About five years ago, the Internet lit up with a viral story.
It was based on a Ted talk given by one Amy Cuddy, a psychology professor at Harvard Business School.
The gist of the talk was that striking a “power pose” — for example, standing like Wonder Woman, arms akimbo, legs apart — could have impressive effects on your body. It would lower your stress hormones, making you less anxious. It would also increase your testosterone levels, making you more confident and assertive.
Cuddy went on stage and explained what motivated this research.
She had suffered an injury earlier in life.
And for a long time, the consequences of this injury made her feel inadequate.
Even when she had made it to the post of Harvard professor, she still worried people would see through the fact that she is an imposter.
The power poses video made her a star and seemed to vindicate all her years of suffering and striving. Except for one thing:
Over the coming years, it turned out it all might be a big (if unwitting) lie.
The original study that the power pose research was based on was flawed. (The number of subjects was small, and there was some kind of statistical fuddling.) Other scientists couldn’t reproduce the results. And it might well be that the effects of power posing on hormones don’t even exist.
In other words, poor Amy Cuddy actually became a real-word though unintentional imposter.
Very sad.
And quite poetic.
But also a good lesson I think. You see, there’s only a very imperfect relationship between succeeding and deserving. That’s a sort of universal law I believe in.
The story of St. Amy illustrates this in both directions. She felt undeserving even when she was obviously qualified (a professor at Harvard, no less). And she wound up succeeding more than she deserved (through the power poses fiasco).
So what’s the lesson?
For me personally, it’s simple and it only goes in one direction:
Always look for more success than you think you deserve.
After all, if the connection between deserving and succeeding is imperfect, why not take advantage of this? (That’s not to say you shouldn’t also build up your “deservingness” at the same time.)
Anyways, this is something that definitely applies if you are a freelancer.
For example, if you’re starting out on an online platform like Upwork, you might think that all clients can see your lack of skill or experience.
And that nobody will hire you, and legitimately so.
Not so, legitimately or otherwise.
You can compete as a freelancer and be successful on Upwork, even at the very beginning.
I write about the exact steps to do this in my upcoming book on becoming a successful sales copywriter on Upwork. For more info: