I can develop a business concept in an afternoon, connect industries that appear unrelated, design the customer experience, and map out years of potential growth.

Then I can spend twenty minutes looking for a document that I personally created, named, saved, moved, renamed, and apparently placed into witness protection.

That is the contradiction of owning businesses with ADHD. I was formally diagnosed last year. The diagnosis gave me language for patterns that had followed me throughout my career. It helped explain why I could generate a multimillion dollar sales pipeline and solve complicated problems quickly, yet struggle disproportionately with a routine form or administrative detail.

As a managing partner of Destinations & Detours and Super Storm Events, ADHD influences how I build, solve problems, and lead. Some is valuable. Some is exhausting.

All of it requires honesty.

My Brain Rarely Sees Just One Idea

My career has taken me through teaching, technology, cybersecurity, transportation, sales, corporate events, and travel. In my mind, they share a thread involving people, systems, experiences, and stories. That is how I can move from employee retention to incentive travel, or from Appalachian culture to imagining an Asheville weekend involving the Biltmore Estate, wineries, and a farm experience. The last one required enough route calculations to make Google Maps consider blocking my number.

It is also why Destinations & Detours has explored experiences inspired by Pokémon, Sleepy Hollow, Dungeons & Dragons, food, and local culture. Where others may see unrelated interests, I see potential communities.

A 2022 PLOSONE study noted that previous research has connected ADHD with

divergent thinking, the ability to generate multiple approaches to a problem. Creative performance varies, however, so it is not a guaranteed advantage. (PLOS ONE study) My brain is almost always making connections, including some that should have remained unsupervised thoughts.

Hyperfocus Can Build a Company

People sometimes describe ADHD as an inability to focus. I can focus intensely, but I do not always get the deciding vote about where that focus lands. The National Institute of Mental Health explains that adult ADHD can involve difficulties with attention, organization, time management, and distraction. Attention is not necessarily absent. It can be difficult to regulate. (National Institute of Mental Health) When something matters to me, I can disappear into it. Over the past year, I have developed business models, contractor agreements, sponsor packages, marketing strategies, certifications, and workflows for two companies. I have built compensation systems involving commissions, overrides, profit participation, and sourcing rules.

Eventually, a compensation plan becomes advanced mathematics with emotional consequences, but my brain enjoys that puzzle. The same intensity appears in client work. An Italy itinerary became a study of Rome neighborhoods, Colosseum access, trains, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, Vespa rentals, and an automatic Fiat 500.

Clients deserve more than a generic itinerary, but hyperfocus does not arrive with an off switch. I can intend to work for an hour and emerge later with a complete strategy, six additional ideas, and no memory of lunch. It can also convince me that exhaustion is a problem for Future Eric.

Future Eric has filed several complaints.

Entrepreneurship Fits My Brain, Until the Paperwork Arrives

A JournalofBusinessVenturing study found that hyperactivity was positively associated with entrepreneurial action, while inattention had a negative relationship.

Entrepreneurial environments may reward autonomy, novelty, and speed of action.(

Journal of Business Venturing research)

That distinction is painfully accurate. Starting things is exciting. Maintaining them requires calendars, contracts, customer records, certifications, follow ups, promotion codes, and details about whether two cruise offers are combinable.

During my training, I completed a proficiency exercise and discovered that I had missed several important details. I understood the larger customer experience, only to be humbled by a few small boxes in a software system. Nothing brings an entrepreneurial visionary back to earth quite like a field marked “required.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that adults with ADHD may have difficulty organizing tasks, managing appointments, and completing large projects. (

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) ADHD may explain why some

responsibilities require more effort, but leadership still requires me to ensure they are completed.

Too Many Good Ideas Are Still Too Many Ideas

One of my greatest strengths is seeing what something could become. One of my greatest leadership risks is trying to make it become everything at once.

While building two companies, I have moved among websites, branding, sponsor strategy, contracts, sales processes, certifications, client itineraries, and new services, sometimes in the same day. Then I wonder why I feel mentally tired. The mystery does not require Sherlock Holmes.

When I introduce several ideas quickly, I may see possibilities. My team may see seven priorities wearing a trench coat and pretending to be one strategy. Leadership means deciding which deserve attention now, which belong in the future, and which should never become another person’s assignment.

The Burnout Is Not Theoretical

The most difficult pattern is overcommitment followed by intense effort, exhaustion, guilt, and another burst of effort. I sometimes plan as though I can operate at maximum intensity indefinitely.

I cannot. A 2024 study of 171 employees found that workers with ADHD experienced higher job burnout and executive functioning difficulties. Problems with time management helped explain physical fatigue, while challenges involving organization and problem solving contributed to emotional exhaustion and cognitive weariness. (AIMS Public Health study) When I underestimate a project, accept too many priorities, or depend on urgency to activate my attention, I may still produce good work. The hidden cost is the energy required to keep producing it.

What ADHD Is Teaching Me About Leadership and Community

The answer is not to suppress every unusual idea or pretend I can transform myself into someone who enjoys routine paperwork. It is to build structure around how I function through written priorities, calendars, reminders, documented processes, realistic deadlines, clear ownership, and team members willing to challenge me when enthusiasm begins impersonating capacity.

That self awareness shapes the organization I want to build. I am less interested in a business culture that asks everyone to think or work like me. I want a community where people bring different strengths, challenge one another honestly, and receive support to work effectively as themselves. My team does not need to organize itself around my

ADHD, but no one should have to hide how they work best simply to appear

professional. Community is built when people are valued for more than how closely they resemble the leader. Honesty about my own mind has made me more intentional about welcoming other perspectives. It has also taught me that delegation is sometimes the most responsible form of leadership available.

I do not want to call every symptom a superpower. ADHD can be frustrating, disruptive, and exhausting, but it is also part of the mind that helped me move across industries, create two businesses, and imagine experiences that did not previously exist.

Accepting yourself does not mean excusing weaknesses or pretending every struggle is secretly a strength. It means understanding your gifts and limitations honestly, with enough humor to remember that growth is still a work in progress.

That acceptance makes better leadership possible. When we stop pretending to be someone else, we can seek support, lead with greater empathy, and focus our strengths where they can create meaningful impact.

Good leadership does not require a flawless brain. It requires the courage to understand your own, take responsibility for how it affects others, and keep learning to lead from a place of honesty.

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