UK. Marco Passoni, Senior Executive VP at travel retail consultancy TW.O & Partners, has “come out” as dyslexic – which is characterised by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence – in writing a very personal piece as his contribution to this week’s #DyslexiaAwarenessWeek. Here, he reveals he has lived with the condition all his life, and acknowledges the challenges and worries it can cause for people. But, he says, it has also given him great gifts which have enabled him to achieve many great outcomes.
This week we mark Dyslexia Awareness Week and I can stand here and say that I am a proud, severely dyslexic man.
I only discovered my condition had a classification a few years ago. Throughout my childhood we did not speak about it; I was usually classified as “dumb” or “different”. I can still remember many nightmare moments as a young man in education. I was fighting day-to-day to find strategies which helped me deal with situations which always saw me out of my comfort zone. I was self-conscious about my “difference” every day.
I remember one episode like it was yesterday. The English teacher called on me to read aloud. At that time, as well as today, I was literally terrified to read anything out loud. I read “Simone” instead of “someone”, not because I was wrong in pronunciation, but simply because I confused with the two words. My classmates laughed so much, and I was labelled “Simone” for months.
Thanks to the challenges I faced in school I developed a sense of endurance and resilience that forged my ability at that time as a sportsman and later professionally. It left me with the belief that nothing and no one could ever stop me from achieving my goals and that with hard work, perseverance, and determination I could achieve anything, in spite of those who had laughed at me for years.
That is what drove me to become an Olympic sailor and a World Champion. It is what helped me to found a duty free company and rise from nothing to becoming a market leader in less than a decade.
“It’s as if people with dyslexia tend to use a wide-angle lens to take in the world, while others tend to use a telephoto, each is best at revealing different kinds of detail” – Matthew H. Schneps, Harvard University
My motto is: “Nothing is impossible. Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
As I say, it was about 15 or 20 years ago that I realised I was dyslexic, rather than “different”. I came to realise that, beyond the deficits, my condition has many benefits.
It is by looking at those benefits that I realise that being dyslexic has helped me to who I am and where I am today.
“I performed poorly at school – when I attended, that is – and was perceived as stupid because of my dyslexia. I still have trouble reading. I have to concentrate very hard at going left to right, left to right, otherwise my eye just wanders to the bottom of the page“ – Tommy Hilfiger
The disadvantages of this condition are well known, but it gives gifts as well as presenting challenges. Here are mine:
- High creativity – if I had realised just 1% of the ideas I have had, I’d have been a millionaire
- Thinking outside the box and problem solving – dyslexics are well known for having sudden leaps of insight that solve problems with an intuitive and unorthodox approach
- Seeing the bigger picture – I’m often able to see things more holistically
- I’m rather unbeatable in finding the odd one out – I excel at global visual processing and the detection of impossible figures
- I’m a passionate workaholic and a maniacal perfectionist
- I’m a picture thinker – I am a spatial specialist and am able to identify a tiny different or wrong detail floating in a sea of varied things
- Above all, I believe each of these tasks has made me perfectly suited to the world of retail and luxury, where I am today
“I seemed to think in a different way from my classmates. I was very focused on trying to set up a business and create something. My dyslexia guided the way we communicated with customers“ – Richard Branson
When it was first suggested that I do this, I was unsure about reflecting on how dyslexia has affected me in my life and career. But the truth is that it has been very therapeutic. I hope, if nothing else, that these thoughts may be useful to some other dyslexics and show you can always find your way if you trust in yourself.
Footnote: Luca Solca, Senior Analyst at Bernstein & Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group will present a live address themed ‘Re-evaluating the future of luxury’ in association with TW.O Partners at the inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo on 15 October at 13:00 (UK); 20:00 (CST); 20:00 (SGT); 15:00 (AST);08:00 (EST)
