I definitely skew substantially more towards "imposter syndrome" than "damn, I'm the shit ain't I" on a perpetual basis.

But one time I was casually talking to a friend who was a very successful individual investor, and we were talking about a ticker that I had found interesting just doing some independent research. It was a great conversation but I thought it was just banter.

He sent me a text later to tell me he invested the equivalent of a healthy down payment on a nice home in the Midwest into the ticker and thanked me for bringing it to his attention.

Fast forward a few years, I think the stock is up 2.5X since we spoke. I'm still flabbergasted to this day he acted on my casual idea so decisively. I'm glad it worked out so well for the both of us; I was scared that we wouldn't be friends anymore if it didn't!

It's a memory or factoid that I'll come back to just to remind myself that my reasoning and analytical skills aren't half-bad.