I refuse to use ADHD as a crutch. If you know me, you know I don’t like labels… and I especially don’t use my wiring as an excuse. I’ve had my share of accomplishments… a thriving business, community leadership, ministry. All of it possible only by God’s unique design and unearned grace, not my own brilliance.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Everything I’ve built, every door that’s opened… it’s His doing, not mine.
ADHD isn’t a disorder… at least my type isn’t. It’s been my superpower. Yet I struggle with a world that seems personally offended by how my brain works, that tries to force me into their suffocating box.
The traits people call “disordered” are the same ones that built civilizations. Fast reflexes, heightened sensitivity, scanning attention, quick adaptability…these weren’t mistakes in God’s design. They were intentional.
Psa 139:13-14 (NLT) You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Psa 139:14 (KJV) I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
God created people with different kinds of minds for different kinds of work. he same wiring that lets me create and lead well would make me absolutely miserable staring at a spreadsheet for eight hours pretending it’s fulfilling. That’s not disorder… that’s divine design colliding with a system that was never built for people like me.
Recent research proves what any ADHD entrepreneur already knows: people with our wiring outperform neurotypicals in environments that demand rapid decision-making, resource exploration, and adaptability. There’s even a berry-picking study… yes, really… where ADHD-wired people switched to better resources faster and collected more berries overall. When we are not forced into a cubicle… or box… we are exactly what thriving looks like.
The problem isn’t the wiring. The environment is. These traits only get labeled a “disorder” when you’re forced to sit still for eight hours a day, memorize irrelevant information, and conform to systems designed for industrial efficiency… not human brilliance or God’s design.
Not All ADHD Is Created Equal
ADHD isn’t just one thing. Research is finally revealing that the ADHD bucket is too wide… different brain types lumped under one label. This drives me crazy. If there was a better research bucket for my brain, I’d use it. But this is the only one we’ve got, so here I am.
For some, ADHD means genuine executive dysfunction… major battles with starting, planning, following through. To be fair, many days that’s my life too. There are days I circle one basic task all morning, knowing exactly what needs to be done, and still can’t make myself touch it until the pressure is blazing.
But the crazy thing is….that same brain that stalls me out, can also, when the urgency hits right, deliver what looks like superhuman output. The fight is real. The gifts are real. And the research is only just starting to explain how both can be true in the same brain, at the same time.
My brain runs on an interest-based nervous system… it fires up through novelty, challenge, urgency, and passion. Throw me a compelling project and I can hyperfocus for ten hours. But point me at something I “should” do… because it’s “important,” on someone else’s schedule… and my brain just stalls. It’s not a flaw. It’s just a different engine.
So yes, I deal with executive dysfunction. But it comes wrapped in the same wiring that lets me be creative, adaptable, relentless, and unstoppable.
The struggle isn’t ability… it’s that God wired me for environments that reward exploration, creativity, rapid adaptation, and bold action. Not compliance, routine, and “but we’ve always done it this way.”
That’s not dysfunction. That’s divine design running on a different operating system
God Built America With ADHD Brains
The people who built this nation weren’t the cautious, routine-loving types. They were risk-takers, rebels, explorers… the ADHD phenotype in its full glory.
The Founding Fathers exhibited classic ADHD traits.
John Adams showed emotional instability, irrational behavior, and great anxiety… the same emotional dysregulation those of us with ADHD live with constantly.
Alexander Hamilton was hot-tempered, impulsive, writing non-stop like he was running out of time. His inability to sit still, his hyperfocus on writing, and his impulsive decision-making (which ultimately led to his death in a duel) are textbook ADHD.
Benjamin Franklin bounced between dozens of inventions and projects, never content to focus on just one thing… the ultimate ADHD polymath.
These weren’t character flaws. These were the traits that helped build a nation.
The Wild West settlers were nomadic, adventure-seeking, anti-routine. The gene variant linked to ADHD (DRD4 7R) is literally called “the explorer gene”… associated with novelty-seeking, risk-taking, and the need for stimulation. The people who blazed trails through wilderness and risked everything for freedom were ADHD brains doing exactly what God designed them to do.
The Superpower Reality
None of the good that’s come to my life happened because I “managed my disorder.” It’s because, by God’s grace, I learned to lean into how He made me… warts and all.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand” (Ephesians 2:10).
When I feel overwhelmed, I turn to prayer. Deep, intense… sometimes sobbing-into-the-carpet prayer. That’s my path… prayer and dependence on God over medication. For others, medication provides essential support. Each journey is different, and God meets us where we are.
While I’m highly caffeinated, I have chosen not to use pharmaceuticals that might blunt my creativity or to alter how my mind works. God made this brain with all its intensity, and I depend on Him to help me navigate this world with it.
The research backs this up: Entrepreneurs are twice as likely to have ADHD as the general population. People with ADHD are nearly three times more likely to run their own businesses. The “wild idea chasers” are the ones building, creating, leading.
Consider names like: Richard Branson. Bill Gates. Walt Disney. Daymond John. They didn’t succeed despite their ADHD, but because of it. The hyperfocus, the risk tolerance, the ability to see patterns others miss… those built empires.
Dr. Johan Wiklund, Syracuse University professor who studies entrepreneurship and ADHD, interviewed ADHD entrepreneurs and found: “If they had a chance to be like everyone else, none of them would take it.” I concur… as frustrating as it can be at times, I would not swap places with a person leading a boring life.
Is it easy? Nope. I struggle in a society not designed for my wiring. Social norms, schedules, and the dreaded details challenge me every day. Our society thrives on being on time, remembering appointments, tracking details… basically all the things my brain finds unbearably tedious.
But… I keep fighting—not to be “normal,” but to create an environment where I can thrive as God intends.
Hunter in a Farmer’s World
Our ancestors didn’t have ADHD support groups or special education programs. They had societies that valued and utilized the unique gifts these individuals brought to their communities.
Thom Hartmann, in his groundbreaking book ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer’s World, proposed that humans spent much of their history in hunter-gatherer societies. For thousands of years, the “hunter” brain… always on the move, responds quickly to stimuli, attends to several things at one time… was essential for survival.
In hunting societies, distractibility was an asset. Noticing movement in the periphery, abandoning depleting resources for new opportunities, making split-second decisions… these kept people alive. Impulsivity meant quick reflexes. High energy meant constant vigilance.
Then came the agricultural revolution. Suddenly, society needed the “farmer” brain… methodical, detail-oriented, comfortable with repetition. Farmers couldn’t be distracted by butterflies. They needed to focus on one task all day, every day, for months. That structured, routinized world—demanding sustained focus and repetitive tasks… conflicts directly with the ADHD hunter brain. Our modern world is built for farmers, from 9-to-5 jobs to public schools. The problem isn’t the hunters. It’s that we’ve forgotten what they have to offer.
You want to see what the hunter wiring looks like today? That “hunter” mindset… that restlessness, that need to pivot, that urge to chase the next opportunity… has been my entire business story.
Here’s my life… full of God’s provision and wild pivots:
My IT company started as a custom computer store, then pivoted to repair, then pagers, cell phones, Xbox repair… each shift keeping us alive until we became a thriving managed services provider.
Our cookie business, Hello Chonky Cookie Co. followed the same path. We planned a retail store, then grabbed an opportunity with DoorDash. Now we run a factory producing over 10,000 cookies weekly with 125 virtual storefronts nationwide. That reinvention was so completely transformative, I sold the IT company to go all-in.
A farmer builds one thing and tends it for decades. A hunter adapts, pivots, abandons depleting resources, and pursues new opportunities the moment they appear. That’s not a disorder. That’s survival instinct. That’s God’s design at work. That’s the wiring God gave me.
And it’s the only reason I’m still standing.
I Will Not Apologize For The Way My Brain Works
ADHD is only a negative when I don’t meet other people’s expectations. That’s when the anxiety, the fear, and all the insecurities start to rise up… the part nobody talks about. (My next blog post will tackle these in detail.)
God didn’t build these brains defective. He didn’t build them disordered. He built them on purpose, for a purpose. These traits weren’t accidents….they were designed for specific roles that societies have always needed.
“The Lord has made everything for its purpose” (Proverbs 16:4).
I’m not broken. My kids aren’t broken. We’re just wired differently… by God’s intentional design. The world keeps insisting we change to fit their model….but what if our model is exactly what the world needs?
The question isn’t “How do we fix ADHD?” It’s “How do we design environments where this operating system thrives?”
What if the real disorder is a society that tries to force pioneers into cubicles, scouts into spreadsheets, and hunters into assembly lines?
God built the dreamers, the builders, the rebels. And He didn’t make a mistake.
Wired Differently: Life and Leadership Outside the Box 
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