David Burdock’s first break in the business realm was when a
stranger loaned him $1200 to buy a dying diner.  He bought the
diner and quickly made it profitable.  He sold that business and
bought another one, thus beginning a career that would be lead to
his rising to the chairmanship of Castle & Cooke and owning his own
Hawaiian island.

But Burdock’s first break in life came from his decision not to
give up on his dreams.  Throughout his struggles with learning he
persevered, always believing he could do more.

There is only one thing that can stop you and that is yourself.
Don’t think of what you can’t do. The most powerful thing is the
realization of what you can do.

There was only one goal which exceeded his grasp.  He lost his
first wife, Gabrielle, to cancer in the 1990s.  Believing that good
nutrition might have prevented her death, he turned his
determination to founding the Dole Nutrition Institute in 2003.
Today he is one of the leaders of a strong movement in the
nutritional world to find foods that allow people to live longer
and healthy lives.  He was the moving force behind the Encyclopedia
of Foods, A Guide to Healthy Nutrition.

Having dyslexia didn’t stop me anywhere, any way.   It was probably
an advantage.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore–

So wrote Edgar Allan Poe in his most famous work, The Raven.  For
the dyslexic Poe, reading did leave him “weak and weary.”  However,
Poe refused to be discouraged by his weakness.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

He also recognized certain aspects of the talent of dyslexia that
would not be discovered by science for another century.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers
silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful,
and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity
of the intelligence.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this
thing is to be remembered.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite
horror of their reality.

He even saw the benefit of his unique perspective in his writing.

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical
creation of Beauty

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape
those who dream only by night.

I was diagnosis Dyslexic after I flunked kindergarten of all things…They realized I wasn’t reading anything when I was “reading” my stories out loud in class.

I just rememberd the words that  someone would read to me while I look at the picture on the page… then later I connected the words to that picture on the page… But the individual words or letters meant nothing to me, I couldn’t decode that … but I could connect the words to a picture.

So they held me back, and they “tested” me. It turns out: I don’t test well at all… (an understatement). I took these tests over and over again, getting lower scores each time, Let me say that again…the same tests over and over again… and my grade kept dropping lower and lower.So of course  I was labeled with  ”Special”, “Learning Disabled”or my favorite… “Educationally Retarded”…Thank You Child Study Team

To be more specific they ended up with a textbook case of Dyslexic… (And why is a disability for reading and spelling spelled so dam weird?)

So that helped me when I was feeling like an outcast and stupid when other kids could pick things up so easily. So I want to continue that tradition… I want to highlight a fellow Dyslexic as much as I can… I would love to hear your stories of how you were using your Dyslexic skills to get by… we are tricky learners…

Greg Louganis; American author and Olympic diver Born: January 29, 1960 For gold medal winner Greg Louganis, the discovery of his dyslexia came rather late. I didn’t know about dyslexia until I was a freshman in college. I knew I had trouble reading, but I didn’t know what that problem was, so when everyone was calling me stupid, moron, retard and all that, I thought they were right. I thought that was the reason I couldn’t read. When you’re a kid growing up…you know that you’re different; you’re often teased and it can really destroy your self-esteem. But sports can be great for building self-esteem. I’ve learned at the book signings that everyone has obstacles. I hope my story will help anyone who is facing adversity, especially young people.

The Link to the Article