How 4 People Turned Learning. Disabilities Into Stories Of Success, Fortune And Happiness

How 4 people turned learning. disabilities into stories of success, fortune and happiness

Kathy Bergen at the Chicago Tribune tells the story of people with learning disabilities who were very succesful in their careers.

Bill Jacobs owns eight car dealerships that did $400 million in sales last year. Chicago economist Diane Swonk appeared on TV 105 times last year.

She talks about having LD may be an competitive, something that I’ve maintained is true if you learn to focus on your unique strengths and manage or delegate out your weaknesses.

“Now, taboos are falling away, and the way in which learning differences are viewed is shifting. In an increasingly fast-spinning business world that values high-octane multitaskers, innovative risk-takers and big-picture thinkers, some experts are starting to question whether certain individuals are thriving because of their learning differences, rather than in spite of them.”

Lara Honos-Webb, author of “The Gift of ADHD,” said, “there is substantial overlap in what it takes to be an entrepreneur and the traits [often are] associated with ADHD,” among them high energy, a tendency to do many things at once, a proclivity for innovative thinking and taking risks”

Here’s some other successful people with learning differences

former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas, Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke, brokerage innovator Charles Schwab, JetBlue Airways Corp. founder David Neeleman, Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea and John Chambers, chief of Cisco Systems Inc

“Even today, “school rewards people with excellent rote memory, and probably nothing is less important in most careers, especially now that we have hard drives on our desks,” said Levine.”

I wonder how long it will take to change our antiquated educational system. Here’s a good article from my Teaching ADDers website section Other Articles for Teachers of ADHD Children entitled “Our 19th Century Educations” By John Shepler. It talks about why our school system falls short for the world of today and tomorrow. ” The really scary truth is that we’re headed toward an entrepreneurial society that we’ve never been trained for.”

Dr. Sally Shaywitz, author of “Overcoming Dyslexia,” cites her experience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a few years ago. “I couldn’t walk through the halls without someone pulling me aside, and saying, `Can I talk with you for a minute?'” she recalled. “These were the heads of corporations, and they all had a secret: They weren’t good readers.”

I hope that more successful people in different fields who have ADHD will go public with it.

Unfortunately for many people, it’s OK to say that you’re a crack addict or an alcoholic, but not to say you have ADHD, an inherited neurobiological condition. There’s too much false negative stigma in the media and education system that people are buying into about ADHD. We’re the whipping boy for all of society’s ills. This prevents many from seeking a diagnosis of ADHD and treatment.

We need more people including the media magnet celebrities were to come out publically and say they have ADHD and it’s not something that 99% pathology, there are some advantages to having ADD. This would really help to encourage the 85% of adults who have ADD but are undiagnosed to seek diagnosis and treatment. 15-20 years ago many people denied depression was a real condition and it was stigmatized, the “just get drunk and beat your wife and kids and pretend it doesn’t exist and it’ll go away” attitude until many well known people went public with the condition and now the stigma is quite reduced.

Today, you can walk into a doctor’s office and expect them to know enough about depression to diagnose it. You CAN’T ASSUME this is the case with ADHD.

I’ve had several people who have worked for decades in the entertainment industry say it’s fueled by ADHD.

Do you know of any well known people with ADHD that are

A) Alive
and

B) Who’ve publically admitted they have ADHD vs “I think he has it”?

I’d like to get a list with several categories and put it on my website, let me know in the comments if you have someone that meets those 2 criteria.