I think below is a full copy of the article, sorry if theres any
missing:

Simon


HEALTH: Overcoming Dyslexia
FORTUNE examines business leaders and artists who have gone beyond
the limitations of dyslexia.
FORTUNE
Monday, May 13, 2002
By Betsy Morris


Consider the following four dead-end kids.
One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude.
He dropped out of school at 16. Another failed remedial English and
came perilously close to flunking out of college. The third feared
he'd never make it through school--and might not have without a
tutor. The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring
Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the
words.

These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab,
John Chambers, and David Boies. Billionaire Branson developed one of
Britain's top brands with Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Schwab virtually created the discount brokerage business. Chambers is
CEO of Cisco. Boies is a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the
guy who beat Microsoft.

In one of the stranger bits of business trivia, they have something
in common: They are all dyslexic. So is billionaire Craig McCaw, who
pioneered the cellular industry; John Reed, who led Citibank to the
top of banking; Donald Winkler, who until recently headed Ford
Financial; Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia and now
head of the College Board; Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko's; Diane
Swonk, chief economist of Bank One. The list goes on (see table,
Dyslexic Achievers). Many of these adults seemed pretty hopeless as
kids. All have been wildly successful in business. Most have now
begun to talk about their dyslexia as a way to help children and
parents cope with a condition that is still widely
misunderstood. "This is very painful to talk about, even today," says
Chambers. "The only reason I am talking about it is 100% for the kids
and their parents."

What exactly is dyslexia? The Everyman definition calls it a reading
disorder in which people jumble letters, confusing dog with god, say,
or box with pox. The exact cause is unclear; scientists believe it
has to do with the way a developing brain is wired. Difficulty
reading, spelling, and writing are typical symptoms. But dyslexia
often comes with one or more other learning problems as well,
including trouble with math, auditory processing, organizational
skills, and memory. No two dyslexics are alike--each has his own set
of weaknesses and strengths. About 5% to 6% of American public school
children have been diagnosed with a learning disability; 80% of the
diagnoses are dyslexia-related. But some studies indicate that up to
20% of the population may have some degree of dyslexia (see How to
Help).

A generation ago this was a problem with no name. Boies, Schwab, and
Bill Samuels Jr., the president of Maker's Mark, did not realize they
were dyslexic until some of their own children were diagnosed with
the disorder, which is often inherited. Samuels says he was sitting
in a school office, listening to a description of his son's problems,
when it dawned on him: "Oh, shit. That's me." Most of the adults
Fortune talked to had diagnosed themselves. Says Branson: "At some
point, I think I decided that being dyslexic was better than being
stupid."

Stupid. Dumb. Retard. Dyslexic kids have heard it all. According to a
March 2000 Roper poll, almost two-thirds of Americans still associate
learning disabilities with mental retardation. That's probably
because dyslexics find it so difficult to learn through conventional
methods. "It is a disability in learning," says Boies. "It is not an
intelligence disability. It doesn't mean you can't think."

He's right. Dyslexia has nothing to do with IQ; many smart,
accomplished people have it, or are thought to have had it, including
Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein. Sally Shaywitz, a leading
dyslexia neuroscientist at Yale, believes the disorder can carry
surprising talents along with its well-known
disadvantages. "Dyslexics are overrepresented in the top ranks of
people who are unusually insightful, who bring a new perspective, who
think out of the box," says Shaywitz. She is co-director of the
Center for Learning and Attention at Yale, along with her husband,
Dr. Bennett Shaywitz, a professor of pediatrics and neurology.

Dyslexics don't outgrow their problems--reading and writing usually
remain hard work for life--but with patient teaching and deft
tutoring, they do learn to manage. Absent that, dyslexia can snuff
out dreams at an early age, as children lose their way in school,
then lose their self-esteem and drive. "The prisons are filled with
kids who can't read," says Caperton. "I suspect a lot of them have
learning disabilities."

Dyslexia is a crucible, particularly in a high-pressure society that
allows so little room for late bloomers. "People are either defeated
by it or they become much more tenacious," says McCaw. Don Winkler, a
top financial services executive at Bank One and then at Ford Motor,
remembers coming home from school bloodied by fights he'd had with
kids who called him dumb. Kinko's founder, Paul Orfalea, failed
second grade and spent part of third in a class of mentally retarded
children. He could not learn to read, despite the best efforts of
parents who took him to testers, tutors, therapists, special reading
groups, and eye doctors. As young classmates read aloud, Orfalea says
it was as if "angels whispered words in their ears."



--- In dyslexiaclub@yahoogroups.com, "Shelli" <merk4@i...> wrote:
> I was interested in the article you mentioned so I went searching
for it and since I found it I figured I would share the link. Here it
is:
> http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,373085,00.html
> Shelli
> Also remember that most of the successful people in the world
were "C" students. Many of them never made it through high school -
let alone college. Look up the Fortune Magazine article from May 13,
2002 called Overcoming Dyslexia. It discusses the hardships of
Richard Branson (Virgin Records and Virgin Air), Charles Schwab
(Financial Planner), Craig McCaw (pioneered cellular industry) John
Reed (Citibank) and many others very successful people. So don't
get down and just keep plugging along. Grades are not everything -
the will to make something of yourself
> is.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]