Dyslexia to Hollywood superagent and CEO
Ari Emanuel is the CEO of Endeavor and was one of the biggest Hollywood agents before that, representing The Rock, Oprah Winfrey, and Martin Scorsese. He is the inspiration behind the Ari Gold character in the show Entourage. He accomplished all this despite being diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD in the third grade.
His high school put him into special education classes, other kids made fun of him, and many teachers thought Ari would not graduate. Nevertheless, Ari graduated from that high school and then college in 1983. Four years later, after being inspired by an article about a Hollywood agent, Ari wanted to work as one. Due to many agencies not wanting to hire him due to his age, Ari would robocall the head of HR at Creative Artists Agency, CAA, more than 300 times to get a job. Finally, he would get it and start as a CAA trainee.
Even though reading was hard for him, he would not let his dyslexia get in the way of progressing as an agent. Before joining another agency, he would get promoted to head of the mail room and then to an agent's assistant at CAA. Then, in 1995, he and a friend started their own agency, Endeavor. Twenty-six years later, the company would IPO, and its net worth is more than 10 billion dollars today.
Quotes
You just have to get to the next day. I give my mom a lot of credit here, in that she just kept on encouraging me. So, when things are tough, I don’t really get that down.
Ari Emanuel
When you’re dyslexic, and you’re a young kid, you’re embarrassed a lot, because people think you’re stupid. And it’s not that you’re stupid: you just can’t read because the circuits in your brain just don’t function the way other people’s do. You learn in a different manner. And if you can get past that, you’re not really scared of anything, because you’ve already gone through some pretty difficult times.
Ari Emanuel
References
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Ari Emanuel, Co-Chief Executive of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
But at highly ranked New Trier West High School, those talents couldn’t save him from being placed in special education, which he describes as “brutal. People made fun of me every day: athletes, other students, my peers,” he says.
Yale
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Ari Emanuel: the tenacious super agent disrupting Hollywood
As a child Emanuel was diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and displayed a hyperactivity that translated into a talent for dealmaking.
Financial Times
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The Making of Ari Emanuel: The Endeavor CEO Talks Business, Brothers and Overcoming Dyslexia
According to Emanuel, none of the agencies “wanted to hire me because I was too old at the time: most people came in right after college. So, I just robo-called the head of HR at CAA 300 times – actually, a lot more than 300 times. And finally, they said, it was like Thursday, ‘if you could be out here on Monday. You have a job.’
Better
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Ari Emanuel Takes on the World
In the third grade, still unable to read, he was diagnosed as having dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. He was teased, and he never failed to respond.
The New Yorker
