Invention Audiobook By James Dyson cover art

Invention

A Life

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Invention

By: James Dyson
Narrated by: James Dyson
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $26.61

Buy for $26.61

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

 Dyson has become a byword for great design, brilliant invention and global success. Now, James Dyson, the entrepreneur who made it all happen, tells his remarkable and inspirational story in Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure.

'By continually challenging ourselves, investing in the future and experimenting, we can continue to make the future. We must never stop. Never, for one second become comfortable.' James Dyson

In this spirited autobiography, James Dyson interweaves his own life story with a wider exploration of the importance of invention. On the way, the reader encounters challenging and inspirational characters, radical inventions, adventurous engineering, cultural fads, political gamesmanship, legal battles and much else besides.

Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure is a 21st century call to arms: creative invention through the research, design and manufacture of technologies and products empowers not only employees and employers, but the economy at large, while the very acts of imagining, shaping and making things enriches our lives. James Dyson sees people as producers as well as consumers, the inventing and making of things part of a natural instinct. Invention is a lifelong commitment. It has been James Dyson’s life.

©2021 James Dyson. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, UK Business History & Culture Innovations Professionals & Academics
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Critic reviews

'I left [this book] enlightened about engineering and design, and impressed by Dyson's dogged, trailblazing spirit.' (Oliver Shah)
‘The ferociously creative entrepreneur who emerges in these pages revels in practical experiment and learns from failure… Dyson’s struggles against the advice of experts and in the teeth of endless commercial and technical challenges haven’t lost their power to fascinate… Those who persist with Invention despite its flaws will be rewarded.’ (Marc Sidwell)
'Stories of consumer products and gadgets drive Mr Dyson's narrative forward, but parallel...[he] tells a story of the struggles of entrepreneurship. A final thread...is his passionate case for more and better engineering and science education in British schools' (Henry Petroski)
All stars
Most relevant  
The author shares his perspectives throughout the book but at no point was I clear where the book was heading to. A clearer storyline would've made the book much more appealing, particularly as it is in audio format. On the positive note, it's great to have the author narrate his own book. And I may well end up with a Dyson vacuum cleaner at home :)

Lost the plot

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What an extraordinary human being hiding in plane sight. Humbling, thoughtful and inspiring! A treasure!

Wow wow wow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Before I listened to this book the word Dyson did not exist in my vocabulary. I missed out for sure. James achieved many things. The book is truly inspirational. The fact that he is reading it, is special. The input by his son and wife at the end is a suitable Amen to his life. I hope I have the privilege of meeting James some day.

Invention on steroids!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Now I might be a tad predisposed to such a tome. I’m an entrepreneur who originally studied industrial design, loves both history, a good yarn and emerging tech (isn’t it an amazing time to be alive). But I really did love this book. Very inspiring.

A really great read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.