Motivated People

Governor Newsom of California recently wrote a memoir in which, among numerous personal issues, he reflects upon his lifelong struggle with dyslexia. I can relate to his feelings, having grown up with undiagnosed dyslexia. In fact, it took me until junior year in college to catch up to the fifth grade I had to repeat because I was unable to keep up with the other kids in my class at School No. 36 on Joseph Avenue in Rochester. Dyslexia was not a well-known diagnosis in the 1940s-50s, and it wasn’t until the late 1960s that the first consensus definition was issued by the World Federation of Neurology. The remedy for treating kids like me who could not read at grade level was to repeat the grade, with all the embarrassment associated with it, so much so in my case that I convinced my parents to let me change schools to avoid having to face my peers.

In hindsight, the motivation instilled in me to overcome this experience resulted in a desire to always reach beyond what most people thought I was capable of, including college and law school. My learning disability showed its ugly head periodically. In law school, I misread a question on an equity class exam, which resulted in my missing out on Law Review and, consequently, a first-tier law job upon graduating. Now I deal with dyslexia in my reading by following each sentence at a time with my thumb. It is a process, but it works. As years pass, I have learned there is a fraternity of dyslexia sufferers and, more importantly, survivors. My dyslexia has been a booster and motivator. In fact, the general view of dyslexia as an entirely negative condition has shifted. Apparently, NASA actively seeks to employ individuals with dyslexia, as they (we) excel at seeing the “big picture,” identifying patterns and spatial reasoning, such as 3D visualization, which contribute to innovation and are valued skills in engineering and astrophysics. I have been told I have a knack for seeing the “big picture,” and I can attest that it is a skill that has come in handy many times over the years in my law practice. When other attorneys and experts may get bogged down “in the weeds” and in the minutiae of a case, I step back to see above and beyond, and a way forward for my clients. If only my 5th-grade self had an inkling that dyslexia was really a gift in disguise.