I’m celebrating success!

I’m celebrating success! My 16yo passed all 10 of her GCSEs including getting the required B in Maths, which means she gets to go to the college of her choice to study A level Maths, History and Business Studies.

So what’s this got to do with business? I want to share my daughter’s journey so far as I think it’s inspiring and a great lesson that proves a lesson my father taught me about success – the 3 D’s of success – Desire, Dedication and Determination.

My 16yo is dyslexic. From a very early age I always knew that something was not right as learning to read was difficult for her. Far more difficult compared to her older sister. It wasn’t until she was 7 that her teacher recognised that she was not picking up ‘sounding out’ like the other children, so she was screened and it turned out that she was ‘85% likely to be dyslexic’.

Feeling Stupid

Up until then she felt stupid because she wasn’t ‘getting’ reading and spelling like her classmates. Yet in every other area of development she was super smart and observant. If we took a different route from normal to her grandmother’s (to avoid traffic) she would ask me ‘aren’t we going to grandma’s?’. She had amazing abilities to solve jigsaw puzzles and had finite dexterity picking up and looking at her big sister’s small Barbie doll accessories.

Successful Dyslexics

In my research I learned that dyslexics are incredibly talented at solving 3D puzzles. Their problem solving skills are completely different and they approach problem solving from a completely different angle and typically contribute to mankind with new inventions and philosophies. (Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, George Washington, Richard Branson – all famous dyslexics who’ve done amazing things – source https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/dyslexic-achievers/)

Reading, however, is a 2D puzzle and her problem solving skills were trying to solve reading like a 3D puzzle, reversing letters, turning them upside down, jiggling the letters about – and that just didn’t work.

So how do you tell a 7yo that just because she’s dyslexic doesn’t mean she’s stupid? Had she been brought up in my era, then she would have been branded a dunce and failure and clearly she wasn’t.

Gifted with a Super Fast Brain

I told her that she was gifted with a super fast brain that could work out problem-solving solutions from a completely different perspective that normal people just don’t. That her brain worked far quicker than most brains. But sometimes it was too fast for its own good.

So she had to learn a new approach to reading. An approach that made use of her amazing visual memory. Which she did by remembering words as a picture. Not a method that’s normally taught at school.

And things seemed to change and her confidence grew back. She knew now that she had a gift – a super fast brain. It just needed different programming. Like an Apple computer doesn’t work with Windows programmes. Windows is the ‘norm’ but not nearly as fast as Apple which just uses different software. Both systems, despite being different, arrive at solutions.

At high school, she was never at the bottom of the class, therefore didn’t draw attention to herself. Always in the safe middle. Often the first her teachers knew of her dyslexia was me at the parent/teacher consultations asking them how they were helping her overcome her spellings difficulty. That was always met by a surprised ‘she’s dyslexic?’.

So it’s impressive that my daughter hasn’t let this so-called disability or label hold her back from wanting to achieve her best and getting on with it. She’s hidden it well from her teachers so they expect her to do well. She’s a high achiever and has high expectations of herself.

Her dream is to become a lawyer. And who’s to say she can’t?

Support and Nurture

I believe that together with the right nurturing and supportive environment anyone can achieve anything they want if they truly desire it, dedicate themselves to achieve that goal and stay determined to overcome any obstacles and set backs that get in the way, because success doesn’t come without set backs.

When I think about every business owner I’ve met who is successfully out there making it work, they have all three D’s – Desire, Dedication and Determination to make their business a success. They don’t let set backs or obstacles put them off. They find solutions to overcome them and success eventually does come. And they celebrate success.

Let’s celebrate your success!

What success are you celebrating? I’d love to hear. Please add your successes to the comment box below.