We turned our soul-crushing struggles into our SUPERPOWERS
ADHD. Dyslexia. Autism. Meet the women proving these conditions are no longer an obstacle to success — but their secret weapons
WHEN a child is diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as autism or dyslexia, parents inevitably worry about the impact on their futures.
Indeed, an ocean of parental tears has been shed over fears about whether a condition might hold a child back, socially and academically, from their peers. Or whether it will stand in the way of building financial independence and career success.
However, there is now a growing movement, fuelled by academic research, exploring the notion that, contrary to traditional perspectives on these conditions as worryingly negative, they can prove a secret superpower — to be celebrated, not hidden.
Researchers at Harvard Business School in the U.S. have explored the ways in which those with neurological conditions, while often struggling to fit the profiles sought by employers, can have extraordinary and highly useful skills, including in areas
To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.
ROSA PARKS
such as pattern recognition, memory and mathematics.
Consequently, a growing number of companies, among them Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, have overhauled recruitment processes in the hope of attracting more neurodiverse talent, and seen improvements in both innovation and productivity as a result.
So, far from being a hindrance, could certain neurodevelopment disorders be a secret weapon when it comes to long-term success?
Here, four mega- successful women explain how they have reached the top of their game because of, rather than despite, their disorders.
I’M SO EFFICIENT I’M LIKE A MACHINE
Baroness Michelle Mone, 48, has obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and is an entrepreneur and mother to three adult children. she and fiancé Doug Barrowman, 54, a company chairman, have homes in the Isle of Man and London. she says:
ALTHOUGH it wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my 30s, I believe that OCD is something I was born with. I remember being obsessed by the state of my mum’s kitchen cupboards and, at a very young age, freaking out if she put tomato sauce on the shelf where the spices went.
We lived in a small apartment and I’d say, ‘Mum, why can’t you store things in the right place?’ and she’d look at me like I was weird.
Now, thanks to my success in business, I’m lucky to have spacious homes — but, still, everything around me, right down to my underwear drawer, is always completely in order. I cannot go to bed until every single item is back in its own space.
My emails also get filed at the end of every day and I know exactly where to look on my computer for whatever it is I need. I’m so efficient I’m like a machine.
Rather than being a hindrance, I believe this approach has been the key to my success in business, especially when I was also juggling the demands of work with raising three children.
Of course, OCD has its drawbacks. For example, when my children were little, my need for order was so great, I would choose to spend weekends organising stuff — their homework, schoolbags and wardrobes — until my parents rightly pointed out that wasn’t as important as spending time with them, so I began arranging trips to the pictures, or shopping, and doing arts and crafts instead.
In recent years, instead of getting agitated if I felt I wasn’t keeping on top of things, I’ve been able to stay calmer. I have seen GPs when it got way out of hand. They suggested referring me to a specialist and therapist but I never took them up on it. Instead, I’ve just learnt to live with my condition.
There are definite upsides: I love looking at things and thinking, ‘I can make that better’, not just visually but also the functionality.
I believe my eye for detail and visual awareness are partly what made me one of the best technical lingerie designers in the world.
I co-founded global lingerie firm ultimo, which I sold five years ago.
I’m now an investor and involved in multiple businesses. I design jewellery for TV channel QVC. Having lost more than 8 st in weight, I have also devised a diet and exercise plan, built around treating the body like a successful business.
Attention to detail and being organised are key to successful entrepreneurship. If you are not able to find things quickly, or deal with a crisis because you are working in a mess, things will fall apart.
The way my busy brain works means I can deal with multiple things at once — 20 projects in a day. Knowing that everything is exactly where it should be helps with creativity, too. I can set aside a couple of hours, without distractions and with a totally clear head, to focus on a new invention.
Doug doesn’t have OCD but he is tidy and, like most entrepreneurs, good at organising. It would be a nightmare to have a partner who was the opposite of me.
I don’t, in any way, want to diminish the seriousness of OCD. I know that many people struggle with it and some are unable to leave their home — and I feel for them.
However, it has been a significant factor in my success, making me super- organised and able to deal with as many things in one day as some manage in a year.
THANKS TO DYSLEXIA I HAVE A £13 m FIRM
PIP JAMIESON, 40, is dyslexic and founder and Ceo of professional network The Dots. she lives in Central London with husband howard, 47, an environmental consultant. she says:
IT TURNS out that my dyslexia makes me perfectly suited to succeeding in business: 40 per cent of self-made millionaires are dyslexic, including Body Shop founder Anita Roddick and perfume entrepreneur Jo Malone.
A study at Yale university found we dyslexics have wider peripheral
vision, so we see more of the world all the time, and synthesise that into intuition and creative, innovative thoughts.
We are also more empathetic, according to research, maybe because we face challenges others don’t growing up. This translates into brilliant leadership. We really care and empathise with the teams we build, so are good at retaining great talent. Dyslexics are also more resilient because we have learnt that hard work can pay off, as well as having to navigate bumps in the road, so handle the inevitable highs and lows of building and running a business.
I’m proud to say that all of this is true of me, though I am also good at recognising where I need support. I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was just eight.
The teachers had basically told my mum I was stupid — it was even said in front of me in a meeting and I remember feeling utterly crushed. But Mum wouldn’t hear of it and told the teachers, ‘She’s bright, I know she’s bright.’
Mum was working for a charity and, by chance, went to a talk about dyslexia. She recognised so many of the symptoms in me. She then found a remedial teacher and I would get up at 6am to do classes before primary school.
For secondary, I went to Millfield, in Somerset, one of the first schools in the country with a unit specialising in dyslexia. Rather than seeing it as a disability, they told us about the real success stories of people with dyslexia, among them Einstein and Richard Branson. So, while I realised my condition meant I had to work harder at things I found challenging, I began to think, ‘OK, maybe this isn’t so bad.’
Everyone imagines dyslexia involves having problems around reading and writing but I’ve come to realise that dyslexics see and hear the world differently.
I think in images, more than words, and, rather than seeing individual letters, words are like patterns to me, which means it takes me twice as long to read something as others.
My perseverance muscle developed early and I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to pass my exams and go to university, even if you think I don’t stand a chance.’
My predicted grades were terrible for A-level but then I worked bloody hard and got two As and a B, in economics, theatre and media studies. Then I did an economics and maths degree at Edinburgh University, where I got a first.
Afterwards, I joined the faststream of the civil service and my first secondment was as an economic assistant to the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett.
I soon realised it would take me 20 years to have any influence and I’m impatient, so I moved into the creative industry, working for the Brit Awards in London before falling in love with Howard and moving with him to Australia, where I worked for MTV.
It was there, while struggling to find suitable people to hire, that I identified the need for a LinkedInstyle social networking site.
In 2016, we returned to London, where I founded The Dots, a professional network that looks after ‘no- collar workers’, who operate flexibly, remotely and creatively.
The company is now worth £ 13 million, has half a million members, including creatives, engineers and tech workers, and 10,000 businesses use us to hire.
One of my best talents is recognising strengths and putting systems in place to support any weaknesses. To this end, I have a brilliant chief operations officer, who reads long documents for me.
To avoid confusion, my email signoff proudly declares: ‘Delightfully dyslexic, excuse typos.’
ADHD HAS ME UP AT 5.15AM TO WORK
Sandra Scott, 52, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is a multilingual language trainer and director of chataway Language School. She lives in Liverpool and has a grown-up son. She says:
I WAS working as a teacher in a special school, with children with ADHD when one of them said, ‘You’re just like us, Miss!’
It occurred to me, for the first time in my life, that there might actually be a medical explanation for my hyperactive nature.
When I mentioned our conversation to the headteacher, she said she had noticed it, too, and gave me a book about girls with the condition, the contents of which resonated with me.
ADHD can present differently in girls who are often labelled ‘Dolly Daydream’ for seeming miles away, gazing out of the window.
I was finally diagnosed aged 46, after two years of assessments, and was prescribed methylphenidate to help me concentrate.
I took it for a few years while I was working in an open-plan office because it helped block out distractions but because it also made me a bit sad and made me thirsty, I decided I no longer needed it after setting up my business 18 months ago.
When I was growing up, not much was known about ADHD and my mother described me as ‘a livewire’. She could not turn her back for a second. When I was four, I stuck a pair of tweezers in a plug socket, which sent me shooting across our kitchen. Fortunately, I was OK and now know that’s typical of an ADHD kid — you blink and they do something they shouldn’t.
I always knew I was different to other children because I was interested in lots of things — and the teachers were always telling me off for being disorganised, distracted and late for lessons.
Focus is difficult, which impacted massively on my learning. What I liked I was really good at but I got very low grades in maths, biology and chemistry.
One huge benefit of ADHD is that you can throw yourself into something with an energy and drive most people don’t possess and, although my family never went abroad, I was interested in languages from an early age.
After spending my 20s working as an air stewardess, I went to university in my 30s, to do a modern European languages degree, and speak French, Spanish and Italian. I was the first mature student to graduate from Liverpool University in three languages — and am also fluent in German.
People with ADHD are good at being resourceful and innovative, which has been useful in business. As well as Chataway, I’ve gone into partnership to launch Chatafit, combining language learning with fitness routines for children.
I have so much energy that exercise is another of my passions. I walk up to 16,000 steps a day. I sleep like a log when my head hits the pillow at 11.30pm, but then I’m awake at 5.15am and am ready to throw myself, with gusto, into another day.
If someone had told me as a child that I would win academic prizes and run my own businesses, I would never have believed them.
I’m grateful for my ADHD because I believe it’s the reason I’ve been able to achieve so much.