Video summary
The video identifies James Dyson's autobiography, *Against the Odds*, as an essential read for anyone with ambitious goals, not because of his current status but due to his long history of failure before success. At seventy-eight years old, Dyson owns one hundred percent of a highly successful private company and refuses any buyout offers that would have fetched tens of billions of dollars; he views the business as a family heirloom rather than just money-making machinery. The core lesson lies in understanding the man behind the brand during his thirties and forties, when he spent fifteen years failing repeatedly after inventing over five thousand prototypes before finally creating one that worked. This narrative serves as a powerful reminder that true success is often built upon a foundation of persistent struggle rather than immediate triumph.
Dyson's approach to work stands in stark contrast to the ego-driven behaviors seen in many other high-profile figures who lose everything after reaching their peak, such as Kanye West or Conor McGregor. Instead of sleeping on his wins and becoming arrogant, Dyson maintains an obsessive focus on improvement simply because he loves the activity itself. He describes a process where he picks up any product, looks for ways to make it better, implements small changes, puts it down, and repeats this cycle endlessly without stopping. This relentless tinkering is driven by an engineering mind that sees potential improvements in everything around him, turning his life into a giant puzzle rather than chasing fame or fortune. His massive fingers are physical evidence of decades spent working with his hands on manufacturing lines and design meetings, proving that he remains deeply involved in the actual work rather than acting as an absentee executive.
The speaker draws a direct parallel between Dyson's journey and their own experience trying to build a podcasting career while facing financial losses for years without quitting. Reading Dyson's book provided the necessary perspective to realize that giving up was not required, especially when knowing someone else had endured similar hardships for over a decade before succeeding. This realization helped shift the mindset from fearing failure to embracing the process of improvement itself. The speaker emphasizes that many successful people are actually driven by a fear of losing what they have built rather than an insatiable love for success, and Dyson exemplifies this principle perfectly by never stopping his efforts regardless of external validation or financial reward.
Ultimately, the video concludes with advice to young entrepreneurs seeking guidance from older mentors who have already navigated life's pitfalls and triumphs. The speaker suggests spending time with individuals like Jimmy Iovine or James Dyson to learn how they avoided common traps that cause others to fall after achieving success. By observing those who are further down the path, one can understand that external circumstances often dictate outcomes rather than personal identity alone, allowing people to anticipate challenges before they happen. The speaker also notes their own fascination with older figures not as a fetish but as a strategic move to avoid repeating cycles of decline and failure seen in many successful careers. While acknowledging physical changes like mitochondrial weakening come with age, the focus remains on maintaining discipline and learning from those who have mastered the art of continuous improvement throughout their lives.
Read the full video transcript
Out of every single biography and
autobiography I've ever read in my life,
and I think as of today it's like 425 or
something like that cuz it correlates
with the founders episodes I've done.
If I if you only read one book, it'd be
his first autobiography, which is called
Against the Odds, an autobiography by
James Dyson.
Cuz it's not about
Today, you fast forward, he's 78 years
old. He owns 100% of one of the most
successful private companies in the
world. He wouldn't sell it. I had a
friend that tried to buy it. He He
guessed, my friend that tried to buy it,
that if James would sell, it'd fetch
between 60 to 80 billion. James has no
outside shareholders. He has 100% of it.
My friend put a flyer out to him saying,
"We want to buy your company." He
paraphrased the response that came back
from Dyson, which was, "Fuck you. This
is a family heirloom."
It's not about the money. He's a He's an
engineer. He's a designer. He's obsessed
with the work that he's doing. So, it's
That book is not about this. It's not
the 78-year-old James Dyson. It is the
Dyson in his 30s and mid-40s that is
just failing for a decade and a half
over and over and over again. 5,126
failed prototypes. The 5,127th one is
the one that worked. It's the James
Dyson that's going to bed cuz he's
working in a carriage house, which I I
guess it's like a garage in England.
What is a carriage house?
>> No idea.
>> Never heard of that one.
>> I had to look it up. Well, I thought you
It's in the UK, so I figured you know.
So, it's like a detached little workshop
outside your main house. I think it's in
Bath, England where he
where he is. Where he's failing all day
long, walks inside, passes his little
his kids, gets into bed, cries himself
to sleep. Then his kid is four, sees him
failing. His kid is seven, Dad's still
failing. His kid is a teenager, Dad is
still a failure. And so, the reason this
was so important to me is because
I knew I wanted to podcast. I knew I
loved it more than anything else. I have
this irrational love of podcasting that
people make fun of me for it, and I'm
fine with.
But, I was having no success. It was not
that like I wasn't making any money. It
was I was It was costing me money to do
this. My My savings went down every
month, and I for some reason wouldn't
quit. And one of the reasons I don't
think I quit is because episode 25,
the the very first uh first time I read
James Dyson's book is I read this book
and I'm like, "Well, this guy struggled
for 14 years. Like, I can
give it a go for a year." It wound up
being 5 and 1/2. I didn't think it'd
take that long. But, like, just knowing
that story and rereading that book over
and over and over again, it just I was
able to relate to him. I was like, "He
didn't give up. Why do I have to give
up?" Like, do you know how good you're
going to feel if you get to the other
side of this? And I did have a lot of
faith that I would get to the other side
of it. And so,
when you meet James Dyson though, like,
I read his first autobiography at least
five times. I read the highlights from
the book hundreds of times. This is not
a joke. It's not I'm not exaggerating. I
read his second biography, which he
wrote when he was in the '70s, twice. I
read He has He wrote an encyclopedia
when he was like 45 or 50 about He's
obsessed with inventions. It's called A
History of Great Inventions. It
literally like somebody printed out a
Wikipedia page of like 200
um
inventions with hand-scrawled notes. I
There's a picture of me and James going
through the book. Me showing him. Like,
me annotating every single thing. And
so, being able to sit with him, I
thought I understood him completely. And
there was still This is why it's so
powerful to be able to talk to these
people. First of all, he sits across
from you. And you realize that he's
built He He doesn't He's not a
He's not a uh absentee executive. He
does the work. He's And he's on the the
manufacturing line. He's in the
engineering meetings. He's in design
meetings. So, you sit across from him.
He's a very thin guy.
His
fingers
are probably
twice as wide as mine are. Why? Because
he's been working with his hands. Like,
if Look at your biceps. Like, you're How
many curls did you do to get those
biceps? How many Like, him tinkering
with his hands that he get He's got
massive fingers. They don't fit the rest
of his body cuz it's like a lifetime of
tinkering. It's incredible. But, then,
the reason I say if you go to sleep on a
win, you wake up with a loss, is like,
most people that have success, then
they're like, "I [ __ ] made it. Look
at me. I'm the best." And they forget
it's the work that got them there, not
them. It's the ties to the megalomaniac
thing. Where Dyson's not like that at
all. I didn't understand his organizing
principle. And so, this is what he said.
He said, "Okay, I pick up a product,
right? I look at it. I think about how
can I make it better?
I make it better.
I put it back down.
Short while later, pick it back up. How
can I make it better? I make it a little
bit better. Put it back down."
And he went through this over and over
again. I think he used a coffee cup in
the in the episode. It's been, you know,
6 months, I don't remember.
And he goes, "And then I just didn't I
just did that for 45 years. I never
stopped."
That's the antidote
to
the antidote, I don't know if that's the
right word, to going to sleep on a win.
He never slept on a win because he likes
the the activity itself. He just He has
an engineering mind. Everything around
him, he says it doesn't torment him, but
he'd see this table. He's like, "I think
I could shave off a little bit there. I
could fix that. I could do that." That's
how he His brain just works. He just
loves it. He's like a giant puzzle to
him. And that's I think that's the way
to do it. It's just like, "Man, if you
just love the activity for the sake of
itself, and you never stop improving it,
like you're not going to fall prey to
the failures and disasters of like a
Kanye or a Conor McGregor or any of
these other people you see.
>> that that was a quote from Conor
McGregor, somebody that's had one of the
biggest fall offs in history.
>> Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah.
>> Yeah, I I I've kind of been
obsessed thinking about the difference
between
what it feels like to have fallen off
and what it feels like to have never
made it.
>> I would rather never make it. I am This
is another thing where you're surprised.
Like when I talked to Michael Dell about
this, Daniel Ek about this, Todd Graves,
Mike Jacobs, like all these Every single
person I just mentioned is worth tens of
Michael Dell's worth like $200 billion.
And he's just like
It's not the love of success, it's the
fear of failure.
He's like, "For me, that is my worst
nightmare. That like
I I I do mean that. Like I would rather
never make it than make it, right? And
then lose it. And so, this is why
I I I wanted to say something earlier
that you just you just prompted this
thought. It's like it's weird because
like I'll meet with like young
entrepreneurs a lot, right? And I feel
like the middle child because I'm not my
20s anymore, but I'm not 70, you know?
And so I'm in both of these worlds. And
the advice I give to these like
25-year-olds I go, you should go and
spend some time with like a 65-year-old,
70-year-old. Like like try to get
an afternoon with Jimmy Iovine, who's in
his 70s, who's seen everything in the
world. Or a James Dyson, who's seen
everything in the world. Like we we have
that this guest list that we want we
want to get and it's in reverse
chronological order by age because some
of these guys like I got to sit down
with Charlie Munger, never got to record
a podcast with him. Now it's that
opportunity's gone. Same thing, got to
sit down with Sam Zell, never got to
record a podcast with him. They have all
this knowledge and all you have to do is
just like sit down and they'll they
they're already down the path that
you're that you want to go on. And
they'll say, "Hey, watch for that
pitfall there. What don't don't turn
right when this this is going to happen
to you." Cuz you realize like everything
that happens to us is not us. If
somebody else was sitting in your
position, they'd be getting those DMs,
too.
Like they just would. It's not you. It's
the position that you're holding.
Um and I I yeah, I think it's like super
important.
People say I have a fetish for old
people. I don't have a fetish for old
people. Just like I I want to avoid
the failure, the the the sec- the
success and then the decline and failure
that you see so
over and over and over again. Before we
continue, most people in their 30s are
still training hard. Their protein is
dialed in. They sleep better than they
did in their 20s. Discipline is not the
issue, but recovery feels
somewhat different. Strength gains take
a little longer. The margin for error
starts to shrink. And that is why I'm
such a huge fan of Timeline. You see,
mitochondria are the energy producers
inside of your muscle cells. As they
weaken with age, your ability to
generate power and recover effectively
changes, even if your habits stay
strong. Mitopure from Timeline contains
the only clinically validated form of
urolithin A used in human trials. It
promotes mitophagy, which is your body's
natural process for clearing out damaged
mitochondria and renewing healthy ones.
In studies, this supported mitochondrial
function and muscle strength in older
adults. It's not about pushing harder,
but actually supporting the cellular
machinery underneath your training. If
you care about staying strong into your
30s, 40s, and 50s and beyond, this is
foundational. Best of all, there is a
30-day money-back guarantee plus free
shipping in the US, and they ship
internationally. And right now, you can
get up to 20% off by going to the link
in the description below or heading to
timelinenutrition.com/modernwisdom
and using the code modernwisdom at
checkout. That's
timelinenutrition.com/modernwisdom.
And modernwisdom at checkout.
Congratulations, you made it to the end
of a clip, and the full-length episode
is available
right here.
Go on.