You're not an impostor.

When Dorie Clark walked into one of the best musical theater writing programs in the country, the student to her left had a master’s degree in musical theater. The student to her right had scored an entire show.

Dorie had... three songs.

And she’d only gotten in on her second try — the first application was rejected flat out. She could have read that as the finale. Instead, she read it as the intermission. Not an impostor unfit for the program. Just not ready... yet.

So she sat down between the master’s degree and the composer and gave herself a pep talk: "Fortunately, I have really good self-esteem in other areas of my life, so I’m not going to derive all my sense of worth from this unfamiliar experience."

Read that again. She didn’t tell herself she was great — she wasn’t, yet, and she knew it. She told herself she didn’t have to be great in that room to be worthy. Her sense of self wasn’t up for a vote among strangers. That’s the whole move. Not fake-it-‘til-you-make-it. She just refused to let one unfamiliar room hold the deed to her worth.

And then she reminded herself: "I have often been in rooms where I didn't know much. But I have always been able to figure things out, create a supporting network, and solve problems. So, it reasons that I'll be able to do that here, eventually, too."

I loved Dorie's story so much I put it in Wonderhell. And, here's a fun fact: while I was writing Dorie into my book, Dorie was writing me into hers.

Show Up in Service

In The Long Game, she tells about the time I joined a collective of professional speakers — a room full of bigger stages, longer credits, and flashier reels than mine. Every instinct said hang back until you belong. Instead I showed up, contributed what I actually had, and gave before I’d earned the right to ask for anything. Serving others got me noticed, and that notice became a network, then referrals, then bigger rooms, then — eventually — a national TV stage. Her point: you don’t wait until you’re the most qualified person in the room. You walk in as the least qualified, but with a heart of service.

Which is the exact same move Dorie made with her three songs.

Two of us. Two books. One truth — and we each caught the other living it. That’s what beginners-who-stayed do for each other.

The thing I know to be true this week: you will always be the least experienced person in some room — but “beginner” is not a synonym for “fraud.”

Service as a Leadership Tool

Thirty years ago I dropped out of law school to volunteer on a long-shot campaign, ended up in the White House helping build AmeriCorps, and never stopped believing service changes everyone it touches.

I said exactly that a couple of weeks ago at Points of Light’s Business & Social Impact Forum — here’s what I told the room. Straight from my Limitless Leader research — 10,000+ professionals across 113 countries, seven years of data — the act of manifesting one’s values through their work is a key indicator of whether someone stays engaged in their work.

Consider these stats:

Only 36.7% of workers say that money is the most important factor determining their happiness at work. Instead, 77.2% want their work to give their life purpose and 85.4% want to be excited to go to work because it represents who they are.

This matters because 71.6% of workers say that they’d work harder if they felt that their work mattered more.

Volunteerism programs are the productivity engine.

Volunteerism programs are the engagement engine.

Volunteerism programs are the retention engine.

Here is the second thing I know to be true this week: people don’t say for the money, they stay for the meaning.

(The biggest thanks to Drew Sullivan of APB Speakers for thinking of me for this exceptionally meaningful event at the Points of Light. If you are in the market for a keynote for an event, ask your bureau agent to send not just a list of speakers whose background or research matches your brief, but whose personal passion aligns with your audience. Better yet, just ask Drew. Email me back and I'll connect you.)

Want more Dorie? I interviewed her on LGOtv: Big Talk about getting paid for your do-over — her full story is in Wonderhell, and her own The Long Game is worth your time (yes, I’m in it — go find me).

And if you know someone white-knuckling their three songs in a brand-new room? Forward this to them and remind them that they aren't an impostor, just a beginner.