Rebekah Cox, number 35 on the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011 list, is the product designer and manager at Quora, the community question-and-answer site that gives users the information they need, when they need it. In fact, she built the front end of Quora herself. She, like so many others, has refused to let her dyslexia hold her back.

As a child, Cox always scored well on spatial or mechanical parts of tests, but failed the reading comprehension-related parts. She always enjoyed the visual aspects of learning, but struggled with reading. She found success in art classes and hands-on science classes which eventually led her into web design.

Programming and coding came naturally to Cox who enjoyed the visual and interactive aspects of them. Cox has had to learn some coping strategies on the job; especially when it came to interacting with her coworkers. She had to figure out ways of communication that didn’t involve excessive amounts of reading and writing – a difficult task in the computer industry due to emailing. She learned how to reduce the amount of writing in her emails and encouraged her coworkers to do the same. This way, their messages to one another were clear, direct, and easy to understand.

Cox’s ability to find her strengths and compensate for her weaknesses has allowed her to become a wild success in the business world. Read her comments on Quora about how her dyslexia affected her work life.