Dyslexia and the link with entrepreneurship

by Brian O’Shea – Staff writer

OK, so its 2010, there’s a shortage of money to buy books, materials and resources, friends in your social network are losing their jobs and staff at the school are not being replaced.

However, from whence cometh the cash to fund around 52,000 teacher’s salaries and provide resources to educate about 750,000 children in NZ each year? Did you think the money came from the government? Did government create the money; or did they just redistribute it from other taxpayers?

In November 2004, the Cass Business School – University of London – published research that showed that entrepreneurs were more than five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia than your average citizen was.

Further, the research highlighted that 70 per cent of those dyslexic entrepreneurs did not succeed at school.

Those attempting to teach entrepreneurship through traditional theoretical methods will fail because the people who make brilliant entrepreneurs respond poorly to the typical classroom environment.

The research highlighted that on the one hand, you have the academic fraternity who may not have the skills or inclination to take ideas to the market and on the other hand, you have natural entrepreneurs who are being failed by the school and the education system.

The academic’s successful career is measured by their peers on the number of doctorates, diplomas, certificates they have accumulated, or the number of professional development courses they may have attended. The entrepreneur is measured by society on his, or her wealth in assets accumulated, patents, real estate, businesses, charitable donations etc. The market ultimately provides jobs, creates products and services and then pays the taxes that fund education.

A comparative 2007 American study, reported in the New York Times, found much the same as their British counterparts, that it has long been known that those who struggle with reading and writing play to their strengths. Dyslexics can be extraordinarily creative manoeuvring their way around problems and perceived opportunities.

The NZ Small Business Advisory group reported to parliament in 2004, that 97 per cent of our businesses employed fewer than 15 people.

The Massey University SME website reports “the sector makes an enormous contribution – in NZ, our 350,000 or so SMEs, make up more than 99 per cent of all businesses and account for about 60 per cent of employment”.

The SME sector broadly covers micro-enterprises (fewer than five staff), small enterprises (6-49) and medium enterprises (50-100).

How many of those NZ Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) have owners who are dyslexic is not known, but the offshore research suggests that at least 20 per cent of UK business owners are dyslexic and the figure is closer to 35 per cent in the USA.

The Dyslexia Foundations suggests on its website that at least 10 per cent of NZ students are dyslexic and if that is the case, of the three-quarter million or so children at school in NZ, that equates to around 75,000 dyslexic students – 10 per cent of the school role.

If mainstream education continues to provide the dyslexic student with a healthy dose of how not to do it, the dyslexic individual will figure out how to do it their way. Go the antisocial way and they are likely to end up as a guest of the Department of Prisons. The more socially acceptable way is to become an entrepreneur, or employee.

Love those dyslexic entrepreneurs in waiting, for they hold the secret to the question – “from whence cometh the cash?”