Aspies suck at business

Post Reply New Topic

Let me say that I think it is almost impossible for someone being an Aspie to be any good at business. Business takes a lot of flexibility in thinking. You have to take in consideration so many new variables into effect everyday. I can speak from experience on this. If I get my mind made up on a way something should be, I'll stick with that opinion to the grave. It is all black and white. No gray. In business you have to be able to take a good look at all variables and all possible avenues. I'll get fixated on one way and go with it, losing out a lot of the time when a better choice was right in front of my face. I can't stand for there to be anything not completed in my life or uncertainty. So if I want to purchase something I'll sometimes purchase the item (car, house, stocks, etc.) now to get the uncertainty out of my life. However, if I had a great business mind I would have been patient and waiting for a better opportunity.
Also in business you need to be able to read what people are thinking, being nice, and playing golf is a good thing too. lol

Look at all the traits of an aspie and then compare it to business. It's like mixing oil with water.

1. Not being good with communciation.
2. Having difficulties with social situations.
3. Not being flexible.
4. Not being able to look at the overall picture
5. Wanting sameness

I don't think it's impossible, but the cards are stacked against us when you think of the social aspects: the wheeling and dealing, negotiating, and all the "unwritten" social codes. I understand business on the surface level: supply and demand, etc. But if you've seen BACK TO SCHOOL with Rodney Dangerfield, I think he captured the reality in the scene where he tells the economics teacher he's living in a fantasyland if he thinks the payoffs, etc. can be ignored. People with superior skills don't succeed as much as those with the superior "social skills."

Tell it to Bill Gates. He seems to have done OK.

Most people suck at business. Half of all new businesses fail within 5 years - they're not all run by Aspies. Business is just a hard field to succeed in. Sure, there are some aspects in which those with AS will struggle, but the focus and innovation that they can also bring reap different rewards. I'm not sure it's any tougher for someone with AS, especially if you can find an NT to partner with.

Judging by my various managers, like mmaestro says, NT people can be crap at running businesses too.
I found my AS made me a bit crap at management, but I'm sure some of us are good at it? anyone?

As George Carlin so nicely put it:

A business transaction is a situation where two guys are talking, and they are both trying to screw the other guy as hard as they possibly can.

(I saw it once in one of his performances, and I can't remember it close enough to quote it accurately.)

Actually Bill Gates ******FAILED*******! He would have ended up far poorer than he started, and possibly in jail(He LOVED driving recklessly), if not for Paul Allen! Paul Allen SHOULD have had most of the stock, but he gave into Bill Gates whining about how he originally was more involved.

I don't think flexibility, or handling several things is necessarily hard for an Aspie.

For a couple of years I had a thriving eBay business. I made good money for the time I put into it and I actually enjoyed the work bit. For the most part, customers weren't bad and communication required of the transactions was minimal. But there were always those people! Once I sold a $1200 pair of competition skates for $550. The woman raised hell about one of the wheels having a tiny flat spot and demanded I make it right (even though I listed the wheels as used and in need of replacement). I told her that since a new set of wheels is $65, I'd give her the $8 for the replacement of the one wheel. I also let her know that I found her annoying and greedy - she got a darn nice pair of skates for less than half of their worth and she wouldn't shut up about ONE WHEEL. She finally stopped pestering me.

Then there were the people who e-mailed me threats of negative feedback because the POST OFFICE wasn't delivering their item fast enough (I shipped items FAST to avoid confrontations, but sometimes mail just moves slow).

Then there were people who refused the option of insuring their item for a dollar, then demanded a full refund because it was damaged or lost in transit.

Then there were people who didn't know there own size in a clothing item and blamed me for it.

When eBay nearly doubled their seller fees and store fees, I closed my store and ended the business. It was a huge relief not to deal with the constant onslaught of morons anymore.

Would I consider myself bad at business? Well, yes, especially since being a business owner requires a measure of buttkissing and I wouldn't do that to save my own skin.

I used to sell candies in highschool. I gained money for playing at the arcade videogames everyday after school, and other minor expenses. But I felt it was a stressful activity, that's the reason I stopped selling candies.

I read once that some AS people need somekind of a bussines and money advisor. Maybe it's true, I feel I can expend all my money in useless things, and an advisor could help me to control my expenses.

i agree! i defintly couldnt run a business, one thing i find wierd is that most of what i see on tv today is geared twords everyone owing a business someday. much like being a home owner, thats just not realistic. is this some kind of propaganda?

Aspies are often quite good at written communication. An online business may well work for an Aspie.

The trick is to run the business in a way that caters to your strengths and disguises your weaknesses. I think Aspies can do that.

Aspies just have to learn how to be flexible in their jobs and do as they are told. They have to learn how to accept interuptions in their job and stop what they are doing for now and return back to it when they are done. Or is that too hard for them to do or impossible? It was hard for me but is it harder for true aspies?


I used to get upset alot at my last job because I didn't like being interupted what I was doing and I always had to finish what I was doing first before I could deliver linen to the housekeepers and I'd break down everytime I had to take a different route to pick up laundry. Then it turn out it wasn't a big deal after all when I start doing it and I feel dumb for having anxiety for nothing. So I learned how to try something first before I have anxiety because it might not be that bad. I also had to learn how to multi task because my boss expected me to do more than one thing at once. So my last job made me gain some NT skills. I want to suceed in my life, not be one of those aspies who can't even have a job and she doesn't even have AS.

Surprisingly, I have learned how to do quite well doing business online despite major areas of weakness. The thing is that selling online allows a lot of room for imperfection and inefficiency. I can do everything in my own time (pretty much), break it down into tiny and simple steps, and only have to work as much as I'm able to and when and how I'm able to. Tons of flexibility to allow for the extra challenges, and most of my customers never even know that there is anything 'different' about me. (See my WWW below to see one of the online stores that I've been building for the past 13 months.) Looking at any of my online stores, customers can't see the extreme disorganization of my home, they can't tell that I sometimes have to re-read an email that I'm sending a dozen times to make sure that what I typed makes sense, they can't tell that sometimes it takes me days to FIND an item that needs to be shipped and get it properly packaged, etc.

I haven't done too much with business, but I am exceptionally good at marketing. Plus my parents are both business people, too (CEO and CPA), so I've grown up around it.