My ADD-ish Work

My work life is a strange-- but effective-- reflection of what it's like to live with ADD, and intuitively understanding how to "work WITH it."

I was drawn to the idea of being self-employed from a pretty early age because working "for" someone seemed incredibly oppressive. And I was not very good at it. Of course, these realizations came to me long before I was aware of such things as ADD. They were simply based on bosses who told me they wished I could stay "more focused" for longer periods of time.

I first ran into the term "patchwork economics" in about 1993 when I was reading a book about "tiny businesses" you could start from home. The basic idea was to choose businesses you could not "make a living" from, so competition would be low... but when adding 5-6 of these businesses together, you'd end up with a decent living. If you chose wisely, you could have a "family" of microbusinesses that would support each other. To me, that sounded like the ideal way to make a living, because it would not only accommodate my short little span of attention, but it would allow me to somehow "harness" my tendency to have "Too Many Interests Syndrome" into something productive.

Of course, it took many years before the idea was turned into some form of reality. The first thing I had to do was let go of "societal conventions" with respect to what "work" and "a career" are supposed to look like. When your perspective — even when you know you're right — represents a tiny minority viewpoint, it takes a certain amount of fortitude to ignore the myriad voices telling you that you're doing a "stupid" or "wrong" thing, and that "it will never work."

Anyway, 20-some years later my work life consists of (A) writing articles on the web, and off; (B) keeping a couple of — quite distinct — eBay businesses; (C) Organizing retreats and self-development workshops (with my wife); (D) creating and selling a unique type of art; (E) being a free-lance book editor; (F) assisting my with with her small non-profit organization; (G) conducting workshops for highly sensitive persons (HSPs) and (H) Doing some occasional "solopreneurship" consulting.

Maybe that sounds like a LOT, but in some odd way it allows me to "flit around" between tasks, and still remain productive.

Do I work on all eight, on any given day? Nope. Rarely. Some days — and weeks, even — I may only work with one of them. However, having all eight takes away a lot of the pressure that comes with "feeling stuck in a rut," which actually makes "sticking to it" somewhat easier... because "it" is not just one thing.

"Could I" be making a lot more money as — say — a corporate attorney, bank president, accountant or engineer? 

Well, that's the million-dollar question, isn't it? 

On paper, the answer should be a resounding "YES!" because I have the education and experience to do so. But then I have to ask the question "WHOSE priorities are represented by striving to 'make a lot more money' and by striving to have a 'respectable career?'" Not mine. 

Everything in life comes with a "price," of sorts. In this case there's a tradeoff of one fear of not "having what it takes" and basically hating my life, and another fear of not being able to make ends meet on a daily basis, and definitely not having any money available for luxuries and niceties. 

The latter — whereas it may not be convenient or practical — at least feels authentic, to me.