The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It
Page 26
6. Melinda Houston, “Diary of a Bluffer,” The Age.com.au, November 7, 2004. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/06/1099547433417.html?from=storyhs.
Appendix
1. “The Most Powerful Woman in Media? Vivian Schiller, CEO of NPR, Talks to Lynn Sherr,” More, September 29, 2009.
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
I would have undoubtedly continued to speak on the impostor syndrome for many years to come. However, this book itself would not have happened were it not for a few key people. The first is my agent, Elisabeth Weed. During the course of two days I received publishing inquiries from four literary agents all in response to a feature in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a recent presentation at Columbia University. I was flattered but felt obligated to let them know that a previous literary agency had tried and failed to find a publisher for me. At that everyone politely backed away—except for Elisabeth, who said, “That was them. This is me. I can sell this book.” And sell she did—brilliantly. Since then I’ve come to rely on Elisabeth as a savvy sounding board and advocate.
My journey with Crown Publishing began with two brilliant and enthusiastic champions of this book, Tina Constable and Heather Jackson. Heather was my first editor. We worked together for a year until, after two extraordinarily successful decades in publishing, she decided to leave to blaze her own trail. Gratefully it was Heather’s early edits that helped me to both shape the book and to find my own voice.
My new editor, Suzanne O’Neill, jumped in to pick up where Heather and I left off. I can only imagine the challenge of entering the editorial process so late in the game. Her many editorial suggestions were invaluable in smoothing out the rough spots and helping me to be more succinct. No easy task. Suzanne also deserves all the credit for coming up with the title of this book.
The instant I met my marketing team at Crown—Rachel Rokicki, Jennifer Robbins, Courtney Snyder, Meredith McGinnis, and Katie Conneally—I knew I was in good hands. Also on a marketing note, thanks to the generosity of social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk and his brother A.J., I had the opportunity to learn firsthand from marketing staffer Sam Taggart about the behind-the-scenes mechanics of Gary’s bestselling book launches. Sam’s insights were invaluable.
I will be eternally grateful to two friends who, despite busy schedules of their own, diligently read and edited every page of the early versions of the manuscript. When my words were muddled or rambling, I could always count on Diana Weynand, a well-regarded author in her own right, to tell it like it was in her gentle old-soul way. As a fellow entrepreneur, Diana also helped to keep me (relatively) sane throughout the process of running a business while simultaneously writing a book. My multi-talented friend Cathy McNally brought her own keen writing and editing skills, from which I benefited greatly. Famous for her quick wit, Cathy also brought much needed levity to both this endeavor and my life.
As I was getting down to the wire, my friend Linda Marchesani was invaluable in helping me think through how to edit a particularly pesky chapter, during her vacation, no less. Others whose comments and suggestions helped tremendously are Kerry Beck, Susan Merzbach, Rita Hardiman, Lee Bell, Rene Carew, and Matt Ouellett. Also a heartfelt thank-you to Gerry Weinstein, who over the years has generously allowed me to adapt from his groundbreaking work on humanistic education and self-awareness training both in my workshops and in this book.
Everyone needs a cheering section and mine ran several bleachers high and a mile deep: My father, Edward Young, and the second love of his life, Leslie Fitzgerald; my aunt Marion Lapham and adopted uncle Art Warren; and my four siblings, Susan, Debbie, Peter, and Mark, and their spouses.
I feel blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who for three years waited patiently for the day I would no longer reply to their calls and invitations with “Sorry I can’t talk/go/stay, I’m working on the book.” Among these are my dear friends Susan DeSisto, Ange DiBenedetto, Lynn Werthamer, and Keitheley Wilkinson. Thanks too for virtual support from Barbara Winter, Steve Coxsey, and Dyan DiNapoli, as well as to Suzanne Evans and all the members of my business mastermind group—you know who you are.
My work ethic I credit entirely to my mother, Barbara Young. While I was in graduate school doing the research on what would ultimately form the basis of this book, my mother was working tirelessly as a second-shift custodian at the same university. Were she alive today, I know my mother would beam with pride at her “author daughter.”
To all 23,000 subscribers of my Changing Course newsletter and to everyone in the Profiting from Your Passions® career-coach community, a heartfelt thanks for understanding when an issue was late or I was otherwise not always 100 percent present. Special thanks goes to my virtual assistant (and so much more) Lisa Tarrant, who did a great job of holding down the fort at both ChangingCourse.com and ImpostorSyndrome.com while I was preoccupied with the book.
Moving back through time … I owe much to those who were at the very inception of my own journey with the impostor syndrome. This includes the original fifteen women I interviewed for my doctoral research on internal barriers to women’s occupational achievement, whose insights and observations informed my thinking about all my work that would follow. My friend Lee Anne Bell with whom I designed and cofacilitated the first impostor-syndrome workshops some three decades ago. And to the founding faculty in the Social Justice in Education program at the University of Massachusetts for helping to widen my lens.
Most important, I will forever be indebted to the tens of thousands of women and men who have attended my workshops over the years and without whom this book would not have been possible. Many pulled me aside to share their own impostor story privately. Others bravely spoke up during the workshop itself, voluntarily sharing their stories often in front of several hundred strangers. Thanks as well to the countless people who have emailed me over the years to share their own sometimes painful impostor experiences. In one way or another all of their voices are reflected here.
Finally, I must thank the codiscoverers of the impostor phenomenon, psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, to whom this book is dedicated.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE]
For girls and women the gap between capability and confidence is an individual as well as a collective experience. Now that you’ve learned how to let your own light shine I invite you also to volunteer for or financially support nonprofit organizations dedicated to empowering girls and women locally and around the world. Here are two of my favorite nonprofits, both of which are making a dramatic difference in our world. You can learn more about these and other national and international organizations at www.ImpostorSyndrome.com.
girls
inc.®
Girls Inc. delivers life-changing programs that inspire girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Research-based curricula delivered by trained professionals equip girls to achieve academically; lead healthy and physically active lives; manage money; navigate media messages; and discover an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. In 2010, the network of local Girls Inc. nonprofit organizations served 150,000 girls ages 6 to 18 at over 1,400 sites in 350 cities across the United States and Canada. For more information visit www.GirlsInc.org.
Women’s Funding Network (WFN) is the largest philanthropic network in the world dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. A network of 166 women’s funds in twenty-six countries, WFN supports and champions the work of women’s funds that believe a better world for women and girls is a better world for all. Learn more at www.womensfundingnetwork.org.
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
After impostor feelings threatened to derail her own academic and career aspirations Valerie Young made it her mission to understand why it is that so many intelligent, capable women in particular often feel anything but. Since then she’s addressed more than 40,000 people at such diverse organizations as IBM, Boeing, Intel, Chrysler, UBS, Bristol Meyers Squibb, EMC, Procter & Gamble, Ernst
& Young, American Women in Radio and Television, and the Society of Women Engineers.
Her insight and humor have also made her a popular speaker among students and faculty at more than sixty colleges and universities, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, Smith, Dartmouth, New York University Medical School, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania. Her career-related tips have been cited around the world in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend, Kiplinger’s, More, Psychology Today, Woman’s Day, Entrepreneur, Redbook, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, Glamour UK, the Globe and Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald, Grazia magazine, and elsewhere.
Valerie is also the founder and Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com and the creator of the Profiting from Your Passions® career-coach training program. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Valerie was a manager of marketing and communications at a Fortune 200 company. She earned her doctoral degree in education at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she was also the founding coordinator of the School of Education’s Social Justice in Education program. She can be reached at www.ImpostorSyndrome.com.
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