We recently connected with Zilai Feng and have shared our conversation below.
Zilai, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
To be very honest, I myself am still in the process of figuring this one out since it comes and goes, but here is what I can share: I notice the times when the imposter syndrome happens is usually either when I first started working with someone or at somewhere new, or when my work does not appear to be received well. And while these feelings are so real and frustrating, the reason it is called a syndrome is very likely because it does not reflect the facts in reality. So I found one of the most effective ways to battle it is just to keep working and doing the work, and a lot of times (at least for me), as I get more familiar with the people and projects, I tend to gain more confidence and better feedback for my work. I also found it helpful to keep in mind that it is more than normal to have ups and downs in each project, and that doesn’t change who you are as an artist or person. I constantly remind myself with this very encouraging Bible verse from Philippians 3:13: “I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” Lastly, no matter what kind of field you work in, I think ultimately it comes down to knowing where your identity is and who you are. As a believer in God, I believe there is something so unshakably valuable in me that nobody or thing can change or steal away, and I found that to be my ultimate source of confidence.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I work professionally as a story artist at Pixar. The majority of the job is to look at scripts with the directors and translate that into visuals, aka the storyboards, which are like rough drawings or a comic book. And some other times we brainstorm with the directors, writers and other artists on different aspects of the story or story points of a film. I have not so far worked on anything that has been released, since generally it takes 5-6 years for a film to go from start to finish. Something that I participated in and is coming out soon is Win or Lose (2025) and Elio (2025), which I am very excited about.
Besides work, I also make short little comics and short animated films as an independent animator. The last short film I made was made in 2023, called Wedding on the Execution Grounds. Although it has not been made public yet, it will soon be finishing its festival rounds and be made available on Vimeo.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The skill of communication is something I found very important and which I had struggled with, and still working on in my career. For an artist I feel like this does not necessarily come naturally. And for me particularly, I have a tendency to avoid confrontations and to be shy about expressing myself in front of people, therefore I had tried to avoid being a communicator until I couldn’t. I think learning the skills of presenting and pitching your ideas, and the art of speech in a room, paying attention to other people’s needs and showing respect to their ideas are extremely important and useful skills to have. And this includes respecting other people’s time (not to be late) and being responsive, which I am still learning.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Maybe just one of the many things – supporting me to study abroad in the U.S..
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.zilaifeng.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seafoodlailai/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zilai-feng-8b065488/
Image Credits
profile photo by Diyi Cheng
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
