YouSaid · the spoken record

James Dyson

lines on the record: 69
first: 2021-08-27
most recent: 2021-08-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I have never found anyone who said no or hung up the phone. I just ask. Most people never pick up the phone and call, and that is what separates the people who do things versus the people who just dream about them. You have to act. And so he's still in design school at this point, or art school rather. And he winds up having this meeting, James, that is, he winds up having this meeting, and he sees this video of like this quote unquote businessman, which we refer to as entrepreneurs. He's like, he's not in a suit. He's out there doing the work himself. He's sweaty. He just seems to be active. And James, he thought the business guys were just the ones in suits that disappear for long periods of time to have liquid lunches. He's like, who is this guy? And you should meet him. And so he gets his name. He says, listen, I had simply dialed the directory after my meeting and asked for Jeremy Fry's phone number. And he invited me to his home for supper. See the parallels between...”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“of stubbornness. I am led to believe that for vision one might equally read stubbornness. At any stage in my story where I talk of vision, and arrogance seems to have gotten the better of me, remember I am only celebrating my stubbornness, I am claiming nothing but the virtues of a mule. Another thing I love about the book is because he just he lays things out. He communicates extremely clearly. And so he says, hey, this is a very important business principle. I learned. I learned the crucial business principle that would guide my later attempts so he's trying to sell in college, trying to make some extra money by selling importing cheap wine. But the product was not differentiated. So he says, I learned the crucial business lesson that would guide my later attempts at making money from invention. The only way to make real money is to offer the public something entirely new that has style value as well as substance in which they cannot get anywhere else. So that reminded me of a quote that I read long time ago.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Book in my left hand I'm holding a history of great inventions. He really's done the homework to understand that this is a constant throughout human nature. I saw then that to do what Mr. Fuller did to make real progress in the way we live or think it was not enough to be just a designer. You had to be an engineer as well. And again, you didn't have to be a classically trained engineer. While Buck Mr. Foley inspired my first idealistic design dreams, he takes ultimately second place in the pantheon of my personal gods. And so this is the part where I read at the beginning the exodus part where he introduces Isambard Kingdom Brunell. I actually have a biography of Brunel that I'm going to read and do a podcast on because he's hugely influential. We should obviously learn about him. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. This is one of my favorite ideas that James has. And it's the on the important.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Technical training, but neither did this guy. And so again, we see James doing something smart, right? Seeing parallels in people's lives that came before him and realizing they're no different than me. So he says Fuller had no technical training at all, but absorbed his mechanical education by osmosis during his wartime service in the Navy and then years working as an underling in the construction industry. Mocked in the early stages of his career, just like Dyson would be, Buck Mr Fuller knew well that the only way to make a genuine breakthrough was to pursue a vision with a single-minded determination in the face of criticism. You could say that exact same sentence about James, right? I just love when you see these parallels, it just gets me super excited. And obviously excites James too because he mentions it over and over again. It's like, wait a minute, what happened to this guy? What I'm going through? If you try to change things, then you upset the establishment, which is why invention and vilification have always gone hand in hand. And James knows that because he wrote a book.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Reading about him, that is, teaches him no, no, I have to do the engineering too. And there's a couple books that James mentions in the book about Buck Mr. Fuller that I might order and actually read. Because, again, books are the original links. So it says, Then came Buck Mr. Fuller. So his teacher, he had a really great teacher in this guy named Anthony Hunt. Anthony Hunt often mentioned this American engineer whom I had never encountered. So I bought myself a copy of the Dymaxian world of Buck Mr. Fuller. And he starts reading. He says, Buck, Mr. Fuller had been described as one of the centuries' greatest dreamers, which he thought they were trying to be critical of Fuller. They thought it was an insult. And he's like, no, I understood that now they were saying that as a good thing because, but I could not have been more wrong. Fuller dreamt because his vision was of a world that did not yet exist. The value of dreaming was the first thing that I learned from him. And we're going to see the second thing you learned from him is the fact that I don't have”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Over again. I was in many ways it taught me the most significant lessons in all my youth. I was learning about the physical and psychological strength that keeps you competitive. I was learning about obstinacy. Obstinacy. I was learning how to overcome nerves. And as I grew more and more neurotic about being caught from behind, I train harder to stay in front. This is wild. Listen to this. To this day is the fear of failure more than anything else which keeps me working at success”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Apart from me and Herb, no one knew. They were all running round and round the track like a herd of sheep and not getting any quicker. Difference itself was making me come first. And so let's go back to that idea about what Steve Jobs said. I'm convinced that what separates successful entrepreneurs, half of what separates the successful ones from the unsuccessful ones is pure perseverance, meaning most people quit. And so James is learning from long distance running the importance of not quitting. In so many ways it taught me the most significant lessons in all my youth. I was learning about the physical and psychological strength that keeps you competitive. I was learning about obstinacy. I was learning how to overcome nerves. Again, he's talking about running. It's the same thing when you're trying to do anything that's hard, right? You're going to be nervous. You're going to want to quit. You're going to be in pain. So let me start the second.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“once at six in the morning and then once at 10 p.m. But it says her belly, it was a big name at the time, so I read a few books about him and discovered that his coach had told him that the way to develop stamina and strengthen his leg muscles was to run up and down sand dunes. I would get up at six in the morning and run for hours and put on my running kit at 10 o'clock at night and not reappear until after midnight. Out there alone on the dunes, I got a terrific buzz from knowing that I was doing something that no one else was. They were all tucked up in bed. I knew that I was training myself to do something better than anyone else would be able to do. I was out there learning how to do something and getting a visible result. He's always going to compare and contrast the way he's doing it to the way other people, like his competitors. He's doing this in his competitors and running later on and throughout the book. He talks about his competitors in the vacuum cleaning business, the way other companies think about sales and marketing. I have notes on this later, so I'll probably bring this up, but just in case I...”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so let's fast forward to something, these are lessons that James learned from running. He's a few years older. He's like early teenager at this point. And one of the things that Six from the life is that you should learn from the greats, right? And then difference itself can be the means in which you actually win. And so he says there was no one to teach me how to run. There was no dad to tell me how great I was. And I was become, and it had become a very introverted kind of obsession with me. So he starts reading books. James winds up reading a few books on this guy named Herb Elliott. He was considered the world's greatest middle-distance runner of his era. And so Herb's coach in these books tells him, he's like, you can build stamina by running up and down sand dunes. And so James does something smart here. He says, okay, well, I'll just copy that approach. And you also see he's extremely dedicated and hardworking. So he'll do this twice a day.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Important lesson, and he says My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that was possible for him. So he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was twelve years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was this You can fail at what you don't want to do, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To cite their own youthful experiences as an example to me when I thought I might be troubled by something that no one else had ever been through before. Life became something I had to make up as I went along, and I had to work everything out for myself. I suppose it made me a fighter. This made me very competitive. So as Dada's the opportunity to the BBC television is just about starting. And he was given the opportunity to join BBC Television. He wanted to do that. And he says his move to change careers came too late. Seeing him thwarted by death in that way, having done something else for so long made me determine that that should never happen to me. I would not be dragged into something I didn't want to do. There is a fantastic quote Jim Carrey is giving a, I think it's a commencement address. I can't exactly remember, but I saved the quote. I think Jim Carrey teaches us in a”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, this is where we get losing his father and how that makes him feel. The fact, and the fact that because he didn't have this mentor, this somebody can show him the path that's in front of him, he has to wind up working out everything for himself. It winds up making him extremely competitive. He vowed, and then he also has a really important lesson that I missed the first two times, at least I think I did. The first two times I read the book was the fact that the death of his father and the fact that his dad was going to make a career change right before he died to doing something he actually loved but didn't get the opportunity to do. James was like, no, no, no, that's not going to happen to me. So he says, my father died of cancer in 1956. I was only nine at the time. His death put me at a great disadvantage compared to the other boys. It made me feel like an underdog, someone who was always going to have things taken away from him. It made me feel that I was alone in the world. I had no one to help me through my boyish problems and no one.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he says misfits are not born are made. They make themselves. And a stubborn, opinionated child, desperate to be different and to be right encounters only a small refraction of the problems he will experience and he carries the weight of that dislocation forever. I have been a misfit throughout my professional life and that seems to have worked to my advantage.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Going to wrap up this whole introduction, and this is beautiful. He says, We all want to make our mark. We all want to make beautiful things and a little money. We all have our own ideas about how to do it. What follows just happens to be my way. So he starts out, he's going to tell you a little bit of childhood, but again, he understands this book is written to be read. And he's like, listen, you don't need too much about where my parents are born or all that other stuff. And I agree completely with what he's saying. But he's like, I am going to give you stories from my early life so you understand why I am the way I am, which is extremely important. And he talks about, you know, even from a very early age, I'm going to get into, and I think a large degree why he felt like a misfit. And that's his word, was because his dad tragically dies of cancer. James is nine years old. I think they leave behind. He's got three kids, so it's James is nine. I think it's 9, 12, and 14. So it's just devastating.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Long before I understood how it worked. And this is where he gets in what he feels is the best kind of business to build and there's two main things that he talks about over and over again in the book. And he says explicitly, hey, this is the main point I'm trying to get across to you. Difference and total control. So he says the best kind of business is one where you can sell a product at a high price with a good margin and in enormous volumes. For that, you have to develop a product that works better and looks better than existing ones. That type of investment is long-term and high risk, or at least it looks like a high-risk policy. In the longer view, it is not half so likely to prove hazardous to one's financial health as simply following the herd. Difference for the sake of it in everything, because it must be better from the moment the idea strikes to the running of the business, difference and retention of total control. Now, I don't think a book that can be”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so he says for 100 years, the vacuum cleaners had remained essentially unchanged. And then he talks about like, I shouldn't have been the one to solve this problem. I was just one that had the idea. Like maybe you would have had a similar idea and actually did something about it. But I'm not an actual qualified engineer. And that reminds me of another quote from the almanac of Naval Ravicon, which I think is one of the most important quotes of the book because I think it especially applies to the time period and history that you and I are in right now. And Naval says the best jobs are neither decreed nor degreed. They are creative expressions of continuous learners in free markets. That last sentence, creative expressions of continuous learners in free markets is exactly what James did here. And so he says, if anyone was going to step in and shake up and shake this up a bit, it was very unlikely to be me who wasn't even a qualified engineer. And yet, that's how it turned out. So in this introduction,”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have asked people only to push my inventions around, not to get inside them and try to float. And so I have sought out originality for its own sake and modified it into a philosophy which demands difference from what exists. And I have told myself when people tried to make me modify my ideas that the great western railway could not have worked as anything but the vision of a single man, pursued with dogged determination that was nothing less than obsession. Throughout my story I will try to return to Brunel, and to other designers and engineers to show how identifying with them, and seeing parallels with every stage of my own life enabled me to see my career as a whole, and to know that it would all turn out the way it has.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I have considered relinquishing total control and taking a back seat consultant's role, and there have been many fantastic buyout offers, I have remembered how Brunel never accepted such a position in his life. I have tried, in my own way, to draw on Brunel's dream of applying emerging technology in ways as yet unimagined. He was never afraid to be different or shocking. He never shirked the battles with the money men, and he had to overcome the most incredible resistance to his ideas. When he applied the system of the screw propeller to a transatlantic steamship, he actually filled a boat with people and sent them across the sea.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Isambard Kingdom Brunel was unable to think small, and nothing was a barrier to him. The mere fact that something had never been done before presented to Brunel no suggestion that the doing of it was impossible He was fired by an inner strength and self belief almost impossible to imagine in this feckless age. While I could never lay claim to the genius of a man like that, I have tried to be as confident in my vision as he was. And at times in my life when I have encountered difficulty and self doubt, I have looked to his example to fire me on. When I was deeply in debt and the dual cyclone looked as if it might remain a drawing board dream, I thought of his father Mark Bruno, who spent time in a debtor's prison, when the tunnel that he was building seemed destined for failure.”
2021-08-27 · Founders · #200 James Dyson (Against the Odds) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source