How long are you willing to work for your success?

For British inventor James Dyson, he had to wait until he was 45 years old before having his first successful invention. And until 71 years old to become the richest person in Britain this week.

When he decided to invent a better vacuum cleaner in 1979, he had one question: Could he improve on his Hoover by creating a vacuum without a bag? He then went through 15 years from 1979 to 1984 and 5,126 versions that failed before he eventually created his first Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner.

Even then, it was rejected by all the manufacturers, so he had to set up his own company to try and manufacture it.

Then it was rejected by all the retailers he visited. With a million pounds in debt, he eventually found buyers in Japan, and it took another 9 years before he had the money to finally launch the vacuum cleaners in England in 1993.

It took another 13 years before James created his second big invention: His Airblade hand dryer, when he was 59 years old.

It wasn’t until his 70th birthday, in 2017, that he announced the plan for his biggest invention to date: A Dyson Electric Car.

This week, at 71 years old, James Dyson has become Britain’s Wealthiest Person, with a fortune from his inventions that makes him worth $13.8 billion.

Are you the kind of person who gives up after the first attempt? Or the tenth attempt?

Are you willing to keep trying for 100 times as many attempts?

Or for 100 times as long?

When asked what was the key to his success, James goes right back to his passion at school: Running.

As he says, “One of the things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up to ten miles. They wouldn't let me run more than ten miles at school - in those days they thought you'd drop down dead or something. And I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good, but because I had more determination. I learned determination from it.”

“More particularly, I learned that the moment you want to slow down is the moment you should accelerate. In long distance running, you go through a pain barrier. The same thing happens in research and development projects, or in starting any business. There's a terrible moment when failure is staring you in the face.”

“What I've learned from running is that the time to push hard is when you're hurting like crazy and you want to give up. Success is often just around the corner.”

If success is just around the corner, don’t measure your days by how many hours you work, but by the distance you run and the corners you turn.