Taking risks and facing imposter syndrome
I’ve been thinking a lot about risk and risk-taking lately.
Just last weekend, I took a little photo safari to see a frozen waterfall. When I got there, though, there were five young men practicing their ice climbing skills. I immediately decided to climb around on the ice so I could get closer to them. I nearly busted my ass in the process, but I ended up getting a nice story for my day job out of it. You can read/listen to that here.
But I don’t necessarily mean risk that involves hanging off the side of a frozen waterfall, either.
People take risks that involve a career decision where things don’t seem obvious. In my personal life, one of the craziest things I decided to do was refinance my car so I could afford to take a trip to Russia in January 1993. I had never been out of the country before. To be honest, I’d never flown in an airplane before. But that leap of faith led to experiences and adventures all around the world. The effect of that decision is still hard to quantify.
It influenced my future career in ways I never expected. When Karl Shreeves hired me to work fulltime in the scuba diving industry and move to California, he told me once that I didn’t have the credentials he was looking for, but he was really impressed with my work in Russia.
Some people have a much higher threshold for risk than others. As creatives, we all struggle with imposter syndrome. Is my art good enough? Am I really good enough/qualified to do that?
And that, to me, is where the real risk comes in. It’s about stepping out even when you have doubts. Maybe because you have doubts.
In my career, writing for newspapers probably got me over that fear early on. If you are kicking out multiple stories a week with your byline on it, it sort of cures you of worrying about having your name out there.
Recently, a couple college students asked me for career advice. I told them what I tell a lot of people who are just starting out. Learn about anything that interests you. Take leaps and sign up for that class or trip or whatever. There doesn’t always have to be an immediate purpose to it and maybe there shouldn’t be. I fully support working toward goals, but sometimes we need to push ourselves mentally, and yes, physically, just for the sake of pushing ourselves.
One of my pet phrases has always been “You never know how far you can go, until you’ve gone too far.” For most people, that’s a lot farther than they ever imagined.
On a related note, I’ve just learned of the passing of a good friend and a true creative shining light that taught so many others to reach for their goals and make things. Daniel Boyd, author, playwright, graphic novelist and filmmaker, but most importantly, teacher and friend, you will be missed.
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