Illusion of intelligence

I remember when I first arrived on campus at Penn. I had a heavy case of imposter syndrome.

I was so intimidated by the geniuses I hadn’t yet met. 

I had heard the stories of all these alumni (and even other students in my class) who achieved amazing things. I didn’t deserve to be there. 

But once I settled in, a switch flipped: there were no geniuses (well, maybe a few).

It was an illusion. People were normal. We had the same aspirations, struggles, and fears.

People were exceptional but just not in ways that I thought. People were exceptional in their creativity, thoughtfulness, discipline, and communication. Not in their supernatural intelligence.

This was so liberating. These were skills I could learn! Not skills that I had to be born with.

I see the same effect play out with startups. From the outside, we are so impressed by X company that raised $20M or Y company that is now a unicorn. They must have something magical that we can’t replicate.

But once we look underneath the hood, we see that there really isn’t some innate magic. It’s usually a mix of hard work, thoughtfulness, and commitment. All learnable skills.

We love the overnight success stories about the college dropout who changed the world. But these stories create an environment where we feel like we can never be good enough.

But once we can see through the illusion, we realize that each one of us is capable of doing great things.