The Asset

I hope this book strikes a chord with people who have ADHD or perhaps work, play, love, or befriend those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder. You will see as you read excerpts from The Asset: Your Success Gene and the Myth of ADD, how I have come to an understanding of this condition. This understanding allows me to show you how people with ADHD have much more potential to contribute than potential to be a hindrance.

Chapter 9: Rapid-Fire Thinkers in the Workplace

These days, the most popular catch-phrase in the business world is, “Our human capital is the most valuable asset of our business.” I believe it is true that the people who make up a company really are its backbone, far more than even the products or services it offers, since these change according to the market.

Chapter 8: Parenting the rAfter Child

When parents don’t know how to respond to their rAfter child’s behavior, conflict and chaos can dominate. Not knowing how to control their child, parents become frustrated and angry at themselves. Then they become angry with their child.

Chapter 7: Creating Intimate Relationships

Rapid-fire thinkers need love just like everybody else and they sometimes find that they can’t get what they need. Why is that? In many cases, but not all, rAfters experienced trauma throughout their childhood and teen years as they broke rules, social and other kinds and could not find a place of belonging. They didn’t feel accepted either by their family or by their peers or both. They were frequently reprimanded and not in gentle ways.

Chapter 6: Finding the Words

Many rapid-fire thinkers find themselves isolated but they can’t figure out why. They are unable to see themselves as others do and few people can or will help them do that. Like any relationship, sticking with a rAfter means adapting to them. Remember, someone who has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD spends their whole life adapting to what other people consider normal behavior.

Chapter 5: Unfolding Fulfillment

The fact that you are a rAfter may make it easier for you to drift into addiction. In the same vein, the fact that you are a rapid-fire thinker means that when you do figure out your true purpose in life, you can become an important asset to the whole world. This is what sets this book apart from other books you will read about ADD.

Chapter 4: Meds, Monitoring and Living More

If we want to consider ADHD an asset and not a deficit, we must look at how someone with ADHD today manages to live in a non- ADHD world. Their challenges, among others, include getting started on projects, keeping up with them, and completing them within a timeframe. Since ADHD is best explained as the inability to inhibit behavior, anything that requires an organized focus for a prescribed period of time–like a project– is difficult to complete.

Chapter 3: Conquering Impulses

The Jesuit writer, Father William Doyle once said, “I never have peace unless I am going against myself.” He was speaking of his spiritual will dominating his ego impulses. In a way, rAfters face a version of this sort of battle. Impulses can come from a desire to love and be loved but they can look like violating boundaries, dominating and disrupting others.

Chapter 2: Climbing in a Critical Landscape

What is the deciding success factor for a rapid-fire thinker? Is it education? Is it peer relationships? Is it the right meds? I believe that the tipping point between solid, grounded life success and shaky, scary failure is how you feel about yourself. Self-esteem is the core issue of ADHD and determines whether you will go on and succeed or struggle for the rest of your life.

Chapter 1: How a “rAfter” Sees Themselves

This first section of the book is about changing perspectives. The first and most important perspective is the one we have of ourselves. A kid who grows up hearing, “No!”  One of the problems is that they can’t see themselves in a true light. They are looking at themselves according to how many times they mess up compared to other people. Rapid-fire thinkers (rAfters) need a translator.