Daniel's notes on Against The Odds

i had to master not only engineering, but product design, finance, marketing, management, and be sure that when the time came, I would be able to take my vision to completion entirely on my own.

it is hard for most people to understand or get excited by a new idea. this requires self-reliance and faith on the part of the inventor.

difference for the sake of it. in everything. because it must be better. from the moment the idea strikes, to the running of the business. difference, and retention of total control.

the best kind of business is one where you can sell a product at a high price with a good margin, and in enormous volumes. for that you have to develop a product that works better and looks better than existing ones.

my own success has been in observing objects in daily use which, it was always assumed, could not be improved. by lateral thinking - the 'edisonian approach' - it is possible to arrive, empirically, at an advance.

but it is only by remaining as close as possible to the pure function of the object that beauty can be achieved.

the only way to make real money is to offer the public something entirely new that has style value as well as substance in which they cannot get anywhere else.

people don’t want general purpose. they want high-tech specificity.

i remind people on the assembly lines that they need not be in a hurry. speed is not important and neither are numbers. the only thing that is important is doing everything carefully, thoroughly and vigilantly.

you simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. a consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two or even several. your goal is a single message; a single idea expressed clearly; one message per ad.

the root principle was to do things your way. it didn't matter how other people did it. it didn't matter if it could be done better. as long as it works & it is exciting, people will follow you. dyson demands difference.

think for yourself and just do it. no research, no preliminary sketches. if it didn't work one way, he would just try it another way until it did.

do not sell a half-finished product.

the direct contact with our end customer is the basis of our success. the entrenched professional is always going to resist far longer than the private consumer.

you have to retain total control.

there is no such thing as a quantum leap. there is only dogged persistence; in the end you make it look like a quantum leap.

dyson is pro iterative design over a long period of time. he is obsessed with crafting a high quality product by running tens of thousands of experiments. every experiment was aimed at making a better product for his customers.

you simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. a consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two or even several. you need a single idea expressed clearly. one clear idea per ad wins.

think twice about the incentives of the people you are selling to.

don't copy the opposition. don't worry about market research. follow your own star. this is what successful entrepreneurs do. the opposite of following your own star is following the herd.

the best kind of business is one where you can sell a product at a high price with a good margin and in enormous volumes. for that, you have to develop a product that works better and looks better than existing ones.