My name is Charlotte Dujardin. I’m an Olympic dressage champion (花式骑术冠军). What is my life like? You may wonder.

I’m one of those people who need their sleep. If I don’t get enough I can be pretty sleepy. I start riding by 7:30 am and I’m usually so tired from a day’s training that my head is on the pillow by 9:30 pm. I’m like an old person. I’ve always been a deep sleeper, not even the thought of an Olympic final keeps me awake.

I work with a personal trainer who makes sure I follow a strict diet. The things I eat must provide enough energy for my daily training. For breakfast I have eggs and bread, a chicken wrap and salad for lunch, a healthy meal of meat and lots of vegetables for dinner, plus two snacks of nuts and fruit. On days off, like normal girls, I love ice cream.

I often work seven days a week, riding from 7:30 am till 5 pm, then training at the gym. I also teach at the weekend, but the days don’t feel long because I love my job very much. I have a proper holiday once a year when I don’t see a horse for 10 days; I can’t afford to fatigue myself. I need time to rest and relax.

My family is very supportive of what I do and always comes to competitions. I miss my parents and other family members but balancing my work with the relationship with them can be difficult as I’m away a lot.

My daughter was being thrown out of the sixth grade. The teacher said, “She may not be up to what we’re trying to accomplish.” He was really saying she didn’t have the intelligence. I got mad because I knew she was smart, just as my father had known I was smart when I was failing in school. We had her tested. I decided to get myself tested as well, and found that the troubles she was having were exactly what I had had — dyslexia. By then I was a successful television writer, and had won an Emmy Award for “The Rockford Files.”

If I had known earlier that something beyond my control could explain why I was a low achiever, I may not have worked so hard in my late 20s and early 30s. I was writing and writing. I was working for no other reason than to hear people praise me, because I did badly in all my courses.

I once asked a friend who had always gotten an A, “How long did you study for this?” He said, “I didn’t. I just glanced at it.” So he must be smarter. I began to ask, “What will happen to me when I’m not good at anything?” Despite my doubts, I did become successful, and people now say to me, “So you’ve overcome dyslexia.”

No. You don’t overcome it, you learn to compensate for it. Some easy things are very hard for me. Most people who go through college read twice as fast as I do. I avoid dialing a phone if I can, because I sometimes have to try three times to get the number right.

Despite my weaknesses I view dyslexia as a gift, not a curse (诅咒). Many dyslexics are good at right-brain, abstract thought, and that’s what my kind of creative writing is. And I can write quickly, and can get up to 15 pages a day. Writing is my strength.

The real fear I have for dyslexic children is not they have to struggle in school, but that they will quit on themselves before they get out of school. Parents have to create victories for them, whether it’s music, sports or art. You can make your dyslexic child able to say, “Yeah, reading is hard. But I have other things I can do.”

I had the chance to go to college locally in Jamaica, but knew that going to school in the U.S. would give me more career opportunities. So I went to the U.S. and studied engineering, an area traditionally held by men. While in school, I interned (实习) for three years with Bell Atlantic's (Now Verizon) science and technology lab. They offered me a job when I graduated, but I rejected it, thinking I wouldn't have the same opportunities as males in the organization.

I chose to take a position in a French company. A few years later, I made re-entry into Bell Atlantic because it was bought by the French company.

My experiences over the years have helped me to grow and promote within the organization. I am now the president of Verizon Telecom's New England Area, overseeing, 4,000 employees who deliver excellent service to customers and businesses in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

I recognize that I am where I am today as a result of people reaching out and guiding me — I've been lucky throughout my career, and that's why it is important for me to be able to give back. I am extremely enthusiastic about youth development. In 2009, my husband and I set up the Global Venture Foundation in the Caribbean, which intended to inspire and develop youth leadership through a combination of athletic and educational programs.

The foundation has different functions, including youth guiding, summer programs based in the US, and college students placement help and funding. Having recently moved to greater Boston area, I am looking forward to setting up roots in the community that will allow me to continue touching the lives of the youth.