I don’t think it’s just coincidence. In the U.S., entrepreneurs are disproportionately young, disproportionately immigrants and, now, disproportionately dyslexic. This makes perfect sense to me because starting your own business is so often a way to break out of the normal path, get off the track and succeed your own way instead of the so-called normal way.
I picked up the dyslexia information from Brent Bowers of the New York Times in Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia last Thursday:
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.”
When I used to go to Tokyo one week a month in the 1990s, consulting for Apple Japan, one thing I discovered about entrepreneurship in Japan is that smart women were starting companies in disproportionate numbers. People who seemed to know what they were talking about told me this was because women couldn’t advance easily up the normal corporate ladder.
More recently I’ve seen different research on younger entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs in the U.S., and now baby-boomer entrepreneurs building businesses instead of retiring. Do you see the pattern? As in people jumping the track when they find obstacles in their way?
As for me, I jumped off the track 20-some years ago to escape boredom and do what I wanted, and I ended up building a company as part of it. I’ve posted about that in this blog.
I don’t think I was either ADD or dyslexic as a kid in the 1950s, even if I did spell my name as Mit in first grade, at least until Sister Clorissa got nervous about it and started using her ruler on my knuckles.
I guess we’re not handling backward-naming the same way anymore. According to the Times story:
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.
I like the additional relationship between dyslexics and entrepreneurship in the New York Times story:
One reason that dyslexics are drawn to entrepreneurship, Professor Logan said, is that strategies they have used since childhood to offset their weaknesses in written communication and organizational ability–identifying trustworthy people and handing over major responsibilities to them–can be applied to businesses.
“The willingness to delegate authority gives them a significant advantage over nondyslexic entrepreneurs, who tend to view their business as their baby and like to be in total control,” she said.
William J. Dennis, Jr., senior research fellow at the Research Foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group in Washington, said the study’s results “fit into the pattern of what we know about small-business owners.”
“Entrepreneurs are hands-on people who push a minimum of paper, do lots of stuff orally instead of reading and writing, and delegate authority, all of which suggests a high verbal facility,” Mr. Dennis said. “Compare that with corporate managers who read, read, read.”
Indeed, according to Professor Logan, only 1 percent of corporate managers in the United States have dyslexia.
Much has been written about the link between dyslexia and entrepreneurial success. Fortune Magazine, for example, ran a cover story five years ago about dyslexic business leaders, including Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways; Charles R. Schwab, founder of the discount brokerage firm that bears his name; John T. Chambers, chief executive of Cisco; and Paul Orfalea, founder of the Kinko’s copy chain.
Similarly, Rosalie P. Fink, a professor at Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass., wrote a paper in 1998 on 60 highly accomplished people with dyslexia.
But Professor Logan said hers was the first study that she knew of that tried to measure the percentage of entrepreneurs who have dyslexia. Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, which financed the research, agreed. He said the findings were surprising, but, he said, there was no previous baseline to measure it against.
Emerson Dickman , president of the International Dyslexia Association in Baltimore and a lawyer in Maywood, N.J., said the study’s findings “just make sense.”
“Individuals who have difficulty reading and writing tend to deploy other strengths,” Mr. Dickman, who has dyslexia, said. “They rely on mentors, and as a result, become very good at reading other people and delegating duties to them. They become adept at using visual strengths to solve problems.”
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 ADD.”
Hmmm … I don’t know if I would go so far as to recommend dyslexia or ADD … but if it helps you get going, and that works for you, so be it.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 2:13 am and is filed under startup stories, why startup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Entrepreneurs Jump Barriers”
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December 18th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I am doing some Google research on dyslexia as it applies to automobile accidents. Not much there but a lot on dyslexia in sports and business, plus the usual big names that are dyslexic.
Your comments have provoked some thought. Have you considered that dyslexics are creative in hiding their “problem (my italics)” and to go corporate or work for somebody else would expose this, which they prefer others not to do, they find a situation where they can be in control. Start a business – let others do better that which I can not. That is being creative, when they most likely were running from a situation they were uncomfortable with, unintentionally tap strengths not readily apparent.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Hi Iam a dyslexic any one that is a entrepreneur that witch to change the world, by teaching dyslexics they startkit och doing business with the strenghts. Call me on +46762654504. I am starting a few education platforms as business to launch dyslexics talents. To comment. I type, write, read normal when I do these things in the hobby interest I love. I have researched from home and also as said in article built myself an international mentor alliance from education to business building experts. I did it trough to things a clear bigpicture articulated vision and intuitively acting from my heart on opportunities. In short I sold my vision with enthusiasm from my heart and it hooked me an alliance. We seam to do this naturally. I have a hard time writing learning stuff I dont love, but can do it. From my research. It turns out the brain parts we use most only operate hear and now. And the key is to find models to learn everything first in the right brain. The bigpicture brain. Convert it in a more spontaneous way from the boring linear detailed left brain. So the model in school has been wrong for us. The other cool thing is we start. create instead of take what is created into copies. So far we have given, The Telephone, The Airplane, The Lightbulb, The Electron, The Computers, The Radio, Electricity. And many more things. The people who developed them where rejected by school system, and most called idiots. And then we put a label are you an Enstein,when a person appears to be smart. Looking at business, Every business starts with a visionary that creates. To create who have to think to faster conclusions and go out there in big action with people and build. If you would instead read and write the opportunities go buy you. So one day I hope dyslexics will just be viewed as another model to make ife work. The Straight a on test students cant in many cases do these things above. Actually they cant solve problesm, make things happen trough instinct. The have to rationalize trough a beed escalator of memory before they get going. And society dont call that a disability. Thank You for raising the issue. It is well spread over the internet now. If you are inspired about me and what I am doing . Again reac me at mikael.muhr@yahoo.com
Thank You
Mikael