Entrepreneurship a Perfect Career Path for Kids With Dyslexia, Says Honest Tea CEO
What does your child want to be when she grows up? If she has dyslexia, she might want to add “entrepreneur” to her list.
Honest Tea CEO and founder Seth Goldman says many people with are bursting with creativity. They’re used to dealing with setbacks and adversity. And they can be persistent and flexible thinkers. Those traits can serve them well in starting and running their own businesses.
Goldman writes in his blog and in Inc. magazine that this insight came to him during a panel discussion in Madison, Wisconsin. The day before the panel, Goldman visited his nephews who have dyslexia. He says he enjoyed seeing their artwork and sharing their “delightfully different” view of the world.
He also heard about the challenges they face in school. That reminded him of the challenges his own son Jonah faced when younger. (Jonah, who has dyslexia, is now a political science major at Colorado College.)
Goldman says he realized the entrepreneurs he met were all trying to build successful businesses by seeing things in a different way. Well, seeing things differently is what kids with dyslexia have to do every day, reasons Goldman.
Goldman hopes one day all kids with dyslexia will be identified early. And he hopes the education system will give them the tools they need to succeed. But until that happens, he writes:
“[D]yslexics who manage to make it through high school will … bring alternative thinking to society’s problems. [T]hey also will have already proved their resilience because they’ll have overcome … academic and personal setbacks.”
Did you know that many entrepreneurs have learning and thinking differences? Find out more about business people with learning and thinking differences, like Richard Branson and Charles Schwab.
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