I posted last week about coming out of the ADD closet professionally. Well, take a look a couple executives who came out of the ADD closet and can serve as an inspiration that ADD can be beaten.
Paul Orfalea, founder of the copying empire Kinkos. Paul has said some great things about his ADD:
- “My learning disability gave me certain advantages, because I was able to live in the moment and capitalize on the opportunities I spotted”
- “Because I have a tendency to wander, I never spent much time in my office. My job was going store to store, noticing what people were doing right. If I had stayed in my office all the time, I would not have discovered all those wonderful ideas to help expand the business”
David Neeleman the founder and of JetBlue Airways. Here are a couple great quotes from David about his ADD:
-”If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADD, I would take ADD, I’m afraid of taking drugs once, blowing a circuit, and then being like the rest of you.”
- “I knew I had strengths that other people didn’t have, and my parents reminded me of them when my teachers didn’t see them,” says Neeleman. “I can distil complicated facts and come up with simple solutions. I can look out on an industry with all kinds of problems and say, how can I do this better? My ADD brain naturally searches for better ways of doing things.”
Those are some great leaders with ADD who have done and said impressive things. Baseball great Yogi Berra from the New York Yankees who reportedly had ADD said, “always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours”. OK, not so inspirational, but I had to end with something funny!
