The Impostor's Handbook

There’s a great energy in weirdness.

I also learned that the problem is not being ignorant of certain customs or devoid of certain skills. The problem is letting your inadequacies get to you.

But a few months after working in New York, a truth came into focus: Everyone around me was an impostor, too. We all have insecurities. And I think successful people are successful because of them. Not in spite of them.

began to realize that most of the so-called rules of success don’t work. You don’t have to “sell” yourself. You don’t have to “network.”

The point is: You have to act. With gratitude, self-awareness, maybe a tiny bit of residual self-doubt that helps to keep you grounded, and a big smile that makes you feel a little stupid, you have to act.

You have to seize opportunities. You have to claim your authority.

Never kill them with kindness. Underhanded people don’t respond to kindness, and psychologists say there’s almost no evidence that it actually works. Killing with kindness is a passive-aggressive tactic that might work to momentarily dismay your counterpart, but, in the end, you haven’t gotten anywhere. No, kill them with frankness.
The main thing is: Never fight.

The point of a toast is to get your audience to like themselves (and you) more than they did before you started speaking

A successful pitch requires belief, brevity, and enough enthusiasm to pique interest but not so much that you turn that interest into concern for your emotional well-being.

1. Point out the problem. 2. Offer a solution. 3. Say why your solution is better than all other solutions. 4. Say why you (or whoever you’re representing) have been working so long to make this solution happen.