The truth is this. “Dyslexia very often comes with amazing gifts”. It can allow people to think in different and very powerful ways. These gifts are different for everyone, but there are some common ones. Things like being able to see the big picture. Or having extreme emotional intelligence and empathy. For a perfect example of this checkout Gary Vaynerchuck. He has both of those qualities and it has led him to be both an incredible entrepreneur and someone who has also been extremely successful at helping others. I don’t think he has ever said publicly that he is dyslexic. But he has stated over and over that he did very poorly in school. And has extreme difficulty reading and spelling. Yes, he’s written a few best-selling books, but this was done with the help of others to do the writing. He spoke the books and they put it into written form. Even his tweets and texts are full of misspellings and grammatical errors. And he has stated publicly that he doesn’t care. Perhaps he is showing that even with these problems, a person can be successful. Who knows, he’s a very smart guy. And so are many dyslexics.
Mom’s Rule!
One other thing that Gary Vee says regularly, on stage, in front of thousands of people, is this. He attributes every bit of his success to his mother. His mother knew how to teach him discipline and hard work, while at the same time, developing his self-confidence, despite his learning struggle. Awesome Moms rule! Right?
Sir Richard Branson is another similar example. He has come out and spoken about his dyslexia. He speaks about thinking in pictures. He is also an amazing communicator and extremely empathetic. As well as helpful to others. My guess is he had an awesome mom too!
There are many many examples like this in the world of entrepreneurship. It’s estimated that 30% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic.
Why Does Dyslexia Come With Gifts
So it is true. Dyslexia comes with gifts. This is pretty obvious.
But why is that?
Well, let’s talk about the brain for a moment. I think a little understanding of neuroscience will explain a lot.
Our brain has different regions, and in general, each region carries out specific tasks. But, I said in general, right? It’s not an absolute. Our brains are not machines. And that’s where a part of the lie is. Thinking that they are. Thinking that the functions these parts of the brain carry out are absolute. They are not. They can, and do, change and shift for a lifetime. That can be in a positive way, or a negative way, depending on how you treat them.
Yes, you can control how your brain changes. For the positive, or for the negative.
Different Brains
What is also true is that our brain works as a whole. Not individual parts working independently. Each part can be delegated a role. And for most people, but not all, the things that each part does is similar. Just not absolute. So for example, for most people, Broca’s area, which controls speech, is towards the front of the left hemisphere of the brain. And Wernicke's area, which also plays a part in language, is towards the back of the left hemisphere. These, incidentally, are the regions that are involved in most forms of dyslexia.
But in some people, that's flipped. Both are in the right hemisphere. It’s just different. Who knows why. And for those people, it seems to make no difference. It’s just that a different part of the brain is doing that processing than in most people. All brains are different. Different regions can do different things that are not typical.
Let's consider vision.
Vision is partially processed in the visual cortex, at the back of the brain, but the majority of that processing happens in the cerebral cortex. As a matter of fact, it takes up more than half of the visual cortex. Making the processing of vision the most intensive cognitive function of the brain. Vision takes the most brain power of anything we do.
So, what happens in blind people? Does all this brain power just shut down? HHHHmmmm.
Now that wouldn’t be a very efficient use of brain power, would it?
The Brain is Not a Machine
Nope, that’s not how the brain works. That’s what I meant when I saidthe brain is not a machine. In a machine, if a part breaks then whatever the function of that part was, no longer works. So, for example. A car is a machine. If the car loses a wheel, well then it's not going to drive very well. It’ll just skid along, sparks flying, and eventually, come to a stop. But if a car were more like a brain, well then it would be more like those transformer movies. New, better wheels would pop out. Or better yet, wings, and it would just fly instead of drive.
Too bad cars aren’t more like brains. Right? That would be fun.
So, back to the brain. Parts of the brain can be reassigned to do other jobs. New skills can develop this way. New ways of thinking and feeling can develop this way. Everything can change. For better, or for worse. Depending on how you guide it.
Some brains have parts that have been reassigned to completely different jobs. And that has some amazing implications. Let’s cover that.
So how do these parts get reassigned?
Well, it happens when there is a need. When the brain must reconfigure itself to overcome some challenge.
For example. We already know that blind people have far more sensitive fingers. They can read braille. Ever try that? And they can touch a face and in a sense “see it”. Can you do that? Probably not. I can’t either. Most can count change. Can you do that with your eyes closed? Not easy right? Their brains have remapped due to a need. A need to understand the world around them without the use of vision. *************end #9***************
Here’s an interesting experiment that turned out to be a radical example of brain region reassignment. Scientists made a machine that would transform images into light touches on a person's back. The machine would sort of print out the image on their back with touch. They had blind people practice with this machine for some time. And here’s the amazing thing. Eventually, they could “see” the images. Not in high resolution of course. But enough that they could make them out. And, they perceived the images as if they were seeing them with their eyes. Not their back. They actually used the sense of touch to see. Brains are amazing right?