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Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia
NY Times ^ | December 6, 2007 | BRENT BOWERS

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dyslexia; entrepreneurship; smallbusiness
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To: taxed2death

Same here.


21 posted on 12/08/2007 7:53:54 PM PST by From many - one.
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To: Aria

Great tag...


22 posted on 12/08/2007 7:54:23 PM PST by GOPJ (Hillary Clinton's "the surgeons wife" (NOT the surgeon) - don't go under her knife...)
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To: From many - one.

There might well be an association. But they are different things, and the previous poster appeared to me to be confusing them. Incidentally I know someone personally who could simultaneously take two different sets of notes in a lecture class with her two hands. And she isn’t dyslexic in the least.

I have understood that left handedness, dyslexia, genius, insanity, nearsightedness, musical ability, allergies, and a few other things I can’t remember are all correlated to each other. (Meaning, a group of people with one of the traits is more likely than the general population to have the other traits; however, no trait necessarily causes any of the other traits.)


23 posted on 12/08/2007 7:59:16 PM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: dfwgator

That’s “Lysdexics, Untie!”


24 posted on 12/08/2007 8:00:18 PM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: Cowboy Bob
when I die, I hope to go out like Nelson! ;0)

I hope I go like Grandpa, peacefully in my sleep.

Not screaming in terror, like the passengers in his car...

25 posted on 12/08/2007 8:03:41 PM PST by null and void (No more Bushes/No more Clintons)
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To: Cowboy Bob
I don't want to go out like Nelson; I want to go in like him!


26 posted on 12/08/2007 8:05:18 PM PST by stormer
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To: neverdem
Well I guess I am a stat then. I have been fighting dyslexia all my life, and owned my own IT business for 15 years. Still do a little consulting.

I’ll be damned if I would let some crappy thing like that keep me down, just had to work harder and be willing to look like an idiot and deal with a$$holes sometimes...

27 posted on 12/08/2007 8:26:01 PM PST by ejonesie22 (In America all people have a right to be wrong, some just exercise it a bit much...)
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To: neverdem

dyslexic here.

Figured out how to overcome it in reading, but not with numbers, alas.

Never interfered with my adult life, but sure messed up my GPA.


28 posted on 12/08/2007 9:01:13 PM PST by jacquej
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To: woofie

No, but Cisco’s founder is as was Sammy the Bull.

Just a little triva. (g).

John


29 posted on 12/08/2007 9:05:11 PM PST by Diggity
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To: fso301

htats funny.


30 posted on 12/08/2007 9:05:44 PM PST by Diggity
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To: VOA

I always liked a motto that was attributed to Bill Hewlett: “If it can’t be measured, it isn’t worth doing”.

I use it in my work all the time to illustrate to my colleagues the value of the quantitative expression of everyday business problems.


31 posted on 12/08/2007 9:16:23 PM PST by conservativeharleyguy (Technically, we are all Republicans.)
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To: ThomasThomas

Funny you should mention pianos. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

A country lad once traveled to the big city to seek his fortune, but had no luck finding a job. One day, wandering through the red light district, he spotted a Help Wanted sign in the window of one of the ‘sporting establishments’.

They were looking for a bookkeeper, but after the madam quizzed the boy about his education and discovered that he could neither read or write, she turned him away.

Feeling sorry for him, she gave him two big red apples as he left. A few blocks down the street, he placed the apples on top of a garbage can while tying his shoe, and a stranger came along and offered to buy them.

The boy took the money to a produce market and bought a dozen more apples,which he sold quickly. Eventually he parlayed his fruit sales into a grocery store, then a string of supermarkets. Eventually he became the wealthiest man in the state.

Finally he was named Man of the Year, and during an interview a journalist discovered that his subject could neither read or write.

“Good Lord, Sir,” he said. “What do you suppose you would have become if you had ever learned to read and write?”

“Well,” he answered, “I guess I would have been a bookkeeper in a whorehouse.”


32 posted on 12/08/2007 9:24:59 PM PST by Mountain Troll
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To: neverdem

I know a dyslexic that runs a successful god kennel.


33 posted on 12/08/2007 9:32:01 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0 (Global warming is the new Marxism.)
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To: Rb ver. 2.0

I am heartened by stories like this, but I once knew a guy who was not only dyslexic, but agnostic and insomniac as well. He used to lay awake all night wondering if there really is a dog.


34 posted on 12/08/2007 9:56:10 PM PST by Burma Jones
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To: neverdem
You mean I am not alone?

I click on Spellcheck and I get the answer back:

"You have got to be kidding me!"

35 posted on 12/08/2007 10:21:46 PM PST by TYVets (God so loved the world he didn't send a committee)
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To: the invisib1e hand

I have been, too - but I’m not dyslexic. I just had what I considered the “misfortune” of working for a large number of them and having to constantly clean up their messes because of the not being able to read or write problem.

Of course, they’re all zillionaires and now I’m too sick to work. Go figure.


36 posted on 12/08/2007 10:31:00 PM PST by Rte66
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To: Man50D

Charles Schwab has created Schwab Learning (www.schwablearning.com), and it is very helpful to parents of special needs kids.

He’s a great advocate for special needs kids.


37 posted on 12/08/2007 10:51:30 PM PST by luckystarmom
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To: neverdem

My daughter has brain damage that has caused difficulty with speech/reading/writing. However, she still gets mostly As and a few Bs. Basically, she gets the same grades as her gifted brother and sister. The only difference is that she works for her grades.

She doesn’t like to be identified by her weaknesses. She likes to be known as the girl who likes challenges and likes to work hard.

I think she’ll do well in life with her positive attitude. She’s only 11, so we still have a long way to go. Hopefull, she’ll continue to have her positive attitude.


38 posted on 12/08/2007 10:54:25 PM PST by luckystarmom
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To: From many - one.
Yes, I am all of those too...Left or right handed in all sports, golf, writing too!

This article really explains so much to me about the way I have developed into a leader, and CEO...

God always has a plan for all of us to bring our talents to the world for good!

39 posted on 12/08/2007 11:13:34 PM PST by Turborules
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To: Turborules
I have never been able to read my own handwriting. The first letter is OK but down hill the rest of the way. It takes at least 3 tries to get a phone number right.
I can type 60 words per minute but it take 1 hour with a spell checker to make it readable. I know what I meant to say and do but have trouble putting it in proper prospective or order.
My mind always short circuits to the answer without being able to say how I got there.
Reading War and Peace was hard.......
Over the last 37 years I have turned several major corporations specialty departments into dust bins with my competitiveness. It is impossible to understand my ability to find and act on their weakness. I write nothing down. I can read upside down and can walk around offices, plants shipping departments and remember almost everything I saw in the smallest detail.
Now I am loosing that talent, Never knew what it was, to a sick mental disorder. Just Dammm.
40 posted on 12/09/2007 2:00:11 AM PST by primatreat (Alzheimer's whispers are getting louder. I will not let the door open till this is over .)
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