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This Simple Chart Shows You How Privilege Operates
Think about your ‘slope’
Throughout my career as an investor, I’ve met plenty of people (usually women) who, regardless of their levels of professional success, feel like interlopers in a play written for someone else. I include myself in that, too. I’ve battled my own insecurities, at times convincing myself that I only achieved what I have because of an error, or pity.
I’m a South Asian woman, an immigrant with an accent to my speech. I’m the proverbial sore thumb: In a 2018 survey of 1,500 venture capitalists 80% of respondents were male, 70% were white, and — no exaggeration — 40% of the industry graduated from Harvard or Stanford. All this is exacerbated in the Bay Area, where everybody seemingly knows each other, went to school together, or overlapped at Goldman Sachs. Sometimes, it takes everything in me to not run out of a room where I feel like I don’t belong.
In managing my imposter syndrome, I’ve worked with experts and listened to lectures from well-meaning friends. But the strategy that gives me the most comfort is this: If you’re ever at a conference, party, or meeting (Zoom or otherwise) and wondering “Why am I here?” think about your slope.
In coordinate geometry, the slope of a line is the ratio of the difference of y coordinates to the difference of the x coordinates. In the context of distance and time graphs, the slope represents the direction and speed (or velocity) of an object.
Humor me for a second. Consider all of us as objects in constant motion, with our own personal trajectories. Some of us had legs up (for example, wealth, systemic privilege), and some of us were less fortunate. The best predictor of your future position or success is not where you are now, but where you started out and what it took for you to get to your present moment.
So if you look around you, and commit the irresistible sin of comparing yourself to peers, and find that you are in the same room as people with more systemic privilege, more early assists, more resources, or simply… more, find comfort in knowing that your slope is steeper — you traveled a greater distance in the same time and will continue to do so.
Your slope is a measure of your velocity — a distinctly personal measure of what you can accomplish and what you’ve accomplished already. There may be bumps and detours along the way, but your slope is your own.
I can’t guess your story or your context. But I hope that this framework helps to ease the friction that comes with ambition and uncharted waters. Regardless of where you started, you ended up in this room. That’s evidence enough that you belong.
