5 Ways I “Faked” My Way To Success

Summary

The author shares five strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome and achieving success.

Abstract

The author, Naomi Boshari, shares her personal journey of overcoming imposter syndrome and achieving success as a writer. She discusses how she "faked it 'til she made it" by developing her skills, letting go of the need for perfection, practicing a lot, focusing on relationship-building, and not caring what others thought of her. She emphasizes the importance of believing in oneself and having undying passion to achieve success.

Opinions

The author believes that imposter syndrome can prevent people from achieving success.
She thinks that developing skills and educating oneself is important for achieving success.
She emphasizes the importance of letting go of the need for perfection and focusing on relationship-building.
She believes that practicing a lot and not caring what others think of oneself is crucial for achieving success.
She thinks that confidence is not about being at the top or being the best, but about having the belief that one has the skills to get there.
She believes that having undying passion and not giving up is important for achieving success.

Honestly, I think we’re all faking it most of the time

I had one published story online when I posted the above photo on my social media.

I wrote a poem called, “So you think you’re a writer?” after a few friends from high school made fun of me for sharing my writing online.

This photo made me feel like a professional. Look! I am a writer, this photo said.

I had just quit my corporate 9–5 job and was trying to pursue a freelance writing career. I was broke and had to pick up a server job to pay my rent (you can read a little more about my story here). But no one would have known that from this photo.

Fake it ’til you make it.

That’s what they say, right? Well, it took me maybe about three years after I posted this photo to actually get to a point where I felt like I was “making it,” and I still feel like I’m faking it most days.

After my stint at freelancing, I signed up for a writing course through an online platform where I’d been writing and publishing for about a year. From there, I was hired on as an editor, and for a little while, it felt like I was doing it—whatever “it” even is.

I've since left that job, and I’m now doing an MA while freelancing round two and working with my friend who has a book writing program. It’s all (sort of) coming together.

So, I want to share a few things I’ve learned in the hopes that it may help someone else overcome those feelings of imposter syndrome that so often prevent us from success.

Here are five things I did when I had no idea what I was doing:

I developed my skills and educated myself in areas I was lacking. Since I was pretty fresh out of undergrad when I wanted to freelance originally, I didn’t feel like I had the skills to actually write copy for a business or edit someone else’s work. So, I signed up for a course. This course did lead to me getting hired, which shows that sometimes not pursuing the thing directly can actually help you get the thing.

I let go of the need for everything to fall perfectly into place. When I first tried my hand at freelancing, I thought I’d network, cold email people, and magically I’d be running a six-figure biz. Of course, it didn’t work out like that. And part of the path involved steering off course a little — working as a server, taking a class, taking a pause from the “hustle” — which then created the space for something unexpected to happen.

I practiced a lot. I took on a lot of free work when I was starting out to build my portfolio. I would write blogs for friends’ businesses or write on online platforms to just get my name out there. And I wrote for myself — in the quiet hours of the night, on the subway going to meet friends, in my Notes app on my phone, not to be shared with anyone but to keep the words flowing.

I focused on relationship-building. I used to hate networking. I hated the idea of turning up to an event where you didn’t know anyone and had to strike up a conversation. But, I do love building connections, finding commonalities with strangers, and the exchange of skills, which I guess is networking. Any time I worked with a client or met someone through work, I focused on the human behind the screen. Now, I’m so grateful I have these connections because utilizing your network is crucial in the early stages of freelancing.

I had to stop caring what other people thought about me. When I first started sharing my work online, I definitely got some negative feedback. When you’re vulnerable and talk about things people don’t usually say out loud, it makes people uncomfortable. It was really difficult to not take things personally. But every bit of negativity created resilience. I had to remind myself constantly that being liked is not the most important thing in the world.

I think back to that girl who posted that photo out of spite. I felt like I had to prove something to those people, to the world, that I was doing something worthy.

I still don’t have the “followers” or the “six figures” so many successful people brag about, but I am on the path to creating a life I love.

There isn’t one way to look successful. We often don’t see what goes on behind the highlight reel to know what that person is dealing with or how they got to where they are.

And honestly? I think we’re all faking it most of the time. But as I learned from Kara Loewenthei, confidence isn’t about being at the top or about being the best at something, it’s about having the belief that we have the skills to get there.

We need to relentlessly believe in ourselves, have undying passion, and be stubborn enough to not give up to get where we want to be.

Let’s connect! If you’d like to work with me, you can check out my website here.