Neurodiversity-Gaining a better understanding of Neurodiverse talents - looking beneath the headlines.

Gaining a better understanding of Neurodiverse talents - looking beneath the headlines.

When I first read the ‘End of Average’ by Todd Rose I was effusive. It was insightful and useful and made me think about how often we talk about something as if it applies to us all when the reality is that none of us are truly average. His latest book ‘Collective Illusions’ made me think in the context of neurodiversity that sometimes a ‘fact’ stated by someone with no reference to the source but with enthusiasm seems to become like truth and then gets repeated as a mantra.

In his introduction he cites Seneca:

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”

"First of all when we think of our own requirements ( think of Maslow's hierarchy), our physical needs (food, shelter, safety) seem just as important as our psychological ones (stimulation, the respect of others, the ability to make our own decisions). However, when we think of other people, particularly people in need, we rate their physical needs as more important."

So, what does that mean?

We read headings in the newspapers like the following we can end up repeating these as mantras as if they are THE truth rather than A truth and may apply for some people but can't be applied for all.

·?????Dyslexic people are more likely to be entrepreneurs - Guardian headline

·??????How dyslexic entrepreneurs are leading the way in business - FE news (2021)

·?????Dyslexics have a head start (Financial Times)

Once people repeat the mantras and hear this also from other people we want to believe it, even when we don't we need to agree. This is the 'Collective illusion' that Todd Rose describes. We can all remember the story of the 'Emperor's New Clothes'. It is hard standing on the side and saying.. 'he's not wearing anything' when everyone extolls the beauty of the clothing!

What does the data say?

Professor Logan in her groundbreaking research published in 2009 revealed that UK entrepreneurs were five times more likely to be dyslexic than the average UK citizen (around 10% of the general UK population is dyslexic). When we look a little more closely at this study when asking the participants about their dyslexia (through completion of a questionnaire) from the paper it does not appear they were asked about potential ADHD traits. We know that Dyslexia and ADHD are often bedfellows in 25-40% of cases. We have also seen headlines saying entrepreneurship and ADHD go together. ADHD has even been described as a superpower!

So could the entrepreneurs be the ones with Dyslexia+ADHD and not the ones with Dyslexia-ADHD and it is not dyslexia at all but the ADHD traits that drive entrepreneurship?

Secondly, in Logan’s study, 102 entrepreneurs and 37 corporate managers completed the survey and there was a response rate of 7.0%. The sample size may have been skewed to the ones who were entrepreneurs completing the survey and those who were not entrepreneurs and not as successful being perhaps were less likely to engage in the research.

The challenge of repeating the headline news is not that they are not really interesting (they are), but there is a lack of any evidence that we would gain the same results if we considered sampling a country’s underlying adult population. They may not be transferable to large populations.

One Dutch population study by Hessels(2014) and colleagues concluded that individuals with dyslexia were not more likely to be self-employed or business owners. The numerous examples of successful dyslexic entrepreneurs, (and we can all cite names such as Richard Branson) do not tell a story that necessarily generalizes at a population level. ( But we would like it to do so as it is aspirational and positive).

Who becomes an entrepreneur?

There is a large body of research considering why some individuals choose to become an entrepreneur as opposed to remaining an employee. This may be a decision on the gains of one over the other including earnings, independence, and work satisfaction. However, in the case of people with ADHD and Dyslexia sometimes the choice is made because it offers the work environment that fits them i.e., person/environment match.

Being creative and taking risks (and impulsivity) have been associated with ADHD as well as Dyslexia. In the case of ADHD, a factor at play that may be associated is sensation seeking which is more common among entrepreneurs than among the general population. The ability to take opportunities and see them before others may be important for success. Who went into business and bought hand gel at the very start of Covid-19 saw an opportunity and jumped on it?

Nature or nurture?

Twin studies have shown the tendency to be an entrepreneur is heritable and that common genes influence both sensation seeking and entrepreneurial tendency. If your parents were entrepreneurial in some way this may allow you to see it's OK to try out different ways of working. Nicolau and colleagues (2014) did find a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1486011) of the?DRD3?gene on chromosome 3 to be significantly associated with the tendency to be an entrepreneur. This result is one of the only studies showing the association of a specific gene with entrepreneurship.?

Restricted choices

Have some dyslexic/ADHD individuals had to find creative solutions to get around problems that have happened in their life? Are the ones who become successful entrepreneurs the more resilient ones? Perhaps having fewer alternative employment options or having experienced challenges in finding a job in paid employment has driven the person to find something else in a less traditional manner. Do you ever feel like a Weeble (some of you will get the reference).. that may wobble but you don’t fall down?

If ADHD is a superpower (and I do think there are some great things about having ADHD but it is not all a bed of roses!), then why are the 1 in 3 people in prison who have ADHD also not amazing entrepreneurs too?

Headlines such as 'Seven Habits of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs With ADHD' can easily be flipped on their heads and then become a mantra that all people with ADHD are entrepreneurial. The answer, like Dyslexia, is that clearly there are other factors at play that increase opportunities for success or end up in failure. We know in the criminal justice system adversity in early life is a rate-limiting factor and homelessness doesn't make it easy to get any sort of job at all.

Can we grow ND entrepreneurs?

Seeking strengths and building self-esteem is an important start

Everyone needs the opportunity to work out what they do well. We need to open up opportunities, where possible, as early as possible in a child's life to grow their self-esteem. We need to have a better understanding of what leads a person to gain entrepreneurial behaviors and actions.

It has been found that entrepreneurial intentions can be increased by improving entrepreneurial self-efficacy perceptions (a person’s beliefs about their ability to perform specific tasks) through increasing knowledge and awareness (in individuals) of entrepreneurship. Could we be teaching this to young ( and other) neurodivergent children?

A recent paper from the US looked at self-perception and potential feelings of entrepreneurship among 13-19-year-olds with and without dyslexia. This was a convenience sample. Important to know the young people came from private schools. The results showed that young people in THIS study with dyslexia and without had the same levels of entrepreneurship and the differences were gender-based rather than ND based.

Literature on role models and social networks could explain lower entrepreneurial intentions among the females in the study. ( When reading a research paper what is always important to read are the limitations of the research.

The researchers in this paper rightly state this was not a population sample, it came from private schools, and the age range was very wide. They make a key point that to understand entrepreneurship we need to really explore the “multiple deficit factors” and identify which personal trait(s) creates more impact, both positive and negative, on entrepreneurial self-efficacy perceptions and entrepreneurial intention.

Remember: We all have talents but we don't all have the same opportunities to showcase them.

Some children need to see they have potential in order to believe in an exciting future.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

Let us not repeat the one-line mantras when we actually know they don't really make any sense, or have adequate data behind them. We need more research and this should be a springboard for learning more.

Knowledge is a journey and never a destination.

We need to have more open conversations that will allow real change to happen. We don't have all the answers but we have a lot of great questions!

The blog author

I am Amanda Kirby, CEO of?Do-IT Solutions ?a tech-for-good company that delivers web-based screening tools and training that help 1000s of people deliver person-centered solutions relating to neurodiversity and wellbeing.

I am a mixed bag of experiences and skills and have 25+ years of working in the field of neurodiversity. I am a medical doctor, Professor, and have a Ph.D. in the field of neurodiversity; parent and grandparent to neurodivergent wonderful kids and am neurodivergent myself ( bits of me I share!).

Theo Smith and I wrote together the award-winning book?Neurodiversity at Work?Drive Innovation, Performance and Productivity with a Neurodiverse Workforce . I have my 10th book coming out called Neurodiversity in Education coming early in 2023. I have also been voted one of the top 20 Thinkers by?HR magazine for 2022 !

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