Besides having difficulty in school, these executives share another thing in common: They all live with ADHD or learning disabilities. Neeleman has ADHD; Swonk, Meckler, and Schwab have; and Orfalea has both. Each managed to turn his or her liabilities into assets on their respective career paths.
Neeleman’s personal life isn’t the same success story. “My wife can’t always figure out what the heck I’m thinking, and my kids want me to focus on just one thing with them. I find it difficult. It’s hard for me to do the mundane things in life. I have an easier time planning a 20-aircraft fleet than I do paying the light bill.”
“My learning disability gave me certain advantages, because I was able to live in the moment and capitalize on the opportunities I spotted,” says Orfalea, as he looks back on his career. “With ADHD, you’re curious. Your eyes believe what they see. Your ears believe what others say. I learned to trust my eyes.” So when customers came into his store looking to use a computer — not to copy documents — Orfalea saw an opportunity. He expanded Kinko’s to include computers.
For Swonk, 42, the youngest person to serve as president of the National Association for Business Economics , flipping numbers comes naturally. Swonk doesn’t have ADHD, but she has dyslexia and has trouble remembering phone numbers, as well as her PIN for the ATM machine. Swonk’s struggle with her learning disability has given her a disarming sense of humility. “I know what it’s like to be scared when you’re crossing the street and to wonder if you’re going to be lost once you get to the other side. Or to get behind the wheel of a car and not know if you’re going to reach your destination. I have learned to take that in stride.”
“I spotted the Internet as a business opportunity three or four years before anyone else,” he says. “I started a newsletter and reporting service that covered the development of the Internet, then turned it into a magazine, then into a trade show. Internet World became the fastest-growing trade show in history, and was very big from 1994 to 1999.” Meckler has since turned his attention to search engines and has launched a new trade show, Search Engine Strategies.
As a child, he didn’t know he had dyslexia — it was identified when the disability was spotted in his son 16 years ago. But he did know that he had to work much harder than other kids in school. He was good in math and science, but weak in reading and writing. “I eventually overcame dyslexia because I was a reasonably competent kid and had a pretty outgoing personality,” said Schwab in. “I could communicate with my teachers, and I asked lots of questions in class.