To truly understand the anatomy of the New Disability Narrative it is essential to see the lived experience as the linchpin to a more diverse way of thinking and provides greater insight into how disability is creating a new vocabulary for business in the economy of the 21st century. In defining this new narrative, we must look towards the lives of entrepreneurs, founders and other business leaders who have been vocal about how their own experience with disabilities have impacted their business decisions and has been influential in defining their own success.
One of the most high-profile examples of how the lived experience of disability shapes one’s business acumen comes from the ABC Television series, Shark Tank. Three of the six Shark Tank investors having been dealing with learning disabilities and credit this experience into making them more successful entrepreneurs. On Business Insiders podcast “Success! How I Did It” Daymond John extrapolated on how his learning disability forced him to create a style as an entrepreneur that has payed dividends conveying that “As I look at, it was always a workaround," he expressed. "I would read something — I had to read it three times — then I'd have to go and try to do anything in there that I read because I don't know if I grasped the information correctly. So, it always made me take action." In 2014 fellow investor Barbara Corcoran told Entrepreneur that in growing up with a learning disability it forced her to be more creative and social than classmates who took to schoolwork more easily. The critical piece that she pointed out was that she was able to conquer her own insecurity over it and embrace it. Learning to fully accept her own disability provided her with an ethos of what makes a good business leader stating that “the kids that are so good at school, that don't have to fight for it, very often they don't do as well in life and business because they're not flexible," she said. "There's no system dictated to them out there like it is in school and they certainly tend not to make good entrepreneurs." Not unlike Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary was initially ashamed of his learning disability, until he learned to find the best strategies to control it. Then he considered it a “gift” as he told Entrepreneur in 2016 stating that, "staying focused in challenging times and on the task’s, you're trying to achieve in business is very important, and that is actually how you get over dyslexia. Forcing yourself to focus over and over again."
Having high profile business leaders with invisible disabilities such as the cast of Shark Tank as well as others that include Charles Schwab, Richard Branson, Tommy Hilfiger and many more begin to accentuate the impact they have as change agents across the business landscape. It is through their lived experience that they are helping to articulate The New Disability Narrative as a strength based model that is redefining societies understanding of not only of what a person with a disability is capable of, but how this experience can provide real strength in the evolution and growth of a business. The New Narrative of Disability provides an alternative to the conventional tropes that disability comes from a place of perceived weakness. In fact, what is emanating from the business ecosystem is that the lessons of great leadership have found its genesis within the lived experience of disability.
In the age of globalization companies look for a competitive edge, C-level executives, senior management and innovative entrepreneurs need to be more attuned to thinking through modern leadership strategies. In a time when the very definition of a corporation is being refined The New Disability Narrative can play a seminal role in how to think through leadership and its impact across both the social and economic environments of the time and help to galvanize companies to rethink the mission of their organization.
One of the roles of The New Disability Narrative is to provide the tools to assist in expanding a new vocabulary of business by illustrating the inherent power that this community has and seeing disability through a new lens shaped by imagining the possible as exemplified by the recent winner of America’s Got Talent Kodi Lee. Despite his disabilities he has shown the world that its his talent that resonates and as the narrative of disability is being rewritten, society must see that disability can and is a strength that has an inherent value for all of us.
