Think about some of the best actors in the business—Robert De Niro, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep. You don’t notice the acting. They disappear into their roles. They wrap you up in their characters and engage you, even if the rest of the movie is a shambles. They tell a compelling story.

James Dyson spent five years and created 5,127 prototypes before he perfected his first bagless vacuum cleaner. Five thousand prototypes. When you hear that, you don’t think about marketing. Dyson is a real, living person, he’s passionate about what he does, and it makes for a mighty good story.

What kind of story can you tell?