Different Brains Build Better Futures: The Strengths of Dyslexia
With lived insights from Todd Starr — Dyslexic Thinker, Marketing Veteran, and Podcast Host
When most people hear the word dyslexia, they picture struggle: reading, spelling, confusion, frustration. But what if we’ve been focusing on the wrong side of the story?
Dyslexia isn’t a sign of low ability. It’s a sign of different ability. A dyslexic brain sees connections the rest of us often miss — patterns, possibilities, and perspectives that sit just beyond the obvious. And once you understand how these minds work, you start to see something powerful: courage, creativity, and clarity born from difference.
Seeing Beyond the Lines
Dyslexic thinkers have shaped the world. Steve Jobs with the iPhone, Thomas Edison with the light bulb, John Lennon, Richard Branson, Jamie Oliver — all examples of people who thought beyond the boundaries others accepted.
They share a fearless approach to problem-solving, brave, determined, and committed to their own ideas. It takes self-belief to keep walking when the path isn’t straight.
When I spoke with Todd Starr, a proudly dyslexic thinker and business owner from Nelson, he described that journey perfectly. “I spent years searching for a map that didn’t exist,” Todd told me. “I had to find a way to stay afloat in a system built for straight lines.”
Progress, he reminded me, has always been made by people who can think outside the lines.
From Chaos to Clarity
For Todd, dyslexia once felt like chaos, an unpredictable storm that made everything harder to navigate. The highs could be exhilarating, ideas firing faster than he could capture them, but the lows could hit just as hard. That intensity stretched him, tested him, and ultimately shaped him.
Over time, that storm became his compass. What once looked like disorder revealed itself as a kind of code, a pattern written in a language he hadn’t yet learned to read. As he began to interpret it, clarity replaced confusion. The chaos didn’t disappear; he simply learned how to move with it.
That transformation is at the heart of how dyslexic minds work. They’re not chaotic. They’re deeply connected, constantly translating ideas from one dimension to another. What can feel overwhelming at first often becomes the source of originality, insight, and courage.
The Strengths That Drive Dyslexic Minds
Here’s the part we often overlook. When most people hear dyslexia, they think of struggle. But dyslexia isn’t a limitation. It’s a different way of processing the world. A dyslexic brain connects ideas, recognises patterns, and imagines possibilities long before others do. Once we start seeing it that way, everything changes.
Big-Picture Vision. Dyslexic thinkers see the world in systems and stories rather than steps. They connect the dots before the rest of us even notice they exist, a gift that makes them natural innovators and strategists.
Creative Problem-Solving. When conventional methods fail, dyslexic thinkers invent their own. They think in images, metaphors, and movement. It’s why so many excel in design, entrepreneurship, and engineering.
Empathy and Emotional Insight. Years of feeling misunderstood can deepen empathy. Dyslexic thinkers often sense what others are feeling and can translate that awareness into connection, leadership, and compassion.
Resilience and Courage. Those sticky labels from school, lazy, careless, slow, don’t fade easily. But peeling them off builds strength. It takes real courage to keep showing up when the system speaks a language you’re still learning to translate.
Why These Strengths Stay Hidden
Traditional education still rewards speed, accuracy, and memorisation, not creativity, reasoning, or imagination. A child might have a brilliant idea but struggle to spell it, and that disconnect often hides their true ability.
In my work with the Davis℠ Method, I start by clearing confusion. Once the fog lifts, strengths rise to the surface. Learners rediscover confidence and their natural intelligence begins to shine.
How We Can Help These Strengths Thrive
Spot the spark. Notice what lights them up, that’s where learning begins.
Ask how they see it. Dyslexic thinkers often picture ideas. Let them show you, not just tell you.
Reduce pressure. Calm minds learn best. Replace correction with curiosity.
Build on success. Confidence grows through progress, not perfection.
Lead with strengths. Visual tools, hands-on learning, and open-ended thinking unlock potential.
A Message to Parents, Teachers, and Employers
Across classrooms, homes, and workplaces sit brilliant minds who still believe they’re broken. They’re not. They’re simply waiting for someone to see them clearly.
As Todd puts it, “We have a generation of brilliant minds sitting in classrooms, homes, and offices believing they’re broken, when in truth, they’re our greatest untapped resource. They don’t need fixing. They need understanding.”
The thinkers who were once misunderstood are often the very ones who will help us move forward. Different brains don’t break systems. They build better ones.
