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Phase: Inspiration Missions: Interviews + Observations

"Keep on failing. It works!"

5000+ failed prototypes didn't stop James Dyson creating the cyclone vacuum cleaner.

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Written by DeletedUser

James Dyson on Failure
After 15 years of perseverance and 5,000 prototypes, James Dyson finally succeeded with his idea for a new kind of vacuum cleaner. It quickly became a global best-seller and made his products a household name. But during his years of development, he says, "I wanted to give up almost every day." His success, he frequently says, is built on failure.

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Embracing Failure
Embracing Failure

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Photo of Meena Kadri

So glad to see that you built this Inspiration on the Promoting Failure post! That's what the Inspiration phase is all about – insights triggering further exploration and enriching our collective thinking ahead of the Ideas phase. Bring it on!

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Photo of An Old Friend

This is a great one Conor. Failure is an essential part of the creative process. The earlier, the better (and cheaper)! Famously, Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times in order to create the light bulb. His understanding of what didn't work led him towards the creation of a working model. In the process he documented each failure. Maybe "iteration" is a better word than "failure"?

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