Success tip: Think like a dyslexic | afr.com
Nov 26 2013 at 12:10 PM
Jonathan Ive, chief designer for Apple, is dyslexic – just like Apple founder Steve Jobs. AFR
by Fiona Smith The inability to decipher text is a curse for most people with dyslexia. It makes them outsiders in a world where everything is written.But for some, the condition has become a strength. The way their brains compensate has been a defining element of their outrageous success.Looking at a list of famous people who have dyslexia, it is tempting to conclude that a dyslexic style of thinking is necessary to become someone – such as Virgin entrepreneur Sir
, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, actor Tom Cruise
, artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, Microsoft founder Bill Gates
, Apple powerhouses, founder Steve Jobs and designer Jony Ive, architect Lord Richard Rogers, and Australian billionaires, Kerry Stokes
.However, it should be remembered that most people with the condition do not become rich and famous. Dyslexia is thought to affect up to 10 per cent of the population and many of them have a miserable time at school.
According to a UK study, dyslexics make up more than half of the children failing standard assessment tests. If it is undiagnosed, they often become adults who struggle to fulfil their potential.
Where they excelHowever, it is worth looking at why dyslexics make up a disproportionate number of successful entrepreneurs. In Britain, 40 per cent of millionaires polled by the BBC were dyslexic thinkers and, in the US, there was a 35 per cent correlation between dyslexia and entrepreneurialism, according to the Cass Business School.Dyslexic thinkers are said to excel in visual-spatial tasks involving whole-picture thinking and finding original and creative solutions to things. They also have less neural activity in parts of the brain that are vital to reading (in the temporal lobe).
While dyslexics tend not to be good at details, it is believed they learn to excel by grasping the bigger picture and producing original ideas. Social exclusion may also be a factor in making them more motivated.According to the author of The Gift of Dyslexia, Ron Davis, people with the condition share certain mental functions:1. They can use the brain’s ability to alter and create perceptions (the primary ability).2. They are highly aware of the environment.
3. They are more curious than average.4. They think mainly in pictures instead of words.5. They are highly intuitive and insightful.6. They think and perceive multi-dimensionally (using all the senses).
7. They can experience thought as reality.8. They have vivid imaginations.Davis was functionally illiterate until age 38, but is a successful engineer, businessman and artist.“These eight basic abilities, if not suppressed, invalidated or destroyed by parents or the educational process, will result in two characteristics: higher than normal intelligence, and extraordinary creative abilities," he writes in his book. The bigger pictureSir Richard Branson made his first million by the age of 18, after founding a record label, and is now a billionaire. However, he says he did not understand the difference between net and gross profit until it was explained to him three years ago.“One of the problems about being dyslexic is that you don’t perform well at school and I knew I wasn’t going to pass my exams so I did other things," Branson said. “Being dyslexic means I am good at delegation and the bigger picture."Professor Julie Logan, of the Cass Business School in London, (who did the entrepreneurship study) says dyslexics who face problems at school often develop just the kind of skills they’ll eventually need to launch and grow their own businesses.These skills include the ability to delegate, excellent oral communication, problem-solving skills, and perseverance.“The ability to attack problems and solve them is essential when one is creating a new venture, so the dyslexic who has had to overcome problems to survive at school has much experience in this area," says Logan.“[People who are dyslexic] are also already used to persevering in the face of difficulty."Beaten for ‘failing’
Architect Lord Richard Rogers was reportedly regularly beaten as a schoolboy because of his poor academic results.“I found school very difficult,’’ he told BRW when in Australia in 2010.He was sent to a school for “backward’’ children and then spent two years in Italy doing military service, where he could appreciate the buildings designed by his father’s cousin Ernesto Rogers, one of Italy’s prominent architects.“I couldn’t get into the Architectural Association School of Architecture before, but when I got back, they gave me a chance because of my military service,’’ he said. Rogers graduated from the Yale School of Architecture in 1962.His dyslexia meant he didn’t learn to read until he was 11 years old. “My spelling is bad and I have a terrible problem with names. When I write, I am pretty slow but my concentration is good." Rogers said he relies on his team to fill in gaps.
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Success tip: Think like a dyslexic | afr.com
Nov 26 2013 at 12:10 PM
Jonathan Ive, chief designer for Apple, is dyslexic – just like Apple founder Steve Jobs. AFR
by Fiona Smith The inability to decipher text is a curse for most people with dyslexia. It makes them outsiders in a world where everything is written.But for some, the condition has become a strength. The way their brains compensate has been a defining element of their outrageous success.Looking at a list of famous people who have dyslexia, it is tempting to conclude that a dyslexic style of thinking is necessary to become someone – such as Virgin entrepreneur Sir
, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, actor Tom Cruise
, artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, Microsoft founder Bill Gates
, Apple powerhouses, founder Steve Jobs and designer Jony Ive, architect Lord Richard Rogers, and Australian billionaires, Kerry Stokes
.However, it should be remembered that most people with the condition do not become rich and famous. Dyslexia is thought to affect up to 10 per cent of the population and many of them have a miserable time at school.
According to a UK study, dyslexics make up more than half of the children failing standard assessment tests. If it is undiagnosed, they often become adults who struggle to fulfil their potential.
Where they excelHowever, it is worth looking at why dyslexics make up a disproportionate number of successful entrepreneurs. In Britain, 40 per cent of millionaires polled by the BBC were dyslexic thinkers and, in the US, there was a 35 per cent correlation between dyslexia and entrepreneurialism, according to the Cass Business School.Dyslexic thinkers are said to excel in visual-spatial tasks involving whole-picture thinking and finding original and creative solutions to things. They also have less neural activity in parts of the brain that are vital to reading (in the temporal lobe).
While dyslexics tend not to be good at details, it is believed they learn to excel by grasping the bigger picture and producing original ideas. Social exclusion may also be a factor in making them more motivated.According to the author of The Gift of Dyslexia, Ron Davis, people with the condition share certain mental functions:1. They can use the brain’s ability to alter and create perceptions (the primary ability).2. They are highly aware of the environment.
3. They are more curious than average.4. They think mainly in pictures instead of words.5. They are highly intuitive and insightful.6. They think and perceive multi-dimensionally (using all the senses).
7. They can experience 
thought as reality.8. They have vivid imaginations.Davis was functionally illiterate until age 38, but is a successful engineer, businessman and artist.“These eight basic abilities, if not suppressed, invalidated or destroyed by parents or the educational process, will result in two characteristics: higher than normal intelligence, and extraordinary creative abilities," he writes in his book. The bigger pictureSir Richard Branson made his first million by the age of 18, after founding a record label, and is now a billionaire. However, he says he did not understand the difference between net and gross profit until it was explained to him three years ago.“One of the problems about being dyslexic is that you don’t perform well at school and I knew I wasn’t going to pass my exams so I did other things," Branson said. “Being dyslexic means I am good at delegation and the bigger picture."Professor Julie Logan, of the Cass Business School in London, (who did the entrepreneurship study) says dyslexics who face problems at school often develop just the kind of skills they’ll eventually need to launch and grow their own businesses.These skills include the ability to delegate, excellent oral communication, problem-solving skills, and perseverance.“The ability to attack problems and solve them is essential when one is creating a new venture, so the dyslexic who has had to overcome problems to survive at school has much experience in this area," says Logan.“[People who are dyslexic] are also already used to persevering in the face of difficulty."Beaten for ‘failing’
Architect Lord Richard Rogers was reportedly regularly beaten as a schoolboy because of his poor academic results.“I found school very difficult,’’ he told BRW when in Australia in 2010.He was sent to a school for “backward’’ children and then spent two years in Italy doing military service, where he could appreciate the buildings designed by his father’s cousin Ernesto Rogers, one of Italy’s prominent architects.“I couldn’t get into the Architectural Association School of Architecture before, but when I got back, they gave me a chance because of my military service,’’ he said. Rogers graduated from the Yale School of Architecture in 1962.His dyslexia meant he didn’t learn to read until he was 11 years old. “My spelling is bad and I have a terrible problem with names. When I write, I am pretty slow but my concentration is good." Rogers said he relies on his team to fill in gaps.
Transgrid backs $500m SA interconnector 4
Murray Goulburn loses $100m Woolies contract 6
Free cloud under threat by founders' split 21