Dyslexia is ‘a superpower’, says Richard Branson. Learn how to use it to become successful

Dyslexic billionaire Richard Branson has launched free courses for people to learn how to harness dyslexic thinking and make it an asset

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(From left) Tom Cruise, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Oliver have dyslexia. Sir Richard Branson, who is also dyslexic, has launched DyslexicU, offering free courses for people to learn how to harness dyslexic thinking. Photo: AFP, AP

Tara Loader Wilkinson

Published: 6:15pm, 12 Oct 2024Updated: 11:19am, 14 Oct 2024

Corrected [11:18am, 14 Oct, 2024]

[11:18am, 14 Oct, 2024]
Jennifer van Wyk does not work for Wise Inclusion Hong Kong.

Scientist Albert Einstein, actresses Jennifer Aniston, Whoopi Goldberg and Keira Knightley, actor Tom Cruise, author Agatha Christie, businessmen Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, chef Jamie Oliver, artist Andy Warhol, singer Gwen Stefani, composer Wolfgang Mozart and dozens of other great thinkers and celebrities share a common learning disorder: dyslexia.

Dyslexia is not due to problems with intelligence, hearing or vision. Individual differences in areas of the brain that process language make reading difficult thanks to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words.

If harnessed in the right way, dyslexia support platform Mooki Wellbeing suggests, dyslexia can be a superpower: while 10 per cent of the global population has dyslexia, about 40 per cent of self-made millionaires are dyslexic.

The idea that, with the right intervention, dyslexia can turn from a hindrance to a competency is behind the launch of a free online university, “DyslexicU”. The brainchild of dyslexic billionaire Sir Richard Branson and global charity Made By Dyslexia, it was developed in partnership with The Open University.

Launching DyslexicU: the world’s first ‘University of Dyslexic Thinking’

In a video for the launch, Branson says: “I’ve always known that a mind like mine doesn’t fit into a formal education system. I didn’t get my success from a traditional classroom, from burying my head in textbooks or by memorising the periodic table.