How to excel with ADHD according to this neurodivergent entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Peter Shankman credits an unexpected source for his career prowess. “My massive attention deficit hyperactive disorder is responsible for all of my success,” he said.

The author of “Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success With the Secrets of the ADHD Brain” (TarcherPerigee) — dubbed the ADHD and productivity bible — and children’s book “The Boy With the Faster Brain” among others, remembers growing up in the ’70s and ’80s as a public school kid in NYC when ADHD wasn’t acknowledged.

“Getting into LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts saved my life, because everyone there was weird, just like me,” recalled the 52-year-old.

Following graduating from Boston University with a degree in journalism, Shankman said his first position was acquired “in the most ADHD of ways.” He was wasting time in an America Online chat room when someone mentioned that they worked for AOL, and were seeking editors for their new online newsroom. Shankman knew he’d be perfect for the gig, even though he had no experience.

“But that’s the beauty of ADHD — say ‘yes’ and figure it out later,” he quipped.

The young journo wound up working at AOL for three years, right as the Internet was taking off with a whole wealth of “dot com” knowledge.

My boss is often a no-show and it’s causing me stress — what can I do?

“I parlayed that into starting my own public relations firm called the Geek Factory. We represented all the darlings of the dot com set,” he said, ticking off examples such as Napster and Juno. “I sold the agency in 2001, and tried to relax. It turned out I didn’t know how to do that, so I started consulting and writing.”

Courtesy of his disorder, networking comes naturally to Shankman, since he talks to virtually everyone.

“If you’re on a plane next to me, unless you fake your death, I’m going to know everything about you by the time we land. So I have a huge Rolodex,” said Shankman. “Reporters would call me and ask me for people I knew to help them with their articles. That led me to create something called Help a Reporter Out, or HARO , which, in three years, became the de facto standard for how journalists and sources connected.”

In 2010, Shankman sold HARO to Cision, “which changed my life,” and this year, he launched Source of Sources , which he called an improved version of HARO.

With a psychiatrist, Shankman also co-founded a company in 2023 called Mental Capital, a consultancy that helps companies attract, hire and retain neurodiverse employees, while helping companies to become neuro-inclusive.

My boss screams at me constantly — is this normal?

“Neurodiversity is the diversity of all diversities: intersectional in nature and impacting people from within all groups,” he said. “People who identify as neurodiverse often have strengths companies seek, although overlooked, [causing companies to miss out on] amazing contributions. Companies are finally starting to realize that, and understand that they need help from people who understand these workforce strengths and how best to tap into them,” added Shankman. Mental Capital’s current client roster runs the gamut from Morgan Stanley to Adobe.

“When you’re ADHD, there are only two types of time, now and not now,” he said, which means he tends to come up with an idea, implement it and either it works or it doesn’t, all within an incredibly short time frame. “For neurodiverse brains, forward motion is absolutely thrilling. It’s how I get the dopamine I need that my body doesn’t make enough of naturally.”

Along with work, he attributes obtaining his dopamine and focus from exercise, whether it’s on his Peloton, running in Central Park at 4 a.m., swimming or skydiving. (He’s a licensed skydiver who’s logged more than 500 jumps.) He also has a Concerta prescription for ADHD which he takes once or twice a month.

As a father, Shankman is open and honest about how he’s neurologically hardwired.

His 11-year old daughter Jessa “knows that daddy is a little weird, but she also knows daddy is happier when he’s weird,” he said. “I’ve told her since she was a baby [that] weird is simply a side effect of awesome.”

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While not diagnosed as having ADHD, “she has my weirdness — and she embraces it,” said Shankman. “To me, that’s the best lesson I could ever give my daughter.”

Skeptical that a perceived shortcoming can actually be your superpower? Consider this: In 2015, Shankman was contracted to write a book with a “hefty advance” and a one-year deadline.

“I did all the research the first month, then forgot about it. Two weeks before deadline, the publisher called and asked how it was going,” said Shankman.

He lied and said the book was almost done — before proceeding to buy a round-trip ticket from Newark, NJ, to Tokyo.

“I got on the plane with my laptop, headphones, a power cord and a sweatshirt. I wrote chapters 1 through 5 on the plane to Tokyo. Landed, went to the lounge, had a coffee and took a shower, then got back on the same plane, same seat, and wrote chapters 6 through 10 on the flight home,” he said. “Others might think me crazy. I know how my ADHD works, and hyperfocus like that is totally and completely real.”

To other aspiring career climbers with ADHD, Shankman has no shortage of advice. First off, he’s a proponent of the concept of owning your ADHD as your superpower.

“We’ve been told all our lives that we’re broken,” he said. “However, your neurodiversity is what makes you different from everyone else — and different, when understood, is your talent.”

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