The problem of resolving fear has two aspects. We shall have to try for all the freedom from fear that is possible for us to attain. Then we shall need to find both the courage and grace to deal constructively with whatever fears remain.

– Bill Wilson in As Bill Sees It: The A. A. Way of Life …Selected Writings of the A. A.’s Co-Founder

You don’t need to be in a 12-Step program for this quote to look familiar.  It’s essence is derived from (or at least parallel) to the Serenity Prayer: “Lord, let me have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Relevance to executives with attention deficit disorder?  Executives and business owners strive for excellence, and seek to eliminate mistakes in work, and in the way we manage our own lives.  Of course we want to manage our ADD and of course we want to get rid of as many of its problems as we can.

What we need to stay wise about is that we’re not going to make all of our ADD nature go away.  We have to learn how to live with the parts that we’re going to have to live with.  We can’t obsess about it.   It would really stink to have our attention deficit disorder be more of a problem because we paid too much attention to it.

If my attention is wandering, there is somewhere it wants to go, so obviously it does not want to be where I am holding it in the name of some self-styled obligation.

– Hugh Prather in Notes to Myself — my struggle to become a person. 

Prather isn’t writing about ADD, but it’s nice to remember that sometimes a wandering attention is just fine.

People with ADD can make things more complicated than they have to be.

Sometimes, this trait shows up in the products or services they try to sell.  “Blessed” with both smarts and many ideas, the ADDexec tries to create something of extraordinary value — several steps beyond what most people ever thought they could need, or refined to meet needs at an amazing level of detail.

Problem is — those products and smarts have a hard time getting off the drawing board.

Problem is — those products and smarts are often harder to sell.

Opportunity is — millions of customers are ready to buy common solutions borne out of common sense.  If you’ve got a plain-Jane solution that can save someone time or money, and if you can offer it with a modestly better price/service/packaging combination that will make your potential customer say “Hey, that’s nice.  that’s better than what I’ve got.  I’ll take it,” you may have everything you need.

Your customers might not need brilliance or a miracle.  What can you do to help them today?

As a “brain personality,” attention deficit disorder drives people into executive positions and business ownership via its strengths (e.g., ability to multitask) and its weakenesses (e.g., lack of patience). Research just reported in the New York Times looks into the role of dyslexia as a similar driver, particularly for its role in causing people to develop “compensatory skills”:

Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia
By BRENT BOWERS

It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.

The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35 percent — identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

The article also quote the well-known Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea:

Mr. Orfalea, 60, who left Kinko’s — now FedEx Kinko’s — seven years ago, and who now dabbles in a hodgepodge of business undertakings, is almost proud of having dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator,” he said. “I think everybody should have dyslexia and A.D.D.”

Full article here: Brent Bowers, Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia. New York Times. December 7, 2007.

For a preliminary copy of the 2004 research report from Julie Logan, click here for a .pdf on dyslexia and entrepreneurship (at her research institute, Simfonec at the Cass Business School in London).  Click here for Julie Logan bio.

Some naysayers argue that attention deficit disorder isn’t a real problem, or that it’s only a problem for people who fail to take personal responsibility for their brains and behaviors.

Admittedly, many past ADD-management have relied too broadly on medication with little focus on self-management. Things are better today with greater use of additional techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. But what about good old fashioned “willpower”? It looks like it’s on the comeback to an active role in personal health management. This from the New York Times:

Every day, we are tested. Whether it’s a cookie tempting us from our diets or a warm bed coaxing us to sleep late, we are forced to decide between what we want to do and what we ought to do.

The ability to resist our impulses is commonly described as self-control or willpower. The elusive forces behind a person’s willpower have been the subject of increasing scrutiny by the scientific community trying to understand why some people overeat or abuse drugs and alcohol. What researchers are finding is that willpower is essentially a mental muscle, and certain physical and mental forces can weaken or strengthen our self-control.

Studies now show that self-control is a limited resource that may be strengthened by the foods we eat. Laughter and conjuring up powerful memories may also help boost a person’s self-control. And, some research suggests, we can improve self-control through practice, testing ourselves on small tasks in order to strengthen our willpower for bigger challenges.

– Tara Parker-Pope on Health, How to Boost Your Willpower, New York Times.  December 6, 2007.  <– Click title for full article.  Registration may be required.

Master Your MoodsDepressing and bad moods are notorious thieves of time. In a depression or bad mood, many people stop doing anything productive and often do things that are destructive.

Even the most up-beat individuals must occasionally confront a wily time thief called depression. If you can learn how to fight off bad moods and keep them from making off with your day, you will have acuqired an invaluable ability. Here’s how:

Develop your willpower through exercise. The ability to keep going when it’s hard to keep going is the mark of a true pro. Ray Charles, the singer, once described how much he enjoyed performing before a crowd, how there was nothing like the exhilaration of being in front of a big crowd when it’s with you. I asked: “And what do you do when the crowd is small and isn’t with you?” Ray Charles replied: “That’s when you find out whether you’re a pro or not. That’s when you work harder than ever.”

– B. Eugene Griessman, in Time Tactics of Very Successful People (1994).

With this quote, Griessman shows what I think are both the strengths and weaknesses of his book as a possible resource for executives with attention deficit disorder.  On the plus side, Griessman demonstrates that even the greatest talents — like Ray Charles, or Mark Twain who is quoted on the next page — obtain some of their success by working very hard when they don’t really feel like it.  This is always good advice, perhaps even especially for the ADDexec whose first problem — attention deficit — can immediately derail the very idea of work, much less the actual doing.

At the same time, Griessman seems to oversimplify by putting “bad mood” and “depression” in the same basket, which they’re clearly not.  Same goes for clinically evident attention deficit disorder.

In “Master Your Moods”, Griessman offers fourteen different tips ranging from “Yield to temptation” (i.e., take some time off) to “Do low-priority items on your list” (i.e., knock out some easy tasks if you can’t do the hard ones) to “Pick a career that suits your temperaments”.  I suspect that an experienced ADD coach or an experienced ADD psychotherapist or psychiatrist would tell any client, “pick and choose carefully from this list.”  Some items might be useful.  Others entirely counterproductive.

In sum, I think that Time Tactics of Very Successful People offers both useful tips and real-life inspiration to the executive with attention deficit disorder.  However, the useful parts are mixed in with much information that’s either oversimplified, incomplete, or inappropriate for an ADDexec.  If you happen across this book, give it a skim and make note of any items that look useful to you.  But don’t rush out to buy it.

From the Wall Street Journal’s review of The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office

Obviously, Mr. [David] Novak’s pitchman fervor and people skills are joined to a traditionally shrewd sense of how to make a profit. Still, he seems to relish being the hyperkinetic iconoclast. He describes himself as “the one among the Brooks Brothers power suits with his shirttail sticking out.” The CEO says that he avoids working weekends if he can help it, so as to focus on family and relaxation, and it may be good for Yum that he does.

“Sometimes,” he confesses, “the worst thing that can happen to our company is me getting a free day in the office. I’m a creative guy and I can start dreaming up stuff to do when we haven’t finished what we started.”

– Richard Gibson in “Business Bookshelf: Pitchman in the Corner Office”, Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2007.

Yum Brands is one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, whose brands include KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W.

When you feel your company is struggling to stay focused, take heart in knowing that even the biggest companies — with their monster budgets for hiring smart people — often have the same problem.

Here’s an excerpt of the Washington Post’s coverage of focus problems at Sprint Nextel

Interim Sprint CEO Sets Out To Restore Company’s Focus

[Interim CEO Paul] Saleh said the company has tried to tackle too many big changes in the past year.

Saleh’s solution: Improve customer service and simplify the business.

“We had too many things on our plate before. . . . We were doing too many things to reach too many customers too quickly,” he said. “We have to do fewer things, but do them very well.”

– Kim Hart, in Interim Sprint CEO Sets Out To Restore Company’s Focus, Washington Post, 19 October 2007. (Emphasis added.)

Photo Credit : Sprint Nextel. In case you were wondering, their 2006 revenue was $41 billion dollars. Tons of money do not guarantee smart decisions.

Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then. I contradict myself.
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

– Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Walt Whitman is as good an example as you’ll ever find for someone who knew who he was, how he was different, and where his excellence lay. He didn’t need his world to fit into a regular grid and we’re all the better for it.

Photo: Library of Congress

It’s tempting to make promises, but can you fulfill them all?

– a recent fortune cookie

Such a strange feeling: to not say “yes”. Or to say nothing at all when there’s a call for volunteers — not even an “I’m sorry, but my schedule is full.” Just nothing at all in response to, “Would anyone be willing to help with _____?”

And then the strange surprise, nearly always: to hear nothing in response. No recrimination. No anger. No surprise. Just the sound of silence as your asker moves on to figure out some other solution.