#400 The Stubborn Genius of James Dyson

#400 詹姆斯·戴森的顽固天才

Founders

2025-09-12

1 小时 13 分钟
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This episode covers the extreme perseverance and the stubborn genius of James Dyson. Dyson has a business philosophy which is very different from anything you might have encountered before. A philosophy which demands difference from what exists and retention of total control. For almost four decades, James Dyson has been building one of the most valuable privately-held companies in the world. A company he owns without shareholders — and one that is centered around an obsession with the quality of the product above all. I spent well over 70 hours reading (and rereading) both Against the Odds and Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure. These books tell the story of the vision of a single man, pursued with dogged determination, that was nothing less than obsession. Episode sponsors: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud ⁠⁠⁠by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save time and money.⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://ramp.com⁠⁠⁠ Automate compliance, security, and trust with Vanta. ⁠⁠⁠Vanta helps you win trust, close deals, and stay secure—faster and with less effort⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠Find out how increased security leads to more customers by going to Vanta⁠⁠⁠. Tell them David from Founders sent you and you'll get $1000 off. ⁠⁠https://www.vanta.com/founders⁠⁠ Collateral⁠ transforms your complex ideas into compelling narratives. Collateral crafts institutional grade marketing collateral for private equity, private credit, real estate, venture capital, family offices, hedge funds, oil & gas companies, and all kinds of corporations. Storytelling is one of the highest forms of leverage and you should invest heavily in it. You can do that by going to ⁠https://collateral.com
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  • So it took me nine years to get to episode 400.

  • That means over the last nine years,

  • I've read and reread 400 biographies and autobiographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs.

  • My number one recommendation has been for many years and still is to this day,

  • James Dyson's first autobiography called Against the Odds.

  • I covered James Dyson's first autobiography on episode 25, episode 200, episode 300.

  • And on episode 400,

  • what I've done is spent the last two weeks reading and rereading both his first autobiography and his second autobiography.

  • Dyson wrote his second autobiography about 20 years after his first.

  • So I want to read two sections from his first autobiography,

  • and then I'll tell you how this episode would be different from the other Dyson episodes.

  • First thing he says, I am led to the belief that for vision,

  • one might equally well read stubbornness at any stage in my story when I talk of vision.

  • And arrogance seems to have gotten the better of me.

  • Remember that I am celebrating only my stubbornness.

  • I am claiming nothing but the virtues of a mule.

  • I think that is one of the most important sentences in his first autobiography and is why I'm naming this episode the stubborn genius of James Dyson,

  • the second thing I want to read to you.

  • He says, this is a business philosophy,

  • which is very different from anything you might have encountered before.