The Outlier's Advantage
Why Thinking Differently Is the Smartest Thing About You
My hands were shaking. The words stuck in my throat and then evaporated altogether as a fog pressed in on the corners of my mind. I was presenting the annual financials to a roomful of executives in a Chicago boardroom. The silence seemed endless, and the awareness of this lapse triggered the faint response—my mind unplugged from reality.
I was a district manager for a drug store chain, responsible for asset and loss prevention across multiple stores and states. No private office. Just constant motion: on the road, in meetings, answering to higher-ups about financials filled with numbers I couldn’t justify. My job was built around conflict. Confronting employees about theft, investigating missing pharmacy drugs, and interviewing people using techniques designed to extract confessions.
I was capable. Smart. Determined. This was what success looked like—leadership, power, upward mobility. I told myself I wanted those things.
But that day in Chicago, my system shut down in front of the whole C-suite ensemble, which thrived in these environments.
My body was speaking up for me when I wasn’t brave enough—or awake enough—to listen.
I quit shortly after.
For months, I sat in my home library unable to function. I did the only thing I could do: I read. Book after book after book. My escape. My regulation. My place of coherence after months of overstimulation.
What looked like failure was actually my nervous system saying, “This environment is incompatible with your brain.”
If you’ve ever felt this—if you’ve ever forced yourself into roles that required constant performance, constant conflict, constant stimulation, and then watched yourself break—you already know what I’m talking about.
You’re not broken, even though your ego might tell you otherwise.
You’re an outlier in a world built for averages.
And outliers operate differently. Neither good nor bad. It just is what it is. But like most things, it can be an advantage if you let it.
The Pattern I Couldn’t See
This wasn’t the first time. It was a pattern.
In high school, I resonated deeply with Ponyboy and the greasers in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders—but I didn’t want to be seen as one of them. I kept a soft spot in my heart for people struggling to fit in, but I told myself I was different. I can do this. I will do this. I will be successful in the ways the world defines success.
As a young adult, I’d been fine in business management—working quietly, solving problems, helping people. But then came the promotions. More social responsibility. More pressing deadlines. And then the overwhelm would bring me to my knees. I’d have to quit.
I’d do a 180. This isn’t me. I don’t care about money. I want to work alone. Do art. Create beautiful things in a studio.
I’d flip-flop back and forth across my life—from the business push my brain knew I should be doing, to the creative retreat my nervous system was begging for.
What I really wanted was to be like the artist in the movie, Cast Away. Not Tom Hanks stranded on the island—that was too much fear, too much isolation. I didn’t want to be an outcast. I wanted what this woman had: autonomy within the everyday world. The sculptor in her barn, working alone in overalls while sunlight streamed through the cracks in the boards, illuminating the dust circling in the air. The simplicity. The control over her own days.
But in my mind, there wasn’t any respect in that. No leadership accolades to prove my capabilities. Ok...and no big money—read between the lines: resorts and retreats in far-off lands packed full of adventure.
So I kept pushing. Kept overriding. Kept forcing myself into roles that required exactly what drained me most.
Until my nervous system finally said, “Enough.”
What I Didn’t Know Then
For years, I thought this pattern was my personal failing. A character flaw. A lack of discipline or grit.
Then I became a grandmother and primary caregiver to Jaycee Iris. My sweet girl with high-functioning autism, PDA (pathological demand avoidance or what many prefer, persistent demand for autonomy), anxiety, and Tourette’s. She is an amplified version of myself.
She has opened my eyes to learning and living from a new perspective. Not as a deficit, but as different. And brilliant. Her filters are constantly on high alert. Watching her is like watching my younger self with the volume turned up.
I wanted to know more about how to help her. And by default, help myself. And maybe you, too.
So I started researching neurodivergence, introversion, and how different nervous systems process and succeed in the world.
And that’s when everything changed.
The Research Is Clear
Even if corporate culture hasn’t caught up yet.
Companies like SAP, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft have redesigned their hiring processes to include neurodivergent professionals. The results? Higher productivity. Sharper quality. Expanded innovation. Better team engagement.
Why? Because neurodivergent individuals often excel in pattern recognition, attention to detail, and complex problem-solving, they are valuable assets in innovative environments.
Let me put this in plain language:
We notice things other people miss. While someone else is looking at the big picture, we’re seeing the crack in the foundation, the inconsistency in the data, the person whose body language doesn’t match their words. We catch details that matter.
We think in connections, not just categories. Most people see a problem in isolation. We see how it’s connected to three other issues, two past experiences, and a pattern we noticed six months ago. This isn’t overthinking—it’s systems thinking. And it’s how you solve complex problems.
When we care about something, we go all in. This is called hyperfocus, and it’s our superpower. When something captures our interest, we don’t just learn about it—we become the expert. We read everything. We connect all the dots. We see possibilities nobody else sees.
We create solutions because we have to. The world wasn’t built for our brains, so we’ve spent our whole lives figuring out workarounds, shortcuts, and better ways to do things. This makes us natural innovators—not because we’re trying to be clever, but because we’re trying to survive.
We’re comfortable with depth. Speed wins in meetings and on tests. But depth? That’s where real understanding lives. And depth requires the kind of sustained, focused thinking that comes naturally to us when we’re given the space to do it.
This isn’t theory. This is research-backed, company-tested, and lived-experience-proven.
The world rewards speed. But understanding requires slowness. Insight requires depth. Original thinking requires a brain that doesn’t automatically follow the crowd.
That’s the outlier advantage.
RESEARCH NOTE:
Awareness and active engagement with neurodivergent strengths are correlated with increased well-being, better emotional regulation, and improved life satisfaction in individuals with autism and ADHD.
The Three Pillars: How Outliers Self-Regulate
Through years of research and lived experience, I’ve come to understand three non-negotiable practices that enable neurodivergent brains to operate at full capacity.
Neurodivergent people don’t need more discipline. They need regulation.
Walking regulates the body.
Story regulates the heart.
Writing regulates the mind.
These are not productivity hacks. They’re physiological requirements.
Walking
Movement is not optional. Movement regulates.
For outliers, walking is often the difference between clarity and collapse. It processes emotion, resets the nervous system, and reduces overwhelm when demands pile up.
I don’t walk as exercise—though that’s a side benefit. I walk as meditation. For someone with ADHD, a sitting meditation can be a real challenge.
Quiet audiobooks or music are helpful. They provide enough stimulation to steady the mind while allowing enough space to process thoughts quietly—just enough additional stimulus to prevent boredom and distraction.
Walking meditation is beneficial for neurodivergent minds because the bilateral rhythm of walking (left-right-left) calms the nervous system, much like EMDR or rhythmic tapping. The steady movement gives the mind a gentle sensory anchor, interrupting overwhelm and rumination while restoring clarity, focus, and emotional balance.
Walking isn’t exercise. It’s how I think. It’s how I prepare for difficult conversations. It’s how I recover from them.
Engaging in Story
Story is not entertainment for neurodivergent brains. It’s infrastructure.
Books and movies provide something our nervous systems desperately need: a predictable structure that helps us make sense of an unpredictable world.
For many neurodivergent minds, story structure acts like an external executive function system. Narrative gives us beginning → middle → end. Stakes → cause and effect → resolution. Character motivations and predictable arcs. This provides the coherence and organization that our brains crave but often struggle to impose on real life.
Story also regulates. When you’re immersed in a book or film, you’re in a controlled environment with predictable sensory input, one focus at a time, and emotional distance with emotional payoff. This allows the nervous system to downshift. It’s why many of us rewatch the same movies or reread the same books—it’s not just comfort, it’s regulation.
But perhaps most importantly, story helps us process feelings that are hard to access directly. Many neurodivergent people struggle with identifying emotions (alexithymia) or experience emotional flooding. Narrative provides a safe, indirect container. You can feel through a character what you might not be able to verbalize yourself.
Books are more than information. They are companions, friends, and mentors. Conversation partners that don’t require small talk—something most introverts and neurodivergent people despise.
Books let you go deep from page one—no social performance. No noise. Only clarity, frameworks, and the minds of diverse thinkers.
FROM HELEN HOANG, AUTISTIC AUTHOR:
“Autism is not a processing error. It’s a different operating system.”
Story provides the structure that lets our operating system run smoothly.
The Audiobook Advantage
Something that might help those with focus issues: utilize audiobooks while reading the text.
Reading with an audiobook playing at the same time is one of the most effective tools for neurodivergent readers because it reduces cognitive load while increasing comprehension. Instead of relying solely on the eyes to decode text, track lines, maintain pacing, and sustain attention, the audio provides an external guide—a steady rhythm, tone, and structure that the brain can relax into.
This multi-sensory approach engages both visual and auditory pathways, syncing the brain’s language centers and making reading feel smoother, more grounded, and far less effortful.
The audio also supplies prosody—the emotion, pacing, and “music” of language—which many neurodivergent readers struggle to access from text alone. The result is better focus, higher retention, and a more immersive reading experience.
For neurodivergent minds, reading and listening aren’t crutches. It’s a form of regulation and clarity, turning reading into a rhythmic, supported process that the brain can genuinely enjoy.
Writing
Writing is the cognitive offload system. Although it can be a great therapeutic tool, I’m referring to its ability to clarify thoughts. It helps provide infrastructure.
When too many ideas, worries, or sensory impressions accumulate, writing gives the brain somewhere to put them. It externalizes the swirl.
FROM DANIEL KAHNEMAN, THINKING, FAST AND SLOW:
“Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.”
Writing does precisely this—it deploys attention and organizes what’s stored in memory.
Reading + Writing: The Double-Dip
Combining reading and writing is a double-dip of sweetness. I use a variation of Ryan Holiday’s note-taking system to capture and engage with ideas in books or articles. It’s a bridge between input and insight. It supports my thought organization and information processing, and now that I’m getting older, it serves as a second brain of sorts—a place to keep thoughts from drifting off into the atmosphere.
You should be writing every day. It may not be in a journal. It may look like John F. Kennedy when he scribbled thoughts on paper while thinking through the Cuban Missile Crisis. It may look messy and span digital inputs, random notebooks, sticky notes, or brain dumps on restaurant napkins. But engage in writing consistently. Don’t try to keep your thoughts organized in your brain. It’s too much.
Taking notes while reading is not optional for me. It’s the bridge between input and insight, supporting thought organization and information processing.
Building a Business for Your Brain
Understanding the three pillars is one thing. Actually structuring your work around them? That’s where most people get stuck.
Because here’s the truth: knowing you need walking, story, and writing doesn’t help if your calendar is crammed with tasks and obligations that leave no room to breathe. Understanding your advantages doesn’t matter if you’re spending 80% of your time on work that drains your capacity and doesn’t engage your strengths.
If you’re a solopreneur—or thinking about becoming one—you have a rare opportunity: you get to design the conditions under which you work.
But only if you’re willing to say yes to the right things and no to everything else.
What to Say YES To
These aren’t nice-to-haves. These are the non-negotiables that allow outlier brains to access their full capacity.
Autonomy Over Process
You need control over how you work, not just what you work on. This means:
Choosing your own hours (even if clients expect “business hours” responses)
Deciding which communication channels you use (email, yes, constant Slack presence, no)
Structuring projects around deliverables, not time spent
Working in the environment that regulates your nervous system (for most of us: quiet, alone, with control over sensory input)
When someone tries to dictate your process, they’re not just being difficult—they’re asking you to operate in a way that’s incompatible with how your brain works best.
Deep Work Over Performative Busyness
Outlier brains thrive on depth, not breadth. This means:
Long blocks of uninterrupted time (3-4 hours minimum)
Projects that require sustained thinking, not quick reactions
Work that lets you go deep into research, strategy, or creation
Space to think before you respond (not real-time collaboration on everything)
The world will pressure you to be “responsive” and “available.” But your best work happens when you’re unreachable.
Interest-Led Projects
This isn’t about being picky or precious. It’s about brain chemistry. When neurodivergent brains are interested, we don’t just work harder—we access capabilities that aren’t available otherwise. This means:
Turning down projects that don’t genuinely engage you (even if they pay well)
Building your business around problems you actually care about solving
Letting yourself specialize instead of trying to be a generalist
Following curiosity even when it looks like a detour
If you’re bored, you won’t just do mediocre work—you’ll struggle to function at all. Interest isn’t a luxury for us. It’s the ignition key.
What to Say NO To
These are the business “best practices” that work for neurotypical brains but drain the energy of outliers. You’re not being difficult by saying no. You’re being strategic.
Meetings That Could Be Anything Else
Every unnecessary meeting costs you more than the time it takes up on your calendar. It costs you:
The prep time (anxiety, mental rehearsal)
The recovery time (sensory overwhelm, social exhaustion)
The context-switching cost (pulling yourself out of deep work)
I do client meetings once a quarter at most. Everything else gets resolved through Slack, email, or Zoom audio clips with screen shares. If someone can’t explain what they need in writing, they don’t know what they need yet.
Performance Theater
This is the work of looking busy instead of actually working. It includes:
Status update meetings where nothing gets decided
Constant availability expectations (being “on” in Slack all day)
Co-working sessions where the goal is visibility, not productivity
Networking events designed around small talk
You don’t need to prove you’re working. You actually need to work.
Rigid Schedules That Ignore Your Nervous System
Your brain has rhythms. Some days, you have the capacity to take on client work. Some days, you may only have the capacity to walk or read…or lose yourself in a Netflix drama. Some weeks, you can work 40 focused hours. Some weeks, you need 20+ hours of full-on recovery.
Fighting this pattern doesn’t make you more productive. It makes you less functional. Build flexibility into your business model—or you’ll keep breaking.
What This Means for You
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably one of us.
You’ve spent years trying to follow productivity systems designed for neurotypical brains—and wondering why they never stick. You’ve forced yourself into roles that required constant performance, constant availability, and constant proof that you’re working hard enough.
You’ve wondered why you feel out of place and misaligned.
But here’s what I know for sure: You’re just fine. You’re an outlier in a world built for averages.
And outliers don’t follow existing paths. We build new ones.
The corporate world will tell you that success requires speed, visibility, and constant collaboration. That you need to be “on” all the time. That autonomy is a luxury and flexibility is a weakness.
But that’s not true for us. For outliers, those conditions aren’t just uncomfortable—they’re unsustainable. They lead to shutdown periods and lengthy recovery times where you can’t function and don’t know why.
The good news? You don’t have to keep forcing yourself into systems that weren’t designed for your brain.
You can build differently.
You can structure your work around walking, reading, and writing instead of meetings, hustle, and performance theater.
You can say yes to autonomy, deep work, and interest-led projects—and no to everything that drains your capacity without utilizing your strengths.
You can work fewer hours and produce better results because those hours are aligned with how your nervous system actually operates.
This isn’t about accommodating a disability. It’s about optimizing a strength.
This is the business guidance I needed at 23 when I was trying to force myself into corporate culture. And at 38, when I finally admitted I couldn’t. And at 58, when I built something that actually works.
Maybe it’s what you need now.
Join Me
Welcome to The Outlier’s Advantage.
If this resonated with you, subscribe for free to get future essays on building businesses for neurodivergent brains. I write about:
The real advantages of thinking differently (backed by research, not platitudes)
Practical strategies for solopreneurs who need autonomy, not hustle culture
How to use walking, reading, and writing as business infrastructure
What it actually looks like to build workaround recovery, not just productivity
This work is for outliers, introverts, neurodivergent thinkers, and anyone who’s ever felt like the world’s operating system wasn’t written for them.
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Have questions about building a business for your brain? Drop them in the comments. I read and respond to everything.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Austin, R. D., & Pisano, G. P. (2017). Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/05/neurodiversity-as-a-competitive-advantage
Cain, S. (2012). Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Broadway Books.
I AM Autism. (2024). 30 Strengths of Neurodiversity. https://i-am-autism.org.uk/30-strengths-of-neurodiversity-part-1/
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Mentra. The Benefits of Neurodiversity in the Workplace. https://www.mentra.com/guide-to-the-untapped-strengths-of-neurodivergence
Scientific Reports. (2025). A survey of knowledge and perceptions of ADHD and autism spectrum disorder in the workplace. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-17470-8
Love this perspectiv! Our bodies are the ultimat QA team. How do we listen before the system crashes? Seriously smart.
This all sounds familiar Victoria, thanks for researching and sharing it. Now that it's getting colder, I need to get back to walking at the gym - it does make a difference!