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Founders: #25 Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson

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What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson --- I am a creator of products, a builder of things. [0:01] This book is the story of 15 years of struggle to finally invent, own, and sell his own product. [1:35] This is the exposition of a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. [2:11] The first 75% to 80% of the book is just struggle after struggle. [2:47] Dyson had a bunch of people that he looked up to that motivated him as a young man. Thomas Edison is one of those people. [4:51] Such reverence has been accorded to the miserable wheel —that perhaps that alone can account for the fact it was never improved. Perhaps millions of people in the last few years had ideas for improving it. All I did was take things a little further than just having an idea. [6:10] The look of the product —the intangible style that sets one thing apart from another—is still closest to my heart. [7:04] After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked. [8:09] The greatest lesson for aspirin

[00:00:00] I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears on them. That is how I make a living, and they are what have made my name at least familiar in a million homes. I lay no claim to the epithet household word, though I harbor a secret dream of synonymity and occasionally imagine a time years from today when Dyson replaces Hoover. Detached from me to such an extent that most people will have no idea that there was ever a man called Dyson. I like the idea of a child in the 21st century telling his friends he can't come out for a bit [00:00:36] because mom wants me…

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