Barbara Corcoran is a television personality and investor on ABC’s Shark Tank, a sought-after speaker, author, syndicated columnist and by the way is dyslectic. As many adults schooled prior to the passage of Section 504, the ADA and teacher training on learning disabilities and dyslexia, Barbara was not diagnosed as a students with dyslexia. When her son in second grade began to have trouble in school and had similar learning issues and was diagnosed with symptoms of dyslexia she realized she also was dyslectic.
Amazingly, through her determination to succeed and be her own boss Barbara grew over a 25 plus year career, a small real estate business and turned it into a $6 billion dollar real estate broker empire that she sold to NRT Incorporated for $66 Million in 2001 per the Wall Street Journal.
How did Barbara pave her way to success?
Born in Edgewater, New Jersey, the second oldest of ten children she struggled in school barely passing most of her classes. As a “D” student she managed to graduate from high school, entered St Thomas Aquinas College and earned a teaching degree. Dissatisfied with a career teaching, Barbara held more than 20 jobs prior to finding her niche in real estate sales.
She attributes these work experiences along with her coping with dyslexia as the fuel that fed her entrepreneurial fire. She became more creative, more social, more competitive, more flexible and determined to prove she was smart. (source: Entrepreneur). She suffered from insecurity about her ongoing struggle with dyslexia,
She said about overcoming this insecurity, “The key, she said, was overcoming an insecurity is by embracing it.“ – Barbara Corcoran ( Source: Business Insider )
You might be surprised to learn that many individuals with dyslexia become successful business leaders, investors, artists, athletes, actors, and authors. Dyslectics learn early to develop coping strategies. They often work tirelessly to prove their intelligence.
The dyslexic brain is wired differently.
Dyslexia is a lifelong learning disability that makes letters to sounds reading and spelling difficult but does not affect intelligence.
There is no cure for dyslexia according to the International Dyslexia Association.
Research suggests that anywhere from 5-20% of the global population has dyslexia, but that as many as a third of entrepreneurs in the United States have it.