Fear Not Failure

Failure is defined as a “lack of success on the inability to meet an expectation”. The problem is that we read too much into failure. Too often we tie it to our sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-acceptance. The expectation we fail to meet is often our own, or one that we’ve created in our own head!

Sir James Dyson has achieved a very productive life of learning through failure. He was named at Number 14 in a list of History’s 15 Most Popular Inventors. Johannes Gutenberg (printing press), Benjamin Franklin (lightning rod), Thomas Edison (light bulb) and Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) make up the top four. With many other inventors equally renowned but not with the ‘Popular’ tag.

Dyson is described as “a British inventor and industrial designer who revolutionised vacuum cleaning with the invention of the Dual Cyclone, the first bagless vacuum cleaner. He later founded the Dyson company to develop improved and technologically advanced household appliances, and many other products. He also established the James Dyson Foundation to support young people to pursue careers in technology.”

James wrote a book in 2021 with the title ‘Invention – A Life Through Failure’. That title really stood out to me as James today has a business that employs more than four thousand people, and he has a net worth of about USD26 billion.

But my attraction to this incredible man is not about his wealth in 2024 but his disruptive design approach to improving existing products – “The best ideas come from solving our own problems” is one of his famous quotes. In summary, “Throughout his career, James Dyson has embodied the qualities of a visionary, and a disruptor, challenging convention and reimagining how everyday products should function. His relentless pursuit of excellence and unyielding commitment to innovation have made him an international icon and a true pioneer in the field of design and technology.” He is also a good man, a family man and a philanthropist.

“My attraction to this incredible man (James Dyson) is not about his wealth in 2024 but his disruptive design approach to improving existing products.”

So the above is a ‘Life Through Failure’? What a lesson for today’s world which continually preaches winning, and stories of success that ignore the hardships, failures and pain along the way.

Conintuing to build my article with James’s own words.

“My tale is one of not being brilliant. I wasn’t even trained as an engineer or scientist. I did, however, have the bloody-mindedness not to follow convention, to challenge experts and to ignore Doubting Thomases. I am also someone who is prepared to slog through prototype after prototype searching for a breakthrough. If a slow starter like me could succeed, surely this might encourage others. I remember setting out with my degree, excited that I would be making a product that I had helped design but not having a clue about volume manufacturing or marketing. I was naïve and eager to learn all that as I progressed. It was a steep learning curve, though, and still is. Everything changes all the time, so experience is of little use. I didn’t know that at the time and assumed that it would become easier with experience. It must be encouraging for those just graduating to know that is not the case. Fifty-two years later I can assure my graduates that I am no better for my experience.”

James Dyson is of course, a designer/inventor, not a simple merchant selling timber and hardware. He had 5,126 ‘failures’ before success with the 5,127^th prototype of a cyclonic extracting vacuum cleaner that replaced the traditional bag to collect the dust etc. (James had previously failed in his pursuit to replace the wheel on a barrow with a ball – he had a patent for a ‘Ballbarrow’ but in the end ‘lost the license, the patent and the company.)

“Research is about conducting experiments, accepting and even enjoying failures, but going on and on, following a theory garnered from observing the science. Invention is often more about endurance and patient observation than brainwave.”

Not one for doing the housework around our home I am however very willing to grab our Dyson vacuum cleaner and run it over carpets and floorboards – too easy! A world-wide success is the Dyson vacuum cleaner – the friend of not only lazy individuals like me but professional cleaning staff in their millions.

“Research is about conducting experiments, accepting and even enjoying failures, but going on and on, following a theory garnered from observing the science. Invention is often more about endurance and patient observation than brainwave.”

How smart of James to pick on a product used and needed by families and countries worldwide. To examine that product and focus on an extraction system that was inefficient but ‘acceptable’ and replace a key bag dust collector with a cyclonic extraction that could suck up dust with 100% efficiency. All this sounds easy but trying out and discarding 5,126 prototypes on the way – well done Sir James!

The achievements of a world renowned inventor are well beyond companies like ours that do simple manufacturing and trade finished products. But we can still take up the idea that failure will always be part of enterprises that want to ‘deliver on time and in full’. In striving to find a point of difference we need to wear the hat of an inventor and the perseverance of a James Dyson.

Jack Bowen