Imposter syndrome? Here's how indie hackers are overcoming (or coping with) it.

Imposter syndrome is a real issue for indie hackers. I'm no stranger to it. And I’ve interviewed countless founders who have struggled with it — including those who have achieved a huge amount of success with their businesses.

So I did some digging to see how indie hackers (and others) are overcoming imposter syndrome… or at least coping with it. 👇

What is imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is just what it sounds like. It's the experience of feeling like an imposter — usually in your work life. You might be dealing with it if you think your successes are pure luck. Or if you feel like you're out of your depth. Or if you feel like you don't belong.

And it kills potential startups because it prevents people from starting (or finishing), which is a bummer. Plus, it leads to anxiety, shame, depression, loss of motivation, reduced creativity, reduced risk-taking, burnout, you name it. So what can you do about it?

Ultimately, you need to accept it

I've seen a lot of talk about defeating imposter syndrome, but the best comments and articles I've found have favored embracing it.

Because I don't know that you can ever really defeat imposter syndrome. It's just something that you work with. And maybe one day, you don't have it so much.

So the key is to become aware of these feelings. And then embrace, or at least accept, them. I can say from experience that they're a lot easier to deal with when you're aware of what's happening — as opposed to having a nagging feeling just outside of your awareness that tells you you're a hack.

But if that's a little too fluffy for you, here are some more practical measures that I've seen recommended.

Preventing imposter syndrome

Preventative measures are always best. Here's how you can keep imposter syndrome from rearing its ugly head:

• Identify what triggers it and watch for those triggers. Maybe it’s hitting a roadblock in your code. Maybe it’s seeing someone else’s wildly successful project. If you know that a trigger is coming, prepare yourself. Knowing that it’s about to happen takes the sting out of it.
• Start small. Allow your nervous system to get accustomed to doing that small thing before you go up to the next level. There's a reason your product begins with a single line of code instead of an IPO. The latter might be a little overwhelming.
• Be real. Tell people (and post) about your imposter struggles. It's really freeing. It takes out the shame of it. And surround yourself, both IRL and online, with people who are being real about their work/lives. Boot showboaters off of your feed.
• Get off of social media. When in doubt, get off of social media. It's bad for your mental health.
• Notice when you're comparing yourself to others. Obviously, this is a mental pattern and you can’t just turn it off. But you can bring consciousness to it. Notice when you’re doing it and try to shift the habit.
• Get comfortable with failure. Or at least try to get comfortable with it. A good way of doing this is to look back at your failures, and how they ultimately brought you to something good. Sharing your failures helps too.
• Set KPIs for success and track them. This will allow you to look at how you're doing in a quantitative way. If your KPIs are doing well, then you must not be an imposter!
• Ask yourself what really matters to you. I, for one, have found that I often judge others as more capable based on metrics that I don't even really care about. And that makes no sense.
• Teach others. Maybe it's kids, junior devs, etc. According to @indreklasn, “Teaching is humbling — there’s something about it that makes you appreciate what you’ve accomplished.”
• Decrease the risk. That can take some of the stress off. For indie hackers, that might mean keeping your day job while you get started on your scary new idea instead of going all-in right away.
• Celebrate your successes. This can be tough for people who feel like imposters, but really take a moment and celebrate when you do something cool. Even the small wins are important.
• Soak in the compliments. If you're dealing with this, you're probably not great at taking compliments. Really try to soak them in so that you can begin to feel your greatness.
• Practice gratitude. Whether it's journaling or just noticing what you're grateful for, I've found this practice to be really helpful in general. In the context of imposter syndrome, keep noting what you're grateful for in regard to yourself.
• Practice boasting. Sounds embarrassing, I know, but practice boasting when you're by yourself. Talk about how awesome you are.
• Practice positive affirmations. Start a practice of affirmations where you tell yourself how capable and awesome you are. People swear by it. There are plenty of apps out there for this.
• Meditate. It really does help
• Exercise. Staying healthy and active keeps the mind from ruminating.

Prepare yourself for when imposter syndrome hits

If you've struggled with imposter syndrome, then it's likely to happen again. Do your best to prepare yourself for that:

• Create an archive. Make note of your accomplishments, your experience level, kind words from peers, customer reviews, and so forth — anything that serves as evidence that you're not a fraud. Keep adding to it. And refer to it when you need it.
• Educate yourself. Go out and learn the thing that you’re feeling self-conscious about. Practice it.
• Track your progress. Then look back at it and see how far you've come. Checking your old Github commits can be a great way for devs to do this. How bad was your code a year ago compared to now? And how far has your product come since that first line of code?

Dealing with imposter syndrome when you feel it

When I feel like an imposter, I often benefit from stepping away from my computer for a while. Maybe I’ll work out, relax, talk to my wife about it, or spend some time in nature. Most of the time, when I come back to it, I’m more present. And the more present I am, the better I feel about myself and my situation. But that's just me. Here are some other options that people have recommended:

• Write about it. Either in your journal, as a blog post, on Twitter, etc. — whatever works best for you. It’s good content and it might be cathartic.
• Power poses: I've heard mixed reviews on these but I'll be honest and say I've done power poses plenty of times. I remember doing it in the bathroom before asking for a raise once. I feel like it helped a bit.
• Take a walk. Good advice for just about any tough situation IMO.
• Exercise. Getting the blood moving helps.
• Meditate. This gives you a chance to witness the thoughts and feelings while being impartial.
• Talk to others. Friends, family, indie hackers who know your pain… Talking can really help.
• Positive affirmations. Give yourself some positive self-talk to drown out the negative.
• Try to separate feelings from facts. This might be the most important tip — oftentimes, the feelings are illogical, and seeing the truth of things can be helpful.

Things to remember while you feel it

And here are some reminders. Things to tell yourself when you're feeling like a fraud.

• You aren’t alone. Just about everyone deals with this.
• Just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean you aren’t good at it.
• Maybe you don't know what you're doing… and that's completely okay! If anything, it's brave. Sometimes, you've just gotta do a thing even when you don't know how to do it.
• You’ve gotta get out of your comfort zone to achieve great things… And you feel imposter syndrome when you’re out of your comfort zone… So imposter syndrome means you’re probably doing something cool. Give yourself a high five!
• What you see over and over again in others is not the norm. Like @csallen said, “It's very easy to look around and find people who are better than you are. Who've gotten further than you have. Who know more than you do. In fact, society is pretty much structured to thrust these people into the limelight and make them more visible than anyone else. They aren't normal, and they certainly aren't the low bar! It always helps me to take a minute to think about that.”

What fellow indie hackers had to say

But don't take my word for it. Here are some comments from other indie hackers:

@ConradL: Life is too short to live with imposter syndrome. Still, it's easy to forget. That's why I created a Google Doc of the nice things people have said to me. I refer to it whenever I'm not feeling good and I try to take it in. It gives me the confidence to keep going, but I'll never completely believe it.

@simonme: What stopped this feeling for me was the realization that most (or at least many) developers have that feeling, even devs I like and admire.

@Shanau: “I’d suggest, as with so many things, starting really small, doing one tiny tiny thing that makes you a little uncomfortable regularly might open the door to more confidence or at least more “who gives a fuck - it’ll be ok, what’s the worst that can happen!” thinking.

@Benanna19: This comes back to the idea of a community because I need a community of people, those closest to me (wife, friends, and family for me) to help remind me of the good things and also need people in similar situations as me, those here on Indie Hackers, to also help me remember that I am not an Imposter.

@samshames: Everyone feels under-qualified. What matters is how you respond to those feelings. They don’t ever go away – even three years later. I’m still doing everything for the first time. What’s improved is my self-talk. I tell myself it’s okay not to know what I’m doing. I tell myself that I am no different from anyone else who started a successful company. I tell myself that when you’re doing something for the first time you’ll always feel like an Imposter.

@csallen: My approach is to simply compare myself to the me of 1 year ago. Have I learned? Am I progressing? Then that's good enough for me. It'll build up over time. The rest is luck and noise.

So yeah, you're really not alone… No one knows what the hell they’re doing! That’s either really comforting or really scary. Maybe both. 😅 What matters IMO is that you get out there and try anyway.

How do you get through your imposter syndrome?

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