How to harness your ADHD "hunter" strengths to start your own business and prosper in the workplace
• Provides organizational strategies, tips to maintain focus, and tools to set goals, build a business plan, and discover the right project to keep you motivated
• Shares ADHD success stories from Fortune 500 CEOs, inventors, small business owners, and the author's own experience in launching new businesses
• Explains the positive side of ADHD behavior in the context of creating a business, working within an existing company, and raising children with ADHD
Most people do not "grow out" of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For many, their ADHD traits have led to difficulties in school, relationships, and work. But for our hunter-gatherer ancestors these characteristics were necessary for survival. Hunters must be easily distractible, constantly scanning their environment, and unafraid of taking risks. When humanity experienced the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, a vastly different type of personality--the methodical "Farmer"--became dominant. Most of our modern world is tailored to this Farmer personality, from 9-to-5 jobs to the structure of public schools, leaving ADHD Hunters feeling like unsuccessful outcasts. However, the Hunter skill set offers many opportunities for success in today's Farmer society--if you learn how to embrace your ADHD traits instead of fighting against them.
In this step-by-step guide, Thom Hartmann explains the positive side of Hunter behavior. He reveals how Hunters make excellent entrepreneurs, sharing ADHD success stories from Fortune 500 CEOs, inventors, small business owners, and his own hands-on experience in launching new businesses. Drawing on solid scientific and psychological principles, he provides easy-to-follow organizational strategies, tips to maintain focus and create a distraction-free workspace, and tools to set goals, build a business plan, and discover the right business project to keep you motivated. Hartmann shares valuable advice for both the Hunter entrepreneur and the Hunter within an existing company and for curtailing the aggressive side of the Hunter personality in group situations or manager positions.
Revealing the many ADHD opportunities hidden within the challenges of work, relationships, and day-to-day life, Hartmann also includes tips on navigating family relationships and parenting--for most Hunter parents are also raising Hunter children. Thom Hartmann is the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated talkshow The Thom Hartmann Program and the TV show The Big Picture on the Free Speech TV network. He is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of 24 books, including Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, ADHD and the Edison Gene, and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. A former psychotherapist and founder of the Hunter School, a residential and day school for children with ADHD, he lives in Washington, D.C. Chapter 5
Hunters within Someone Else's Company
The vast majority of ADHD adults I've interviewed or talked with over the years have expressed the desire to own their own business, to become an entrepreneur. This is consistent with the Hunter characteristics of resisting authority and structure, independence, and a high level of creativity.
But not everybody's cut out for, or even wants, to have their own business. Some Hunters prefer the relative security of working in and for an existing enterprise, or must "keep a job" because of specific life situations. Nonetheless, even in the corporate world, there are many entrepreneurial opportunities.
Many companies have the need for this sort of entrepreneurial vision, and it's even become a business fad to "reinvent the corporation" so everybody in the company feels like an entrepreneur. Unfortunately, many of the people promoting this idea miss t
