Branson says early dyslexia challenge helped him succeed in business

Dyslexia hasn’t held billionaire Richard Branson back—and it shouldn’t hold back any kids currently struggling with the same problem, he says.

Branson responded to a teacher who wrote to him about dyslexia in a blog post Friday. The teacher, Jonathan Farmer who works in Northern Ireland, asked Branson for words of encouragement for children who have learning difficulties. “I can really empathize with his experience,” he wrote. “I was labelled lazy and dumb because the blackboard looked like a jumble to me.”

He’s not alone. Some 5% to 10% of the global population has dyslexia, according to the University of Michigan. And there is some evidence those with dyslexia are more likely to pursue entrepreneurship than other professions. “Dyslexia is just a different, creative way of thinking and many children with dyslexia have gone on to achieve great things,” Branson added.

Branson’s top tips:

• “Find your passions and pursue them doggedly”

• “Do your best”

• “Don’t be afraid to ask for help”

There is a higher incidence of dyslexia in entrepreneurs than among people in other fields including corporate management, a study at Cass Business School in London found in 2009. Some 35% of entrepreneurs in the U.S. and 20% in the U.K. have dyslexia, researcher Julie Logan found.

In fact, some strategies these individuals use for overcoming dyslexia, including delegating tasks, can be useful in business, her study said. Entrepreneurs with dyslexia may also be more people-centric and able to work in teams. And they are often able to communicate better verbally than those without dyslexia, since they have had to rely on that form of communication more.

Like Branson, other entrepreneurs and well-known business leaders have spoken out about their own learning struggles.

Barbara Corcoran, founder of real-estate company The Corcoran Group and panelist on ABC’s DIS, +2.42%   “Shark Tank,” said she spent many hours daydreaming in class as a child because she did not understand her classes. That turned into “an ability to be an innovator and think outside the box,” she said.

John Chambers, the Chief Executive of Cisco CSCO, +1.94% has dyslexia. He has said he learned his own ways to accomplish tasks quickly, such as eliminating the wrong answers to an equation before getting to the right answer.

Selim Bassoul, Chief Executive and Chairman of Middleby Corp, a kitchen-supply maker with brands including Viking, has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “Dyslexia has forced me to be quite conceptual,” he told The Wall Street Journal last year. “That allows me to step back and take in the big picture rather than get bogged down in the details.”

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