Cover Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash (adapted)
Yesterday my wife called me from the north of Canada. She said:
“I’m a fraud. They’ll catch me soon.”
Two days prior, she started a new job working with indigenous communities in the north of Quebec. She flew there for the first time on Monday. After being briefed on what her assignment would be, she lost all confidence that she could perform well.
It’s true that she was assigned things she wasn’t familiar with. It’s a job that’s very much out of her comfort zone, in an environment that’s also very much out of her comfort zone.
All I could think after I heard her say that was: “Well, you know, I’m a fraud too.”
Fraud: a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.
She “deceived” her interviewers by telling them about the things she had done and how it can apply to the position she applied for. It’s a position in a new field she had never done before, so technically speaking, her previous work experience “shouldn’t” matter.
But isn’t that what we all do when we try to get a new job?
Then I reminded her how when she worked in Morocco for an exchange program, she had no experience in maternity and she certainly wasn’t familiar with the environment. It was her first time in another continent after all.
I also had to remind her about the time she was building a menstrual hygiene workshop in India. Or when she “acted” as a development consultant for an NGO recycling old bar soaps, also in India. Or when she was teaching English to students in South Korea. Or when she built websites in Cambodia. Or when she did mass vaccination campaigns in the Central African Republic and Congo. Or when she became a mentor for other young girls.
Right. She’s a badass. Throw anything her way and she’ll get it done, and get it done well.
So, did she deceive the interviewers? Is she really qualified?
I’d argue that she is qualified, just without experience. In most cases, hiring for personality is much more valuable than hiring for current skillset. Trust me, changing a personality is much harder than learning new skills. I’ve learned more than 45 skills in the past 16 months, yet remain mostly unchanged personality-wise.
Most of us are more badass than we think we are. You may not have saved lives in India or Africa, but you have achieved things, and it’s important to realize it. Your accomplishments are your own and no one can take that away. They are proof that, given a new situation, you were able to solve a problem. This should be enough to prove that if you did it before, you can do it again.
Then I sent her Ayodeji Awosika’s TEDx talk:
Ayo isn’t wrong you know. We are almost always more qualified than we think we are. I tend to be confident in what I do, yet when it comes to photography, I feel like I’m just an imposter and don’t deserve the gigs I get. Still, I have to fight it off.
As Steve Jobs said:
“[…] people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
I’m a Fraud
I was sitting at my desk two nights ago, thinking about what I was about to do the next day. For the first time in months, I felt like I might have gone too far. I’m known for shipping fast. I follow a rule I created some time back. I call it the 1–50 rule.
The rule is simple and involves asking yourself: “What can I do in one day to accomplish 50% of the results?” I use this rule all the time when comes time to starting a new project. If you’ve been following my journey since January 2018 (when I started writing), you’ll probably have seen a new project from me every week.
Anyway, for the past month, I’ve been the top writer in Education on Medium and somehow, I thought this gave me permission to do something I’m not qualified for.
But I’m used to doing things out of my comfort zone. I like “change”. When I started learning 3 new skills every month back in October 2017, I unintentionally set myself up for failure. Every week. Every skill I set out to learn, I was unqualified for.
“A metalhead learning salsa dancing? You’re way over your head Danny!”, people would say. “A software engineer who can draw? That doesn’t exist.”, others would say.
In anything, there’s nothing I like more than shatter people’s mindset and prove them wrong. There is no black and white. There’s no one mold that applies to everyone.
But when I was sitting at my desk two nights ago, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t my place to do what I did yesterday. I “accidentally” launched what I like to call a solution to some of Education’s problems.
I accidentally stabbed the school system
Again, somehow, I thought that being the top writer in Education gave me permission to do that, but the truth is, it’s BS. I’m not qualified to do that. I might never be. I’m a fraud to the people who paid for it.
I deceived them into thinking that I have it all figured out and that I’ll solve all their skill learning issues.
When chatting with a member of my late Skill Development program yesterday, I was mentioning to him how I was disappointed that people weren’t more accountable when it came to being active in the group and following through with their skill learning.
I sold them a dream that they couldn’t achieve. I have failed them. I wasn’t the “saviour” they were looking for.
I’m not qualified to talk about Education. I’m biased. I didn’t like high school. I dropped out of University. I was bored. Even if Education isn’t just about schools, it certainly is a cornerstone. I can’t be bashing it without first understanding it.
With the comments I receive from people who read my Education articles, I realize that I shouldn’t be the one doing something about it. I shouldn’t be starting virtual unschools or even write about it, exposing its weaknesses.
The true definition of Education
The problem I have with “experts” on the topic is that they focus on what they know. And what they know are schools. For me, Education only means one thing, and we’ve long lost the meaning of its true definition:
Education: the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.
When starting my new product, I started from the root: the definition.
Education is a process, not a building.
If there’s one thing I learned since October 2017 is that learning new skills is Education. Going to class isn’t.
Analyze this:
You still think going to class is Education? Learning is Education. And you learn by practicing and teaching.
And I know a thing or two about learning skills. I have, after all, deliberately learned three of those every month for the past 16 months.
I’m only a fraud if I allow myself to be
As my wife’s story from above, we’re only frauds if we can’t prove we can do what we set out to do.
Can she do her job that’s out of her comfort zone? Her past experience shows that she can. She thought she tanked the interview. Turns out she aced it. Why are we always so hard on ourselves? Why are we always downplaying our capabilities?
Can a simple average kid from a small farm town in the outskirts of Montreal really change the status quo on Education? I’ve already seen incredible results in my late SkillUp your Life program, and I’ll see more in the new SkillUp Academy. I can’t take the credit for the hard work they put to learn the skills, but I like to think I inspired them to try in the first place.
He who tries, succeeds. He who doesn’t try, watches others succeed.
I may not be fully qualified today, but remember, we always start from a position of un-qualification. Heck, were you qualified to walk before you started walking? No. You gave it shot, failed a few times and tried again.
You are a “fraud” unless you’re boring
Enough about me. I want to point my finger your way.
Do you ever feel like a fraud?
How exciting is your life?
If you feel like a fraud, that means you’re doing things out of your comfort zone. You “spice your life up” as they say. Your life is probably quite exciting.
Do you ever catch yourself saying this when people who haven’t seen you in a long time ask you about how you are doing:
“Same old, same old”
I’m sorry but this is boring. Thankfully, it’s likely not true. We tend to forget the things that are happening to us, and around us. Things change, whether you notice it or not.
Echoing Steve Job’s quote from above, it’s the people who dare that get. And to dare is to get your butt out and do something about things you disagree with (in a pacifist way please). We’ve all heard people who are talkers, not doers. These are the fraud. These are the boring ones.
There’s a good chance that if you clicked on this article, you suffer from a mild (or severe) case of imposter syndrome.
Big deal.
Would you rather be a “same old, same old” type of person? Then get over your suffering by doing nothing! Is that what you want? Surely not, right?
The world needs doers like you. Accept that you can’t know everything to start with, or ever, really. It’s because of doers like you that we see the change we need to see in this world.
My wife is going to change the lives of yet more people she’s helping in the north of Quebec. I’m going to change the lives of people who need support, not structure, when it comes to their Education.
And you, as a doer, will do the same in your own unique way. So stay “fraudulent”, bro!
You can do this!