52 Weeks of Sales Success

I carry an official diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I am afraid that if I receive treatment for it, I will no longer be as energetic and creative as I am. In some ways, this disability of mine is a real handicap. In a single day, I might come up with a half dozen great ideas. I get everyone around me excited about these ideas and involved in bringing them to fruition. The next day, I wake up with another half dozen ideas that are even better, and I am determined to get rolling on these ideas, too. I am constantly shifting gears and direction and overloading and overwhelming everyone around me. Needless to say, I go through a lot of staff members, partners, and other people who help me achieve my dreams. This is the downside of my ADHD.

The upside is that I am highly energetic and can process loads of data. I can sit in on a meeting and be completely aware of everything everyone says while I am reading and responding to e-mail messages, catching up on my Google News alerts, or reviewing chapters for a book I am working on. Multitasking for me is no challenge—it is a way of life.

I have also discovered that I can achieve a higher retention rate if I listen to audio recordings played back at double the speed. In other words, I can listen to a two-hour audio book in an hour and remember the information longer than if I took the full two hours to listen to it. I mentioned this to my doctor who is now researching this phenomenon to determine whether it can help his other patients.

IDENTIFY YOUR ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES

According to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This is true both in your personal and professional life. To make full use of all of your skills and talents, you need to know what you are good at and what you are not so good at.

I know that I am a lousy manager. I drive people so hard that I often drive them right out the door. I have absolutely no idea of how to schedule projects or pace myself. To compensate, I have a second in command, Lois Maljak, who tries her best to rein me in. She acts as a buffer between me and the people around me who are responsible for executing the thousands of ideas I have over the course of any given year.

Grab a pad of paper and create a two-column list. In the left column, jot down all the things you are really good at—talking to people, coming up with ideas, managing people, talking on the phone, planning, and so on. In the column on the right, list all of what you consider to be your disabilities. Perhaps you are not so good at delegating tasks, telling people what a great job they have done, or mastering new technologies. Maybe you tend to be impatient with people. Whatever your abilities or disabilities are, write them down, and be honest about it.

I received my official diagnosis of ADHD just prior to my 48th birthday. One of my assistants mentioned her concerns to a client of mine who happens to specialize in this field. My client replied that in order to gain a professional opinion, she would need to perform a series of tests, but based on her experience, she would say that “it is as clear as the nose on your face.” After performing her diagnostic tests, she concluded that I did, indeed, have ADHD.

IDENTIFY THE POSITIVE IN YOUR DISABILITIES

Every ability and disability has a flip side. I have known people with high IQs who have turned their innate intelligence into a handicap. They think they are so smart, they never have to work at anything. They get lazy and careless. I also know people who have what most “normal” people would consider a severe handicap use their “disability” to improve their lives and the lives of everyone around them.

Kyle Maynard—born with his arms ending at his elbows and his legs ending at his knees—managed to become a Georgia state high school wrestling champion, motivational speaker, and author of No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life (2006, Regnery Publishing). Some may claim that Maynard was able to overcome or compensate for his disability, but I like to think that part of his success is due to this disability and how he, his parents, his coaches, and others responded to it. Life raised the bar, and Kyle seized the challenge.

One of the most inspirational people I know is Stephen Hopson, whom you met in Chapter 9. Even though Stephen has been deaf since birth, he has excelled in school, in his career, and throughout his life transforming his own misfortune into what many would consider a fortune (not only in terms of wealth and possessions, but in what really matters most—human relationships).

According to Stephen, “After a few years, I was making more money that I had ever thought I could, but I was experiencing a burning desire to do more. So at the end of 1996, I left my six-figure, award-winning career at Merrill Lynch to become a motivational speaker and author.”