James Dyson on Making Mistakes
Best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, Dyson explains his thoughts on failure and mistakes in this great article in Fast Company.
You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” How so?
I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure. I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Great article! When the commercials with Dyson started showing on TV I fell in love. He knows the product inside and out, he knows why it’s better than his competitors and he doesn’t use any gimmicks to sell it. How can anyone resist a Dyson with such a great pitch and charming accent? ;-)