Benjamin Shrader’s Dyslexic Work

One of my lifes’ greatest passions is raising dyslexia awareness due to the severity of my own dyslexia. I am just one of the 780 million people in the entire world who are dyslexic.  Dyslexia has impacted every facet of my life for as long as I can remember. It’s drastically affected my schooling, my career choices, and my day to day life since I was a small child. 

As a student and entrepreneur, I have to always account that simple tasks will take a considerably longer time for me to complete than others. This can be exceedingly frustrating, but my wise father once told me when I was young “Benjamin, you will have to work twice as hard as others to succeed, but I have faith that you are entirely capable of doing so”. At the time, I was upset to hear that, but as an adult, I can see the truth in these words. The fact remains that dyslexia is an integral part of who I am. I honestly feel that without it, I would be far more arrogant than I already am. Dyslexia humbles me regularly. 

For example, I often think back to a singular moment when I was coordinating a massive production of a concert. It was glorious and everything had gone perfectly. I stood in an immaculate black suit, supervising over a thousand attendees jumping up and down to the beat of the music. I removed the instructions and schedule for the event out of my suit pocket and attempted to read it. I could not decipher a single word of my own document, a document that I had to write using text to speech. 

Can you imagine my frustration? The whole event would never have materialized without my intervention and coordination. It would not have gotten past the planning stage without my expertise. I went from the heights of transcendent joy to being deeply humbled in an instant by a simple piece of paper. 

Those of you who know me from social media know that when I am faced with a problem, I wish to solve it. If I have a competitor, I wish to assimilate or decimate them. I enjoy facing a challenge head on. I find it difficult to constantly be presented with a problem that has no solution. Dyslexia is not a disease, there is no cure. Dyslexia is who we are, it is who I am. It’s a brain that fundamentally works differently than others. Even though there is not a solution, there are many ways to help oneself and other dyslexics. 

That is one of my greatest passions. I will always consider dyslexics “my people”. That is why I greatly enjoy inspiring my fellow dyslexics to pursue greatness. The road might be hard but we will walk it together.

Your friend,

Benjamin Shrader