James Dyson
James Dyson
Sir James Dyson OM CBE FRS FREngis a British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2013, his net worth in 2013 was £3 billion...
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth2 May 1947
thinking government people
When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.
house machines electric
When I started off, I was working in a shed behind my house. All I had was a drill, an electric drill. That was the only machine I had.
thinking four firsts
I imported the first Mac into England in 1984; you know, the beige box. I imported what I think were the first four that came into England. I never opened the instruction manual. That was the best thing about it.
use want way
I've obviously used fans - I wouldn't say all my life, because we couldn't afford them when I was young, but from my 20s and onwards we've had to use fans. And I've always loathed them. Everything about them. The way you adjust them, getting them at the angle you want. Carrying them. Cleaning them. The danger of putting your finger in them.
thinking research-and-development ideas
If you didn't have patents, no one would bother to spend money on research and development. But with patents, if someone has a good idea and a competitor can't copy it, then that competitor will have to think of their own way of doing it. So then, instead of just one innovator, you have two or three people trying to do something in a new way.
thinking engineering people
I think people are realizing that engineering and science are extremely good degrees to get and you'll be very highly paid once you've got them.
home interesting broke
[In my home workshop,] generally I'm mending things, which is interesting because you learn a lot about why they broke.
children teaching school
Failure is so much more interesting because you learn from it. That's what we should be teaching children at school, that being successful the first time, there's nothing in it. There's no interest, you learn nothing actually.
problem solve engineers
As an engineer I'm constantly spotting problems and plotting how to solve them.
technology thinking people
So I think the winners in recession are the people who produce new technology that does things better, which people really want.
engineering ideas together
Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It's coming up with ideas, testing principles and perfecting the engineering, as well as final assembly.
engineering boring treated
Engineering is treated with disdain, on the whole. It's considered to be rather boring and irrelevant, yet neither of those is true.
important emerging emerging-markets
Emerging markets are hugely important.
people house needs
Apartments are getting smaller on a whole. Houses are getting smaller. People don't need great big vacuums anymore.