dress different, be what I thought the room wanted, which only made the imposter feeling worse. The thing that helped me was realizing the people who promoted me already saw something I couldn't see yet, so my job wasn't to prove I deserved the seat, it was to grow into it while staying myself.”

“That feeling comes up when you're doing something hard, and it usually means you're growing. Everyone I interviewed for my book—including C-suite executives—felt the same way you do now. The ones who made it weren't the ones who waited for the feeling to disappear. They got here by pushing through it anyway.”