Making the Leap – Entrepreneur’s Doubt

When you start your own business, you know there will be challenges along the way.

You can anticipate some with thorough planning and analysis. Others can take you by surprise.

Imposter Syndrome is one such challenge that takes many people by surprise. It is the secret feeling of being a fraud and the fear of being found out.

The big problem with keeping it a secret is that few people are aware of it, which means when it does strike, you think it’s just you. Maybe a personality defect, flaw or failure. But seven out of ten highly successful people experience Imposter Syndrome at some point in their lives. It’s so common that it is worth including in your business planning.

It can show up as a doubt that you’re good enough. Or, for an entrepreneur, it can be doubt that your new product or service is good enough. You can bounce between excitement of launching your new product and then have sudden doubt that anyone is going to buy it.

Imposter Syndrome might not even be as clear as doubts. When I was ready to publish my book and launch my online course, I spent a few weeks going slowly. It was like driving with the handbrake on; smaller tasks felt like a great effort to complete, and I was easily distracted.

This form of self-sabotage is more subtle, but the underlying cause is the same. A core belief we developed as children that our worth as a person depends on what we do. We conclude that mistakes and failure make us bad. This is untrue, but the belief is persistent and leads to you feeling not good enough. Not all the time though, it can strike when you do something new or challenging.

For entrepreneurs, this means that Imposter Syndrome can show up when you’re launching a new product, service or business.

If you’re aware of this, you can do something about it. Even expect it to show up when you’re developing a new business.

The signs of it range from most obvious; you know you’re feeling like a fraud. (This is very different from being an actual fraud where you’re deliberately trying to con people.) You notice you’re questioning whether you are good enough.

Less obvious is having doubts about your new product or service despite plenty of research and positive indications it will be successful. Like you can’t quite believe the results. Here you question whether your business offering is good enough.

Most subtle is the going slow self-sabotage or distractibility that drags out a launch. Or it can look like constantly tweaking your product, trying to get it perfect. This one is hardest to catch, but when you know that a launch can be a trigger, then you can be more prepared for it.

You can only do something about a problem when you are aware of it.

Imposter Syndrome then becomes something you can anticipate, even plan for, knowing when it could appear and having a strategy for dealing with it. You can make sure it’s not the cause of a failure to launch.