On Failure...

[Tom Edgerton]

Sir James Dyson, designer of the best-selling bagless vacuum cleaner in the world:

"I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. So I don't mind failure. I've always thought schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failure to get there is probably more creative...We're taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven't, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that's very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It's exciting, actually. To me solving problems is a bit like a drug. You're on it, and you can't get off. I spent seven years on our washing machine."