Bonnie Mincu interviews Tracy Brown (Segment 3 of 4). Although Tracy had reached an extraordinarily high success in sales and leadership at Mary Kay Cosmetics by age 26, she had no idea that she was ADHD. It was only after reporting feeling mentally foggy after having her second child that her doctor told her she'd always been that way -- and was probably ADD.
Tracy was prescribed Adderall, and saw an immediate difference in her ability to focus on getting work done. Instead of working on several projects at once, she was able to start a project and finish it before moving on to another. Within six months of diagnosis (and treatment), she went from managing a team of 60 salespeople to 300. And that success earned her a pink Cadillac from the company -- a famous prize awarded to only the top 1% of performers worldwide.
Tracy then expanded her career into a new direction: fund-raising. Her "Pink in the Park" event to raise money for breast and uterine cancer became the most successful in the country.
As Tracy tells her story, it's clear how her mindset, life philosophy and approach to leadership was critical to the kind of success she achieved, and how she used her ADHD to her advantage.