Dyslexia (and other disorders?) as Business Advantage — New Research
As a “brain personality,” attention deficit disorder drives people into executive positions and business ownership via its strengths (e.g., ability to multitask) and its weakenesses (e.g., lack of patience). Research just reported in the New York Times looks into the role of dyslexia as a similar driver, particularly for its role in causing people to develop “compensatory skills”:
Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia
By BRENT BOWERSIt 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.
The article also quote the well-known Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea:
Mr. Orfalea, 60, who left Kinko’s — now FedEx Kinko’s — seven years ago, and who now dabbles in a hodgepodge of business undertakings, is almost proud of having dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator,” he said. “I think everybody should have dyslexia and A.D.D.”
Full article here: Brent Bowers, Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia. New York Times. December 7, 2007.
For a preliminary copy of the 2004 research report from Julie Logan, click here for a .pdf on dyslexia and entrepreneurship (at her research institute, Simfonec at the Cass Business School in London). Click here for Julie Logan bio.
