To Make a Difference

As a child, he was labeled a hyperactive dyslexic kid. He flunked the second grade. He couldn't learn the alphabet. Of the eight schools he attended, four expelled him. As his second grade teacher was paddling him, he vowed to himself that one day he would own his own business with a secretary who could read for him.

As an adult, Paul Orfalea earned a BS Degree in Finance from the University of Southern California and founded Kinkos Photocopy Shops which he built into a billion dollar corporation.

In 2004, Kinko's was acquired by FedEx and rebranded as FedEx Kinko's Office & Print Services.
FedEx Kinko's now operates a network of 1,700 locations in eleven countries.

Below is an excerpt from Two Billion Dollars in Nickels: Reflections on the Entrepreneurial Life, by Paul Orfalea with Dean Zatkowsky

Although society’s understanding of dyslexia and ADHD is improving, too many people still equate “difference” with “disability.” Every disability may be a difference, but not every difference is a disability.

How can we best serve students with differences?

What if we reframe the question? What if every student learns in a different way and at a different pace? That’s right: what if everyone has a learning difference? Some may fit more neatly into traditional teaching templates, but does that make others “disabled?”

We hire specialists to identify and label disabilities, but we should be learning to recognize and support hidden abilities. To be successful in school, you must be good at everything, but to be successful in life, you only have to be good at one or two things. I recognize the importance of a well-rounded education, but some people take a roundabout path to get there. For them, school should be a part of the journey paved with small victories, not an impassable mountain of accumulated failures and dismissive labels.

Instead of obsessing over what a student cannot do, we should help each student make the most of his or her individual strengths, because you don’t make a difference in this world by trying to be the same as everyone else.

End of excerpt.

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