James Dyson Brings Perseverance To New Levels

I learnt about how James Dyson developed 5126 prototypes before getting the right vacuum cleaner. After which I found his interview from the same website.

James Dyson on education:

I've always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.

This is an interesting perspective. We have always want our kids to behave well and to stay out of trouble. That is, we want our kids to avoid failures. We don't even allow them to fall and pick themselves up! And James Dyson has the following to say about why we need failures:

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... 

All of a sudden, I find this is so opposite to engineering. In engineering, we identify and eliminate risks. We are always looking for the path with the least resistance. Doing things that are "silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous" is never in engineers' blood.

Also read about how other successful people and businesses failed here. Einstein, Edison and Mozart had done their share of hard work as well.

Every Success Comes With Many Failures

Roxio made 52 attempts, took over 8 years and almost went bankrupt before rolling out the all popular angry bird sensation.

Pinterest just become the third most popular social network after struggling for many years and when it started, it had "catastrophically small numbers".

James Dyson failed in 5126 prototypes before he invented the revolutionary vacuum cleaner.

Groupon is a listed company now but it almost died before it rose to the top. 

WD-40 is called WD-40 because the previous 39 experiments to create the right solution failed. 

Thomas Edison made over 10,000 attempts before inventing the light bulb. He said famously:

I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.

Omgpop's owner only had $1700 in his bank account. He had a whole lot more after his company was bought over Zynga. Before Draw Something, there were more than 30 other games. It is not a one-hit-wonder as well.

iPod was introduced 24 years after Apple II. That's why Steve Jobs said:

People say you have to have a lot of passion for what your doing and it’s totally true and the reason is ah is because its so hard, and if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard, you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, your not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it ah – you’re going to give up!

Einstein, Edison and Mozart did not have any fast track too.

When we got to know about successes, it all appears so easy. Those people are so lucky. Well, we forgot about how hard they have tried, how much they have sacrificed and what they have to go through.

Take Action And Make Mistakes

I learnt about this story from Derek Sivers.

A ceramics teachers divided his class into 2 groups. He told one group that they will be graded by the weight of their pots that they created. The other group only had to produce one pot and they will be graded based on the quality of that one pot.

It turned out that the best pots were produced by the "quantity" group!

It appeared that the "quantity" group, while busy churning out their pots, learned from their mistakes and went on to create the next better ones. The "quality" group, on the other hand, spent effort on theorising about what would look good and only had mediocre work to show.

Lesson: Take action. Lots of it. Learn from mistakes. This takes a lot of hard work and time!

photo credit: Himalayan Trails via photo pin cc

Success Does Not Come Easy

Benny Hsu of Get Busy Living compiled a good list showing the trials and tribulations that successful people had to go through before they achieve success in their field of work.

Let me give a summary in terms of the numbers:

Colonel Sanders knocked on the doors of 1009 restauranteurs before one agreed to buy the franchise for his recipe.

Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got financing to create Disney World.

Michael Jordan said:

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Thomas Edison said:

"If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."

Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. He did not get to enjoy the fame and wealth that his paintings got him.

Book authors had their fair share of tough times:

JK Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers before one agreed to publish her book.

Theodor Seuss Giesel was rejected by 27 publishers to publish Dr Seuss's first book.

John Grisham was rejected by 28 publishers before he published his first book A Time To Kill.

Stephen King's first book Carrie was rejected 30 times.

Stephenie Meyer was rejected 15 times before she got to published Twilight.

Tim Ferris was rejected by 26 publishers before he published the 4 Hour Workweek.

Once again, it is not easy, just that the media portrays success to be easy. A reminder to take failure in our stride and also, keep on doing!

Oh, Benny also had an interesting post on famous people who found success starting in their 30s.

photo credit: mugley via photo pin cc

On Mistakes and Being Mistaken

This movie taught me valuable lessons on parenting.

On mistakes 

Top made many blunders. He was cheated by the DVD player wholesaler to buy a bulk of substandard DVD players, he was cheated by the pawn shop to pawn his father’s Buddha pendant at 100,000 baht when it can actually fetch up to 4 million baht. He was caught off-guard when the shopping mall chain’s management refused to rent him spaces for his roasted chestnut stalls because the roasting caused smoke to stain the roofs of the shopping malls.

If the kids have motivation to experiment and try things out, why not let them? I think I will be more worried if my kids lead aimless lives. They have nothing to lose and all to gain. The younger they are, the lesser baggage they have, the lesser they have to lose. The knocks that they get will be valuable to their lives. Lessons that they could not have possibly gotten out of school. They can put their heart and soul into whatever they want to do and exercise their creativity and innovation without inhibitions.

On being mistaken 

Top was one of a kind. His parents were not supportive. They only wanted him to study. In fact, he was thought of as a child lousy in his studies and his attempts to make money were seen as troublemaking. In fact, towards the end, his aim was really to help pay off his father’s debts.

On many occasions, he had dilemmas. He wanted to be his parent’s good child and his girlfriend’s good partner. He wanted to fulfil their expectations. He thought of giving up his dream. In the end, he followed his intuition to tend to his roasted chestnut business and walk off in an exam, he stayed on in Thailand instead of following his family to China, he separated from his girlfriend to focus on his business.

Not many of us can be so strong, to stand up against the criticisms. So by taking a step back and let the kids have space to roam, I think that is great help to the kids.

JK Rowling's Harvard Speech 2008

Re-watched JK Rowling's Harvard speech twice today.

Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged...And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Steve Jobs also said this in his Stanford speech. He felt the same when he was chased out of Apple. Responsibilities and other burdens tend to pile on us as we age. Is it true that we can only find our passion when we are at rock bottom? I guess it just helps us to see better. My life is so cluttered now. I have so much to do but yet when I have a slice of time, I don't know where to start. Death or failure helps us to prioritise. That is the time when small things don't really matter.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Reminds me of friends who plan out their travels to the last detail. Reminds me of friends who stick with screwed-up working conditions because they were afraid to make the next move. Reminds me of friends who are afraid to do sales or to make a public presentation, but yet want to be rich. The joke is I stayed in a job for 10 years and it is not even a job that I like. 

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. 

Something which I stopped doing and wished that I could do more of.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. 

I have to constantly remind myself.