If Tubi CEO Anjali Sood could tell her younger self one thing, it would be that “no one gets it,” she said in an interview on CNBC Changemakers that aired on May 1.
“I always looked up at people and thought, ‘They have all the answers and I don’t have any,'” said Thad, 42. “I realize now that everyone is doing the best they can with the information they have, but no one is perfect and everyone has impostor syndrome.”
Thad learned how to push through that discomfort to achieve success, she said. A former Amazon and Vimeo executive, she took the helm of Fox Corp’s Tubi in 2023. The free streaming app has since grown to more than 100 million monthly active users, according to the company.
Despite her accomplishments, Thad says she still experiences impostor syndrome (the fear that people overestimate her abilities) every day. She is never alone. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. CEOs say they experience impostor syndrome, according to a Korn Ferry survey of nearly 400 executives released in June 2024.
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant says that while some experts say feeling like an impostor can lead to devastating and counterproductive self-doubt, in the right amount, impostor syndrome can be a weapon for success and a sign that you’re destined for greatness.
“Impostor syndrome is not a disease; it is a normal reaction to internalizing impossibly high standards,” Grant, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in a September 2022 post on X. “Doubting yourself doesn’t mean you’ll fail. It usually means you’re willing to face new challenges and learn.”
“Feeling uncertainty is a precursor to growth,” he added.
Other entrepreneurs have even called impostor syndrome a secret to personal and employee success. Investor Barbara Corcoran looks for people who can balance good ideas with self-doubt. Because when you have anxiety, you have to work harder to fill in the gaps in your knowledge.
“The more successful people are, the more self-doubt they have, because that’s what drives them,” Corcoran, 74, said during a Fibers Bridge the Gap webinar in March 2023. “I have never met anyone who is a star and has a sense of stability.”
In some ways, feeling like a fraud worked to Thad’s advantage, she said in an interview with CNBC Changemakers.
“I don’t think you can overcome impostor syndrome,” she says. “I think the important thing is how you take that part of yourself that says, ‘This is hard, this is challenging, this is scary,’ and build fearlessness around that and embrace that feeling and use it to propel you forward.”
“Bet on yourself,” she added. You have the same opportunity to make an impact as anyone else.
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