#25 Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson

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 aspiring inventors was yet to come. The actual making of money. Paper stuff in thick wads which they finally give to you because you have done something good. [8:40] The best kind of business is one where you could sell a product at a high price with a good margin and in enormous volumes. That type of investment is long term, high risk, and not very British. Or at least it looks like a high-risk policy. It is not so likely to prove hazardous to one’s financial health as simply following the herd. [9:25] Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because is must be better. From the moment the ideas strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control. [10:39] This is not even a business book. If anything it is a book against business, against the principles that h