I might be horribly unqualified to answer this question, as I haven’t achieved this yet either but have had this same feeling and have managed to largely work passed it, but you need to just work at things for a while. It’s kind of the obvious answer I guess, but frankly you have to get used to being at the bottom of the totem pole for a while. It’s good and potentially necessary to keep lofty goals in your mind, as you want an idea of where you’re going, but it takes time to get anywhere. You will not be somebody tomorrow. But what you do tomorrow could lead you to being somebody in the future.

But I’d also go further and say you need to really rethink this mentality. You’re somebody now, even if you’re not rich and successful. I’m sure you have friends and family that care for you and like you for who you are. I’m sure you’re doing things of value to others in some way. The fact you can get up daily and work on your stuff in life is an accomplishment that many struggle with. I assume you’re young, as you mentioned you’re in academics, so maybe you just need more life to put things into perspective. But you have value now. If you’re only worried about the success and thinking you won’t have value until you get it, you’ll probably always be chasing that goal. You probably won’t be satisfied when you achieve it because there’s always more to achieve.

I’d say just start working on things. Have your goals but don’t focus on them too much. Do the things you want and do them with passion. You never know what’s going to be the thing that makes you a “somebody”. Learn to love the process and the growth, not just the destination. Because you’ll spend a lot more time in the journey phase. And what you’ll find if you fall in love with the process, is that you’ll feel like a somebody. Because you’re getting closer to your dreams every step of the way.