Invention

A Life

Preview

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.

Try for £0.00

More purchase options

Buy Now for £12.99

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.

©2021 James Dyson. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, UK

James DysonJames DysonSimon & Schuster Audio UK

Business

History & Culture

Innovations

Professionals & Academics

Technology

Inspiring

Thought-Provoking

Business History & Culture Innovations Professionals & Academics Technology Inspiring Thought-Provoking

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)

Most relevant

As a budding inventor and entrepreneur, I found this book really helpful and authentically inspiring. I think Mr Dyson mentions that he made 5127 prototypes about 5127 times, however he’s earned every right after the extreme levels of endurance and persistence that he achieved over his life. I have made a lot of prototypes and it’s a very difficult but very rewarding thing to do. I agree with him that far too many businesses are set up to exit and to get rich. It’s much more rewarding to think long term and create a create mission that people can rally around and join.