Add up all the failures of all the design professionals you know, and that number won’t even approach the failure rate of James Dyson.

Dyson is a designer of a different sort. He’s an industrial designer, engineer and inventor who knows a lot about failure.

He failed 5,126 times over 15 years trying to invent a prototype for a his Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner. Attempt #5,127 was successful, and he’s now known as the maker of the best selling vacuum cleaner by revenue in the U.S.

Dyson’s  net worth : $2 billion.

In a recent issue of Fast Company magazine, Dyson shares some interesting views on failure.

 ”I learned from each one. So I don’t mind failure,” he points out. “We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven’t, do things the wrong way.  Initiate a failure by doing something that’s very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path.”

How many interior designers, design industry manufacturers and others focus all their time and energy instead on avoiding failure? How many stay in the box, rather than think outside of it?

 Design professionals looking to move to the next level in their careers should heed the words of IBM founder Thomas Watson: “Would you like me to give you a formula for…success? Double your rate of failure.”