Imposter Syndrome: Healthy Delusion vs. Unhealthy Delusion

Advice from a TV showrunner/author

Awhile ago I shared a story about how I dealt with imposter syndrome when I transitioned from professional TV writer to performer. My post garnered a ton of positive feedback, with many people struck by my honesty, and asking if I could talk more about it. So here goes:

In my opinion, some level of delusion is healthy and even necessary. It allows us to chase dreams. It gives us permission to start from somewhere ridiculously low and aim for something ridiculously high.

Only a lunatic would believe something like that is possible.

And here’s why I think that’s healthy.

Every incredible artist you know and admire started from this point. Prince is one of the greatest guitar players to ever live. Even he has publicly spoken about he struggled to play the guitar in his early days.

I think there’s a misconception that every talented artist, musician, writer and performer started with an enormous level of talent — the only thing they lacked was opportunity and luck. Therefore, that’s all they needed to chase.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every professional writer I’ve worked with will tell you how much they sucked in the beginning. Myself included. I can’t even look at my early work without cringing.

So the idea that we may someday achieve the level of elite success — is delusional. And yet we march forward anyway. We study. We fail. And we learn from our mistakes. And somehow, against the odds, some of us achieve greatness.

So what’s unhealthy delusion?

For starters, these DM’s that were sent to me.

Not only does this person think he has an amazing idea, he thinks it’s so amazing that it can spawn other amazing ideas.

That’s delusional.

Even worse, he’s worried that someone might actually steal this amazing idea.

Never mind that ideas are completely worthless. It’s all about the execution of the idea. Can he execute?

There’s a reason why no one (including me) is going to respond to this fool.

He’s delusional and we smell it a mile away. We want nothing to do with him.

The difference between healthy and unhealthy delusion is this:

Healthy delusion asserts that with time and relentless practice and struggle, one can achieve greatness. One can earn it.

Unhealthy delusion asserts that this person is already great. There’s no humility. There’s no self-awareness.

Here’s another DM someone sent me.

This message is even crazier! The guy hasn’t even finished his script. He’s still “working” on it. And all he needs is the right contact!

Imagine the pitch. “Hey, here’s a half-baked script. You wanna buy it?”

So many people reach out to me this way. Everyone wants to know how to sell their script. But no one — and I do mean no one — ever asks the one question they should ask:

“How do I write a script that’s worthy of being sold?”

I understand that people are desperate to break into the business. But if they want to work in Hollywood, it’s incumbent upon them to understand how Hollywood works. And that is as simple as doing some research on Google or listening to successful screenwriters speak on podcasts.

And that’s free!

It requires nothing more than time and a tiny bit of effort.

But if you’re not willing to invest time and effort into your own career, I can guarantee you, no one else is going to want to invest their time and money into it.

It just doesn’t work that way.