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How ADHD Affects Your Company's Value

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Have you ever wondered why you get bored with a business after a few years of running it?

Chances are you might have some of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

It’s a real thing.

Richard Branson has it, and says that is why he didn’t last in school, had started a handful of businesses before his 25th birthday and never runs anything he starts. JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman has spoken about his ADHD and credits the disorder for his creativity, vision and willingness to take risks. Mark Patey, the founder of Prodigy Engineering, told me, when I interviewed him last year, that he credits his ADHD for his success.

Scientists also agree that a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs have ADHD. While the incidence rate of ADHD in the adult population is 4%, Dr. Ned Hallowell thinks it could be much higher and wonders if all entrepreneurs have a form of ADHD.

How ADHD Shrinks Your Company’s Value

Regardless of whether you have ADHD or exhibit a couple of the symptoms, a short-term mindset could be detracting significantly from your company’s value. My day job is running The Value Builder System where we help entrepreneurs increase the value of their companies. To begin, we ask each owner to complete a short questionnaire and among the questions we ask are:

  • Have you received an offer to buy your business in the last year?
  • How many more years do you intend to run your company independently before selling it?

We recently analyzed the data from more than 25,000 business owners who have answered these questions and found something surprising: the longer you intend to run your company before selling it, the more likely you are to have received an offer and the higher those offers tend to be.

Let me repeat that: people not planning to sell are getting more and better offers. Does that sound counterintuitive to you?

Buyers like to invest in companies whose founders intend to stick around and they will pay a premium for owners who are willing to invest decades in the growth of their business. Most small companies are bought using some form of holdback or golden handcuffs that force the owner to stick around for a few years, so buyers want to know you’re in it for the long game.

If running one business for a decade or more sounds like torture to you, I would suggest you think about your business life the way baseball players think about On Base Percentage (OBP), i.e., the percentage of times you get on base. Your OBP includes walks, hits, bunts or pretty much anything else you can do to scratch and claw your way to first base.

Most OBP leaders are not home run leaders—instead they focus on getting to first base one way or another. Rod Carew, the legendary all-star who played for the Twins and Angels, had a lifetime OBP of .393, made possible by 3,053 hits but only 93 home runs. In other words, when Carew stepped up to the plate, he was trying to get on base, not just hit a home run.

The OBP Entrepreneur

Peter Shankman has ADHD. He started a business called Help A Reporter Out (HARO) which connected journalists to experts in various fields via an email list service. After just three years he had eclipsed $1 million in annual revenue and decided it was time to sell.

With a million in sales and just two full-time employees, HARO was likely very profitable, so when I interviewed Shankman this week for Built to Sell Radio, I asked him why he sold such a gold mine so early.

He explained that he was ready to move on from HARO and do something else. Part of me thought he left a lot of money on the table in selling so early, but in thinking more about it after the interview, I think Shankman probably did what felt right for him.

He was trying to get on base, not hit a home run. A number of relatively small exits in a career can add up to the same amount of money as one big exit. While the latter is a more traditional route to wealth, you can also have a very rewarding career as an entrepreneur by having a number of smaller exits.