James Dyson Quotes

To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

I can see there's a connection between not following normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally.

To design something really new and innovative you have to reject reason.

The biggest handicap in research is an ability to think outside the box. The handicap is being encumbered by all the conventional wisdom in a given field.

Some of the best ideas that we've invested in have made no sense to conventional sources.

Sometimes a crazy idea can make something special.

It's important to have people who will say to you that you're really off the beaten track.

Companies have too many experts who block innovation. True innovation really comes from perpendicular thinking.

Creativity is not just for artists. It's for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it's for engineers trying to solve a problem; it's for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.

There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way.

If we're going to have an unconventional budget, we probably need an unconventional process to get there.

Usually the wacky people have the breakthroughs. The 'smart' people don't.

One of the great things about young entrepreneurs is that they don't know that something can't be done. So they try something that's so audacious and usually end up pulling it off.

I'm a very outside-the-box kind of guy.

There's a reason why start-ups, especially disruptive start-ups - like Google or Amazon or Uber - are full of young people. That's because young people are not as wedded to the old fashioned ways of doing things.

I always think of the craziest idea first and then work backwards, because you never know: that person that you think would never return your call might be sitting at home with nothing to do.

I feel that one thing that a businessman can learn is do not follow a path that has already been successful. You will never be a path-breaker then.

If you want to come up with a really original design idea, and you want to capture a whole new design direction, perhaps the best way to arrive at that is not by acting and thinking and doing like everybody else. That's all.

You can do a formula film and walk the conventional path, but it may not work at all.

None of the great discoveries was made by a 'specialist' or a 'researcher'.

It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

As entrepreneurs, we often get pressured into hiring an industry executive. While it's good to hire people with experience, it can also be a stumbling block because they think about the business the same way everyone else does.

In Silicon Valley, if you spend a lot of time thinking about the obstacles, you'll talk yourself out of everything, because the more you look at it, the less logical something sounds, since no one has done it yet.

I've got a feeling that with the best coppers - and in fact the best people in any field of work - what sets them apart is a maverick quality. People who are not afraid to bend the rules in order to achieve the universally desired end.