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You Are Not a Fraud: A Scientist's Guide to the Imposter Phenomenon
YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Those people to whom you compare yourself are every bit as superior as you believe them to be. They belong there. They know more than you. Your achievements don't count. And you're just not that clever.
Why bother? Give up. Go home...before you get found out.
Sound familiar?
This is how you speak to yourself if you think you're going to be found out and thrown out of your workplace.
This is how you speak to yourself when you think you're a phoney...but all of the evidence says otherwise.
This is how you speak to yourself when you're suffering from the Imposter Phenomenon.
My own thoughts of the Imposter Phenomenon almost made me quit before I got started. I almost gave up on my career before there ever was one. I almost gave up on myself.
In You Are (Not) a Fraud, I invite you to come with me as I share some of the hidden data behind the Imposter Phenomenon. Come with me as I tell you the stories that can help you understand that it's NOT the Imposter 'Syndrome'!
We can all understand what true imposters are.
We can all understand how to be mindful of useless comparisons we make between ourselves and other people.
We can all understand how the Imposter Phenomenon might always be there...but it should never stop you doing exactly what you want to do.
Those people to whom you compare yourself are every bit as superior as you believe them to be. They belong there. They know more than you. Your achievements don't count. And you're just not that clever.
Why bother? Give up. Go home...before you get found out.
Sound familiar?
This is how you speak to yourself if you think you're going to be found out and thrown out of your workplace.
This is how you speak to yourself when you think you're a phoney...but all of the evidence says otherwise.
This is how you speak to yourself when you're suffering from the Imposter Phenomenon.
My own thoughts of the Imposter Phenomenon almost made me quit before I got started. I almost gave up on my career before there ever was one. I almost gave up on myself.
In You Are (Not) a Fraud, I invite you to come with me as I share some of the hidden data behind the Imposter Phenomenon. Come with me as I tell you the stories that can help you understand that it's NOT the Imposter 'Syndrome'!
We can all understand what true imposters are.
We can all understand how to be mindful of useless comparisons we make between ourselves and other people.
We can all understand how the Imposter Phenomenon might always be there...but it should never stop you doing exactly what you want to do.
291 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 31, 2022
6 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Marc Reid
1 book1 followerMarc was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland.
He completed his Masters in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in 2011. In 2015, he completed his Carnegie Trust-sponsored PhD in Chemistry at Strathclyde. From 2015-16, Marc was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. During that time, he was inducted into the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme.
In 2016, Marc won the prestigious Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship and rejoined the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde from 2017-20. This position was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, and he was thus the first Strathclyde-GSK Early Career Academic. In 2018, Marc was selected to participate in the Scottish Crucible leadership program, the Merck Innovation Cup, and was part of the Converge Challenge Entrepreneurship Competition Top 30. In 2020, Marc became a Lecturer for Innovation in Education at the University of Bristol.
Most recently, Marc was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, joining the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde in 2021.
He has held visiting lectureships at the University of Bristol and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde. In 2021, Marc completed Seth Godin’s altMBA.
His research interests include physical organic chemistry, computer vision, virtual reality, process safety, and the psychology of the imposter phenomenon.
He lives with his wife, two kids, and border terrier in 'sunny' Glasgow.
----
CONNECT WITH MARC
Twitter - https://twitter.com/reid_indeed (@reid_indeed - with one underscore!)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-marc-r... ( search "Dr Marc Reid")
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/reid__indeed/
(@reid__indeed - with two underscores!)
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@reid_indeed
Medium - https://reid-indeed.medium.com/
Website - https://www.dr-marc-reid.com/book
Email – https://www.dr-marc-reid.com/contact (Add the subject "You Are Not A Fraud")
He completed his Masters in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in 2011. In 2015, he completed his Carnegie Trust-sponsored PhD in Chemistry at Strathclyde. From 2015-16, Marc was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. During that time, he was inducted into the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme.
In 2016, Marc won the prestigious Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship and rejoined the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde from 2017-20. This position was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, and he was thus the first Strathclyde-GSK Early Career Academic. In 2018, Marc was selected to participate in the Scottish Crucible leadership program, the Merck Innovation Cup, and was part of the Converge Challenge Entrepreneurship Competition Top 30. In 2020, Marc became a Lecturer for Innovation in Education at the University of Bristol.
Most recently, Marc was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, joining the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde in 2021.
He has held visiting lectureships at the University of Bristol and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde. In 2021, Marc completed Seth Godin’s altMBA.
His research interests include physical organic chemistry, computer vision, virtual reality, process safety, and the psychology of the imposter phenomenon.
He lives with his wife, two kids, and border terrier in 'sunny' Glasgow.
----
CONNECT WITH MARC
Twitter - https://twitter.com/reid_indeed (@reid_indeed - with one underscore!)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-marc-r... ( search "Dr Marc Reid")
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/reid__indeed/
(@reid__indeed - with two underscores!)
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@reid_indeed
Medium - https://reid-indeed.medium.com/
Website - https://www.dr-marc-reid.com/book
Email – https://www.dr-marc-reid.com/contact (Add the subject "You Are Not A Fraud")
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 7, 2022
I was particularly eager to read this book following the build-up across various social media platforms and of course being one of the 800+ participants who contributed to Marc’s survey research. It’s safe to say that it didn’t disappoint and there were many ‘me too!’ moments which will certainly be the case for most others as they make their way through the material. Marc’s interpretation and guide to dealing with Imposter Syndrome (which of course I’ll be referring to as the Imposter Phenomenon from this point onwards) will undoubtedly strike a chord, not only with those in the field of science, but to countless others too.
The style of the book has clearly been given much consideration with each chapter divided into manageable chunks (parts) and a useful summary provided at the end. I particularly liked the tactic of adding a little snippet at the end of each chapter which starts the reader thinking about the next one. It would have been so easy to lose a lot of readers (particularly non-science ones) with excessive amounts of graphs and statistical data, but somehow the right level seems to have been selected and the majority of it wasn’t difficult to follow at all.
As expected, much of the book is concerned with how to manage the imposter phenomenon with the message coming through loud and clear that trying to compare yourself to others is the biggest (and most common) folly of all. Marc makes it clear up front that he has never received any formal training as a therapist but takes us through various validated approaches which can help including cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). The CV of failures exercise is fascinating and I loved the line quoted from Johannes Haushofer: ‘This darn CV of failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work.’ Explaining how the odds of any of us ever being born are almost zero was also effective and using cases of real fraud to put things into perspective was a nice touch.
The use of analogies will also be appreciated by the non-science audience, but let’s be honest, it’s great for us too. The distance to the sun of 92 million miles being equivalent to walking from the north to south pole over 7000 times. 14 golf tees, 55 aspirin tablets or slightly over half a Danny DeVito being compared to a pile of rejection slips for a writer – wow! And the costs of mental health for the UK being £26 billion: if each pound is a second, 26 billion seconds is close to 50,000 years.
I find it impossible not to comment on how great a writer Marc is, with touches of sheer brilliance entwined throughout the text. ‘My once proud military march was demoted to a hunched hobble of injured despair’ – describing a fellowship rejection. ‘Palmer’s straight and aquiline face matched the sharpness of her analytical intellect and the directness of her words.’ ‘Quotes from her prosecutors read like nails being hammered into her coffin’ – describing the disgraced Elizabeth Holmes of the doomed enterprise Theranos. ‘Some rungs on the ladder are just waiting to sink splinters into your gripping hands’ – describing a career in academia. ‘It was like Dr Yoder swapped a laser pointer for a flood light’ – change in perspective to job hunting. ‘They are terrible at Karaoke but swagger off the stage after dropping the mike, convinced that they nailed the song’ – referring to the ‘top of mount stupid.’ ‘(Finding out I wasn’t alone) lit a rocket up my ass and propelled me to go further.’ ‘My internal screams telekinetically muted the TV.’
Furthermore, Marc provided some deeply thought-provoking moments in the book, at least for me, but I’ve no doubt for many others too. The point about understanding what you really want to do with your life or you may end up continually seeking praises from people you don’t really care about. ‘Whose work might burn if you’re not there to stand watch over the fire?’ – referring to the responsibility of being a leader and recognising when someone needs help. ‘Consider that there are more routes to success than there are gatekeepers to be rejected by’ – this is really quite a liberating concept to hear if you stop and think about it. And finally, the point about parents having to manage carefully what they say to their children. Building them up to being some kind of genius could well be causing more harm than you ever imagined!
The most powerful aspect of the book however, has to be around how Marc uses his own personal experiences to convey his key messages. The level of honesty was remarkable (and so brave) – the admissions around how he felt when the young academic was due to visit him were particularly notable. It’s such a beautiful moment in the book when Marc describes the point he decided he was going to share his story with others in order to help them. It really begs the question of how much Marc could achieve if he was to go on to receive formal training as a therapist. What if he had the time to go to schools where pupils were already struggling with the imposter phenomenon? What if he had been able to speak to some of the people he described, who sadly went on to take their own lives? ‘My boys, I know absolutely nothing’ – the tragic words from early 20th century physicist Paul Ehrenfest before he shot himself.
In summary, Marc should be immensely proud of this project and the journey on which he has embarked throughout his career to date. So many people will benefit from reading this – it will be a comfort to those who are being plagued with negative thoughts around their abilities. It really is hard to imagine anything more rewarding than that. None of us are frauds!
The style of the book has clearly been given much consideration with each chapter divided into manageable chunks (parts) and a useful summary provided at the end. I particularly liked the tactic of adding a little snippet at the end of each chapter which starts the reader thinking about the next one. It would have been so easy to lose a lot of readers (particularly non-science ones) with excessive amounts of graphs and statistical data, but somehow the right level seems to have been selected and the majority of it wasn’t difficult to follow at all.
As expected, much of the book is concerned with how to manage the imposter phenomenon with the message coming through loud and clear that trying to compare yourself to others is the biggest (and most common) folly of all. Marc makes it clear up front that he has never received any formal training as a therapist but takes us through various validated approaches which can help including cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). The CV of failures exercise is fascinating and I loved the line quoted from Johannes Haushofer: ‘This darn CV of failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work.’ Explaining how the odds of any of us ever being born are almost zero was also effective and using cases of real fraud to put things into perspective was a nice touch.
The use of analogies will also be appreciated by the non-science audience, but let’s be honest, it’s great for us too. The distance to the sun of 92 million miles being equivalent to walking from the north to south pole over 7000 times. 14 golf tees, 55 aspirin tablets or slightly over half a Danny DeVito being compared to a pile of rejection slips for a writer – wow! And the costs of mental health for the UK being £26 billion: if each pound is a second, 26 billion seconds is close to 50,000 years.
I find it impossible not to comment on how great a writer Marc is, with touches of sheer brilliance entwined throughout the text. ‘My once proud military march was demoted to a hunched hobble of injured despair’ – describing a fellowship rejection. ‘Palmer’s straight and aquiline face matched the sharpness of her analytical intellect and the directness of her words.’ ‘Quotes from her prosecutors read like nails being hammered into her coffin’ – describing the disgraced Elizabeth Holmes of the doomed enterprise Theranos. ‘Some rungs on the ladder are just waiting to sink splinters into your gripping hands’ – describing a career in academia. ‘It was like Dr Yoder swapped a laser pointer for a flood light’ – change in perspective to job hunting. ‘They are terrible at Karaoke but swagger off the stage after dropping the mike, convinced that they nailed the song’ – referring to the ‘top of mount stupid.’ ‘(Finding out I wasn’t alone) lit a rocket up my ass and propelled me to go further.’ ‘My internal screams telekinetically muted the TV.’
Furthermore, Marc provided some deeply thought-provoking moments in the book, at least for me, but I’ve no doubt for many others too. The point about understanding what you really want to do with your life or you may end up continually seeking praises from people you don’t really care about. ‘Whose work might burn if you’re not there to stand watch over the fire?’ – referring to the responsibility of being a leader and recognising when someone needs help. ‘Consider that there are more routes to success than there are gatekeepers to be rejected by’ – this is really quite a liberating concept to hear if you stop and think about it. And finally, the point about parents having to manage carefully what they say to their children. Building them up to being some kind of genius could well be causing more harm than you ever imagined!
The most powerful aspect of the book however, has to be around how Marc uses his own personal experiences to convey his key messages. The level of honesty was remarkable (and so brave) – the admissions around how he felt when the young academic was due to visit him were particularly notable. It’s such a beautiful moment in the book when Marc describes the point he decided he was going to share his story with others in order to help them. It really begs the question of how much Marc could achieve if he was to go on to receive formal training as a therapist. What if he had the time to go to schools where pupils were already struggling with the imposter phenomenon? What if he had been able to speak to some of the people he described, who sadly went on to take their own lives? ‘My boys, I know absolutely nothing’ – the tragic words from early 20th century physicist Paul Ehrenfest before he shot himself.
In summary, Marc should be immensely proud of this project and the journey on which he has embarked throughout his career to date. So many people will benefit from reading this – it will be a comfort to those who are being plagued with negative thoughts around their abilities. It really is hard to imagine anything more rewarding than that. None of us are frauds!
September 24, 2022
Loved this booked from start to finish. The author’s use of language and story telling skills really pulls you in and to be honest I couldn’t put it down. There is just the right amount of science and humour throughout the book and the amount of research that has gone in to each section is put down in a way that is easy to understand, even for a non-science person such as myself. It is a must for anyone looking to not only understand the imposter phenomenon, but to learn more about themselves and how to manage their emotions.
January 4, 2023
A pleasure to read, Marc's writing style is personable and sincere in a way that makes you feel at ease reading about something that, typically, makes many people feel uneasy. With an honest humility and intellectual curiosity reminiscent of Gladwell, Marc's ability to weave academia with authentic and relevant real-world application helps keep the pace of the book steady and engaging. Highly recommended reading!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews