Business Persons


Henry Ford Henry Ford was the founder of the Ford Motor Company. He was one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of affordable automobiles. Henry Ford had problems with schooling due to dyslexia but excelled in engineering.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford


walter disney Walter Elias Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and creator of an American-based theme park called Disneyland. Walt Disney had dyslexia. He was labeled 'slow' as a child and was fired from the Kansas City newspaper for not being creative.



richard branson Richard Branson is founder and chairman of London-based Virgin Group. Branson has dyslexia, resulting in poor academic performance as a student. Dyslexia was not known in the UK at that time so his teachers assumed he was either stupid or lazy. This resulted in him receiving many canings for both these offenses.

"Perhaps my early problems with dyslexia made me more intuitive: when someone sends me a written proposal, rather than dwelling on detailed facts and figures, I find that my imagination grasps and expands on what I read."- Richard Branson


charles schwab Charles Schwab heads the USA's first and largest discount brokerage, overseeing more than $500 billion in assets. Schwab faced lifelong struggle with dyslexia. He flunked both French and English before finding refuge in economics. The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation started a Website called SparkTop.org to help children who have dyslexia and learning disabilities like ADD.

"I couldn't read. I just scraped by. My solution back then was to read classic comic books because I could figure them out from the context of the pictures. Now I listen to books on tape." - Charles Schwab


steven jobs Steven Paul Jobs is an American business magnate and inventor. He is well-known for being the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple. Steve Jobs is dyslexic. He said he let snakes loose in his third grade classroom and "exploded bombs." While Steve Jobs was working at Atari, he was moved to the night shift because he had poor personal hygiene and smelled bad.


tomy hilfinger Tommy Hilfiger is a renowned fashion designer.The second of nine children; he describes himself as a scrawny, dyslexic kid who became the class clown to mask his embarrassment over less-than-average grades. Hilfiger never went to fashion design school.


"I performed poorly at school, when I attended, that is, and was perceived as stupid because of my dyslexia. I still have trouble reading. I have to concentrate very hard at going left to right, left to right; otherwise my eye just wanders to the bottom of the page." -Tommy Hilfiger