I had dinner with an old friend from college last week in Dupont Circle. I look forward to our dinners whenever I go to Washington, D.C. for my job as a clinical researcher. In many ways, Dupont Circle and the surrounding neighborhood remind me of parts of San Francisco (where I work), but there is something different about the people there. They are more intense, driven, and ambitious. I enjoy overhearing their conversations in coffee shops and restaurants as they talk about the policies they want to change or how they hope to find a new job that will give them greater power to make a difference. They are attractive, young, and ready to take on the world. It makes me yearn for the days when I was younger. It’s exciting to be around such youthful exuberance. In some ways, Washington, D.C. is the center of the world. And the people who live there seem to treat it that way, at least the people I’ve seen hanging out in Dupont Circle.
What makes people so driven? When I was younger I couldn’t wait to become a researcher and do the kind of research that changes public policy. But as I have grown older, cynicism has set in. Making the world a better place is not as easy as I had thought when I was in my early twenties. There are many worthwhile causes competing for limited funds, and the world is full of ambitious people who also want to make a difference. It’s easy to throw up your arms and say, why bother? Friends who knew me in my early twenties described me as driven. I guess I was driven. Part of my drive was an honest attempt to make a contribution to society, but in the back of my mind, I always wondered about the psychological dynamics that drove me to succeed.
According to psychoanalyst Alfred Adler, ambitious people may be striving for superiority as a way to compensate for a feeling of inferiority. During childhood, one is bound to feel a sense of inferiority. Children are smaller than adults and have difficulty mastering their domain. Eventually, however, children learn to control their environment and feel powerful rather than helpless and inferior. But other people feel extremely inferior and spend their lives striving to become superior to others, striving for self-esteem, power, and self-aggrandizement. It’s like the popular notion that Napoleon conquered Europe because he was short.
There are times when a feeling of inferiority and the need to compensate for it can be productive. Theodore Roosevelt, for example, was frail as a child and exercised until he was physically fit. The need to do reach higher levels of performance may have initially been motivated by a need to compensate for inferiority, but in the end, striving for superiority compels people to develop skills that make a social contribution. As long as one does not merely strive for superiority as a way to compensate for low self esteem or a need to have power over others, the need to strive for superiority can be a positive motivating force.
Are you aware of what motivates you? It’s vital to gain awareness and ensure that you are not trying to merely cover up your deficits, but are truly striving to make a social contribution. When you strive to make social contributions, you are more likely to sharpen your mental edge and achieve success and mastery.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Imposter Syndrome Reconsidered
I've been thinking more about the imposter syndrome. I hope you didn't take the idea too seriously, since I'm not sure it is a very serious topic. I never like pop psychology topics that were based on cute titles but tend to have no research to back them up. Very little research has been conducted on the imposter syndrome, especially in the last 20 years, and the research that has been done is published in obscure scientific journals. In 2003, I spoke to Professor of Julie Norem of Wellesley College at a psychology conference who has been studying the imposter syndrome, and probably will end up having done the best work so far on this topic. But I wonder if most people find it useful. I merely wrote about it because I think it is relevant to traders, and I focus on it at times in my trading psychology columns for Marketwise. com. Here's a column I wrote for traders that you may find interesting.
Winning Takes Skill and Chance
Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman seemed to have it all: Looks, money, and status. And he loved what he did for a living. A corporate raider, he loved the kill. But when he let Vivian into his life, his perspective radically changed. He started to questions his contribution to society. How many companies can one buy? How much money can one make? He pondered the meaning of his life, and realized, “I don’t build anything.” In the end, he decided to rescue the current target of his unrelenting greed, and fund the company to continue building ships rather than selling off the pieces like a stripped, stolen car. Many of the traders I have interviewed over the years struggle with a similar dilemma. They don’t “build” anything, and question their place in the world
Some traders question their legitimacy in the world, and may even feel like imposters as I said in my column last week. I’ve been trying in my columns to focus on evidence-based concepts based on legitimate science and I’ve tried to avoid catchy topics from pop psychology of the 1960s like the imposter phenomenon. But there are times when a flimsy, “pop” psychology concept like the imposter phenomenon has a provocative appeal.
One trader who influenced my thinking said he felt like a rock star or a professional athlete who suddenly rose from obscurity to international acclaim. While most people struggle to just make ends meet, many supertraders make the median yearly household income in the United States in less than a week. One can’t help but feel lucky and question his or her legitimacy when suddenly skyrocketing to success. Indeed, some traders may feel even phonier than a rock star or top notch athlete. A rock star who sells megahits, like Phil Collins, has quantifiable talent. Whatever it is about them, they have a style of singing that appeals to consumers, an image that inspires adoration, or they write great tunes. Regardless of the je ne sais quoi of their success, there is a quality that consumers buy. Similarly, professional athletes who are superstars have clearly defined athletic skills on which their salaries and stardom are based. With rock musicians and professional athletes, there is a time for prosperity, and inevitably, a time for obscurity. Fads change and skills wane with age. At some point, the mighty fall.
Trading is a little different, however. Sure, some traders have the skill to trade in the short term from market to market, but in reality, for some unexplained reason, most traders eventually end up losing their ability to trade. (That said, if a trader has made incredible wealth, then if he or she manages risk, numerous small trades can be made without ever blowing out, but profitability is greatly diminished from their heyday.) Whether it is merely lore or fact, the trading world is replete with Market Wizards who eventually go bust. And that’s why many feel deep down that their success will be short lived, or their past success may have been a fluke.
Is there a solution to feeling like an imposter? First, it’s important to put one’s ego aside. There is a strong tendency to want to pat oneself on the back for every accomplishment and believe that talent alone explains success. But there is an element of luck with every achievement, and if one merely acknowledges this fact, he or she will not feel like an imposter. One only feels like an imposter when one believes that luck does not play a role and that success was due only to luck. Second, it’s vital to truly have skills that are responsible for success. Trading can often be due to making a good guess. But merely guessing is not a skill. Traders who profit consistently have more solid methods, such as those based on studying charts and reports, rather than just using transitory methods. Transitory methods work for a while, but eventually fail, and that’s when feelings of phoniness come into play.
Trading is unique in that even the most profitable traders end up blowing out. We’ve all heard the stories, and so when you are in a winning streak, you know that it may merely be a fluke, and that’s why feelings of imposter syndrome come in. But you don’t need to feel like an imposter. Recognize that elements of chance may play a role in success but at the same time acknowledge that there are particular skills needed to trade, such as an intuitive understanding of the markets based on years of observation and experience. At a minimum, a seasoned trader with a track record can point to the span of time where he or she forecasted the markets accurately and profited. Market conditions may change, and one may lose his or her ability to profit, but the specific skill manifested in a particular context was real, and if you achieved profitability at some point in your career, you have done better than many, and there’s no need to feel like an imposter.
Winning Takes Skill and Chance
Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman seemed to have it all: Looks, money, and status. And he loved what he did for a living. A corporate raider, he loved the kill. But when he let Vivian into his life, his perspective radically changed. He started to questions his contribution to society. How many companies can one buy? How much money can one make? He pondered the meaning of his life, and realized, “I don’t build anything.” In the end, he decided to rescue the current target of his unrelenting greed, and fund the company to continue building ships rather than selling off the pieces like a stripped, stolen car. Many of the traders I have interviewed over the years struggle with a similar dilemma. They don’t “build” anything, and question their place in the world
Some traders question their legitimacy in the world, and may even feel like imposters as I said in my column last week. I’ve been trying in my columns to focus on evidence-based concepts based on legitimate science and I’ve tried to avoid catchy topics from pop psychology of the 1960s like the imposter phenomenon. But there are times when a flimsy, “pop” psychology concept like the imposter phenomenon has a provocative appeal.
One trader who influenced my thinking said he felt like a rock star or a professional athlete who suddenly rose from obscurity to international acclaim. While most people struggle to just make ends meet, many supertraders make the median yearly household income in the United States in less than a week. One can’t help but feel lucky and question his or her legitimacy when suddenly skyrocketing to success. Indeed, some traders may feel even phonier than a rock star or top notch athlete. A rock star who sells megahits, like Phil Collins, has quantifiable talent. Whatever it is about them, they have a style of singing that appeals to consumers, an image that inspires adoration, or they write great tunes. Regardless of the je ne sais quoi of their success, there is a quality that consumers buy. Similarly, professional athletes who are superstars have clearly defined athletic skills on which their salaries and stardom are based. With rock musicians and professional athletes, there is a time for prosperity, and inevitably, a time for obscurity. Fads change and skills wane with age. At some point, the mighty fall.
Trading is a little different, however. Sure, some traders have the skill to trade in the short term from market to market, but in reality, for some unexplained reason, most traders eventually end up losing their ability to trade. (That said, if a trader has made incredible wealth, then if he or she manages risk, numerous small trades can be made without ever blowing out, but profitability is greatly diminished from their heyday.) Whether it is merely lore or fact, the trading world is replete with Market Wizards who eventually go bust. And that’s why many feel deep down that their success will be short lived, or their past success may have been a fluke.
Is there a solution to feeling like an imposter? First, it’s important to put one’s ego aside. There is a strong tendency to want to pat oneself on the back for every accomplishment and believe that talent alone explains success. But there is an element of luck with every achievement, and if one merely acknowledges this fact, he or she will not feel like an imposter. One only feels like an imposter when one believes that luck does not play a role and that success was due only to luck. Second, it’s vital to truly have skills that are responsible for success. Trading can often be due to making a good guess. But merely guessing is not a skill. Traders who profit consistently have more solid methods, such as those based on studying charts and reports, rather than just using transitory methods. Transitory methods work for a while, but eventually fail, and that’s when feelings of phoniness come into play.
Trading is unique in that even the most profitable traders end up blowing out. We’ve all heard the stories, and so when you are in a winning streak, you know that it may merely be a fluke, and that’s why feelings of imposter syndrome come in. But you don’t need to feel like an imposter. Recognize that elements of chance may play a role in success but at the same time acknowledge that there are particular skills needed to trade, such as an intuitive understanding of the markets based on years of observation and experience. At a minimum, a seasoned trader with a track record can point to the span of time where he or she forecasted the markets accurately and profited. Market conditions may change, and one may lose his or her ability to profit, but the specific skill manifested in a particular context was real, and if you achieved profitability at some point in your career, you have done better than many, and there’s no need to feel like an imposter.
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