Adult ADHD

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.

Autorentext

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, which inspired Leonardo DiCaprio's film The 11th Hour. A former psychotherapist and founder of the Hunter School, a residential and day school for children with ADHD, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Inhalt

Foreword by Michael Popkin, Ph.D.

An Entrepreneur's Note to the Reader by Wilson Harrell

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

How This Book Will Help You

TERRITORY ONE

What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Why Is It Important?

1 Nature of ADHD

2 Understanding Why ADHD People Are Hunters

3 The Challenges of an ADHD Business Hunter

4 ADHD Medications and Therapies

TERRITORY TWO

How to Succeed with ADHD in the Workplace

5 Hunters within Someone Else's Company

6 Succeeding with ADHD in the Workplace

TERRITORY THREE

ADHD and Entrepreneurship: Building Your Own Business

7 The Hunter as Entrepreneur

8 Choosing to Start a Business: Your Best Hunt

9 Picking Out the Prey:

What's Your Best Business Goal?

TERRITORY FOUR

Hunting for Success: Building a Life With, Through, and in Spite of Your ADHD

10 Preparing for the Hunt: Ways to Push through ADHD

11 Tracking the Prey: Heading for Success

12 Enjoying the Fruits of the Hunt

Bibliography

Recommended Reading

Index

About the Author