Paul Orfalea, founder and former chairman of FedEx Kinko’s, spoke to a sizeable crowd on Friday morning inside the Alumni Center about how his lifelong struggle with dyslexia made him reevaluate his approach to achieving success.

Orfalea’s speech addressed a need for people to respect differences in each other and encouraging fledgling entrepreneurs to remember to put people first.

“The first good quality that I have is that I’m a horrible reader,” said Orfalea, who explained that he flunked second grade and still to this day calls himself a bad speller. He said that he wasn’t even aware of the term ‘dyslexia’ until the early ’80s and considers the word “disabled” to be insulting, preferring to think of someone as having a “learning difference” instead. Orfalea said that being in that position taught him early in life to appreciate the strong skills of others and to embrace their weaknesses.

Orfalea said that he believes that doing that and learning from one’s mistakes can save a person. He said that the best mistake he ever made was the sale of Kinko’s in 2002 to buyout firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice: “It prevented my coronary.” He said he is certain that if he had continued running Kinko’s that eventually the stress would have had a negative impact on his health.

Jonathon Hunt, a 19-year-old business marketing major, was inspired to modify some of his studying habits.

“I’m going to focus more on my note taking in class,” he said. Hunt said he intends to try taking a more active approach in his note taking and understand them more in depth.

Kameron Meyer, a business major and a member of the Sacramento Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs, said Orfalea was a great speaker and helped validate his belief that now is the time to seize business opportunities.

“I’m planning on doing everything and anything that interests me,” Meyer said.

Members of the professional world also attended Orfalea’s speech. David Houston, a 56-year-old investment banker from San Francisco attending with his wife, was already familiar with Orfalea’s business philosophy. Houston called the speech “very motivational.”

“Hard economic times are time for opportunity,” said Houston. He said he believes that opportunity exists even now for those determined to get ahead and that all it takes is being aware of what is in demand.

“Look at where the lines are?who needs to be served?” Houston asked. “Everybody in the room is capable of doing something.”

Julia Baum can be reached at [email protected].