What makes a Dyson vacuum cleaner different? The simplest answer is that they do not use bags. In fact, when Dyson tried to sell his vacuum cleaner to established companies, none of them were interested in abandoning their bagged designs. But more than that, Dyson’s vision for the cleaners is studiously engineered, removing the extra parts and needlessly thick materials in favor of thin, light materials designed to last for a long time. Thanks to that engineering, Dyson vacuums are truly energy efficient.
Dyson himself knows that the greatest innovations occur when inventors address a problem, rather than simply make largely superficial changes. To that end, he founded the James Dyson Foundation in 2002 to encourage design and engineering education -- elements he believes are integral for world improvement. Dyson also created the James Dyson Award to reward the most creative and inventive students in the world for design and engineering excellence. Entrants are prompted only to “design something that solves a problem.”
Today, James Dyson is worth about £1.45 billion. In addition to his inventing work, Dyson was knighted in 2006 -- despite frustrations in the United Kingdom from a decision to move his the bulk of his factories to Malaysia and China. Now sixty-four-years-old, Dyson has not lost the passion of creating something new and better that drew him into entrepreneurship all those years ago.