Addictive Personalities and Successful Leaders

Did you know that some of our most respected figures in history were addicts of some kind? Not only were Sigmund Freud and Winston Churchill addicts in their day, but perhaps the most recent known successful addict in today’s times is the founder of the multi-billion dollar company, Broadcom, Mr. Henry T. Nicholas III.

Nicholas began with a mere $10,000 investment and has since become a billionaire with over 5,100 patents. He has struggled with many drug addictions including cocaine and Ecstasy, and eventually entered drug rehab in 2008. More recently, he has successfully escaped charges for both distribution of drugs and stock option backdating accusations.

These are not the typical qualities we think of in successful businesspeople, yet the psychological makeup that drives a person to succeed is often that of a risk-taker who may have a compulsive nature of sorts. Personality traits that are often labeled as obsessive can make people quite effective in their work environment.

A key motivational factor to learning is usually pleasure or reward. This pleasure factor induces neurological signals that touch on the group of brain areas interconnected in the medial forebrain known as the pleasure circuit. Researchers are only in the beginning stages of understanding genetics and the role it plays in addiction. They believe it is possible a number of different genes are part of this trait, according to a recent article in The New York Times.

For some leaders, the brain chemistry leading them to addictive behavior are what allow them to succeed despite their addictive problems. Don’t rule out someone with a dopamine overload when looking for your company’s next leader, as they just might be famous one day. Susan J. Campbell