Moses Was No Imposter; I Bet Neither Are You

A 2021 report from the American Psychological Association (APA) contains some disheartening news: “Up to 82% of people face feelings of imposter phenomenon, struggling with the sense they haven’t earned what they’ve achieved and are a fraud. These feelings can contribute to increased anxiety and depression, less risk-taking in careers, and career burnout.”  Eighty-two percent!

Moses would have fit right into contemporary American society. When he was enlisted to play what was one of the most important roles in Jewish history, he wanted no part of it. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?”  Even after G-d’s assurance that “I will be with you,” Moses tried to convince the Lord that he had the wrong man.  After all, Moses reported, “I have never been good with words … I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” So, “Please O my lord, make someone else Your agent.” 

Moses seems to have suffered from “Imposter Syndrome,” some 3,300 years before that term was even coined.  While it led him to “less risk-taking” in his “career,” in the end, he got the job done.  G-d had seen something in Moses that Moses hadn’t seen in himself.

When you have some success, don’t brush it off as inconsequential – take the time to applaud yourself. You might just end up feeling that while there are imposters in the room, you aren’t one of them.

The APA study goes on to suggest ways to conquer imposter feelings. For one, take stock of the facts. There was probably a very good reason why you were offered new responsibilities.  You likely deserve it, whether you acknowledge it or not. And when you have some success, don’t brush it off as inconsequential – take the time to applaud yourself. You might just end up feeling that while there are imposters in the room, you aren’t one of them.

That reminds me of one of my favorite (perhaps apocryphal) Harry Truman stories.  When Truman, who never graduated from college, was elected senator in 1934, he was trying to dig out from debts incurred from a failed haberdashery store.  As a result of his modest background, he was filled with dread the day he first stepped into the Senate Chamber. But he quickly recovered.  When he looked around at his fellow senators during his first senate session, he thought to himself “What am I doing here?”  Six months later he looked around and thought “What are they doing here?” 

A friend of mine, a successful television executive, suffered from imposter feelings early in her career. She used her degree in broadcast journalism to get a job as a news writer and on-air reporter in several local markets. One day, her producer told her that she was “too Jewish” to be in front of the camera.  She was furious, but agreed that her greatest strengths were behind the scenes. Her big break was being hired to produce a talk show.  The network decided to raise the host’s national stature, and my friend was a member of the production team that flew to New York City for a meeting with the top brass.  She was petrified, feeling completely out of her league.  But once the discussion began she presented her ideas, which the executives loved.  She says that her imposter syndrome disappeared that day.  She realized that she deserved to be in that room, and she celebrated her success.  The APA would have been proud.

As for Moses, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.  Losing his temper cost him the opportunity to enter the Promised Land. Nonetheless, he turned out to be the extraordinarily effective leader that G-d had envisioned.  

The Torah concludes with a beautiful tribute: “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses – whom the Lord singled out, face to face, for the various signs and portents that the Lord sent him to display in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country, and for the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before all Israel.”

Who could possibly ask for a more glowing obituary than that!  

Moses wasn’t an imposter after all.  And I bet neither are you.

Morton Schapiro is the former President of Williams College and Northwestern University.  His most recent book (with Gary Saul Morson) is “Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us.”