The Impostor Syndrome

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Both Myhill-Jones and Stockwell have coped chiefly by hiring around their perceived deficiencies. Other responses are less salutary. In the corporate world, where the impostor syndrome is well documented, self-doubters may turn down promotions or switch jobs to avoid exposure. Entrepreneurs sometimes decline interviews and speaking engagements, or even designate someone else to be the public face of their companies. Many wear away their noses through ceaseless application to grindstones. "They think, 'Sure, I'm successful but it's only because I'm working 80 hours a week,'" says Young. "'If I let up for a second, it's all going to fall apart.'"

In extreme cases, desperate efforts to shore up foundations perceived as weak can bring down the whole structure, says Kets de Vries. He recalls treating one entrepreneur who felt himself wholly inadequate to run a company, as though nothing he did was ever good enough. "So he kept pushing and pushing," says Kets de Vries. "His company was falling apart, his wife had left him, his children didn't like him anymore. He had physical symptoms." Kets de Vries suggests that those who feel like a phony bring on a partner. Valerie Young suggests a simpler approach: Treat faking it as a strength. "If you're an entrepreneur you're going to have to wing it," she says.

The impostor syndrome may be especially problematic among women. In the business realm, female CEOs are still rare enough that many believe their performance is being watched more closely and that their success or failure reflects directly on their female peers. Fundamental issues of nature and nurture also apply. "There's a lot of evidence that boys growing up tend to blame things outside of themselves when things go wrong: The other team cheated; the referee wasn't fair; the teacher didn't give us enough time to study," says Young. "Girls tend to blame themselves. So when they don't make the sale, the customer isn't saying he doesn't like the product--he's saying, 'You're inadequate.'"

Academic research holds that men and women experience the impostor syndrome in comparable numbers, but "I've been doing this 25 years, and anecdotally that's not what I've found," says Young. "I'll meet some guy on a plane and I'll tell him what I do and he doesn't get it. He'll say, 'That's stupid. Why would anybody feel that way?'" --Leigh Buchanan

For more on entrepreneurs who feel like fakes, tune in to a podcast with editor Larry Kanter, at www.inc.com/keyword/aug06.

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