0: This video is sponsored by Henson Shaving.

2: What do Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad

5: Sir Richard Branson

6: Billionaire investor Charles Schwab

8: Walt Disney

9: And Henry Ford have in common?

12: All are or were successful entrepreneurs with dyslexia – a learning disorder that

17: makes it very difficult to read, write, and spell.

20: People with dyslexia have trouble connecting the letters they see

23: to the sounds they make and as a result, often struggle in school.

27: But in the real world, they thrive. They're behind some of the most successful companies on Earth.

32: Richard Branson is one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.

36: He created numerous businesses under the Virgin umbrella and has a net worth of $5 billion.

41: Virgin which now employs 90,000 people would not have been successful if I hadn't been dyslexic.

47: If you had told Branson's classmates that he'd achieve this stunning level

50: of success in life - they may have been dumbfounded.

53: Branson was seen as “the dumbest person in school” - in his words.

57: He had a hard time keeping up with his peers because of his dyslexia

60: and dropped out at the age of 16.

63: Yet he transformed his weakness into an advantage.

66: Branson credits dyslexia with his success

69: because he adapted his management style to suit it which he feels made him a better boss.

74: He understood the importance of communicating well.

77: He's famous for being an inspirational leader who engages with people.

80: And his dyslexia also forced him to

82: delegate tasks to those who excelled in the areas where he was weak.

84: I had to surround myself with great people. Because I wasn't good at

89: maths or something, I had to find people who were good at it.

93: One example is when he hired an accountant during the early days of Virgin.

97: He credits that with getting the company off the ground.

100: Branson always struggled with numbers and words. Once, when he was in a board meeting at the age of

104: 50, he couldn't for the life of him understand the difference between net and gross profit.

109: Another person in the room kindly took him aside and explained it to him with an illustration.

114: He drew the ocean. And put a net in the ocean with fish in it.

118: He explained that the fish in the net were the net profits,

120: and the rest of the ocean was the gross turnover.

123: And then everything became clear to Branson.

126: Delegating tasks to the right people is essential to growing any business.

130: Yet many find it difficult to give up control. Everyone knows of a boss who's a micromanager!

135: Research has found people with dyslexia are more likely to delegate authority

139: and also twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

142: That study out of Cass Business School in London found more than

146: a third of American entrepreneurs surveyed showed signs of dyslexia.

149: Another commissioned by the BBC found 40% of that

153: country's self-made millions showed some signs of the learning disability.

157: That's significantly higher than the estimated 5% to 10% of the

160: general population with some degree of dyslexia.

164: The question is: Are their entrepreneurial strengths a result of nature or nurture?

169: A dyslexia expert believes they are naturally better at certain things,

173: like picking up social cues.

174: In an article in the Sacramento Bee about California governor Gavin Newsom who has dyslexia,

180: Dr. Marilu Gorno-Tempini of UC San Francisco said:

183: “He can understand what people need and their emotions more than others.

187: I don't think that's a compensation. I think that's the superpower of his dyslexic brain.”

192: She and other scientists at UC San Francisco recently discovered children with the disorder

197: had greater changes in heart rate and facial behavior when they viewed video

200: clips of others experiencing emotions compared to children without dyslexia.

205: Eleanor Palser, one of the researchers who conducted the study, concluded to Newsthink:

210: “This tells us that dyslexia might be associated with biological differences in empathy…”

215: Being able to see things from the other person's perspective

218: is extremely important for any entrepreneur.

221: Walt Disney, who was diagnosed with dyslexia, could read people very well

224: and was extremely empathetic according to those who knew him.

228: He dreamt up a world that children and adults could enjoy and transformed Disney into an empire.

234: Turns out, the brains of people with dyslexia are wired differently.

238: University of Cambridge researchers used artificial intelligence to map

241: out the brain differences of hundreds of children.

244: They discovered those with dyslexia had poorly connected “hubs” within the brain

248: which they attributed to their learning difficulties.

251: You can liken these hubs to a train station with few or poorly organized connections.

256: So people with dyslexia literally have a different way of thinking and seeing the world.

261: Their unique brains are believed to make them brilliant spies.

265: In fact, some intelligence agencies are actively recruiting people with dyslexia,

269: such as the UK's GCHQ. The agency calls their

272: thinking skills “mission critical” because they're great at spotting patterns that

276: others don't see - crucial in trying to prevent acts of terrorism for example.

281: And increasingly important with warfare moving into cyberspace.

284: As AI and machine learning automate routine tasks, creative thinking

288: skills could be in higher demand. And their creativity apparently

292: leads to original ideas that translate into million-dollar or billion-dollar success.

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356: Thanks for watching. For Newsthink, I'm Cindy Pom.