Holly Branson has praised her father Sir Richard Branson for speaking openly about his neurodiversity and how it is his ‘superpower’.
The mother-of-three, 42, revealed that her son, Artie, nine, is dyslexic like his billionaire grandfather, 73, so it ‘means a lot’ to her for the businessman to talk about it.
Sharing a throwback snap of Richard and Artie playing chess, she wrote: ‘“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
‘This quote just says it all – especially when it comes to education. With a dyslexic child (just like his granddad), it means a lot to me whenever Dad writes about neurodiversity. On his blog, he’s shared a lovely piece on how our uniqueness is our superpower in life’.
Richard was diagnosed with dyslexia in his twenties after years of struggling academically at school.
Holly Branson has praised her father Sir Richard Branson for speaking openly about his neurodiversity and how it is his ‘superpower’ (pictured together)
The mother-of-three, 42, revealed that her son, Artie, nine, is dyslexic like his billionaire grandfather, 73, so it ‘means a lot’ to her for the businessman to talk about it
Sharing a throwback snap of Richard and Artie playing chess, she wrote: ‘“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”‘
The learning difficulty can affect individuals of all intelligence levels and usually results in poor or inconsistent spelling and writing.
However, the Virgin founder has said that the disorder has benefitted him and contributed to his immense success.
Writing on his blog last week, Richard explained: ‘Over the years, I learnt to harness my dyslexic thinking, and embrace the curious ways my mind would work.’
He said he was drawn to others who had unique personalities and ways of thinking and frequently hired them, saying: ‘We weren’t fussed on qualifications or credentials – we hired for the skills we needed, and we focused on attitude over accolades.’
He insisted that the current education model is ‘unfair’ as it marks everyone the same, regardless of their individual strengths and weaknesses.
Richard wrote: ‘It’s foolish and unkind to judge everybody by the same set of narrow metrics, and stifle our individuality.
‘Just because we are not so great in certain areas, we shouldn’t be made to feel inferior or bad about ourselves.’
He concluded: ‘We all shine when we have the freedom to do what we’re good at, and the world becomes a lot more exciting for it.’
Richard was diagnosed with dyslexia in his twenties after years of struggling academically at school
However, the Virgin founder has said that the disorder has benefitted him and contributed to his immense success (pictured in May)
Richard previously described his schooling experience to The Times in 2022, detailing his frustration of struggling to read and write.
He said his earliest memories of education are ‘looking at a blackboard and just seeing mumbo jumbo and relegating myself to the back of the class, so I could at least try to look over somebody else’s shoulder to see if I could get some marks, but having no understanding of what was going on and longing for breaktime so I could go out and play.’
At the time of his schooling in the 1950s and 1960s, dyslexia was not widely recognised and Richard said: ‘I would jumble things up. People just assumed that we [dyslexics] were stupid. I was definitely bottom of the class.’
However, he said that now he believes the unique way his brain is wired has given him an edge in business, explaining: ‘If something really interests me, I can excel at it. The fact that I was dyslexic meant that, from a very young age, I found fantastic people to surround myself with. It taught me to delegate.
‘I think that, by and large, dyslexics are more creative and good at seeing the bigger picture. We do think slightly differently to other people.’
He works with the charity Made By Dyslexia, to encourage other businesses to understand the benefits of neurodiversity and revealed he has bonded with his grandson over their shared condition.
Richard said: ‘I have a grandchild who’s just been diagnosed as dyslexic and I was able to ring him up and celebrate and say, “It’s something that you and I have got that the rest of the family doesn’t have”.’
Appearing on This Morning last year, he added: ‘I really do think it is my superpower. I have a grandchild who is dyslexic and he is really proud of that.
Richard previously described his schooling experience to The Times in 2022, detailing his frustration of struggling to read and write (pictured with his mother Eve in 1992)
He works with the charity Made By Dyslexia, to encourage other businesses to understand the benefits of neurodiversity and revealed he has bonded with his grandson over their shared condition (pictured in 2018)
Celebrities and historical figures affected include Orlando Bloom, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Leonardo da Vinci, Keira Knightley and Jamie Oliver (Orlando and Keira pictured in 2006)
‘Dyslexic people may struggle a little bit with conventional schooling like reading and writing but they do have superpowers.
‘They are more creative and I think if they can follow their dreams then they can go to great places in life.
‘If you look at the history of people who have created great things in the world, many many of them are dyslexic so I think the important thing is to embrace your dyslexia and celebrate it. That’s what I try to get parents and kids to do.’
Richard ended dropping out of school at 15 and launched a magazine named Student in 1966, which he admitted ‘was quite strange for a dyslexic person to do’.
But he said his learning difficulty made him ‘great at delegating and getting a great team of people behind me’.
He added: ‘I knew what I was good at and I followed my own personal passions and I found other people to help me with the things I wasn’t good at.
‘Of course, today, you’ve got AI which means dyslexics don’t have to worry about running a magazine if they can’t spell properly or write properly.
‘They can get AI to help them out so it’s quite a powerful combination to have for businesses to have people with dyslexic strengths alongside technology.’
It is estimated as many as one in ten Brits and in one in five Americans have dyslexia. Some sufferers hide their condition out of embarrassment.
Celebrities and historical figures affected include Orlando Bloom, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Leonardo da Vinci, Keira Knightley and Jamie Oliver.