Posted on 12/08/2007 7:08:55 PM PST by neverdem
It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.
The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35 percent — identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.
“We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory skills,” Professor Logan said in an interview. “If you tell your friends and acquaintances that you plan to start a business, you’ll hear over and over, ‘It won’t work. It can’t be done.’ But dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about maneuvering their way around problems.”
The study was based on a survey of 139 business owners in a wide range of fields across the United States. Professor Logan called the number who said they were dyslexic “staggering,” and said it was significantly higher than the 20 percent of British entrepreneurs who said they were dyslexic in a poll she conducted in 2001.
She attributed the greater share in the United States to earlier and more effective intervention by American schools to help dyslexic students deal with their learning problems. Approximately 10 percent of Americans are believed to have dyslexia, experts say...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Humans are an amazingly adaptive bunch.
If you don’t have welfare, or someone convincing you that you are a victim of the Republican’s policies then it’s amazing what people can achieve when necessity if the mother of invention.
I intned read to this later
Ambidextrous != dyslexic.
Yep.
Make failure painless and you make failure ubiquitous.
Isnt GW supposed to br dyslexic?
There is also a surprisingly high incidence of dyslexia among those of in the ‘blackboard sciences’—mathematics and theoretical physics.
Nelson Rockafeller was dyslexic, and it didn't stop him from being the son of a multi-millionaire!
when I die, I hope to go out like Nelson! ;0)
To bad I am lexdysia.
<< Matthew 6:3 >>
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
“But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
This is also how I play the piano.
I wonder if any of them run a business helping dyslexics?
Yes, he is.
Funny you would mention that. I know of a 19 year old that was just put on welfare for this very thing. S/he is now considered disabled with all the bennies that come with it.
I’m particularly “bad” with phone numbers... something screws me up between my brain hearing the numbers and copying them down on paper. I usually just copy it 3 times now...and best two out of three is what I dial.
On another silly note.... I can handwrite impeccably backwards....faster than I can write forwards. Held up to a mirror...my backwards writing is neater than when I attempt to write forwards.
Go figure.
....and yes, I am self employed and run 3 businesses.
Dyslexics of the World, Untie!!
William Hewlett of HP was dyslexic; mediocre in school until late
in college/grad school. He honed his skill at listening intently
to instructors and remembering lectures as he really couldn’t take good notes.
This and other great tidbits in the fine history of HP titled,
“Bill And Dave”.
But might there be an association? My family has ambidexterity, left handedness and dyslexia all over the place and often in the same people?
A relative of mine was known for being able to write two different texts simultaneously.
people often run their own businesses because for some reason they just don't jive with that great, big mediocre mass of everyday corporate...well, I won't call them sardines or lemmings because they're not necessarily bad folks.
Who knows, self employment may be God's gift to the misfit -- the individual. I've been self employed most of my life.
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