James Dyson is a smart guy with a lot of gumption. You may not recognize the name, but I bet you’ve either seen his product in a local store or one of his recent television commercials. His inspiring story goes something like this. In 1978 Dyson was vacuuming his home. He soon realized his bag vacuum cleaner was constantly losing suction power. After a little tinkering he noticed that dust, and isn’t that the point of vacuuming in the first place, quickly clogged the pores of the paper bag and blocked the airflow. Therefore the suction dropped rapidly. As someone that doesn’t take anything for granted, Dyson took the vacuum cleaner apart and started a five year journey to build a better vacuum cleaner.

Five years and 5,127 prototypes later, he perfected the world’s first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner.

He pitched his product to Hoover and the other major manufacturers. They all turn him way. It still isn’t clear if they didn’t "get" the idea and/or see the potential. I think Dyson would say they didn’t like the idea because these firms make more then $500 million a year selling ineffective paper bags. So Dyson got a patent (which he has had to protect in court), built a factory, and started selling what he knew was a superior product. His Dyson line of vacuum cleaners have been flying off the shelves in stores across the world, even though the price point can be as much as $550.

Note: does anyone know of a link to a story about how he went about his initial marketing?

In Seth Godin’s book, Free Prize Inside, he says "you owe it to yourself to create something remarkable one day." Well Dyson created something so remarkable that it has turned a billion dollar industry on its head, maintains a price point more then double of the competition, and it simply works better then anything else on the market. We need more inventors like Mr. Dyson.