In this 2025 audit, I challenge the popular narrative that neurodiversity is an inherent superpower, arguing instead that it only becomes one when you design the right environment to harness it Neurodiversity Isn’t a Superpower (Until You Do This).mp3].
I share my personal journey of discovering my own Level 1 Autism and ADHD following my son’s diagnosis, revealing how this new self-awareness explained my past struggles with solopreneurship Neurodiversity Isn’t a Superpower (Until You Do This).mp3]. I also introduce my "Peaks and Valleys" framework—a method for visualizing extreme strengths and weaknesses—and explain how to build a team that covers your blind spots so you can finally achieve "1 + 1 = 3"
David Rendall, Author of "The Freak Factor" | Your Weakness Is Your Power
Welcome to Repeatable Revenue, hosted by strategic growth advisor , Ray J. Green.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
Here's what bothers me. Every time neurodiversity comes up, people tend to jump to the superpower narrative. "Oh, you have autism, that's a superpower. You have dyslexia, it can be a superpower." And look, Richard Branson is dyslexic, he can't even read his financials, he's a billionaire. Look at Elon Musk, has autism, it's a superpower. And I get it, we want inspiring examples. But that narrative and the messaging around that skips the most important part: It is not a superpower by default. It becomes one when you design the right environment to leverage it.
real quick, like I mentioned,:
Looking at it through the lens of my son, I had more empathy. I was more open-minded to the impact of it than I was with myself. I guess I'm less forgiving with myself. And so as I'm learning about ADHD with him, I actually learned what ADHD really is and how it impacts me. Autism, it influences how I read people, how I interact in social situations, how I process information, my natural wiring around systems, around patterns—direct impact from autism. And as I'm learning about that, suddenly it clicks. "Oh shit, this is why certain social environments just drain the absolute shit out of me." Makes complete sense once I understood it.
ADHD, as I learned about that, I'm like, "Okay, that contributes to my creativity, it contributes to my willingness and almost obsession with constant innovation." I am naturally wired to get my dopamine shot from starting things, but not necessarily from finishing them. And those types of patterns create all sorts of issues in your life and in your business if you don't actually understand them. When I took the time to genuinely understand this, it really changed my entire perspective. And really, it put into context why solopreneurship was so fucking hard for me. Understanding, "Hey, you're really good at these things. And Ray, you're just really not good at these things. Not just like average, like you're just not good at all, well below average on these things."
So a lot of this also, in my mind, explained why my marriage works so well, or as well as it does. The different diversities, the different strengths, the different weaknesses. How in the right environment, these things can be superpowers, and in the wrong environment, they can be massive limitations. And here's the thing: You can take the same person, same brain, and in one scenario they look like a genius. In another scenario, completely different environment, they look like a fucking idiot. And they haven't necessarily changed; the environment and the expectations around them have. So much of this has to do with designing the right environment. One where you can actually create a system where 1 + 1 = 3. And that's where we see the outliers—the Elons, the Richard Bransons. When we associate them with their form of neurodiversity and we say, "Look at them, it's a superpower," it's because they've designed an environment that allows them to leverage the strengths that are associated with their version of neurodiversity. Because every one of those weaknesses that we have comes—like an extreme weakness comes with an extreme strength.
So here's how I would frame it: Take a piece of paper and draw a straight line across it horizontally. That line represents the statistical average of, let's just say, characteristics that matter. Let's just say creativity, discipline, IQ, attention span, whatever. Now take that same sheet of paper, and instead of a straight line, draw something with a bunch of peaks and valleys. Really high points on one extreme, really low points on the other extreme, making their way across the paper. That's what neurodiversity looks like. And at each peak, there's an extreme strength. And at each valley, there's an extreme weakness.
And so how do you turn those weaknesses into strengths? Well, this is the big aha, this is the big lesson for me is: You build a team and you create an environment that turns it into a superpower by finding people who have close to the inverse of you on the peaks and the valleys. So if I've got peaks and valleys, and I look at the areas where I've got the valleys, I've got extreme weaknesses, and I'm just not good in those areas, I find somebody whose peak is where my valley is. They excel in what I suck at. And you put us together, now you have two people with extreme strengths in different areas. And that's how you get 1 + 1 = 3. Because I get to stay in my lane. I get to stay in the areas where I truly excel, far more than statistical average. And I have somebody else who does the same in the areas where I perform really low.
And this is a new understanding, it's a new appreciation for me of neurodiversity and how to get the most out of myself. And it's helped me come to grips with the limitations that I have and helped me understand why, no matter how much work I put into certain areas, I make very incremental progress. But it's also—it also frames why other areas that are really difficult for a lot of people are really easy for me. So now I recognized it. It's helped me be a better leader at work, recognizing where I can be a distraction to my team, where I can actually be an impediment to their performance by injecting new ideas, whatever. So staying out of the way is something that I'm doing a better job of now.
