That everyone in America has ADD and/or OCD?
A few weeks ago, I went to visit a new client on their premises. They'd lost a long-time bookkeeper who wasn't doing things correctly to begin with, and they needed help figuring out how to get their Qbooks straightened out so they could file tax returns, which hadn't been done since 2015.
Norm was my contact. As we discussed possibilities about the best way to move forward, Norm kept saying, "Well, I have OCD..." and "with my OCD..." His point was that his inclination was to go back and get all the old transactions absolutely correct, even though it would take an enormous amount of time. I was more of the inclination of using broad numbers for prior years and not worrying so much about the fine details, especially since his CPA, who would do the actual taxes, was more of the latter mode. I kept blowing off Norm's OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) comments, because I've heard throughout my working life from clients who proclaim that they have ADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder -- not being able to focus). I hear it so much that I realized that the layman's definition of ADD is "Too busy to get to everything I want to get to" and/or "Too many things on my mind to remember everything I want to remember." That's not ADD -- it's being a member of the human race.
I got tired of Norm, who was otherwise a very likable person, proclaiming that he had OCD, which was his way of putting "yeah, but" defensives to solutions I was trying to offer. So, I finally asked him outright, "Have you actually been diagnosed with OCD?" No, he admitted that he hadn't. He just said he had OCD because he liked to do things in precise ways. Now that he was "found out", things moved more quickly and he ended up agreeing that it didn't make sense to go back three years and try to clean up Qbooks transaction-by-transaction for three years. We'd instead start fresh with a new file for 2019, and his CPA would make do with the numbers that were available, and supporting documents, to do the tax returns. Funny how quickly things moved forward when we got the roadblock of OCD-but-not-really out of the way.
It's amazing how much human beings want to embrace and proclaim their limitations. If they don't have an actual diagnosis for an ailment, they'll believe they have it anyway. Or take something for it, so they can tell everyone that they're medication, because, you know, they suffer from X, Y, Z.
It's hard not to wonder how much more amazing the world would be if people put as much belief in their abilities as they do their limitations.
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