"I’m in very good company!”
ADHD has a high profile right now. It is currently receiving more research attention than depression, OCD, PTSD or bipolar disorder. Consequently, there’s plenty to read about it on the Internet – some of it accurate, some of it not.
But what we’ve all seen, and gratefully so, is more and more of our ADD peers coming out into the open. Celebrities, athletes, business people, creative artists – famous people from every domain of life have come forward and shared their ADD nature.
There are also a great many figures from history, both recent and not, whose writings and creations and biographies emit the telltale signs of ADD.
The point is this: those of us with ADD are in very good company:
From History: Socrates. Da Vinci. Newton. Michelangelo. Pasteur. Van Gogh.
Leaders/Thinkers: JFK. Abraham Lincoln. Winston Churchill. Dwight Eisenhower. James Carville. Henry Ford. George S. Patton.
Innovators: Stephen Hawking. Frank Lloyd Wright. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Scientists/Inventors: Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell. Ben Franklin. The Wright Brothers.
Billionaires: Bill Gates. Richard Branson.
Writers: Agatha Christie. Mark Twain. Katherine Ellison. Virginia Wolf. Robert Frost.
Athletes: Michael Phelps. Michael Jordan. Terry Bradshaw. Babe Ruth. Pete Rose.
Celebrities: Justin Timberlake. Liv Tyler. Britney Spears. Will Smith. Channing Tatum. Erin Brockovich. Adam Levine. Cher. Walt Disney. Stevie Wonder. Ben Stiller. Jack Nicholson. Woody Harrelson.
Comedians: Whoopi Goldberg. Howie Mandel. Jim Carrey. Robin Williams.
What do these people have in common? Most are innovators; most are highly creative; many are polymaths, competent across several domains; many are misfits, or were at some point in life. Most have reinvented themselves more than once.
And we have what they have: that special ingredient that has empowered them to enter the world through another doorway – to which we have a key. Tell your partner or friend about that key:
“Did you know that a great many famous people have ADD, just like me? Will Smith has it. So do Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Carrey. Athletes, too, like Michael Jordan. John F. Kennedy did, and Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci and Ben Franklin - lots of inventors, in fact, especially Thomas Edison. In fact, ADHD expert Thom Hartmann says ADD is a sign of ‘The Edison Gene’, a sign of a highly creative person. I may not be Thomas Edison, but I could be his fifth cousin twice removed!”
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