Need a Leader? Find an Addict!

What are the qualities that make a leader? One personality trait that seems to be absolutely necessary is the personality of an addict–someone who is a compulsive risk-taker, always seeking the new.

In the July 24th edition of the New York Times, David J. Linden asks the question, "How can this be? We typically see addicts as weak-willed losers, and chief executives and entrepreneurs are people with discipline and fortitude."

But the search for happiness is the key to success in life for all of us, and when it comes to the brain, the "pleasure chemical" dopamine plays a big part in this. Research has shown that people who are prone to addiction have less of this chemical–and therefore more need for it–than the rest of us. And when they get it, it doesn’t make them content, it just makes them want MORE, so they invent the computer or become a great artist or a political leader.

Linden says, "The risk-taking, novelty-seeking and obsessive personality traits often found in addicts can be harnessed to make them very effective in the workplace. For many leaders, it’s not the case that they succeed in spite of their addiction, rather the same brain wiring and chemistry that make them addicts also confer on them behavioral traits that serve them well. So, when searching for your organization’s next leader, look for someone with an attenuated dopamine function: someone who is never satisfied with the status quo, someone who wants the feeling of success more than others–but likes it less."
 
Are you eating MORE but liking it less? (And you may especially not like what it’s doing to your body!) When Anne Strieber found her clothes were getting too tight, she thought they had all shrunk, until she realized she had gained weight due to Type II diabetes, a genetic condition that manifests in late middle age and makes it easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. She not only discovered WHY some of us have this gene, but what to do about it, and after three years of diet and exercise, she managed to lose 100 pounds–and YOU can too! This isn’t an advice book written by a doctor or celebrity, it’s a diet book written by a REAL DIETER, who sympathizes with what you’re going through that has helped thousands of people to shed those unwanted pounds.