Sparks & Self-Belief TL;DR - How a Quirky Kid Became the Gal Who Builds Stuff

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

That question used to coil around my spine every time I grabbed a screwdriver. It echoed back to a certain family gathering: five relatives, one oak coffee table, and me—eye‑rolling, ready to move the thing already. I marched backward, table in hand, straight into a doorway too narrow by an inch. Cue the cousin’s smirk:

“It helps to not be stupid.”

For years I let moments like that shrink me. I was the kid who made her own drum and got labeled flighty, weird, too loud, too much. Then grad school handed me a word—neurodivergent—and fifteen years later I realized it wasn’t a handicap; it was my upgrade patch.

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How I Work (and Why It Matters)

Patrick Lencioni’s Six Working Geniuses framework breaks teamwork into a W I D G E T:
Wonder | Invent | Discern | Galvanize | Enable | Tenacity.
Most of us sparkle at two, grind through two, and flail at the last pair.

My sparkle: Wonder + Invention.
I ask “Why?” until the paint peels, then MacGyver a new way forward.
My grind: Tenacity + Galvanize—I’ll finish and help the team rally, but expect odd tools and loud playlists.
My flop: Discernment + Enable—I tend to 'go underground' when I'm in the zone, and may miss a detail... or twelve.

Mapping those geniuses flipped my script from “hard way” to “my way.”
I’m not a mis‑wired dreamer stuck in a 'doer' role, like in Lencioni’s book; I’m a tech‑minded Product Owner who automates workflows, scripts servers, and, yes, builds laptops for fun.

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Receipts, Please

• 2009 - Swapped a dead SATA drive in my Dell XPS. No workshop, just YouTube and stubborn joy.

• 2018 - Dual‑booted Ubuntu's Disco Django distro, and wrote gnarly bash scripts to tame Wi‑Fi, spun up a personal backup server.

• 2022 - Successfully ran Linux Ubuntu + Windows 10 OS on my Lenovo Yoga C390.

• 2025 - Provisioned an Ubuntu 24.05 VM, learning Docker + DevOps on my own box.

• Just completed! Built a DIY Framework 16, and configured it for dual‑booting Linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS + Windows 11, color‑coded USB‑C cards and all.

Every project proves: when I lean into Wonder + Invention, I ship. When I try to copy “normal,” I stall.

What is Framework? It's the last laptop you will every have to buy.

Why You Should Care

1. Teams win when each genius gets the right seat. Stop forcing the dreamers and strategizers to be doers; point them at strategy and let them provide the ideas that help a team work smarter.

2. Neurodivergence ≠ defect. It’s an alternate toolkit. Mine just happens to come with Allen keys and poetry.

3. Process ≠ personality. Knowing how you work is the unlock for working with others—faster, kinder, smarter.

For more on the Working Geniuses model:

• The Six Types of Working Genius: A better way to understand your gifts, your frustrations, and your team
• Working Genius Assessment Tool
• Discover your Working Genius for a Fulfilling Life