ADHD can be your superpower
After struggling as children, some entrepreneurs say condition pushes career forward
When Sharon Vinderine was a kid in elementary school, she had what she describes as a “a complete inability to focus on anything for more than about 30 seconds.”
“I was constantly getting distracted. I was constantly talking in class because I was bored with the content,” said Vinderine, 45, a Toronto mom of two. Her report cards were average — “certainly not where my parents would have wanted them to be.”
But back then kids weren’t diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It wasn’t until the year 2000 that it was established as a diagnosis with its current definition (though the term ADD, for attention deficit disorder, was used a little earlier).
Although it was just two years ago that she was formally diagnosed, Vinderine says she’s certain ADHD is part of what has allowed her to successfully launch three companies, including her latest, Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA), now more than 10 years old.
Vinderine is part of a growing group who are speaking out about how learning to leverage the good aspects of the condition has propelled them to entrepreneurial success. (In recent years, famously successful people including Sir Richard Branson, Michael Phelps, Will Smith and Jamie Oliver have all spoken out about having the chronic condition once thought to affect only children.)
So how does the condition usually associated with inattention actually help some people succeed?
“I work really well under pressure,” Vinderine says. “The more pressure you put on me the more driven I am to get it done and get it done exceptionally well.”
The traits that made it hard for her to focus on repetitive school work may be exactly what inspires and drives people like Vinderine in business. “I think it’s allowed me to get where I am today,” she says. “Because I don’t have a lot of patience and focus, I’m constantly generating new ideas. … I’m constantly challenging my business and my team to accomplish more.”
That’s allowed her company to grow 15 to 20 per cent each year and the PTPA seal of approval to be seen on top brands around the world.
Likewise, Lara Wellman, 42, of Ottawa says that despite its challenges, her ADHD has had a part in giving her the drive to run social media conferences and, more recently, to build a thriving coaching business and community of entrepreneurs called the Biz Studio. She describes herself as “super creative, willing to take risks, willing to pivot and change based on what’s going on.” But prior to her diagnosis two years ago, she’d admonish herself for being lazy when she struggled to complete some tasks. Today, she has an assistant to handle some of the more detail-oriented aspects of her business, and has structured her work to avoid cumbersome reporting processes that bogged her down before.
“I do think that whole risk-taking factor is probably common in people with ADHD because the desire for change is very common in someone with ADHD. It means you’re willing to push the envelope to avoid boredom. Where other people are happy with consistency, we’re not.”
Rebecca Brown, who launched her first business — Bunch, a lifestyle brand for cool and creative parents — at age 28, says entrepreneurship was a bit of a coping mechanism for her at the time. “I think I would have had a hard time being in a traditional job at a junior level where you have no control over your tasks. I moved into more traditional employment later and at a senior level where I could self-select tasks I was likely to enjoy and therefore be able to focus on.” Now she’s launched Crowns, a datadriven marketing agency for the cannabis industry, which sprang from an “intense focus and interest” that turned her into an expert at a time when there is a need in the market.
But getting to a place where they can appreciate the unique talents that come along with ADHD struggles can take adults with the condition some time and support, says Yafa Crane Yuria, of Seattle, who was diagnosed at age 23 in the 1980s when the condition was known either as “hyperkinesis” or “minimal brain dysfunction.” After a career as a school teacher, she now works as an ADHD coach.
“I could not have made the transition from a person (who is not diagnosed with) ADHD who is struggling, to a person with ADHD who is not struggling, without a coach. It makes all the difference in the world. I was unhappy and lonely and now I am the opposite,” Crane Yuria says.
The support she got focused a lot on improving her interactions with people, but for others a coach may provide organizational strategies and tools for coping with distraction. Vinderine has found some that work for her. Those include using noise-cancelling headphones, closing all distracting apps and email, playing instrumental music and blocking times in her schedule when her employees and family know to leave her alone to do her most important tasks.
Vinderine’s advice to other adults diagnosed with ADHD later in life? “Find a way to use it to your advantage. I joke around with my kids that my ADHD is my superpower.”