How many times after doing a reasonably good job or an accomplishment we have asked ourselves am I really good at this ? am I really a good investor ? Do I really deserve this success ?
What’s impostor syndrome ?
Inspite of succeeding and still having doubts on yourself if that success is out of luck and randomness rather than your own skills is Impostor syndrome.
IMPOSTOR SYNDROME is the straight opposite of DUNNING KRUGER EFFECT which states that (where as a beginner your confidence levels are far more higher than your skills and you estimate your skills to be superior than to a more expert level person )
When i was starting my investing career I typically followed Statistical bargains and slowly drifted to other styles of investing. I learned the EPV model by Prof BRUCE GREENWALD and based on those models have made investments and also the model helped me avoid mistakes .
Inspite of reasonably following the rules and doing well in the 2017-2019 period where the markets were melting down I had a self doubt which come in form of
Am I really a good investor ?
Do I deserve to take this success or is it about it just Luck or deception ?
Am I delusional ?
Later i realised these questions were a reflection of impostor syndrome.
In his book super thinking by Gabriel Weinberg he says there are a few ways to overcome this problem .
1. Be aware and be prevalent that you’re not alone, 70 % of the people become inflicted with this problem at some point in their careers.
2. Explain to people or help yourself that small failures happens when you operate out of your comfort zone and use mistakes as a learning opportunity.
3. Connect with others and peers who have had impostor syndrome.
Although this isn’t a cookie-cutter curriculum to overcome this. Assess your capabilities and skills objectively and always be in the lookout for reality and truth seeking.
What I did that helped me was before taking a project I did a prediction of how the outcomes would be and I would see the contrast from my prediction of the outcome, if the contrast is very wide than I believe that I have not done a good research on the outcome and I observed objectively where I went wrong, Although this is just one way to see another important tool was to be non-judgemental.
In the book The inner game of tennis Timothy Gallwey ( i Recommend this wonderful book) says our brain has its way of making judgments all the time. So whatever you do your brain is making a judgment that something is right and wrong. Once you stop your judgement and start observing objectively you start to observe things as it is or you should see the truth.
Also important to read : Dunning Kruger effect which is the opposite of Impostor syndrome where people over estimate their abilities even without the proper skill sets.
Master Moves 