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What We Can Learn From James Dyson’s 5,126 Failures
No, it won’t make you a billionaire — but it’s still valuable.
5,126.
That’s how many failures James Dyson went through before finding the winning prototype for his first vacuum cleaner.
Five thousand — one hundred — twenty-six!
That meant four years of developing the product, going deep into debt and putting up his house as collateral to the bank loan. He pinned everything on this invention without any guarantees that it would ever work.
That level of determination and patience is absolutely mind-blowing to me.
James is now the fourth richest person in the UK with an estimated net worth of £16.3 billion. Well deserved, I say!
I have always been fascinated by stories of people refusing to give up, almost to the point of absurdity. Where does that drive come from? Are they born like that, or is it something that can be learned?
Now, it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll follow in James’ footsteps, but that’s okay. That’s not my ambition. For me, it’s about learning from his mindset and his process.
Here are three ways I find inspiration in his story whenever I am feeling demotivated.
