Oprah Winfrey recently revealed that she has never experienced imposter syndrome, and in fact, she had to look it up to even know what it was. While promoting her new book Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, coauthored with Arthur C. Brooks, she told People that the term is foreign to her.
“I don't have any of that imposter feelings that so many people have," the 69-year-old talk show host and television producer admitted. “I didn't even understand it, I had to look it up."
The media mogul went on the share that she's unaware of the term due to her upbringing. “I remember as a young girl being a strong orator in the national competition for speaking and winning the local championships, then the state championships. And then placing, I think it was No. 3 or something, in the nationals,” Oprah recalled.
“I remember after every contest, the families whose kids were just in the contest were going to celebrate and their families were all excited. My father's thing was, ‘Get your coat,’” she continued. “I learned, in all these years, every exciting thing that would happen to me it was always, that's good, get your coat. Get your coat.”
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“I don't know if that was ingrained in my personality or I just learned that nobody's going to be excited about it, so you might as well just get your coat and go. I don't have high highs and I don't have low lows. Which is a good thing, because no matter what I'm going through, I know I'm going to come out of it, and be okay," she concluded. "This is why I value the ability to live in the space of true appreciation for a life, not just well lived, but well-earned.”
