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Lived experience, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2023
An autistic founder said they were a lousy employee and a good entrepreneur
In short
Asked why an autistic person who struggles to hold a job would start a business, panellists at the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium described working lives that came together through self employment.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, put a question to the entrepreneurship panel at the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium that autistic founders hear often. When autistic people talk about entrepreneurship, he said, others look at them and ask why they would want to start a business when they cannot even get a job. The panellist he put it to turned the question around. “I’m a pretty damn good entrepreneur, but I’m a lousy employee”, the panellist said.
The panellist was specific about the employee part. They said they were in their sixties and thought they had held five two year contracts in the employment world. In every one of them, they said, they had been trying to move the work towards their special interests, which in their words made them the world’s worst employee. As an entrepreneur the same trait worked the other way. They said they were so focused on what they wanted to achieve in their area of interest.
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Sources the story draws on
- Autism in Australia, 2022 (opens in a new tab), Australian Bureau of Statistics
- The Buckland Review of Autism Employment: report and recommendations (opens in a new tab), Department for Work and Pensions (GOV.UK)
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