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Invention

A Life

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Invention

By: James Dyson
Narrated by: James Dyson
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About this listen

 Dyson has become a byword for great design, brilliant invention and global success. Now, James Dyson, the entrepreneur who made it all happen, tells his remarkable and inspirational story in Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure.

'By continually challenging ourselves, investing in the future and experimenting, we can continue to make the future. We must never stop. Never, for one second become comfortable.' James Dyson

In this spirited autobiography, James Dyson interweaves his own life story with a wider exploration of the importance of invention. On the way, the reader encounters challenging and inspirational characters, radical inventions, adventurous engineering, cultural fads, political gamesmanship, legal battles and much else besides.

Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure is a 21st century call to arms: creative invention through the research, design and manufacture of technologies and products empowers not only employees and employers, but the economy at large, while the very acts of imagining, shaping and making things enriches our lives. James Dyson sees people as producers as well as consumers, the inventing and making of things part of a natural instinct. Invention is a lifelong commitment. It has been James Dyson’s life.

 Business History & Culture Innovations Professionals & Academics Technology Inspiring

Critic Reviews

'I left [this book] enlightened about engineering and design, and impressed by Dyson's dogged, trailblazing spirit.' (Oliver Shah)
‘The ferociously creative entrepreneur who emerges in these pages revels in practical experiment and learns from failure… Dyson’s struggles against the advice of experts and in the teeth of endless commercial and technical challenges haven’t lost their power to fascinate… Those who persist with Invention despite its flaws will be rewarded.’ (Marc Sidwell)
'Stories of consumer products and gadgets drive Mr Dyson's narrative forward, but parallel...[he] tells a story of the struggles of entrepreneurship. A final thread...is his passionate case for more and better engineering and science education in British schools' (Henry Petroski)
‘An entertaining and inspiring memoir by a fellow who’s nearly impossible to pigeonhole – and good thing, too . . . The British inventor and vacuum-cleaner magnate delivers a paean to creativity and creation . . . His overarching point is very well taken: He makes a powerful argument that our educational systems are not giving sufficient attention to fostering creativity and the independent spirit required of the inventor, thereby stifling innovation’
‘[Dyson’s] written a book called Invention, but that’s the publisher’s title. He wanted to call it Failure because what we’ve all forgotten in our modern-day blame culture is that no achievement is possible without foul-ups. Every successful invention is the result of trial and error, with the emphasis on error . . . the central message in his book is that there are no shortcuts to success’
‘This is not a book about business, but rather education, mentorship, and self-reliance. Invention: A Life celebrates the unknown and encourages stepping into it and uncovering entrepreneurism’
‘Dyson, like other great entrepreneurs, finds joy in failing because each experiment teaches him something he can use to reinvent a product or category. In fact, the words ‘failure’ and ‘fail’ appear over 50 times throughout Dyson's book . . . Dyson's famous 5,126 failures offer valuable lessons in storytelling for all entrepreneurs and business owners’
‘In his book Invention: A Life, Dyson, explains not just how he built his empire but how his life is as much about failure as it is about success – and why that makes him happy’
All stars
Most relevant
One of the best books I've ever read/heard. As a fellow engineeer and entrepreneur I found it very inspiring. It has encouraged me to question everything. Thank you James Dyson and family for all the effort you've put into this and the Dyson business as a whole.

Inspiring and so much more than I expected.

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What an incredible journey, James Dyson and family have had. If this book teaches you anything is that nothing is set in stone, nothing is permanent. And that tenacity, self belief, imagination, humility and hard work, can take you anywhere. Amazing story and a book to make you believe you can change anything.

Highly inspiring and educational

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This is an incredibly inspirational true story about a career that has had many issues to overcome. I'm very grateful to have had this oppurtunity to learn from James Dyson and his sometimes rocky but ultimately successful life.

an absolute ledgend

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Great reading for any budding entrepreneur in the fields of design & engineering.
Narrated by Mr. Dyson, Invention covers his journey from Student to Today, getting started with some unique projects through to his creation of the bagless cyclone vacuum which revolutionized the vacuum industry.
Very much a read focused on the technical aspects of his career & business ventures without being at all difficult to understand, with little to no stories of James's personal life, though deffinately recommend.

Billion dollar business building.

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A great story and an inspiration to all that have tried and failed. Solution: Celebrate failure and try again!

Excellent Book and story.

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