it's your girl queen M. O.
And it's your boy sea money and we're live at PS 100 when we and
we have a special guest named Dylan smith.
There came a point.
Good morning guys. Happy friday.
Thank you for having me see money and Queen Emma.
Great host loving it.
Can you tell us about your story?
I'm Dylan smith.
I'm 21 years old and I was adopted from Russia when I was 2.5
years old with my twin brother.
We I was misdiagnosed with a PhD in fourth grade.
In fourth grade I was put on the wrong medicine for 10 years.
And then in seventh grade when my first father left I was
adopted the second time in seventh grade in seventh grade we
start me and my father started looking into what the issues were
because we spent over $10,000.02 years of studying and money for
tutoring and we still don't have any answer and I was still
failing in school.
So with that happening we had to do some research with my very,
my very blessed dedicated father at the time we found out I
dyslexia at 16 years old.
And before that I do kindergarten twice because I couldn't read
because I was from Russia and my first language was in english.
So at 16 I had to learn the alphabet again and start from square
one.
So I basically did kindergarten three times to graduate in my
class.
And then at 2019 years old I worked for free for a tech company
in stanford Connecticut and then they hired me full time in
finance.
As an engineer at 20 and I built my company and I traveled
motivational speaking.
I got a podcast and I like inspiring kids.
What is this lexi lexi is a reading disability.
It is where the words flip so you have sentences in a textbook
and they'll slide across the page and the letters inside them
will flip.
So it's basically like well so every time you try to read
something it goes backwards. So you don't.
So when you read it it's something else and then and then what
other people say correct when I used to tell the teachers and my
parents look like chinese and most people say it looks like
chinese because they don't know what they're reading.
But to me I couldn't tell you if it was english or chinese.
Look I couldn't tell you what the difference was and what was
your first language.
So you couldn't tell them because you spoke Russian because I
was dyslexic. Is it hard having dyslexia?
It is but with the right people in your circle in the right
mindset and work ethic you can get anything done and defy all
the odds. What is A. D. H. D. A. D. H.
D. Is a disability where people it's hard for them to focus.
They got a lot of energy and they're more focused on everything
than one thing and I actually don't have a. D. H. D.
So I was on the wrong meds for 10 years for nothing.
Did you sue whoever gave you the meds?
No I would not sue my mom.
Oh the doctors know that wasn't why didn't you get sick?
If you took medicine you didn't need I didn't get sick but I did
have some side effects and stuff.
Uh I was hyper focused on everything. I was picking my face.
Um I was very my metabolism very fast. I couldn't stop moving.
Couldn't focus on one thing.
So when I got taken off I got overweight and depressed.
That's kinda sad. It's what made me who I am today.
So I wouldn't change a thing.
How did you fight like your depression The right people in my
circle and uh just keep talking along.
The biggest thing is to find out how you guys can be 1% better
every day. And that's one thing you can do every day.
So if you guys don't understand a math question today or you
don't understand what you're reading today or your mom needs
help with something today that you usually don't help with.
It's that one thing a day you guys need 1% better today than you
were yesterday. How how was doing Kindergarten 3 3 times.
Very humbling.
Um I would do I would do it again because it's it taught me a
lot of lessons um like persistence and be determined and stay
the course and know that the there's a lane for everyone.
How did it feel to get adopted twice knowing knowing that
somebody loves me and that your parents are usually taking for
granted but they're really a luxury.
When did I happen? How did it happen? How did what happen?
Um The thing that you told, how did it happen, Dyslexia,
you're born with it and how did you get adopted?
Two times in a row.
My first adoptive father left and then I had my second father in
seventh grade who adopted us for christmas,
Why did they adopt you two times? It was two different men.
Do you still speak to your twin brother with them?
Today's twin day,
I actually have a real twin who's the twins raise your hand?
You guys are twinning? You got, who's twinning? That's awesome.
Did people bully you for like having dyslexia?
Like did people like laugh at you?
Yeah I was known as the stupid kid in school,
the kid who couldn't do anything or get anything accomplished,
why? Why did the people bully to you? Because I would for me.
So if somebody asked you guys a question on like what's the
capital of new york right?
You guys are already processing what that answer is for me.
I was processing the question.
So by the time that the question was said you guys had the
answer and then say they asked me a question about something
completely different.
I'm now answering with them the capital in new york because I
just processed the question when you guys were processing the
answer? Okay. Um did you getting bullied?
Like inspire you to be a most Innovation als speaker. Yes.
I wanted to be able to let everybody know that they can do
anything they want and uh it's not impossible and I want to go
to schools like I am now to let everybody know that you're
making fun doesn't help anybody but helping them out and being a
friend during it helps everyone behind you.
What is your biggest inspiration?
My biggest inspiration is probably my father now and who he is
but also the people I'm surrounded by.
It's very important for you guys to be surrounded by the right
people because who you surround yourself with is who you will
become. How many times did you get bullied?
I got bullied from Kindergarten through 10th grade.
That's really sad.
How did getting bullied make you how to getting bullied make you
feel? And did it contribute to your depression?
Um Depression had something to do with weight and and the
bullying but it's great now because one of the bullies wants to
work for me.
Hi how how were did it feel when you did not have A.
D. H. D.
But you got you brought a whole bunch of medicine for it.
It was weird when we got off right because I ballooned up.
I was in the wrong head space.
How how does your dad did your dad know that you was gonna bully
everybody knew I was getting bullied. Yeah.
Why didn't they do anything about it?
You can't really do anything about it. It's your peers. What?
So you gotta stand up for people getting bullied in class,
right?
If somebody's getting bullied on, you gotta say, hey, stop that.
That's not cool. We're all friends behind you.
Did the people that bully your parents knew some of them did.
And did any of the teachers or like parents try to stop it?
Yeah, you can't you just can't stop it. Also,
the biggest thing is to uh can moving forward and focus on what
you can do to change it, Right. What can you do?
Can you study hard, you can get better grades.
Can you surround yourself with the right people?
That stuff you can do things you can control.
I ignored it.
What did you have to leave the school?
Because you got bullied so much?
No, I did not leave the school was kindergarten,
The only grade you repeated.
Yes, I did repeat algebra in high school.
Why did they send you to kindergarten so many times?
Because I didn't know how many lives were in the alphabet.
I didn't know how to read.
I didn't know anything at 16 years old.
I didn't um What was it like making friends growing up?
I I can say I'm very lucky with the friends I had because the
friends I had were there for me and you can tell you can tell
that very easily who's there for you and who's there that aren't
there for you. They are behind you.
What? Nice think did your friend did what what Nice think.
Did your friend think they were there for me when I needed them?
That's very important to be there for the ones who need you when
they need you.
How did you how did you feel when when people stop bullying you
and you and your friend? And how about you?
How did you feel when your friends started helping you?
Our friends are always there to help me bullying never stopped.
That's that's a life lesson is there will always be people who
don't like you in life but that's the truce is to ignore them
and focus on the ones that are there for you behind you.
Oh you have another question.
There's your question and pass it back.
How how how have you ever like when you were being bullied?
Have you ever felt that you just want them? Never.
I actually wanted to help them.
Ah You gotta when people bully they're usually bullying you
because they're hurting in some way and I was always hurting.
So I knew it.
I never bullied anybody because I don't have the power to so how
can I help them?
The biggest thing is how can you serve somebody as I learned in
business? How can you help somebody? What they're going through?
So I've turned bullies into friends before.
What?
Um I learned that when people bullied you that means they're
jealous and something's wrong with their life sometimes. Yeah.
It usually comes from her. Did you still like like that school?
No matter what? Yeah.
The thing I did every day was focused on one way I could win.
So if I won today, I figure out a math problem.
I didn't know yesterday. And when I learned that math problem,
I there was a reason I can go back tomorrow.
Like how do you how do you,
did you learn how to read with alexia now?
Did you learn how to live with it? Yeah.
So I had to learn the A. B. CS.
At 16 years old and all my friends were at summertime.
Ryan pontoon boats and jet skis across the lake.
I was in a tutor learning my A. B. CS.
You have a question, you still have dyslexia,
you're born with it so it never goes away.
You just learn how to cope with it. How do you read now?
Like when you're as you're older you have to read certain,
you learn how to decode sentences.
So like learning to read at 16 years old?
You had during the summertime? Um seven days a week.
I had to learn how to read again. So we're starting with A. B.
C. Those are the first three letters.
I started within that program and I was saying abc out loud.
I was writing it in the sky. I was writing in shaving cream.
I was writing it with weighted pencils and that was about two
months. Just abc.
So from the ground up we started from ground zero.
How did you how like how did you get past all those grades not
knowing your A. B.
CS until you're 16 is making sure the teachers knew that what I
was doing and leaving that impression.
The biggest thing I learned was leave the unforgettable
hardworking and positive impression on people.
So I was showing up before class, I was showing up during lunch,
I was skipping my gym class to study and I was also staying
after and then after staying after I was going to a tutor.
So letting the teachers know that it wasn't it wasn't an effort
issue, it was an academic issue.
And that's what made me stand out figured out how to stand out
and and if I can support them and show that I'm here,
then they'll support me.
And it's the uh a lot of kids take for granted their lunches,
their gyms, their after school activities.
I didn't have them because I had to study.
Okay.
Why did you have to learn your abc? Why? I didn't know him.
16. Thank you so much Dylan Smith for being our guest today.
But we're live at PS 100 and what?
Well, we will see you again next week.
Peace.