27 Jul 2026
St Albans business leader Nick Silverstone spent decades wondering why building businesses felt so much harder than everyone else made it look.
He realised that it was his undiagnosed ADHD and was later given a diagnosis in his mid-fifties after reaching “a devastating personal low point”.
He has turned that experience into a new book in order to help business founders understand the hidden impact of ADHD in business.
Nick said: “Research from the Universities of Leeds and Sussex confirms adults with ADHD are far more likely to start their own business than the wider population, and The Economist states that it is six times more likely.
“What gets left out of that statistic is the cost: the same inattentiveness that drives founders toward self-employment can just as easily undermine the businesses they build, and the people running them.”
Nick has now spent years turning a late diagnosis into a business model. He is founder of The Fractional-MD and Senior Leaders ADHD Coach, and co-founder of the Creative Minds Alliance ADHD Network.
His book ‘Revealing the Invisible Me: Know, Love and Appreciate Your ADHD Self and Embrace Who You Always Should Have Been’ came out earlier this month.
Co-written with ghostwriter Martin Gladdish he describes the book as part memoir, part practical and coaching guide.
Each chapter pairs a personal story from Nick’s life with the coaching lessons behind his F.I.T Framework. It stands for Foundations/Implementation/Transormation, the methodology he created and uses with SME founders and senior leaders across the UK.
Did he know much about ADHD before his diagnosis?
“With two adult children who had been diagnosed for 10 years you would have thought I would have had a good understanding but I have to admit to not taking it seriously enough, which was very much a driving force for ‘well, if that is how I felt, there will be others’ and there are too many.”
But like many people trying to get help in adulthood for neurodivergence, Nick faced a battle: “Let’s just say I have already dropped in a copy of my book to my GP surgery for the person with responsibility for mental health and given a copy to Daisy Cooper too.
“On a scale of one to 100, the support I have had from the NHS is zero. I had to privately fund my diagnosis, follow-up calls, titration and subsidise my medication to the tune of £4,500-plus per annum. It was and is poor.”
What has he found most challenging about living with ADHD?
There is a phrase, Nick said, that if you have met one person with ADHD, you have met one person with ADHD.
“Meaning everyone’s experience is different. However, there is one common link, in my experience which is Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria.”
It is a condition which causes extreme, overwhelming emotional or physical pain triggered by real or perceived criticism, rejection or failure and is most commonly experienced by individuals with ADHD.
He said: “This has always been my nemesis. In the book I refer to two chimps on my shoulder – Hank and Marvin – who were in control of this. Now with my understanding and tactics to manage, I keep it/them at arms length.”
Does he find St Albans to be neurodivergent – friendly?
“That is a great question. Sarah Pascaru and I set up The Creative Minds Alliance, a network for anyone who has ADHD, anyone who might do or anyone who is curious. It is from The White Rooms and we have an average of 35 people turning up to each event.
“We have received nominations both for the Hertfordshire and Nations SME Business awards. As, someone who networks and has been active in the St Albans business community for the last eight years, I cannot think of a more supportive and open community, except from our health service, obviously.”
Some people say ADHD is a superpower, would he agree with that? He said he find this phrase unhelpful for many reasons: “Typically, overwhelm, low self-esteem and feeling like they have something wrong with them are more usual feelings. With suicide or suicide ideation being three times higher than the average population, trying to say to someone they have a superpower does not always land.
“It also irritates those who are not neurodiverse. The way I describe ADHD is that we are ‘wired’ differently to someone who is neurotypical, and therefore our strengths (and weaknesses) are not always obvious or understood. Especially in a world designed for neurotypicals.
“The work I – and many others – do, is to help anyone who is diagnosed or undiagnosed, recognise and play to those strengths and manage the ‘blockers’ that get in the way for them and other surounding them.”
How does having a diagnosis help?
“Not everyone needs a badge of honour and certainly I never had. However, the diagnosis for me was life changing. The feelings I had carried my whole life of not being good enough or feeling like I was constantly failing, suddenly had some context and validated who I was and that I was ‘not a wrong’un’!
“Of course, having a late diagnosis comes with consequences too, hence, the reason for me writing the book but overall, I finding can accept and like me for who I am.”
Nick added: “Nobody warns you what an undiagnosed ADHD brain costs a business, or a person, until it’s nearly too late.
“I wrote this book because I needed it 20 years ago and it didn’t exist. If it helps one founder recognise themselves sooner than I did, it will have done its job.”
All profits will be donated to The OLLIE Foundation, a St Albans-based charity dedicated to suicide prevention, particularly among young people. The book is available on Amazon in digital and paperback form.
