I am worthy of being successful.

Have a bad quarter and watch how fast the fraud feeling arrives. Nearly everything trains you to believe worth is produced by output.

The tells are small. Apologising before you ask a question. Over-explaining why you deserve the meeting. Working late to justify a salary nobody has questioned. Taking the task no one else wanted, again.

None of it improves the work. It just adds a tax to it. Drop one apology today and notice that the room does not, in fact, react.