Do The Thing

February 25, 2022 Jeremy Utley

We’ve long been fans of Mo Willems’ whimsical and heart-warming children’s books in the Utley house. I was delighted to see him profiled in the New Yorker, and to learn more of his backstory. One section that really resonated was his insistence that you can’t really do something until you’ve done it:

“‘I understood that the only way to get to make an animated film was to have already made an animated film,’ and so he parlayed his student film into work doing interstitials—bits in between shows—and short films for Nickelodeon. The films were called ‘The Off-Beats’ and they enabled him to get a twenty-two-minute Valentine’s Day special made, in part because, he said, ‘I knew you couldn’t do a full-length show unless you had already done a full-length show.’”

The New Yorker continues, “He used the special to get a regular animated series on the Cartoon Network, ‘Sheep in the Big City,’ which ran for two seasons.” If anyone looking to get into the industry asked how he got that series, he’d probably say, “Because I already had a series.” The point is, no one is qualified to do something prior to actually doing it.

One of the things I’ve wrestled with many times over the last dozen years teaching at Stanford is the question, “Who am I to be doing _____? Don’t folks know I’m just… me?”

It reminded me of what Landing co-founder Miri Buckland said about overcoming imposter syndrome:

Mar: "I hear from a lot of female founders that they struggle with imposter syndrome. How have you interacted with feeling like you don't belong, like you're out of place?"

Miri: "I've just discovered that anytime I feel that way, don't slow down. Rip the band-aid off, and do it ten times. After 10 times, I'm not an imposter anymore; I've done it 10 times!... A lot of the founders who came to speak at the GSB were just like us -- mostly normal people, not insane geniuses. The only difference is, they tried anyway."

I love that. “Don’t slow dow. Do it 10 times.” The only way to overcome imposter syndrome is to actually do the thing. Then you’re not an imposter anymore! You’ll have become the person who’s done it. We are all growing — some more openly than others.

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