Welcome to the second episode in Entrepreneurs with ADHD series.  In this solo episode, I address common misconceptions about ADHD and whether traits associated with ADHD offer advantages or pose challenges in the entrepreneurial landscape. 

Drawing on my extensive background as a psychotherapist and business coach, I challenge listeners to consider how ADHD manifests differently across various types of entrepreneurs and discuss the validity and limitations of self and formal diagnoses.

Prepare to challenge your assumptions and enhance your understanding of ADHD in the entrepreneurial world.

Highlights of this must-hear episode include:

Discover the six dominant characterizations of entrepreneurs by Forbes and how these relate to ADHD.

We talk about the diagnosis, the varied traits, and most importantly, the impact of ADHD on individuals and their entrepreneurial journeys. 

How the timing of diagnosis and gender influence the type of entrepreneurs individuals might become.

Learn why broad claims about ADHD and entrepreneurship can be harmful and discover the importance of a tailored approach.

**This episode is not just an exploration; it’s designed to equip you with a nuanced understanding to better support your journey, both in business and in personal growth.**

Mic drop moment:

"Some of the traits of ADHD can be a distinct advantage for entrepreneurs under certain conditions, while the same traits can be absolutely devastating and destructive under other conditions. It's so much more complicated and nuances than these slogans make it seem."

Mentioned in this episode:

• Interview with Johan Wiklund on ADHD, entrepreneurship & gender differences
• Forbes article with different types of entrepreneurs 
• Harvard Medical School quote on the benefits of the placebo effect 

Companion episodes to check out::

• Short & Sassy episodes for the ADHD entrepreneur
• Full-length episodes for the ADHD entrepreneur

If you loved this episode,  please do me a solid and share it with your friends who are entrepreneurs who identify with ADHD traits.  Thank you! 

And if you’re interested in finding out whether I’m the right coach to help you with your entrepreneurial journey with ADHD,  book a free consultation here. 

Well, hey there, and welcome to the second episode in the entrepreneurs with ADHD series on the Driven Woman Entrepreneur podcast. I am your host, Diann Wingert. I decided to do this series because there are a lot more people spreading awareness about ADHD over the past few years, thanks to the Internet and social media, which is a wonderful thing. However, there is still quite a bit of misinformation out there, and I'm concerned that that might be causing confusion or harm. So in this straight talking solo episode, I'm going to address a subject that's pretty controversial and just about everybody seems to have an opinion about it. Do all entrepreneurs have ADHD? Well, the title of the episode seems pretty simple, but it's actually got a few layers. So I want to be accurate and not contribute to noise and confusion.

First layer of the question, what do we mean by the term entrepreneur? Well, according to Forbes, the word entrepreneur is used so often in so many different contexts these days that pinning it down is becoming virtually impossible. There are so many definitions of entrepreneur, but according to Forbes, there are 6 that currently dominate in the popular press, the how to literature, and business education. So they loom large in the popular imagination. They are the noble founder. In my experience, these folks are often social entrepreneurs, the self made success. I think of them as solopreneurs and used to be called sole proprietors. The entrepreneur by temperament, these are the folks that I call natural born entrepreneurs, and I've spoken about in previous podcast episodes, which I'll be sure to link to.

The opportunist par excellence, when I read this, I was immediately reminded of the folks who jumped in and started selling toilet paper and hand sanitizer in the early days of the COVID pandemic at a huge profit. Then there's the risk taker, who is frequently a serial entrepreneur who is all about the dopamine, the innovator who is more likely to be driven by the need for change and less so by the need for profit, and the large variety of small business owners, independent professionals, creatives, freelancers, side hustlers, solopreneurs, and all manner of folks who consider themselves legitimate entrepreneurs in today's digital economy

So it's probably pretty obvious that it's unlikely that all of these different types of entrepreneurs would have the same type of neurobiological traits and tendencies, not to mention the fact that there are literally 100 of thousands of people who have joined the ranks of entrepreneurs in the last decade as a result of job loss, relocation, difficulty getting hired for all sorts of reasons, and those who simply need the flexibility that's really hard, if not impossible to find in a traditional JOB. So when it comes to point 1, what is an entrepreneur? I'd have to say that not all entrepreneurs have ADHD or even ADHD traits or tendencies. However, if you do have ADHD, especially the combined type, and I'll get into that more later, you're probably more likely to be an entrepreneur than not.

Now there are individuals with ADHD in each of the Forbes categories of entrepreneur as I've described. But in my experience, they are more likely to be found in the self made success category, the entrepreneur by temperament category, and the risk taker category if they were diagnosed in childhood and are male. Now for the females who tend to gravitate to entrepreneurship, but are diagnosed later in life, usually in adulthood. They, in my experience, tend to be more likely to be noble founders, innovators, or some manner of small business owner for all kinds of reasons, including social conditioning and the greater tendency to experience self doubt and perfectionism and more difficulty with risk. Now if you wanna know more about these gender based differences, my interview with Johan Wiklund in the episode previous to this one, the one that kicked off the entrepreneurs with ADHD series, we had a fascinating conversation about how the genders sort of break down in what types of entrepreneurs we become and the specific challenges in entrepreneurship that we have.

Now, if you didn't listen yet, Dr. Wiklund has ADHD diagnosed well into adult life, is a professor of entrepreneurship, and does research and teaches emerging entrepreneurs who have ADHD at Syracuse University. So I have been following him for several years, and it was truly a fascinating conversation. So if you're interested in these gender differences and you don't just wanna take my word for it, see what the research has to say. I've dropped a link to that episode in the show notes.

So are you ready for point number 2? We've talked about what do we mean by the term entrepreneur. So now let's talk about what do we mean when we say ADHD? There are so many people who are self identifying with ADHD, and many who know they have ADHD because they got officially diagnosed in childhood, but they've never gotten treatment, or maybe they got diagnosed, but they've never gotten treatment, they just wanted to know. And I've actually met a number of people who have been diagnosed more than once and then forgot.

I've heard this from so many different people that it doesn't really bring a chuckle anymore because I think it's just part of the makeup of folks with ADHD. They're struggling with something. They go to the doctor. They get diagnosis. They get a prescription. Somewhere between getting prescription and filling the prescription, they get distracted, or they lose the prescription, or something else more urgent comes up, and then they don't get treated until the next time they get diagnosed. So when we're talking about diagnosis, there are people all over the world who would absolutely qualify for the diagnosis, but they don't have access to someone who can make the diagnosis.

Those folks have no choice but to self diagnose. Then there are people who are kind of opposed to taking medication for any reason, for all kinds of reasons. And so they self diagnose, is that not legitimate? I don't personally think it matters whether you go to a doctor and get an official diagnosis. However, if you are self diagnosed, I do not think it makes you qualified to help other people with their ADHD who are also self diagnosed. I think we can get into a great deal of confusion and a lot of assumptions because my ADHD is not your ADHD. When someone meets all of the criteria, but really doesn't have access to a licensed mental health professional or a qualified physician to diagnose them, they have to figure things out for themselves.

But what about the people who do have access and decide not to, that's not my call to make. What's less understood and why I'm here to, you know, get proper information into people's ear holes, at least the folks who listen to me, is so that we can be more accurate in the way we think about ourselves, in the way we identify ourselves, and how we deal with the things we need to deal with about ourselves. For example, few years ago, people would say, oh, I don't have ADHD. I have ADD. That's actually inaccurate. If you go to the diagnostic manual, there are 3 different subtypes. It is ADHD hyperactive impulsive type, that's the most rare one. There is ADHD inattentive distractible, that's the one where people say, oh, I don't have ADHD, I have ADD. I'm not hyperactive.

Well, you might be and not realize it because it might not be in the way that other people are hyperactive and then there's the combined type. In my experience, most successful entrepreneurs who have ADHD or suspect they do tend to be the combined type. Doctor Wiklund and I talked about this quite a bit in the previous episodes, so I'm not gonna go deep into that here. But there are a number of different symptoms of ADHD. And again, I prefer the word traits instead of symptoms, but they appear differently in different people in different combinations. Because there's a whole long laundry list, but to get the diagnosis, you only need to have a certain number.

So maybe you have 6 out of 18, and I have a different 6 out of 18, and we both have the diagnosis. You see why this gets complicated Diann why making broad blanket, statements like ADHD is the entrepreneur's superpower really doesn't make sense and may actually be causing people harm. And what about this? Individuals with ADHD often have other conditions. Now I hate the way this sounds, but that is referred to as comorbidity or comorbid conditions. And I always hated the sound of that. So what are some of the things that people with ADHD also often have? Dyslexia, autism, OCD, anxiety, depression, all kinds of other things.

So you can't say people with ADHD are like this, because what about those folks? They're not gonna meet the same exact criteria as someone who doesn't have those additional conditions. And how about this, symptoms and traits, if you prefer, differ in their severity. Even if you and I had the same exact traits, if mine are more severe than yours or yours are more severe than mine, my ADHD and your ADHD are not the same. So how these traits affect us as entrepreneurs will also not be the same. Now my goal is not to make this so complicated that you get more confused. Because if you gotta choose between misinformation and complication and confusion, you probably go with the misinformation.

But here's the deal, I want to raise the level of critical thinking in this community so that we can stop propagating claims like ADHD is the entrepreneur's superpower, or all entrepreneurs have ADHD, don't they? Or isn't everybody ADHD some of the time? Because you know what, that's harmful. That is harmful. It is inaccurate. And I would even say it's borderline ignorant because there's so much legitimate information out there now that we don't have to latch onto something that sounds trendy or cool or fun, or just because it makes us feel like there's less stigma. Because people actually do get harmed when we say things that are inaccurate.

Now here's the truth, some of the traits of ADHD can be a distinct advantage for entrepreneurs under certain conditions, while the same traits can be absolutely devastating and destructive under other conditions, which is why there's so much information, so many myths, so much misunderstanding, because it's so much more complicated than these slogans make it. So what I think is helpful to pay attention to, in my not so humble opinion, is this. What traits are you dealing with that affect you in your business and in your life? What is the impact of those traits on your functioning in your business and in your life? And by the way, we need to include relationships as well, because that's often where we get ourselves into trouble. And what do you need to do to leverage the strengths and tame the struggles?

See, it's not that complicated. What are the traits? What is the impact of the traits? And what do you need to do to make the most of the positive ones and manage the negative ones? So there's one more thing that I think a lot of people don't really understand. You can have every single one of the symptoms or traits if you prefer like I do. Every single one in the book. Literally the book, the psychiatric manual, and still not meet criteria for an ADHD diagnosis.

Say what? Wait. Wait. Wait. Let me say that again. You can have every single one of the traits in the book and still not meet criteria for the diagnosis. How is that even possible? Because what actually earns you the diagnosis is impairment as a direct result of those traits. So if an entrepreneur tells you legitimately, and they're not trying to sell you anything like their book or their coaching program, if an entrepreneur tells you that ADHD is their freaking superpower, then I say there is an excellent chance that they have the level of structure, systems, and support to eliminate the majority of the impairment that they would otherwise experience.

And that person is very fortunate indeed, but they should not try to speak for or to all entrepreneurs with ADHD, because most people do not have that level of good fortune. And lastly, why are we even talking about this? Why am I even dedicating an entire episode to whether all entrepreneurs have ADHD? Like, why? And it's because of this reason as the number of people, especially women, who have figured out that they have ADHD, and whether they get diagnosed or not, has continued to grow, like, exponentially over the last decade, as well as a dramatic increase in the number of people who are becoming entrepreneurs, it's only natural that there's gonna be some crossover. And it's only natural that if these terms apply to you or you think they do, you want to identify your chances for success even if you have a high risk tolerance, and you want to better understand the reasons for your failures and struggles. I am fully in support of that.

Now, maybe it's skillful for some people to believe they have an entrepreneurial superpower, and they believe that that's their ADHD. And you know what, if that helps them manage their fears, their uncertainties, their doubts, if that helps them get through the ups and downs, the uncertainty, the reverses of entrepreneurship, who's being harmed? Just don't propagate that to other people because it does not apply to everybody. I mean, here's the thing, according to Harvard Medical School, the placebo effect is responsible for increases in our neurotransmitters. You know, the ones like endorphins and dopamine? So maybe believing that your ADHD is your superpower actually helps it become one. I don't see any harm in that. I mean, don't be delusional, but I used to think the placebo effect was a joke.

My very first job, my very first professional job was in pharmaceutical sales, and I later was the social work manager in a major hospital and we talked about the placebo effect all the time. Well, this drug is no better than placebo. But guess what, people who believe in an intervention are helped by it. While other people who take that same intervention but don't believe it'll work, aren't going to get the same benefit. That is how powerful our minds are with or without ADHD. So I've become a big fan of the placebo effect because if we think something's going to help, it will. I would just prefer that we apply that belief to doing something about it and not just thinking, you know, we we've got the goods and all we have to do is show up.

Because let's be honest, entrepreneurship by any definition is an exciting and challenging lifestyle. There are lots of ups and downs. There are no guarantees and the risks are real. So in my experience, in my own life, in how I've raised my kids with ADHD and how I have been working with entrepreneurs with ADHD for the last handful of years, this is what I think is most important. Figure out what your strengths are, whether they are associated with ADHD or not . Figure out what your struggles are, whether they are associated with ADHD or not. And get solid guidance, support, and accountability from somebody who knows what they're talking about and will tell you the truth, not just what will make you feel good. In conclusion, if you would like that guidance, support, and accountability from me, there's a link to book a free consultation in the show notes, and I would welcome the opportunity to chat with you about how I can help. Okay, folks, that wraps it up. We'll be back next week with another episode in the ADHD entrepreneur series. I'll see you then.