Working

Recently, I ran across this quote from Sir James Dyson. He's the guy who invented the hugely successful Dyson vacuum cleaner. Here's what he says:

"... if you want to discover something that other people haven't, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path.

"[Society] admires instant brilliance, effortless brilliance. I think quite the reverse. You should admire the person who perseveres and slogs through and gets there in the end."

Right on! Apparently, it took Sir James more than five thousand prototypes to get his vacuum cleaner right (!), but each "mistake" ("experiment" is a better word) took him closer to his goal.

That's the way I feel about my work. The important thing is to do it every single day, and to keep on doing it, knowing that the day's work is moving you (me) forward.

We talk about "art works", but forget sometimes that the works come from The Work.