Legitimacy gets built, it does not get waited for

The podcast opens on a word its guests keep repeating: act. Freefly world champion for more than twenty years, Domitille Kiger is one of those who chose to act rather than wait. And when the conversation reaches self doubt, she offers a sharp reading, useful well beyond sport, that meets her keynote “De l'Audace”.

The false problem of impostor syndrome

Asked about it, Domitille admits she does not really feel this syndrome so many people declare themselves victims of. Her distinction is valuable: not feeling like an impostor does not mean believing yourself above everything. Simply, at the start of a path, you are not legitimate yet, and that is not cheating, it is just the beginning. You only become legitimate with time and experience. The feeling of being an impostor, in her reading, confuses two things: the normal fact of starting out, and a wrongdoing you did not commit.

Confidence comes from action

So where does her assurance come from? Not from introspective work, she says, but from her diligent practice and the choices she made. Jumping, training, deciding, again and again: it is repeated action that built her confidence, not the other way around. Skydiving also showed her models other than the more conventional ones of the circle she started from, and a system that let her progress fast. The transferable lesson is simple: you do not earn your confidence by waiting until you feel ready, you earn it by acting.

Daring without waiting for permission

That reversal changes everything, for a woman as much as for anyone hesitating to step into a field where models are scarce. Since legitimacy gets built along the way, there is no permission to wait for before acting: there is a first step to take, then the next ones. That is exactly the daring Domitille argues for on stage, a daring that is not the assurance of succeeding, but the decision to move forward and let legitimacy come with the work.