Image source: hewlett.org
William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), was expected to attend the prestigious Stanford College from an early age. His early academic performance did not project a Stanford acceptance, though. Hewlett’s undiagnosed dyslexia affected his writing skills in school and made any written assignment difficult for the young student. Instead of letting himself fall behind and lose his college hopes, Hewlett trained himself to memorize everything in school. He also discovered that he learned better with hands-on approaches. As a result, he gained impressive memorization and logical skills that would help him not only get into Stanford, but receive two Master's degrees in engineering.
After college, Hewlett and friend David Packard started building an electronics company in their Palo Alto garage that would ultimately become one of the first American electronics companies to come out of Silicon Valley. Throughout his career with HP, Hewlett remained in touch with his company by regularly working on the floor and engaging in the "hands-on" production process—habits that probably were reminiscent of his school years when his dyslexia forced him to engage his academics with an active approach. Hewlett was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1985 for his many contributions in the electronics industry.