Future-Proofing You

4Embracing Failure as Part of the Journey

She was unstoppable. Not because she did not have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them.

—Beau Taplin

VACUUM CLEANERS SUCK. At least that's what they are supposed to do. In 1979, when a young boat designer purchased what claimed to be the most powerful vacuum cleaner in the world, he was frustrated. Rather than sucking up the dirt, it mostly just pushed it around his workshop floor. Having once visited a sawmill that used a cyclonic separator to remove sawdust from the air, he wondered why the same technology couldn't be used in a home vacuum cleaner? Anticipating instant wealth, he quit his job and quickly built a working prototype. But the prototype needed improving. He spent the next five years, and every penny of savings, trying to build prototype after prototype of his bagless vacuum cleaner. While his wife worked to support his obsession, everyone else laughed at him. After his first 5,126 prototypes failed, James Dyson's 5,127^th prototype made him a $5 billion fortune. Best of all, he did it without any investors or shareholders. The Dyson Cyclone may suck, but James Dyson's Future Proof life certainly doesn't.

Truth #4 – Failure Is Great

The Japanese have a proverb (Nana korobi ya oki), which is loosely translated as “Fall down seven times and get up eight.” This concept of resilience is so ingrained ...