17 Apr Way Of Way 285

“The exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.”

— Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was identified as having “impostor syndrome”, having doubts about his significant accomplishments and talents and fear that others would ultimately realize he was a fraud, not the extraordinary genius they held him to be. Impostor syndrome is not a mental illness, rather a psychological behavior pattern. Other luminaries with impostor syndrome include Tom Hanks, Sheryl Sandberg, David Bowie and Serena Williams.

Einstein didn’t suffer from impostor syndrome.

In describing himself as a willing swindler, he realized that he was simply another physics researcher among thousands in the world; that he was now not the same person who long ago made the great discoveries associated with him.

This realization is the genius of an awakened one.