Behavioral Disorder or Entrepreneurial Asset? Everyone has quirks, but some entrepreneurs have leveraged the biz-friendly aspects of their disorders.
By Mark Henricks •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Sometimes Brook Noel finds it helpful to focus on details andpursue perfection like a true obsessive-compulsive. "IfI'm going to have a real analytical week, sometimes I'll gooff my medicine, because those skills come in handy," says thefounder of Champion Press Ltd. in Fredonia, Wisconsin, who wasdiagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder as a teenager.
Noel says that other times, OCD can be a hang-up. "I'vehad to learn to give people an assignment, let them know theresults I expect and give them the control to get from Point A toPoint B," says Noel, 31, who employs nine at the bookpublisher she founded in 1997, which is on target to bring in $2million in sales this year.
Noel says OCD motivated her to start her company because of herdesire for control. Another entrepreneur, Kinko's founderPaulOrfalea, started his company because hisconditions--hyper-activity and dyslexia--made him practicallyunemployable. And an increasing number of people thinkmental-health conditions like OCD, hyperactivity and others can becompatible with successful entrepreneurship.
Some of America's best-known entrepreneurs have sufferedfrom these conditions. Famed aviation entrepreneur Howard Hughes iswidely believed to have been an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsivefor many years before his death in 1976. And Microsoft Corp.co-founder Bill Gates is said to display several traits associatedwith an autism disorder called Asperger's syndrome (though hehas not been diagnosed with the condition).
People diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome often have averageor better intelligence and verbal development and may possessexceptional abilities in fields such as mathematics or computers.They may focus intensely on narrow topics and have prodigiousmemories--useful skills for entrepreneurs. The poorly developedsocial skills and tendency to engage in repetitive behaviors suchas rocking back and forth--both characteristics Gates is said toexhibit--can be overcome by hiring managers to handle people andsocial situations.
A study by geneticists at the University of California, Irvine,suggests that attention deficit hyper-activity disorder is closelyassociated with entrepreneurs. UCI professor Robert Moyzis foundthat the allele (a version of a gene) controlling ADHD cropped upabout the time prehistoric people were starting to innovate newtechnologies, develop culture and spread across the globe."Something happened to humans about the time this allelearose," he says. "All of a sudden, we had what mighttoday be called entrepreneurs."
Today, Moyzis notes, one physical marker for ADHD is fasterreaction time. "It's hard to argue that faster reactiontime isn't a good thing to have," he says. The gene'ssurvival all these years suggests people who have it are somehowdoing a better job of surviving and having offspring.
Today, Moyzis thinks ADHD may be a marker for goodentrepreneurs. "I'm convinced, without any hard scientificevidence, this kind of behavior is probably good if you want to bean innovator, ignore the current structure and strike off in anovel direction," he says.
ADHD entrepreneurs' weaknesses have to do with details androutine, says Thom Hartmann, a Portland, Oregon, serial entrepreneurand author of books on ADHD. "They're good at coming upwith ideas, identifying market niches, creatively engineeringsomething from nothing, selling it to other people and pullingtogether a team that's motivated to follow them," he says.ADHD entrepreneurs who do well surrender day-to-day management oncethe company is self-sustaining, or sell it and move on. Those whokeep doing it all, he warns, usually self-destruct.
Without medication, Noel says, she tends to check and recheck somany times that productivity suffers. But by talking with herdoctors and others, she has been successful at controlling thedownside of OCD, while taking advantage of the upside. Now sheregards OCD as just another facet of her business personality:"Any [type of personality] is going to have both strengths andweaknesses."
