[Founder Notes] James Dyson

"I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and I got my name on them."

15 years of struggle. Roughly 12,000–15,000 prototypes to build the Dyson vacuum. Started as an artist, then designer, then engineer. Lateral thinking makes it possible to come to advances. Design = engineering.

Look at products around you, use them, and regularly think about how they could be improved. Bring an idea to life — perhaps millions of people have had an idea. All Dyson did was take things a little further than just having an idea.

Limit impossibilities: anyone can become an expert in anything in 6 months. After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology.

Be different — difference for the sake of it, in everything, because that leads somewhere. Total control: be better from idea to business, and retain it.

Experts don't know shit. Everybody told James over and over, "who are you to think you could invent a better vacuum cleaner? If that were possible, Hoover would have done it already." The only way to make a breakthrough is to pursue a vision with single-minded determination in the face of criticism.

"I am celebrating my stubbornness."

On Selling

In simply trying to market something new, all of it is still business. A consumer can barely handle one great idea, let alone two, or several. Sell yourself. Only by trying to sell the thing you make yourself, by dealing with customers' problems and the product's failings as they arise, can you really come to understand what you have done.

How to iterate: make a list of things you don't like about your product. From idea through research, testing, prototyping, tooling, production, sales, and marketing — it is most likely to succeed if the original visionary sees it right through.

Summary: make it, sell it, yourself.

— Jay