Poll Question:

I have heard that top CEOs have confessed to it.

Presidents of Fortune 500 companies. People with advanced degrees in highly technical fields.

I have heard that people that pursue the arts live in a somewhat constant fear of it.

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most accomplished artists most of us know, in his dying words, reflected this fear.

This is the fear of being FOUND OUT!

That no matter how good you think (or even know) you are at your particular skill...SOMEHOW they will FIND OUT...

*That you are not REALLY as good as all that.
*That whatever talent you think (or other people say) you have, you are faking it. You are a FRAUD.
*That you don't REALLY know what you are talking about (proven experience nothwithstanding)
*That your work should be a billion times better than it is currently. It is an offense to the world that you have put it forth at such a substandard quality...and SOMEHOW someone will find that out.

Somehow...they will FIND YOU OUT for the FRAUD you are!

Franz Kafka, famous for such deeply symbolic works as "The Trial" and "The Metamorphosis",...lived his ENTIRE literary life in an almost total abhorrence of his own craft.

This fear, I think, is universal. And probably especially for writers. Since writing, by it's very nature, is a very isolated profession.

So, I am curious to know....

How many of you are secretly plagued by this fear,...the fear of being FOUND OUT?

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