Being a Ship Captain Floats My ADHD Boat [Video]

By Understood

Ship captain Dave Gugliotti has ADHD — and a love for the ocean. Full of energy, yet calm under pressure, Dave’s strengths help him flourish on open water. As the seasons change, so does his work. Every day is different, with varied activities and constant repairs to keep Dave’s bouncing mind happily engaged.

Dave’s never been one to sit still, and he works best with his hands. He tried to sit at a desk for an office job, but he left after a week and never looked back. In this week’s episode of “How’d You Get THAT Job?!,” we discuss how the sea has called to Dave from a young age, and what you can do to get involved in a sailing career yourself.

Listen in to hear how Dave shaped his daily life to fit his tactile ADHD brain, and other flotsam and jetsam. Hit subscribe for more!

To find a transcript for this episode and more resources, visit the episode page at Understood. https://www.understood.org/podcast/ho…

We love hearing from our listeners. Email us at [email protected].

Understood is a nonprofit and social impact organization dedicated to shaping a world where the 1 in 5 people who learn and think differently can thrive. Learn more about “How’d You Get THAT Job?!” and all our podcasts at u.org/podcasts. Copyright © 2022 Understood for All, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:00
stop the panic throw it away get rid of
0:02
it get over it because it’s quicker you
0:03
can get rid of it and get rid of the
0:05
panic the quicker you can go back to
0:07
thinking about what’s wrong what’s my
0:09
problem and the way i always start is
0:12
is the boat on fire
0:13
nope boat’s not on fire cool are we
0:16
sinking
0:17
nope we’re not sinking perfect then
0:19
everything’s fine let’s grab a coffee
0:20
and figure out what’s the problem
0:22
[Music]
0:27
from the understood podcast network this
0:29
is how did you get that job a podcast
0:31
that explores the unique and often
0:33
unexpected career paths of people with
0:35
learning and thinking differences
0:38
my name is eleni matheal and i’m a user
0:40
researcher here at understood that means
0:42
i spend a lot of time thinking about how
0:43
we find jobs we love that reflect how we
0:46
learn and who we are
0:48
i’ll be your host
0:51
no day looks the same for our next guest
0:53
captain dave gugliardi he might be
0:55
leading a charter tour from his home
0:57
base of charleston south carolina or he
0:59
might be teaching navigation skills or
1:01
using his mechanical talents to fix the
1:03
motor of one of his boats the only
1:05
constant is the water a traditional
1:07
office job is often not a good fit for
1:09
people with learning and thinking
1:10
differences so that’s why i really
1:12
wanted to talk to someone like dave who
1:13
has adhd and chose a very different path
1:17
welcome to the show captain dave thank
1:18
you so much
1:20
when we approached you for this
1:22
interview you mentioned that scheduling
1:24
might be a little bit difficult because
1:25
how varied your days are
1:27
and i thought it would be nice to start
1:29
there and just talk a little bit about
1:31
how much a typical day varies for you
1:34
and why does that work for you
1:36
or what do you like about that or enjoy
1:39
about that well i i typically
1:42
don’t have a schedule except for i work
1:44
seven days a week about 14 hours a day
1:46
so it is extremely fluid the only
1:48
schedule that i have
1:50
is for our charters which i keep on a
1:53
calendar or if i’m doing a yacht
1:55
delivery or something like that that’s
1:57
the only hard and fast data that i have
1:59
in my calendar everything else i wake up
2:02
in the morning i don’t know what i’m
2:03
doing where i’m going or what’s going to
2:05
happen
2:06
i own a fleet of three boats that we
2:08
charter and so you’ll call me up and say
2:10
hey dave we’re coming to to charleston
2:12
we want to go out in the water and do a
2:13
sunset tour i want to propose to my
2:16
fiance or we’re coming in for
2:18
bachelorette party we’ve got 16 girls we
2:20
want to go out
2:21
cool so i say when you want to go out
2:23
and we schedule a time and a date
2:26
and then we put it on the on the
2:27
calendar so then i sort of work around
2:29
that i ping pong off the wall and do 8
2:32
million different things you know
2:33
recently i bought a a scooter because
2:36
i’ve got so many boats and they’re all
2:37
the other ends of every dock and
2:39
everything else it’s in one of our docks
2:41
half a quarter of a mile long so it’s a
2:42
half mile there in back i was talking to
2:44
a couple of the um the dock hands today
2:47
and they could have sworn that the
2:48
scooter was motorized and i said no it’s
2:50
not motorized and another one of the
2:52
girls that works there she also works
2:53
for me a little bit she goes no no no
2:56
that’s that’s dave that’s how fast he
2:58
goes you know just even doing this
3:00
interview i came back to my quote
3:02
unquote office two hours early and it
3:05
forced me to sit down at the computer
3:07
and do all my paperwork but for the most
3:09
part i’m out running around that gives
3:11
me a really good sense of
3:13
of all of the things that could possibly
3:15
happen in your day and when you say a
3:17
yacht delivery is that you’re doing that
3:20
on behalf of others that have just
3:21
purchased boats how does that work so
3:25
both so this person that i’m flying up
3:27
to virginia to pick up their boat they
3:29
just literally purchased the boat it’s
3:31
sitting up there they need to hire a
3:34
qualified captain to then bring it back
3:36
to wherever their home port is going to
3:38
be so they call me and say can you go
3:40
get it i’ll say yep sure and i will
3:43
set up the delivery profile of that and
3:46
say this is what we’re going to do and
3:48
i’ll go up and get it and then there’s
3:49
other boats that are in my fleet that i
3:51
manage and
3:53
i work with them on a monthly basis and
3:56
they’ll say
3:57
we want to be in the bahamas or we want
3:58
to go to florida or we’re in florida we
4:00
want to go back up to newport and so we
4:02
have to schedule all that stuff out so
4:04
we’re starting to get into our delivery
4:07
season right now
4:08
and so all the boats that we brought
4:09
down to florida now all want to go back
4:11
up to new england so within the next two
4:13
months that’s what we’re going to do
4:15
once that ends then we go into our
4:17
full-blown charter season so we’ll be
4:19
running charters all the time and then
4:21
during the week if we’re not doing that
4:22
we’re doing all the repairs on the boat
4:24
and then once the fall rolls around
4:26
we’re going back into delivery season
4:28
and then once the winner rolls around
4:29
we’re back into project season
4:31
yeah it’s interesting that there’s like
4:34
a seasonal rotation and like a cyclical
4:36
nature to the work at least that’s the
4:38
way i’ve sort of set it up i need to be
4:41
able to
4:43
move
4:44
around quite a bit and that’s what keeps
4:46
me entertained and that’s what keeps it
4:49
interesting i get phone calls all the
4:50
time for
4:52
you know again how i switch directions
4:54
i’ll get a phone call there’s a boat
4:55
stuck here can you come and get it sure
4:58
tell me about it it has uh one engine
5:00
half a propeller and no rudders and no
5:02
steering can you move it sure why not
5:04
let’s let’s see how this thing goes well
5:06
i think you know you having mentioned
5:09
that you really love that variety
5:11
because otherwise you’d get bored i
5:13
think that’s a really good segue to talk
5:15
a little bit about
5:16
why that works for you and perhaps like
5:19
how that might relate um to some of your
5:21
differences so do you want to talk a
5:23
little bit about your adhd and how if
5:26
there’s any connection there with the
5:28
way that you’ve kind of set up your not
5:30
even your day your year
5:32
yeah well you know
5:34
when i was young third grade i got
5:37
diagnosed with it
5:38
and they didn’t know how to handle it
5:40
and they knew i was extremely smart but
5:42
they didn’t know
5:44
what to do i didn’t i couldn’t do a
5:46
language that was very difficult i did
5:48
extremely well in college and then all
5:49
of a sudden i realized i had to graduate
5:52
and in order to graduate i’d take a
5:53
language i’m like well i guess i’m going
5:55
to be a student the rest of my life
5:56
because i’m not going to be able to pass
5:57
anything and then i realize in the
5:59
syllabus that i can do sign language
6:02
and sign language is
6:05
the hand motor skills like i don’t have
6:06
to spell anything i don’t have to do
6:08
anything i can build whatever you want i
6:10
mean you want me to build you a
6:11
skyscraper
6:13
a boat an engine rip that whole thing
6:15
apart perfect you want me to write out
6:17
something not a chance i think it’s all
6:19
about leaning in to what your strengths
6:22
are and i think that’s actually really
6:24
interesting that you are able to think
6:26
about
6:27
how to you know address the language
6:29
component in a way that was aligned with
6:32
what your strengths were if you were in
6:34
a different setting
6:36
perhaps you would have needed other ways
6:38
to cope but you’ve actually created an
6:39
environment for yourself where
6:41
the way your day is structured is like a
6:44
way for you to you know get the most out
6:46
of
6:47
of your day
6:48
i couldn’t sit in an office i was a you
6:50
know a stockbroker financial planner for
6:54
a week before i quit so yeah i knew i
6:56
couldn’t do something
6:57
like that
6:58
and part of it too you know where i grew
7:00
up
7:01
we grew up in a very affluent area and
7:03
it was expected of you to
7:06
go to high school graduate and then go
7:09
to a four-year college
7:11
go sit behind a cubicle and suffer for
7:13
the rest of your life i couldn’t do that
7:15
and so even like i started my first
7:17
company when i was 13 years old i
7:19
started a lighting and sound company
7:21
so
7:22
by the time i was in high school i mean
7:24
i was making plenty of money
7:26
but i just knew that for me sitting down
7:28
at a desk or doing homework or whatever
7:30
was very arduous for me but i dug going
7:32
out and
7:33
doing lighting and sound and working in
7:35
the radio business and and
7:37
you know doing theater and doing
7:39
concerts and
7:41
how
7:42
mobile that was and how dynamic
7:45
that sort of stuff is and so i wish
7:48
you know when i was in high school that
7:50
you know there could have been more
7:51
direction to say you know there is
7:54
maritime school
7:56
they were out there at the time but that
7:58
wasn’t necessarily offered to me i don’t
8:00
think i was presented with that option
8:01
besides go to college get a four-year
8:03
degree and go sit and push paperwork
8:07
i read on your website that no one in
8:08
your family was a boater or a huge fan
8:10
of the sea where do you think your
8:13
inspiration came from especially given
8:15
you in an environment where people had
8:17
pretty rigid ideas of what a career
8:19
looks like again
8:21
talking about adhd and just always
8:24
constantly thinking so you know again
8:27
you’re right nobody in my family was in
8:28
a yachts boating boats water we were not
8:31
big people about that and i was
8:34
fascinated by
8:35
the titanic and ships and
8:38
whatever we’d go on vacation to cape cod
8:40
and i would i would pedal my bike
8:44
ridiculously 20 miles away to hyannis
8:46
port on a main road to go to the seaport
8:48
and watch all of the ships come in i’ll
8:50
watch all the the fishing boats come in
8:52
and
8:53
i was so enamored by them coming in and
8:56
out and the thought of
8:58
you know you see and this is like just
9:01
like
9:03
like i don’t know pie in the sky so if
9:05
you see the ship come in and the boat
9:06
come in you go wow you saw like the last
9:08
five minutes of that of that ship’s
9:10
journey but only they know
9:12
what happened out there only they know
9:14
what that journey was
9:16
and to be as free as that to go and come
9:20
back as you please and not know what
9:23
happened during that time it was like
9:25
really kind of cool
9:27
and
9:28
i was young enough to still believe in
9:30
santa claus at this point because i
9:33
always remember that for christmas i
9:36
asked for radar radar is really really
9:39
expensive i knew i could buy the wood to
9:42
build the boat that’s relatively cheap i
9:45
could scrounge that stuff up somewhere
9:46
and i could clabber the boat together
9:48
but i need radar so i would ask for
9:51
santa claus to bring me the radar and
9:52
then it sort of progressed from there i
9:54
bought my first boat before i graduated
9:56
college so i did that and then i just
9:57
sort of progressed and and i took the
9:59
boating course and then i
10:01
realized that that was not being taught
10:03
very well and so i started working for
10:06
the state teaching for them and then the
10:08
director said you know
10:09
you are the youngest and best instructor
10:11
that we have why are you doing this you
10:14
know as a volunteer you should do this
10:16
as a company so i started
10:19
my
10:20
connecticut boating education company
10:21
and did that for many years until i
10:23
moved down to south carolina so it just
10:25
progressed from there and moving down to
10:26
south carolina opened up a lot of doors
10:28
in regards to management and different
10:31
possibilities in my research it often
10:34
comes up that you know neurodiverse
10:36
folks really enjoy
10:38
ripping things apart or figuring out how
10:40
things work so it sounds like fixing
10:42
things is something that’s been part of
10:44
your life for a really long time and
10:45
comes really naturally to you do you
10:47
know like how did you learn to do that
10:50
both my grandfathers were in world war
10:53
ii and they were both uh their jobs were
10:55
tool and die makers so they were very
10:57
hands-on and i would go to my
10:58
grandparents house and you know they
11:01
would have things in their basement and
11:03
in their garage that we would probably
11:05
get arrested for using today i mean
11:07
there’s gears and engines on these
11:09
things that would cut your finger off in
11:10
a heartbeat well
11:12
we put them together and we built them
11:14
and then we used table saws and all
11:17
kinds of stuff and we built stuff i can
11:19
see something
11:20
diagnose it rip it apart and put it back
11:22
together again kind of like in my head
11:24
without actually having to do anything
11:26
so i can figure out very quickly what’s
11:28
wrong with something and also
11:31
how to fix it you know i had an instance
11:33
where i was 20 miles offshore a few
11:35
months ago and we lost one engine
11:38
and then we lost the other engine so
11:40
then i called the coast guard and i said
11:42
hey just let you know this is what’s
11:44
going on i’ve lost both engines blah
11:46
blah and their response was well you
11:48
know of course i’m 12 20 miles offshore
11:50
maybe you should anchor and call salvage
11:53
and my response back to the coast guard
11:54
was no i’m a professional captain i’ll
11:56
get both engines fired up and i will get
11:58
back to charleston so like okay keep us
12:01
posted so i figured out how to get one
12:03
engine started and then i got the other
12:04
engine started and then that shut down
12:07
so
12:08
just worked both engines back and forth
12:10
until we got it back to charleston and
12:12
so i didn’t really worry
12:14
much anymore i had some clients on board
12:16
just even last week one of the engines
12:18
went down
12:19
and
12:20
they were all up in arms oh my god we
12:21
lost an engine of course i’m still
12:23
sitting there you know oh okay no
12:24
problem i’ll go down there and check it
12:26
out i go down in the end room well okay
12:29
we’re not going to figure it out right
12:30
now because we’re almost there and we’ll
12:32
just be another half an hour not a big
12:34
deal aren’t you freaking out right i’m
12:36
like nope not at all this happens every
12:38
single week it sounds like being able to
12:40
work under pressure is also really
12:42
important as a captain yes um absolutely
12:45
and you know when i teach my clients i i
12:48
say that there’s there’s no no room for
12:51
you know for stress or for
12:53
aggravation or for you know panic stop
12:56
the panic throw it away get it get rid
12:58
of it get over it because it’s quicker
13:00
you can get rid of it and get rid of the
13:02
panic the quicker you can go back to
13:04
thinking about
13:05
what’s wrong what’s my problem and the
13:07
way i always start is
13:09
is the boat on fire
13:11
nope boat’s not on fire cool are we
13:14
sinking
13:15
nope we’re not sinking perfect then
13:17
everything’s fine let’s grab a coffee
13:18
and figure out what’s what’s the problem
13:21
there’s no immediate danger
13:23
exactly yeah one thing that we talk
13:25
about a lot and understood is just you
13:27
know kind of learning
13:29
to fail and try again and that it’s okay
13:32
to like not get things right the first
13:34
time or for things to not always go
13:36
the way that you expected
13:38
it sounds like
13:40
a korean boating
13:42
kind of
13:43
means being pretty comfortable with
13:45
things not going your way and being
13:46
being comfortable with failure boats are
13:48
always broken and if it’s not broken you
13:51
haven’t looked hard enough
13:53
or you haven’t waited long enough
13:55
once you realize that once you come to
13:57
terms with that
13:59
your life’s great so is that your
14:02
main piece of advice for anyone wanting
14:04
to get into boating to be like really
14:06
comfortable knowing that they’re going
14:08
to be dealing with broken things all the
14:09
time or like what would you tell them
14:12
it’s pessimistic right i don’t want to
14:14
say that that yes you’re going to have
14:15
to deal with failure and broken things
14:17
but the reality is that’s part of the
14:19
job we are in an extremely severe
14:22
environment everything’s covered in salt
14:24
you’re running these engines uphill all
14:27
day every day and you know like in first
14:29
gear so they’re gonna break but
14:32
if you manage it properly then you can
14:35
mitigate the big things that are gonna
14:37
break and just deal with the smaller
14:38
things and i just don’t get worried
14:41
or upset
14:42
anymore about things that are broken
14:45
i’ve just resolved
14:47
to the fact that things are broken and
14:49
we will fix them in the order that they
14:51
need to get fixed in
14:52
so it sounds like of the things that
14:54
you’ve mentioned today you know one of
14:56
your greatest strengths is
14:59
being able to like identify and diagnose
15:03
and problem solve around whatever kind
15:06
of challenges pop up and like doing it
15:08
in a really like calm way would you kind
15:10
of related back to your differences a
15:12
little bit and thinking with your hands
15:13
and like being a problem solved with
15:15
your hands do you have any other
15:17
strengths that you think might be
15:18
related to adhd like for example it
15:21
looks like from your site that you
15:24
you know interact with people a lot like
15:25
would you consider yourself a people
15:27
person yes i’m
15:29
very very outgoing do you think your
15:31
outgoing nature relates to your adhd at
15:34
all well from from the hyperactivity
15:36
standpoint yeah bouncing off a wall you
15:38
know i deal with millionaires i deal
15:40
with billionaires and i tell them look
15:42
i’m going to treat you all the same and
15:43
you’re going to love it and it’s going
15:44
to be fun and we’re going to have a
15:45
great time and and they like that you
15:47
know and so yeah that’s part of being
15:49
like outgoing and like witty in the adhd
15:52
where i’m just saying weird stuff just
15:54
to
15:54
get a rise and see where
15:57
things go and just keep everybody sort
15:59
of on on their toes you know oh yeah
16:01
that’s really interesting the bouncing
16:03
off the walls trait is definitely a bit
16:06
of a stereotype when it comes to adhd
16:09
and not everyone presents that way but
16:11
it seems like it’s definitely true for
16:13
you you definitely have a lot of energy
16:15
and keep things interesting with the
16:17
people you work with sounds like a lot
16:18
of fun you know when i run charters a
16:20
lot of times i’ve got you know 15 16 18
16:24
girls on board and it’s just me so now i
16:26
gotta entertain
16:27
a bunch of girls in bikinis on my boat
16:31
it’s a terrible life isn’t it sounds
16:33
awful we have a lot i mean we just have
16:35
a ton of fun so it’s not just your
16:37
normal captain just running around we’re
16:39
very engaged we’re very interactive and
16:41
they really really enjoy that oh that
16:43
sounds so fun
16:44
i i i i need an excuse to ask you to
16:48
charter a boat
16:49
no you just got to come to charleston
16:53
[Music]
16:55
so if there are any young people
16:57
listening that are interested in getting
16:59
into a career in boating
17:01
what would you tell them there’s a lot
17:02
of different ways to go about it you
17:04
know there’s the yachting side and then
17:06
there’s the commercial side so two
17:08
different ways you can go about it if
17:10
they want to go to school there’s a lot
17:11
of maritime academies there’s maine
17:13
maritime there’s suny maritime there’s a
17:15
bunch of others i’m just from new
17:16
england so those are where those are
17:17
from or
17:19
you can go
17:20
and
17:21
literally just get on a boat and be a
17:23
deckhand you’re not going to get paid
17:25
anything because there’s a million
17:26
people out there i i’ve got an ad up
17:28
right now for um deckhand stew and i
17:32
always say that the qualification isn’t
17:35
i want to be on the water i just want to
17:37
be on boats that’s not a qualification
17:40
that’s an aspiration i don’t need
17:41
aspirations i need qualifications can
17:43
you turn a wrench do you know what a
17:44
screwdriver is what’s the bow of the
17:46
boat so you got to know something in
17:49
order to get on board otherwise you’re
17:50
going to start really at the bottom but
17:52
by going to one of these things
17:53
especially like a
17:54
a c school or or just a generic maritime
17:57
school and getting a deck license or a
17:59
captain’s license or something like that
18:01
would probably be
18:03
a good option to go unless you want to
18:05
you know do the full maritime school
18:08
that’s really great tangible advice
18:11
[Music]
18:14
so captain dave how do you feel when
18:16
you’re out on the water
18:19
you know it’s it’s very peaceful you
18:21
know when i’m on land there’s a thousand
18:24
things coming at me the phone’s ringing
18:26
off the hook the text message the emails
18:28
eight million different boats when
18:29
you’re out in the water and you’re
18:31
dealing only with one boat and one thing
18:36
it’s
18:37
peace it’s calm
18:39
and you don’t do anything like
18:42
i’ve learned that oh let me go bring my
18:45
laptop and i’m going to do all of this
18:47
paperwork or i’m going to read a book or
18:50
i’m going to do this nothing gets done
18:53
and you’re out there for hours and days
18:57
and you don’t do anything
18:59
and you just look at the water and you
19:01
and i just do my job i mean every every
19:03
hour we take a log that’s about the most
19:05
that’s going to get done and i’m looking
19:07
at my instruments and i know where i’m
19:09
going it’s on autopilot but i’m gonna
19:12
look at my course eight million times
19:14
i’m gonna look out and do this i’m gonna
19:16
look at the dolphins and the sea life
19:17
and the water and
19:19
check things and
19:21
that’s it and it’s just that’s all
19:23
you’re controlling and that’s all you’re
19:25
concentrating on and it’s very very
19:27
peaceful and then you get back in
19:29
and it’s kind of like you get your
19:32
back to civilization and land again
19:34
you’re getting all this stuff coming at
19:35
you again it’s like
19:37
i kind of want to go back out for a
19:38
little for a little bit so it’s
19:40
interesting i mean you could be offshore
19:42
for five days and never know what’s
19:44
going on you don’t have internet you
19:46
don’t have satellite we do and these
19:48
larger yachts but as a rule i don’t i’m
19:50
not listening to the radio i’m not
19:52
watching tv we’re not on satellites
19:54
we’re not close enough to shore for
19:56
wi-fi some of the boats i have have
19:57
wi-fi but we just don’t turn any of it
19:59
on so your world revolves around
20:03
whatever boat that you’re on in the
20:05
middle of the ocean
20:06
and you realize how small and
20:08
insignificant you are when you’re that
20:10
far out in the ocean and there’s nothing
20:12
there it’s a very humbling experience
20:14
kind of kind of interesting well thank
20:16
you captain dave for
20:18
staying on land to talk to us today well
20:21
you’re welcome thank you so much
20:23
[Music]
20:27
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20:29
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20:31
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21:44
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21:45
[Music]
22:10
you

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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