Harvard Law & the Imposter Syndrome 10-31-26

Speaker A: This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business Report. Uh, we try each day to bring you information that's helpful to help you navigate business, help you navigate your business and you're in the markets and more. Uh, today's discussion may or may not be helpful for that purpose. The discussion today is Harvard Law and the imposter syndrome. And I was reminded of this story about Harvard Law and the imposter syndrome, um, uh, a couple days ago when I had to speak at, at, at an, at an event for Harvard Law School. And here's the, the story in a nutshell. And hopefully this resonates with a lot of people. So when I first got to Harvard Law School, which is a long time ago now, the first day of class, of course, I came from a Big ten university, the University of Illinois, which I take quite a lot of pride in. But in first going to Harvard, you, you feel a little bit like an imposter and a little bit uncertain of whether you could thrive or not. Uh, ah, at a more challenging or well recognized academic institution like Harvard Law School. So the first day I get to class, I'm sitting next to somebody and I'm at the time 22 or 23, I think, just had graduated from college, went right to law school. And I'm sitting next to a person who's about 50. And he introduces himself. It's my first class, first day, and I asked him, you know, what did you do? What do you do? And this gentleman says that he had taught nuclear physics. Uh, and so of course this was enough to set me back in terms of confidence and being concerned that I should leave right then because the guy next to me taught nuclear physics, uh, before he went to Harvard Law School and was enrolling in the same year, same class as me. And so then I went a little bit further and I asked him, so, and this is all about the imposter syndrome and how you really shouldn't be that worried about the imposter syndrome because we're all imposters in some way or another. So then he, I say to him, you know, where did you teach nuclear physics? And he says to me, you're not going to know it. It's a big university in the Midwest. It's a big esteemed university in the Midwest. Of course, by this point, uh, I'm fairly intimidated. And I ask him what school did he teach nuclear physics at? And at this point the guy tells me, I taught nuclear physics at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Carbondale, Illinois. And of course at that point I knew that I belonged because I really, quite frankly, felt. And this is no offense to people that went to Southern Illinois University, but by this point, I felt like, well, I could teach nuclear physics at Southern Illinois University. It seems like almost anybody could teach nuclear physics at Southern Illinois University, so. So my whole feeling of being an imposter and being so scared and so nervous immediately went down by about 50% once he told me that he had taught at Southern Illinois University. And this is no offense to the Salukis, it's no offense to Southern Illinois. I think I've got the right nickname. I always get confused whether it's Eastern Illinois or Southern Illinois. That's the Salukis. But. But either way, once he told me he taught nuclear physics at Southern Illinois University, I felt that I was, again, fine, and my confidence was back, and I felt like I could compete. Okay, I would go a step further to say one of my closest friends from law school. And at law school, there were some people that were just so much brighter than I was. That's not false humility. That's reality. I famously tell the story of being a TA in a class where President Obama, uh, not then President Obama, he was still a kid, and Eric Posner were in the class, and two brilliant, brilliant people. And, of course, Eric Posner is a famous professor now. His dad's a famous judge. But the two of them were just brilliant, and I was not. And so, again, that made me very nervous. But thank God I had some very close friends in law school, uh, that were not so bright and made me feel smart. So thank God for them. But that's the story of the imposter syndrome today. Of course, I say a lot of this jokingly, but. But not the SIU story when he did tell me, and he made such a buildup of where he taught nuclear physics. When he finally told me it was at Southern Illinois, I did feel like I was okay, that I could do that and no longer felt like an imposter. No offense to my Southern Illinois friends at all. Not intended. Thank you for listening to the Becker Business Report. Uh, if you want a copy of our free book, and you listen to this, or our latest book, Building Great Businesses USA to bestseller, you know, text Scott Becker at 773-766-5322. I hope I didn't offend you, but if you want a free book, feel free to text us. Thank you so much for listening to the Becker Business Report,

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