I'll never forget that day. During my first job in the United States. First engineering standup.
The team was going around the circle giving updates. One by one, everyone spoke clearly and confidently with their beautiful American accent. When it was my turn, before introducing myself, I didn't know what made me do it, but I felt the need to say something I still remember today:
"I'm sorry for my accent."
Later that day, my manager scheduled a 1:1 with me. And he told me something simple that is with me til this day.
He said:
"Never apologize for your accent or your background, David. Never again."
I said earlier, I didn’t know what made me say that stupid thing. But now I know.
What I was feeling had nothing to do with my engineering ability.
It was imposter syndrome.
As I did, many engineers experience this feeling at some point in their careers. But it becomes even more common when you are different from the majority in the room.
Maybe it's because of your accent.\
Maybe it's the color of your skin.\
Maybe it's your background, your country, or your culture.
You begin to feel like you don't truly belong.
And this feeling shows up in subtle ways.
You hesitate to speak up during meetings.
You overthink every comment during code reviews.
You second-guess your ideas before sharing them.
You stay quiet when your team starts talking about cultural references you don't understand.
You start shrinking yourself without even realizing it.
You have 2 options generally when that happens. You keep going downhill and crash very badly: complete loss of confidence, complete isolation from the rest of the team and organization, and a PIP. Or you don’t make excuses and start attacking the real problem behind that situation.
First, think about what imposter syndrome really costs you.
It costs you opportunities.
It costs you moments where you had the answer but stayed silent.
It costs you visibility.
It costs you energy to constantly try to perform “belonging.”
And over time, that performance becomes exhausting.
The worst part is that imposter syndrome doesn't just affect how you feel.
It affects how much of your potential you actually use.
How many ideas never get shared?
How many leadership opportunities never happen?
How many times do you hold back when you should have stepped forward?
When you think about it, the real danger of imposter syndrome is not that you feel like an imposter.
The danger is that you start acting like one. Because let me be clear with you, whatever you believe in, life will do whatever it takes to prove you right. You believe your accent is an issue; life will agree. You believe you don’t belong to this team, and life will also agree.
But there is some good news: I once heard two powerful ideas that completely changed the way I think about imposter syndrome.
The first comes from Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.
He said:
"If you want to get rid of imposter syndrome, stop acting like an imposter."
The second comes from Dr. David J. Schwartz, in his book “Think Big”.
"To think confidently, act confidently."
Those two ideas reveal something important. Confidence does not come first. Action comes first. Because action is the most powerful cure for fear. If you want to get rid of imposter syndrome, you need to start acting like someone who belongs. Speak up in meetings.
Share your ideas.
Ask questions.
Walk, talk, and present yourself with confidence.
And most importantly, start building what Dr. David Schwartz calls a positive memory bank.
Collect small proofs that you belong.
Your manager approves your work.
A teammate thanking you for helping them.
A bug you solved.
A feature you delivered.
A moment when someone asked for your help.
Each one of those moments is evidence.
Evidence that you are not an imposter.
You're a capable engineer growing in your craft.
Does it mean imposter syndrome ever completely disappears?
Honestly, I don’t think so.
Even today, I still experience it from time to time.
And if you listen to many successful people (great speakers, leaders, founders, people who have changed industries), you’ll often hear them say the same thing: they still feel imposter syndrome from time to time.
So the goal is not to eliminate that feeling entirely.
The real goal is to reduce how often it controls you.
Think of it as a constant battle.
The more consistently you act confidently, the stronger you become.
Over time, something interesting happens.
That voice of doubt becomes quieter.
It shows up less often.
It becomes less present in your mind.
And even when it does appear, it no longer has the same power over you.
That’s what helped me.
It’s why I went from creating content on a French YouTube channel to starting an English one.
It’s the reason that even when I stutter sometimes, I still keep talking.
I still work on my body language.
I still keep showing up.
And you can do the same.
If you’re interested in working on yourself and surrounding yourself with people focused on growth, you can join my WhatsApp community for self-improvement.
I believe that working on the most important container in the universe (your mind) is the catalyst for building a great career and a meaningful life.
Feel free to join by clicking here.
See you in the next article.
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