How to Use ADHD as a Tool for Success

Energy, intuition, and other positive ADHD symptoms can help you launch a successful career as an entrepreneur. The key is figuring out what you love to do.

By Madeline Vann, MPH

Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III MD, MPH

After years of frustrating ADHD symptoms and treatment, it may be hard to believe that your adult ADHD has a silver lining. But it does: Your high energy and willingness to take calculated risks can actually be assets if you want to start your own business. And if you’re on that path, you’re in good company: Among the many successful self-starters with ADHD are brokerage firm chief executive Charles Schwab, Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea, JetBlue and now Azul Brazilian airline founder David Neeleman, and television personality Ellen DeGeneres.

“If you look at the ADHD traits, they map extremely well with entrepreneurship,” says psychologist Shane Perrault, PhD, a clinical psychologist and founder of the ADHD Performance Clinic in Greenbelt, Md. Perrault lives with adult ADHD but says he wasn’t diagnosed until a graduate school adviser suggested it. Initially, he says, he was surprised, but after further reflection, it made sense given his talents and struggles. Perrault is now a successful entrepreneur who values his ability — thanks in part to ADHD — to identify the solutions his patients are seeking.

You, too, can leverage your ADHD to help you succeed. Traits that can work to your advantage include:

• High energy. Perhaps the most characteristic of ADHD symptoms is the high energy associated with hyperactivity. That dynamism may have caused problems in more controlled settings (like school), but it can be valuable in helping a business leader see his or her vision through. “When I was young, we didn’t have ‘ADHD’ — I was just hyper,” says Peter Shankman, 39, author of several books about public relations strategy, including Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World, and an entrepreneur who has developed and sold three businesses. Shankman says the coping techniques he learned as a youngster, such as going out to play, still help him today. “If I am in a meeting and find I am fading, I excuse myself, go into the hall, and do about 25 push-ups,” he says. That helps him refocus on the matter at hand.

• Calculated risk-taking. People with ADHD are often thought to be dangerous risk-takers, but Shankman, who’s a skydiver, says the key to success is calculated risk. “I like the thrill and the payoff,” he explains. “It’s the way I work best.”

• Thinking outside the box. Creative problem-solving is a hallmark of ADHD. This could be, in part, because intelligent men and women with adult ADHD have had to come up with dozens of unconventional ways to succeed. Perrault, for example, made it through college and graduate school by studying while inline skating. “I learn best when I am in motion,” he says, explaining that he would listen to lectures and study materials through headphones as he rolled.

• Intuition. “Entrepreneurs are very intuitive people, and people with ADHD are frequently very intuitive,” Perrault says. Plus, your natural charm and vivacity can draw people into your vision. The challenge? ADHD can sometimes make it difficult for you to maintain relationships, so be prepared to put some work into the daily details of those alliances and friendships.

• Big-picture thinker. People with ADHD are often criticized for being daydreamers. But in business leadership, that’s an advantage. For success, delegate the details and focus on the bigger picture.

• Multitasking. It’s often said that adult ADHD allows you to multitask more effectively, but this isn’t always the case. It works, however, when the tasks are designed to achieve the same goal. Perrault calls that “operating cross-functionally.” To him, it means being able to think like a psychologist, a marketer, and an accountant — and, as needed, to put himself into the position of his clients. Investing in a good organizational system can help you keep track of the many hats you wear.

• Hyper-focus. A common frustration for parents is that their ADHD children know every detail about one favorite topic, to the detriment of everything else, like homework. But Perrault argues that this ability to hyper-focus on one objective is an advantage in entrepreneurship. That intensity of focus and passion can lead to success.

• Intelligence. Perrault’s experience is that the majority of people with ADHD are highly intelligent — but that they are frequently talented in an area that is not the one in which they’re working. The best way to direct your intelligence purposefully, he argues, is to find the causes or fields that engage you the most.

Removing Distractions to Success

Despite all of these gifts, adult ADHD can impair your progress if you aren’t strategic. Organizational details and paperwork, for example, are often stumbling blocks on the ADHD road to success. Applying these strategies can help you reach your goals:

• Remove distractions. Shankman recounts one time when, up against a deadline to write a book, he bought a round-trip ticket to Asia and wrote the first half of the book on the first leg of the flight and the second part on the return trip. It sounds extreme, but with nothing else to do and nowhere to go, he was forced to focus on the task at hand.

• Hire a professional organizer. If you know that getting things in order or maintaining a navigable system isn’t your strong suit, pay someone to do it for you.

• Delegate organizational tasks or partner with an associate who is more organizationally minded. A reliable support system is key for any leader — regardless of whether he or she has ADHD. Find people who can benefit from your strengths and also compensate for your weaknesses. If you’re good at the big-picture stuff, find balance with a detail-oriented partner. Break down the work that you have to do (but hate) into smaller steps and time periods.

Shankman also offers this advice for people with ADHD: “Remember that not everyone gets as excited as you do about everything, all the time.” Sometimes you’ll have to take a deep breath and pause for 10 seconds before you walk into a room so that you don’t overwhelm people with your passion, energy, and success. But on the inside, you will know exactly how far ADHD’s upsides can take you.

Last Updated: 10/04/2011