ISSUE 8
Dear Students,
I need to tell you something that might make you uncomfortable.
You are probably not supposed to feel confident yet.
I know.
That's not what social media tells you.
Everywhere you look, someone is telling you to believe in yourself.
Be confident.
Own your expertise.
Act like you belong in the room.
But what if the reason you don't feel confident isn't because something is wrong with you?
What if it's because you're still learning?
What if confidence isn't something you're supposed to have yet?
What if confidence is something you earn?
The Lie We Tell Ourselves
One of the most common conversations I have with students goes something like this:
"I just don't feel confident."
"I feel like everyone else knows more than I do."
"I feel like I'm faking it."
"I feel like eventually someone is going to figure out I don't know what I'm doing."
First of all, welcome to being human.
Second, welcome to being a designer.
I've worked with students, freelancers, creative directors, business owners, and experienced professionals.
Do you know what they all have in common?
At some point, every single one of them has felt like an imposter.
Including me.
My Turn
The first time I stood in front of a college classroom as the instructor, I was terrified.
Not because I didn't know design.
I'd been working in the industry for decades.
But teaching was new.
I remember wondering:
What if they ask something I can't answer?
What if I forget something?
What if they realize I don't know everything?
Then something interesting happened.
The semester started.
Students asked questions.
I answered most of them.
The ones I couldn't answer, I researched.
The next class, I came back with better answers.
And little by little, confidence showed up.
Not before the work.
After it.
I didn't acquire confidence first and then start teaching.
I acquired confidence through the journey of teaching.
By showing up.
By learning.
By making mistakes.
By doing the work before I felt completely ready.
That's usually how confidence works. It doesn't arrive before the first step. It grows because of the steps we take.
Here's the Part Nobody Likes
Confidence comes after competence.
Let me say that again, Confidence comes after competence.
Not before it.
You don't become confident and then start presenting your work.
You present your work repeatedly until confidence develops.
You don't become confident and then learn the software.
You learn the software until competence and confidence develops.
You don't become confident and then lead a team.
You lead enough projects that confidence develops.
The process is backwards from what most people believe.
Action comes first.
Confidence follows.
The Problem with Comparison
Students often compare their beginning to someone else's middle.
They compare themselves to professionals with ten years of experience.
To instructors.
To creative directors.
To designers who have already made all the mistakes they're still trying to avoid.
Of course, you feel behind.
You're measuring yourself against people who have simply been doing it longer.
Experience is not evidence of talent.
It's evidence of time.
What Confidence Actually Looks Like
Confidence isn't walking into every room believing you're the smartest person there.
Confidence is walking into a room knowing you'll figure it out.
Confidence is being willing to ask questions.
Confidence is being willing to make mistakes.
Confidence is being willing to improve publicly.
Confidence is trusting that you can learn what you don't yet know.
That's a very different thing.
A Real Example
I've been meeting regularly with a former student who now runs her own design business.
When we first started talking, her biggest challenge wasn't design.
It was confidence.
Clients were constantly pushing for more work without paying for it.
They questioned her pricing.
They negotiated every detail.
They treated her expertise like it was optional.
Week after week, we had the same conversation.
I reminded her that she was the design expert in the room.
I reminded her that not every client is the right client.
I reminded her that confidence doesn't come from lowering your standards to keep everyone happy.
It comes from understanding your value.
Over the last several months, she started making changes.
She let go of clients who didn't respect her expertise.
She stopped apologizing for her pricing.
She became more selective about who she worked with.
And something interesting happened.
Better clients showed up.
The difference wasn't that she suddenly became a better designer.
She already was a good designer.
The difference was that she finally started believing it.
Sometimes confidence comes from competence.
Sometimes confidence comes from having someone in your corner reminding you of your value until you can see it for yourself.
Final Thought
If you still feel like an imposter sometimes, good.
It probably means you're stretching.
It probably means you're learning.
It probably means you're doing something that matters.
The goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty.
The goal is to keep moving forward anyway.
As author and researcher Brené Brown once said: "You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both."
Growth requires courage.
And courage often shows up long before confidence does.
In design truth,
Maggie