" For persons with ADHD, the ability to maintain attention and impulse control is determined by one factor-- if the task is interesting, desired, or challenging, the individual with ADHD has no problem with distractibility or impulsivity. If, on the other hand, the task is boring, it is a neurologic impossibility to stay on task. Interest and challenge only determine the ability to function, not importance. This "interest based performance" is coming to be the hallmark diagnostic symptom of the disorder and the key to successful management once medication treatment has been established.
The swings of attention can be profound from states of "zoned out" dissociation to a condition known as hyperfocus. As many as 40 percent of adolescents and adults with ADHD can enter what appears to be an altered state of consciousness while doing activities which they consider particularly intriguing. During a hyperfocus the person performs at almost 100 percent efficiency, does not notice the passage of time, does not become tired or hungry, and has virtually 100 percent comprehension and retention of what he reads."
So...what does that sound like at first glance? Maybe that the only way to hold our attention and get us to do what a non-ADHD person would do with out thinking about it is to hold up something and go "oh look, shiny! look at the shiny thing! See how pretty it is?" then lead us down what ever path the non-ADHD person would like us to go down. Not hardly. There is a certain amount of responsibility that should be on US ADHD folkses to own. What would that be? Well it is one thing to realize that you have ADHD. It's also a point of self realization when we understand that we have hypo-focus "mode" (or what some wives, teachers, bosses, friends, family etc would call "space cadet" mode) and hyper-focus mode. While we may not be able to get to this point without some help, we ADHD'ers are entirely responsible for understanding and gaining some control of the "triggers" that send us into hypo-focus or hyper-focus. Even more difficult, is developing the the ability to understand WHEN those modes are appropriate and needed. I've gotten better at it over the years but still have to combat the attitude of outsiders that says
- "dude, what is wrong with you? You are so scattered, ineffective, all over the place all the time".
- "Why don't you pay attention to me when I talk to you?"
- "Why cant you just..."
So a next logical though is are ADHD'ers un-intelligent? Hhmmmmm. Tough question. Intelligence, by most peoples standards, is viewed from the context of the ability to learn. Got some news for you! ADHD'ers are more likely to be above average or genius intelligence. It revolves around the ability to harness the Hyper-focus and the ability to trigger hyper focus when it counts, when it's necessary, when delivering results is the only thing that separates you from a loser on the job and a high performer on the job and so on. Point in case, some of the best known personalities who have shaped our history are or were afflicted with ADHD. Would you be surprised to know who? I would say if you have a person with ADHD on your staff NEVER underestimate the power of an ADHD'er in the arsenal of tools in your corporation. As a manager, executive, leader it is up to YOU to know the strengths and weaknesses of your people and how and when to deploy them. As an employee it is up to the ADHD'er to develop a certain level of mastery over the triggers that invoke hyper-focus to deliver results on the job.
so who, today and in history, are people that are/were ADHD'ers and what did they contribute? Before you think of writing off an ADHD'er as a ineffective loser, idiot, space cadet and so on. Think twice. Think real hard. Is it us ADHD'ers with the problem or the non-ADHD'er with a limited perspective?
Abraham Lincoln | was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis — the American Civil War — preserving the Union while ending slavery and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts at a seat in the United States Senate. He was an affectionate, though often absent, husband and father of four children. |
Admiral Richard Byrd | was a naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. He was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. Aircraft flights, in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. Byrd claimed that his expeditions had been the first to reach the North Pole and the South Pole by air. His South Pole claim is generally supported by a consensus of those who have examined the evidence. Byrd was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for heroism given by the United States. |
Albert Einstein | Although Einstein is now considered the epitome of genius, in the first two decades of his life, many people thought Einstein was the exact opposite. Right after Einstein was born, relatives were concerned with Einstein's pointy head. Then, when Einstein didn't talk until he was three years old, his parents worried something was wrong with him. Einstein also failed to impress his teachers. From elementary school through college, his teachers and professors thought him lazy, sloppy, and insubordinate. Many of his teachers thought he would never amount to anything. What appeared to be laziness in class was really boredom. Rather than just memorizing facts and dates (the mainstay of classroom work), Einstein preferred to ponder questions such as what makes the needle of a compass point in one direction? Why is the sky blue? What would it be like to travel at the speed of light? |
Alexander Graham Bell | was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone. [N 1] Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work.[2] His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876.[N 2] In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.[4] Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Alexander Graham Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.[5] Bell has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.[6] |
Alfred Hitchcock | was a British film director and producer.[3] He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen, while remaining a British subject. Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style.[4] He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism.[5] He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing.[5] His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters.[6] Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. |
Andrew Carnegie | was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the most important philanthropists of his era. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and migrated to the United States as a child with his parents. His first job in the United States was as a factory worker in a bobbin factory. Later on he became a bill logger for the owner of the company. Soon after he became a messenger boy. Eventually he progressed up the ranks of a telegraph company. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which was later merged with Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company and several smaller companies to create U.S. Steel. With the fortune he made from business among others he built Carnegie Hall, later he turned to philanthropy and interests in education, founding the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. |
Ann Bancroft | She described her family as one of risk takers. It is reported that she struggled with a learning disability, but nevertheless graduated from St. Paul Academy and Summit School. Bancroft was a camper and staff member at YMCA Camp Widjiwagan. Bancroft became a wilderness instructor and a gym teacher in Minneapolis (at Clara Barton Open School) and St. Paul. She gave up her teaching post in 1986 in order to participate with the "Will Steger International North Pole Expedition". She arrived at the North Pole together with five other team members after 56 days using dogsleds. This made Bancroft the first woman to reach the North Pole on foot and by sled. She was also the first woman to cross both polar ice caps to reach the North and South Poles, as well as the first woman to ski across Greenland. [2] In 1993 Bancroft led a four-woman expedition to the South Pole on skis; this expedition was the first all-female expedition to cross the ice to the South Pole. [3] In 2001, Ann and Norwegian adventurer Liv Arnesen became the first women to ski across Antarctica. [2] Her achievements led to her induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame for the United States. She currently co-owns an exploration company, Bancroft Arnesen Explore, with Liv Arnesen. In March 2007, Bancroft and Arnesen were taking part in a trek across the Arctic Ocean to draw attention to the problem of global warming. However, according to The Washington Post, the expedition was called off "after Arnesen suffered frostbite in three of her toes, and extreme cold temperatures drained the batteries in some of their electronic equipment."[4] Bancroft also received a number of other awards and honors. She is an out lesbian[5] and in 2006, she publicly campaigned against a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to prohibit any legal recognition of marriages or civil unions between members of the same sex.[6] |
Ansel Adams | If you need to ask who…try American History 101. |
Anthony Hopkins | Filmography and accomplishments are too long to list. |
Anwar Sadat | Born into a family of 13 children in 1918, Anwar al-Sadat grew up among average Egyptian villagers in the town of Mit Abul Kom 40 miles to the north of Cairo. Having completed a grade school education, Sadat's father worked as a clerk in the local military hospital. By the time of his birth, Anwar's Egypt had become a British colony. Crippling debt had forced the Egyptian government to sell the British government its interests in the French engineered Suez Canal linking the Mediteranian Sea with the Indian Ocean. The British and French had used these resources to establish enough political control over Egyptian affairs to refer to Egypt as a British colony. Four figures affected Sadat's early life. The first, a man named Zahran, came from a small village like Sadat's. In a famous incident of colonial rule, the British hanged Zahran for participating in a riot which had resulted in the death of a British officer. Sadat admired the courage Zahran exhibit on the way to the gallows. The second, Kemel Ataturk, created the modern state of Turkey by forcing the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. Not only had Ataturk thrown off the shackles of colonialism, but he established a number of civil service reforms, which Sadat admired. The third man was Mohandas Gandhi. Touring Egypt in 1932, Gandhi had preached the power of nonviolence in combating injustice. And finally, the young Sadat admired Adolf Hitler whom the anticolonialist Sadat viewed as a potential rival to British control. In 1936 as part of a deal between the British and the Wafd party, the British agreed to create a military school in Egypt. Sadat was among its first students. Besides the traditional training in math and science, each student learned to analyze battles. Sadat even studied the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point in America's civil war. Upon graduating from the academy, the government posted Sadat to a distant outpost. There he met Gamal Abdel Nasser, beginning a long political association which eventually led to the Egyptian presidency. At this outpost, Sadat, Nasser and the other young officers formed a revolutionary group destined to overthrow British rule. Commitment to their revolution led Sadat to jail twice. During his second stay in jail, Sadat taught himself French and English. But the grueling loneliness of jail took its toll. After leaving prison, Sadat returned to civilian life. He acted for a bit, and he joined in several business deals. Through one of his deals, Sadat met Jihan whom he would eventually marry. Sadat recontacted his old associate Nasser to find that their revolutionary movement had grown considerably while he was in prison. On July 23, 1952, the Free Officers Organization staged a coup overthrowing the monarchy. From the moment of the coup, Sadat began as Nasser's public relations minister and trusted lieutenant. Nasser assigned Sadat the task of overseeing the official abdication of King Farouk |
Beethoven | uummmm…should you ask? |
Benjamin Franklin | uummmm…should you ask? |
Bill Gates | one word…Microsoft! |
Bill Hewlett | of Hewlett Packard |
Bill Lear | Lear Jet |
Bruce Jenner | Olympian |
Buddy Rich | |
Carl Jung, M.D. | Jungian Psychology, philosopher, etc.. |
Carl Lewis | |
Charles Schulz | |
Charles Schwab | I dare you to call him a space cadet! |
Christopher Columbus | Explorer. |
Cole Porter | |
Dan Rather | |
David H. Murdock | |
Dustin Hoffman | |
Eddie Rickenbacker | |
Edgar Allan Poe | Really? Yep. |
Edward Fitzgerald | |
Eleanor Roosevelt | |
Elvis Presley | say what? |
Emily Dickinson | |
Ernest & Marel | |
Ernest Hemingway | |
Evel Knievel | |
F. Scott Fitzgerald | |
F.W. Woolworth | |
Galileo | Age of enlightenment |
Gen. George Patton | |
Gen. H. Norman Charles | |
Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf | |
General Westmoreland | |
George Bernard Shaw | |
George C. Scott | |
Guy Ritchie | |
H. Ross Perot | Perot Systems, EDS |
Handel | Messiah |
Henry David Thoreau | |
Henry Ford | |
Henry Winkler | |
Howard Hughes | |
Isaac Newton | |
Jack Nicholson | |
Jackie Stewart | |
James Boswell | |
James Clark Maxwell | |
James Stewart | Movie star, World War II Hero |
Jamie Williams | |
Jason Kidd | |
Jim Carrey | |
Joan Rivers | |
John D. Rockefeller | |
John F. Kennedy | |
John Lennon | |
John Ruskin | |
Jules Verne | |
King Karl XI of Sweden | |
Leo Tolstoy | |
Leonardo da Vinci | |
Lewis and Clark | |
Lindsay Wagner | |
Lord Alfred Tennyson | |
Lord Byron | |
Louis Pasteur | |
Luci Baines Johnson Nugent | |
Magic Johnson | |
Malcomb Forbes | |
Mariette Hartley | |
Michael Jordan | |
Mike Wallace | |
Mozart | |
Napoleon | |
Nasser | |
Nelson Rockefeller | |
Nicolai Tesla | |
Nolan Ryan | |
Nostradamus | |
Pablo Picasso | |
Patty Duke | |
Pete Rose | |
Pierre Salinger | |
President George Bush (both) | |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | |
Richard C. Strauss | |
Rick Fox | |
Robert Frost | |
Robert Kennedy | |
Robert Louis Stevenson | |
Robert Lowell | |
Robert Schumann | |
Robin Williams | |
Salvador Dali | |
Samuel Clemens | |
Samuel Johnson | |
Samuel T. Coleridge | |
Sir Richard Francis Burton | |
Socrates | |
Stephen Hawking | |
Steve McQueen | |
Steven Spielberg | |
Stevie Wonder | |
Susan Hampshire | |
Sylvester Stallone | |
Ted Turner | |
Tennessee Williams | |
Thomas Carlyle | |
Thomas Chatterton | |
Thomas Edison | what part of our modern society has not been touched by his inventions? |
Thomas Jefferson | |
Tom Cruise | |
Tom Gainsborough | |
Tom Smothers | |
Vince Lombardi | |
Vincent Van Gogh | |
Virginia Woolf | |
Walt Whitman | |
Werner von Braun | |
Weyerhauser Family | |
Wm Randolph Hearst | |
Woodrow Wilson | |
Wright Brothers | |
Zsa Zsa Gabor |
