Impostor Syndrome: When Success Feels Like Fraud

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It affects newcomers and experienced bosses, students and Nobel laureates alike: the persistent feeling of not having earned one's own success. Experts call it "impostor syndrome".

Those affected are convinced their achievements are merely luck, chance or good timing – and live in fear that others will soon notice they aren't really that capable. Praise bounces off, successes are played down, every mistake seemingly confirms the secret suspicion.

The phenomenon is remarkably widespread: studies suggest most people experience it at least at times. It particularly affects people in new roles, high-achieving personalities and members of groups underrepresented in a given environment.

Worth knowing: impostor syndrome is not a recognised illness but a pattern of experience. It says nothing about actual competence – on the contrary, it often affects precisely the capable.

What you can take from this: it helps to voice the thoughts – many then realise how common the feeling is. Recording successes and consciously accepting praise, instead of deflecting it, gradually drains the pattern of its power.

Good-advice standard: verified information only. Based on publicly available psychological research. Not a substitute for therapeutic advice.

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