Dyslexic? You're not alone...

yslexia is a syndrome of many and varied symptoms affecting over 40 million American children and adults. Many with

dyslexia and related learning and attention disorders realize quite early that they are not like their peers. Their learning and

coordination or klutzy difficulties often lead to ridicule and/or self-recrimination — leading them to feel dumb and depressed-

isolated. As a result, one can only wonder just how many potential creative geniuses — how many Einstein’s and Da Vinci’s —

have been stigmatized and pushed aside? All too often, learning-disabled children grow up to be underemployed adults,

shunted into routine, dead-end occupations for life. Some have difficulties maintaining families and raising children properly.

Many drift into drugs and alcohol — even crime. Their loss and cost to society is incalculable. And tragically, this staggering

loss was, and is, preventable!

Since dyslexia is often a self-compensating disorder that can often be overcome with time, effort and understanding, it is

crucial to provide dyslexics with success stories of well known individuals so that they don’t give up and indeed persevere.

Thus for example, there have been many dyslexics that have made tremendous contributions to mankind. They include famous

entertainers, designers, architects, writers, athletes, jurists, physicians, scientists, and political and business leaders.

These successful dyslexics learned to overcome or sidestep their barriers, permitting them to accomplish their dreams and

desires. In fact, at times their disorder was found to be a catalyst for success — forcing them to develop and utilize hidden

talents. Often, their most crucial "life-saving"characteristic was perseverance. They never gave up no matter how difficult the

task before them seemed. Their successful lives, despite dyslexia, shows us that "miracles" can be accomplished so long as

dyslexics are encouraged by loving parents and caring teachers to believe in themselves.

An inspiring sample of some self-compensated famous and successful dyslexics follows. But just remember — for every famous

or well-known dyslexic, there are thousands and thousands more who have made it, despite their disorder. Sadly, there are

millions that have not — that could have!

Pablo Picasso

ablo was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain. He was a famous, controversial, and trend-

setting art icon. Pablo attended local parochial schools and had a very difficult time. He is

described as having difficulty reading the orientation of the letters and labeled a dyslexic, and

despite the initial difficulties was able to catch up with the curriculum. However, dyslexia

made school difficult and he never really benefited from his education. Dyslexia would trouble

Picasso for the rest of his life.

Pablo’s father was an art teacher in Malaga, and encouraged Pablo to attend. Pablo enrolled

in the school in 1892. Despite the difficulties that his learning disabilities posed, it became

clear that Pablo had an incredible talent. From an early age Pablo Picasso had developed the

sense of how people wanted to be seen and how others saw them. Over the course of his

career he developed a unique sense of beauty and style that seemed to call to people. Pablo

painted things as he saw them — out of order, backwards or upside down. His paintings

demonstrated the power of imagination, raw emotion, and creativity on the human psyche.

As others before him, Pablo Picasso took art to a new level. A prolific painter, some of his

famous works includes The Young Ladies of Avigon, Old Man with Guitar, and Guernica.

Tom Cruise
 om Cruise was born fighting. He grew up poor, and his family moved

around a lot while his father looked for work. Tom never spent a lot of time any

one school because the family moved around a lot. Tom, like his mother,

suffered from dyslexia and was put into the remedial classes at school. Tom is

right handed when writing, but does most things left handed. While Tom was not

an academic success, he focused on athletics and competed in many sports. A

knee injury derailed his hopes of a promising athletic career.

Tom Cruise then spent a year in a Franciscan monastery, but the priesthood was

not for him. While in high school, he appeared in a number of plays, and with his

mother’s encouragement and support, pursued a career in acting. Tom focused

all his energy on developing his acting career, once again revealing his drive and

dogged determination. He never let his learning disability stand in the way of

his success.

Richard Branson

ichard Branson, founder and chairman of London-based Virgin Group, didn't

breeze through school. In fact, school was something of a nightmare for him.

His scores on standardized tests were dismal, pointing to a dismal future. He

was embarrassed by his dyslexia and found his education becoming more and

more difficult. He felt as if he had been written off.

However, his educators failed to detect his true gifts. His ability to connect with

people on a personal level, an intuitive sense of people, was not detected until a

frustrated Richard Branson started a student newspaper with fellow student

Jonny Gems. The incredible success of the Student was but the start of a richly

diverse and successful career.

Despite the difficulties and challenges posed by his dyslexia, by focusing on his

inner talents, Richard Branson successfully overcame his difficulties. From his

first taste of success and believing in himself, Richard Branson never looked

back.

Leonard Da Vinci

orn in 1452, Da Vinci was sent to Florence in his teens to apprentice as a

painter under Andrea del Verrocchio. He quickly developed his own artistic style

which was unique and contrary to tradition, even going so far as to devised his

own special formula of paint. His style was characterized by diffuse shadows and

subtle hues and marked the beginning of the High Renaissance period.

Da Vinci dedicated himself to understanding the mysteries of nature, and his

insightful contributions to science and technology were legendary. As the

archetypal Renaissance man, Leonardo helped set an ignorant and superstitious

world on a course of reason, science, learning, and tolerance. He was an

internationally renowned inventor, scientists, engineer, architect, painter,

sculptor, musician, mathematician, anatomist, astronomer, geologists, biologist,

and philosopher in his time.

Da Vinci was also believed to suffer from a number of learning disabilities

 including dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. Some believe that the initiation

of many more projects than he ever completed suggest that he had attention

deficit disorder. Strong evidence in Da Vinci’s manuscripts and letters

corroborates the diagnosis of dyslexia. It appears that Leonardo wrote his notes

backwards, from right to left, in a mirror image. This is a trait shared by many

left-handed dyslexic people. In addition to the handwriting, the spelling errors in

his manuscripts and journals demonstrated dyslexia-like language difficulties.

Da Vinci overcame his learning disabilities by funneling his creative talents into

visual depictions of his thoughts. His creative, analytic, and visionary

inventiveness has not yet been matched.

Thomas Edison

orn in 1847, Thomas Edison was a brilliant scientist and inventor. He was

thrown out of school when he was 12 because he was thought to be dumb. He

was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable to focus, and had difficulty with

words and speech. It was very clear, however, that Thomas Edison was an

extremely intelligent student despite his poor performance in school.

In the late 1860s and early 1870s electrical science was still in its infancy and

Thomas Edison was keeping abreast of the latest developments. He was an avid

reader of the latest research of the day and frequently contributed articles about

new ideas in telegraph design to technical journals. Over the course of his career

Edison patented 1,093 inventions. Edison believed in hard work, sometimes

working twenty hours a day. He has been quoted as saying, "Genius is one

percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."

Hard work and perseverance helped Thomas Edison focus his keen insight and

creative abilities on the development of ingenious tools that have laid the

foundation for our modern society.

Jay Leno

ay Leno has worked very hard all his life. A mild dyslexic, he did not do very

well in school getting mainly C’s and D’s. Jay, however, was determined to

accomplish his goals. Despite his poor grades, he was determined to attend

Emerson College in Boston. While told by the admissions officer that he was not

a good candidate Jay had his heart set on attending the University and sat

outside the admission officers’ office 12 hours a day 5 days a week until he was

accepted into the University.

Jay credits his dyslexia with enabling him to succeed in comedy. He credits his

dyslexia with helping him develop the drive and perseverance needed to succeed

in comedy, and life in general.

Whoopi Goldberg
 hoopi Goldberg, born Carolyn Johnson, is an outstanding American entertainer,

having acted in major motion picture hits like Ghost, Sister Act I and II, Made in America,

Jumping Jack Flash, The Color Purple, and Star Trek: Generations.

Whoopi had a lot of difficulty in school, but it was not until she was an adult did she learn

that she had dyslexia. When Whoopi was growing up, she remembers being called dumb and

stupid because she had a lot of problems reading. It was clear to her teachers and family that

she was neither slow nor dumb, but had some problem that had not yet been well defined.

Despite her dyslexia, Whoopi Goldberg has gone on to have a successful film and television

career.