Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends the 56th NAACP Image Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 22, 2025 in Pasadena, California, USA.
Etienne Laurent | Reuters
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said she never took “no” for an answer in her career and attributed much of her success to this attitude.
Harris, who served as U.S. vice president under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, shared candid insights about her early career on the podcast “Stephen Bartlett’s CEO Diary.”
When asked what she was like as a 25-year-old prosecutor, Harris said: “She was fearless. She didn’t hear anyone say, ‘I can’t do it.'”
Harris recalled her first case when she was a young prosecutor. It was a Friday night and the person arrested was a young woman with children at home.
“All the courts were closed, so I went to the courtroom and said to the judge, ‘Please sit in the courtroom again. She has young children. She can’t be here all weekend,'” Harris said.
“And the clerk said, ‘No, he left for the day. He’s going to leave today.’ And I wouldn’t leave, so they filed a lawsuit.”
This tenacity served Harris well throughout his career. She served as California’s senator and attorney general before becoming the first Black, South Asian American, and woman to serve as vice president.
“Not hearing ‘no’ is probably a milestone in my life. I can’t be comfortable with the idea that something is impossible. I can’t be comfortable with that idea unless I at least try to show that it’s possible, and that probably won’t change,” she added.
In 2024, Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate to replace Biden after Biden withdrew from the race, but lost to President Donald Trump.
Overcoming impostor syndrome
Harris acknowledged that he experienced impostor syndrome during his career, particularly when he was first elected district attorney in 2004.
“And I was sitting in the Oval Office and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m now an elected representative of a major city in the United States,'” the former vice president said on the podcast, adding that he feels great responsibility in his role.
However, she took a positive view of impostor syndrome, saying that a little humility isn’t a bad thing.
“I think there are a lot of good things about having a certain amount of humility. Especially when the public has given you a lot of power, it’s important to understand that it’s not about you. I think it’s part of what we call impostor syndrome…I think a lot of times it’s because they understand how serious the job is for others. I admire a little honest humility, not fake humility,” she said.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Harris recalled walking into meetings and people wondering where her boss was. She said that not prioritizing other people’s opinions has benefited her greatly.
“When I coach people, I often tell them, ‘Don’t limit yourself based on someone else’s limited ability to understand who you are,'” she added. “That’s their limit… Don’t impose that limit on yourself.”
