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And Ever Since Then [i] Have Set Up Businesses Basically Out Of Frustration. I Mean, I Set Up Virgin Atlantic With One Second-hand 747 Because I Hated The Experience Of Flying On Other People's Airlines. And I Thought, You Know, I Could Try To Create The Kind Of Airline That I'd Like To Fly On. And People Liked It.

-Richard Branson

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And Ever Since Then

Richard Branson

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And Ever Since Then [i] Have Set Up Businesses Basically Out Of Frustration. I Mean, I Set Up Virgin Atlantic With One Second-hand 747 Because I Hated The Experience Of Flying On Other People's Airlines. And I Thought, You Know, I Could Try To Create The Kind Of Airline That I'd Like To Fly On. And People Liked It.

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Throwing Yourself Into A Job You Enjoy Is One Of The Life's Greatest Pleasures!

I Think That Marijuana Should Be Legalized. I Think The Only Reason It Isn't Legal Is Because Politicians Who Smoked It When They Were Young Men Or Young Women Just Don't Have The Courage When They Become Politicians To Legalize It.

Don't Hesitate To Seek External Help Or Advice Where Need Be. Sometimes, It Takes An External, Emotionally Unattached Individual To Detect Your Business Flaws And Render Unbiased Advice.

I Just Love Every Minute Of My Life. I Love The Variety. Every Minute Of Every Day I'm Meeting Fascinating New People, Learning And Working With Wonderful Teams Of People Creating Wonderful Things.

Throughout My Business Life I Have Always Tried To Keep On Top Of Costs And Protect The Downside Risk As Much Possible. The Virgin Group Has Survived Only Because We Have Always Kept Tight Control Of Our Cash. But, Likewise, I Also Know That Sometimes It Is Essential To Break These Rules And Spend Lavishly.

Develop The Business Around The People; Build It, Don't Buy It; And, Then, Be The Best.

One Night, I Was Chatting With A Group Of 16-year-old Girls Over A Few Drinks About A Name For The Record Store ... A Bunch Of Ideas Were Bounced Around, Then, As We Were All New To Business, Someone Suggested Virgin. It Smacked Of New And Fresh And At The Time The Word Was Still Slightly Risqué, So, Thinking It Would Be An Attention-grabber, We Went With It.

Take The Competition Seriously, But Not Yourself.

If You Have An Idea That's Going To Make A Big Difference To People's Lives, And Other People Are Not Doing It, You Know, Just Say "screw It," Do It And Get On With It, And Give It A Go.

Listen To The Customer's Complaint And Act Fast.

Success Comes From Delegating, Risk-taking And Having A Good Team!

Everything In Your Business Can Be Outsourced... If You're Not Emotionally Attached To Doing It All.

Most Entrepreneurs Are Not Doing It For Financial Motives In The First Place. They're Just People Who Love Creating.

I Think That Being A Business A Leader That Treads All Over People To Get To The Top Is Actually Not The Way I Think To Become A Successful Business Leader.

On Conflicts, Generally Speaking, The World Is A Hell Of A Lot Better To Live In Today Than It Was Thirty Years Ago, Despite What's Going On In Syria. There Are Definitely Hopeful Signs That The World Is Moving, Decade By Decade, In The Right Direction.

If A Chairman Of A Company Visits Seattle, That Chairman Should Take All The Staff Out In The Evening And Have A Few Drinks Together, Talk Together And Party Together And Not Be Embarrassed About The Staff Seeing The Weaker Side Of You.

If You Run Your Business Fairly; If You Treat People Well; If You Try To Move Your Business Into Areas That Are Making A Real Positive Difference To Other Peoples Lives; I Think You'll A. Have Much Pleasant Life, But B. I Think You'll Have A Much More Successful Business.

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

As An Entrepreneur, You've Got To Protect Against The Company Going Bust. And As An Adventurer, You've Got To Protect Against Losing Your Life. It's Even More Important As An Adventurer To Get It Right.

Can You Afford To Ignore China? It's Like Saying You Can Afford To Ignore The Internet. I Don't Think So.

We Should All Seek To Innovate, Or Be Curious About Innovation. Innovation Truly Is One Of Our Greatest Gifts.

I Believe In Benevolent Dictatorship Provided I Am The Dictator.

To Have Created One Of The Most Respected Companies In The World. Not Necessarily The Biggest.

Well, We Know That People In Australia Love The Idea Of Both Impulse And Virgin Blue Getting Up And Adding A Bit Of Competition, And It's Fun To Be Able To Deliver It.

Spend More Time Smiling Than Frowning And More Time Praising Than Criticizing.

There's No Better Satisfaction Than Watching The People Around You, Who Have Worked Day And Night To Get Something Right, Realising The Dream.

First And Foremost, Any Business Proposal I Like Must Sound Fun.

I Myself Have Invested In Uber And Hailo, I Think They Offer Great Alternatives To Disrupt Markets That Have Remained Unchanged For Many Years.

Perhaps My Early Problems With Dyslexia Made Me More Intuitive: When Someone Sends Me A Written Proposal, Rather Than Dwelling On Detailed Facts And Figures I Find That My Imagination Grasps And Expands On What I Read.

A Company's Employees Are Its Greatest Asset And Your People Are Your Product

I'm A Great Believer That Saying Yes Is A Lot More Fun Than Saying No.

Values Cannot Be Speedily Forgotten If It Is Inconvenient Or Commercially Expedient. Values Have To Have Meaning And Longevity; Otherwise They Are Valueless. You Cannot Embrace Innovation Up To A Point Or Only Sometimes. Branding Demands Commitment; Commitment To Continual Re-invention; Striking Cords With People To Stir Their Emotions; And Commitment To Imagination. It Is Easy To Be Cynical About Such Things, Much Harder To Be Successful.

When I Was 15, I Left School To Start A Magazine, And It Became A Success Because I Wouldn't Take No For An Answer. I Remember Banging On James Baldwin's Door To Ask For An Interview When He Came To England. Then I Got Jean-paul Sartre's Home Phone Number And Asked Him To Contribute. If I'd Been 30, He Might Have Said No, But I Was A 15-year-old With Passion And He Was Charmed. Making Money Was Always Just A Side Product Of Having A Good Time And Creating Things Nobody'd Seen Before.

I Definitely Go On Gut Instinct But It Has Always Had The Back Up Of Research And Information.

In Syria, If [bashar Al-] Assad Had Just Been A Statesman And Handed Over The Reigns In Time, Syria Would Not Be Heading Down The Nightmare That It Is Today.

In The '80's My Gut Feeling Was That Airlines Were Crap. I Hated Spending Time On Planes. I Thought We Could Create The Kind Of Airline I'd Like. So We Got A Secondhand 747 And Gave It A Go.

Whatever Business You Are In, Every Company Can Shoot For The Start In Their Own Way.

When Something Doesn't Go Exactly To Plan, Money Is Tight Or A Business Is Struggling - See It As A Challenge Rather Than A Failure. Look Outside The Box And Try And Find A Solution - You'll Be Surprised How Many Great Opportunities And Possibilities Arise When Things Look Bad. You've Just Got To Open Your Mind And Not Be Afraid Of Sticking Your Neck Out!

I Also Know, As An Entrepreneur Myself, You Face New Obstacles Every Day And You Need To Have The Perseverance To See Them Through.

Many Assume My Business Success Has Brought Me Happiness. But The Way I See It, I Am Successful Because I Am Happy.

Business Success

Run Lean; Avoid Unnecessary Expenses.

So Unlike Having To Convert, You Know, All The Cars' Or All The Lorries' Petrol Stations, Once You've Actually Got The Clean Fuels, It's Relatively Easy To, You Know, Get It To The Airplanes.

I Am Convinced That Companies Should Put Staff First, Customers Second And Shareholders Third - Ultimately That's In The Best Interest Of Customers And Shareholders.

If You Are A New Startup Company, Try Not To Arouse The Interest Or Suspicion Of Your Competition; Especially If They Are A Bigger Company. They Can Crush You While You Are Still In Your Startup Phase. Lie Low While Still Strengthening Your Bottom Line.

All Of Us Have Just Got To Find That Time To Look After Our Bodies. That Helps Us Make Sure That Our Mind Is Sharp. I Know That When I'm Feeling Great And Really Fit, I Can Get In Three Or Four Hours More Of Really Productive Work.

Productive Work

I Think It's Important We Continue To Find New Ways For Start-up Businesses To Get Access To Funding, Mentorship And Business Advice.

About 40 Percent Of My Time Is Spent On Social Issues And Building New Organizations, More For The Benefit Of The Climate Or Health Issues.

To Get The Respect Of People, I Think You've Got To Roll Up Your Sleeves And Lead With Your People. The Absolute Key Is Treating Your People Well. Looking For The Best In Your People. Lots And Lots Of Praise, No Criticism.

Happiness Doesn't Come From Making A Fortune And Owning Lots Of Possessions. 'stuff' Doesn't Bring Happiness. Family, Friends, Good Health And The Satisfaction That Comes From Making A Positive Difference Are What Really Matter.

Most Skills Can Be Learned, But It Is Difficult To Train People On Their Personality.

I Have Learnt More From My Failures Than My Successes.

Like Getting Into A Bleeding Competition With A Blood Bank.

Business Has To Give People Enriching, Rewarding Lives...or It's Simply Not Worth Doing.

Launching A Business Is Essentially An Adventure In Problem-solving.

If You Are Glass Half Empty Type Of Person, Maybe You Just Haven’t Been Holding The Right Glass

I Think Bands Will Actually Make More Money Without Record Companies; A Much Bigger Share Of The Money Will Go To The Bands. You Won't Have Record Shops Taking 40 Percent Of The Money. You Won't Have Record Labels Taking 40 Percent Of The Money. So They Don't Have To Sell As Many Albums As They Used To In The Past. So It's Not Necessarily A Bad Thing If Record Companies Disappear.

There Is No Planet B. We Have To Take Care Of The One We Have

When I Started Virgin From A Basement In West London, There Was No Great Plan Or Strategy. I Didn't Set Out To Build A Business Empire ... For Me, Building A Business Is All About Doing Something To Be Proud Of, Bringing Talented People Together And Creating Something That's Going To Make A Real Difference To Other People's Lives.

Coming Up With The Bucket List Is The Easy Part, But Ticking Off The List Is The Challenge. I Love A Good Challenge, Which Is Why I Strongly Advise Everyone To Come Up With A Bucket List. It Doesn't Have To Contain Out Of This World Tasks. But Once You Have Written Down The List, Screw It, Just Do It!

My Parents Brought Me Up With This Philosophy. You Must Do Things. You Mustn't Watch What Other People Are Doing. You Must Not Listen To What Other People Are Doing.

I'm Not Superstitious. I Don't Really Believe In Star Signs, Sorry, Or Superstitions.

Take A Chance - It's The Best Way To Test Yourself, Have Fund And Push Boundaries.

If You're Lucky Enough To Have A Few Hundred Thousand Dollars In The Bank Account, That Should Be Sufficient For Your Own Personal Needs, And Anything More Than That You've Got To Put To Good Use.

If You Get Into Entrepreneurshi P Driven By Profit, You Are A Lot More Likely To Fail. The Entrepreneurs Who Succeed Usually Want To Make A Difference To People’s Lives, Not Just Their Own Bank Balances. The Desire To Change Things For The Better Is The Motivation For Taking Risks And Pursuing Seemingly Impossible Business Ideas.

... Our First Priority Should Be The People Who Work For The Companies, Then The Customers, Then The Shareholders. Because If The Staff Are Motivated Then The Customers Will Be Happy, And The Shareholders Will Then Benefit Through The Company's Success.

We Love Formula One And Think Formula One's Great. But We Think Formula E Is Different. We Would Be Making A Big Mistake If We Tried To Compete With Formula One And Be Similar To Formula One, We Have To Be Radically Different To Formula One To Have A Chance Of Survival. I Don't Mean Survival By Beating Formula One But Co-existing Complimentary To Formula One.

With The Casino And The Beds, Our Passengers Will Have At Least Two Ways To Get Lucky On One Of Our Flights.

Don't Become A Slave To Technology - Manage Your Phone, Don't Let It Manage You.

I Have Learnt So Much Over My 40 Years Of Business Which Would Have Been Valuable To Me When I Was Younger.

If People Are Jumping Down People's Throats All The Time, In The End, They'll Just Shrivel Up Like A Flower Shrivels Up That's Not Watered.

Train People Well Enough So They Can Leave, Treat Them Well Enough So They Don't Want To.

Never To Be Frightened Of Taking Risks And Always Follow Your Instincts!

Doing Good Is Good For Business.

The Key Is To Set Realistic Customer Expectations, And Then Not To Just Meet Them, But To Exceed Them - Preferably In Unexpected And Helpful Ways.

Loyal Customers

Learn To Raise Capital By Any Means Necessary. That's Your Primary Job As An Entrepreneur. You Must Continually Raise Capital From Family And Friends, Banks, Suppliers, Customers And Investors.

My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself. I See Life Almost Like One Long University Education That I Never Had - Everyday I'm Learning Something New.

Self Confidence

There's Nothing Like The Endorphins From Being Fit, And The Incredible Endorphin Rush That Goes With That. It Beats Drugs, Drink, And Almost Anything Else I Know.

I Was Interested In Creating Things That I Could Be Proud Of And So, You Know, I Was Interested In Being An Editor Of A Magazine, Things That I Could Be Proud Of, And So, You Know, I Was Interested In Being An Editor Of A Magazine, But In Order To Be An Editor Of A Magazine I Had To Become A Publisher As Well. I Had To Pay The Bills. I Had To Worry About The Printing And The Paper Manufacturing And The Distribution Of That Magazine.

Creating Things

My Mother Was Determined To Make Us Independent. When I Was Four Years Old, She Stopped The Car A Few Miles From Our House And Made Me Find My Own Way Home Across The Fields. I Got Hopelessly Lost.

We Believe That Within Five Years, 96 Percent Of British Consumers Will Have Access To The Internet, Whether It Be Through A Personal Computer, A Set-top Box Or A Mobile Phone.

There Are Millions Of People Out There Who Would Love To Become Astronauts, Who'd Love To Go To Space - They'd Love To Look Back At This Wonderful World From Space. That Will Be The Engine That Will Enable Us Then To Develop Spaceships To Transport People Around The World At Tremendous Speeds In An Environmentally Friendly Way.

A Company Is Simply A Group Of People. And As A Leader Of People, You Have To Be A Great Listener, You Have To Be A Great Motivator, You Have To Be Very Good At Praising And Looking For The Best In People. People Are No Different From Flowers. If You Water Flowers, They Flourish. If You Praise People, They Flourish. That's A Critical Attribute Of A Leader.

We Spend Most Of Our Lives Working. So Why Do So Few People Have A Good Time Doing It?

My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself

Life Is A Series Of Ups And Clowns. Make It Worth Your Wild!

Money Gives You The Freedom To Do With Your Time What You Want To Do With It

Explore This Next Great Frontier Where The Boundaries Between Work And Higher Purpose Are Merging Into One, Where Doing Good Really Is Good For Business.

For A Successful Entrepreneur It Can Mean Extreme Wealth. But With Extreme Wealth Comes Extreme Responsibility.

An Exceptional Company Is The One That Gets All The Little Details Right.

Wine, Like Life, Is Meant To Be Enjoyed.

If You're Looking To Become An Entrepreneur Then Don't Waste Your Time Going To University Or Business School - Just Get On And Do It.

And Ever Since Then [i] Have Set Up Businesses Basically Out Of Frustration. I Mean, I Set Up Virgin Atlantic With One Second-hand 747 Because I Hated The Experience Of Flying On Other People's Airlines. And I Thought, You Know, I Could Try To Create The Kind Of Airline That I'd Like To Fly On. And People Liked It.

If You Don't Have Time For The Small Things, You Won't Have Time For The Big Things

The Funny Thing Is People Won't Let Me Pay For Things. I'll Be In A Restaurant And The Manager Will Say, 'oh No, It's On The House.'

When People Warn Me Against Doing Something Once My Mind Is Made Up, I Grow Increasingly Determined To Try It.

In The Same Way That I Tend To Make Up My Mind About People Within Thirty Seconds Of Meeting Them, I Also Make Up My Mind About Whether A Business Proposal Excites Me Within About Thirty Seconds Of Looking At It. I Rely Far More On Gut Instinct Than Researching Huge Amounts Of Statistics.

And [we Hope To Sell] The Clean Fuels To Other Airlines. I Mean, The Exciting Thing About The Breakthrough With Clean Fuels For The Airline Industry Is There's Only 1,700 Pumps In The World That Fill Up The Airlines.

If You Create Something That Makes A Difference In People's Lives, You Are Likely To Become A Business Success As Well

Self Improvement

Early On In Your Career, Find Someone Better Than Yourself To Run The Business On A Day-to-day Basis. Remove Yourself, Maybe Even From The Building, And From The Nitty-gritty. That Way, You're Going To Be Able To See The Bigger Picture And Think Of New Areas To Go Into.

Always Think, 'what's The Worst That Can Happen' And Have Some Kind Of Strategy To Deal With It

Self Improvement

I Just Kind Of Dive In If I Think I Can Create Something That Will Make A Difference And Then Try To Get The Numbers To Stack Up After The Event. So Most Of The Things I've Done I Would Not Have Done If I'd Have Asked The Accountants To Look At Them Before.

If You Want To Be A Millionaire, Start With A Billion Dollars And Launch A New Airline.

No Failure Means No Risk, Which Means Nothing New

I Have Enjoyed Life A Lot More By Saying "yes" Than By Sayings "no".

It Is Important To Remember That Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal And That None Of Us Should Waste Our Time On Doing Things That Don’t Spark Fires Within Us. My Golden Rule For Business And Life Is: We Should All Enjoy What We Do And Do What We Enjoy.

Business Opportunities Are Like Buses, There's Always Another One Coming.

Building A Business Is Not Rocket Science, It's About Having A Great Idea And Seeing It Through With Integrity.

I Never Learned The Rules In The First Place. To Change The Game Is At The Heart Of What Virgin Stands For, So The Company Culture Has Always Been: "don't Sweat It: Rules Were Meant To Be Broken."

I Never Wanted To Be A Businessman, I Just Wanted To Change The World

Setting Customer Expectations At A Level That Is Aligned With Consistently Deliverable Levels Of Customer Service Requires That Your Whole Staff, From Product Development To Marketing, Works In Harmony With Your Brand Image.

I Have Never Had An Office That I Work Out Of And Work Has Become Intertwined With My Personal Life.

We [virgin Group] Have Been Successful Not By Wasting Time Scrutinising Our Competitors But By Looking At Ourselves From The Point Of View Of Our Customers Do And Seeking Feedback Through Listening.

Fun Is One Of The Most Important - And Underrated - Ingredients In Any Successful Venture. If You're Not Having Fun, Then It's Probably Time To Call It Quits And Try Something Else.

There Is No Greater Thing You Can Do With Your Life And Your Work Than Follow Your Passions – In A Way That Serves The World And You.

Consider Getting Smaller In Order To Get Bigger.

I Was Dyslexic, I Had No Understanding Of Schoolwork Whatsoever. I Certainly Would Have Failed Iq Tests. And It Was One Of The Reasons I Left School When I Was 15 Years Old. And If I - If I'm Not Interested In Something, I Don't Grasp It.

I Have Always Lived My Life By Thriving On Opportunity And Adventure. Some Of The Best Ideas Come Out Of The Blue, And You Have To Keep An Open Mind To See Their Virtue.

I Set Up This Magazine Called Student When I Was 16, And I Didn't Do It To Make Money - I Did It Because I Wanted To Edit A Magazine. There Wasn't A National Magazine Run By Students, For Students. I Didn't Like The Way I Was Being Taught At School. I Didn't Like What Was Going On In The World, And I Wanted To Put It Right.

Good Customer Service Begins At The Top. If Your Senior People Don't Get It, Even The Strongest Links Further Down The Line Can Become Compromised.

I Believe In Myself. I Believe In The Hands That Work, In The Brains That Think, And In The Hearts That Love.

You Never Know With These Things When You're Trying Something New What Can Happen. This Is All Experimental.

Trying Something New

We Went All The Way Down The Himalayan Chain For A Day And A Half. That Was Magnificent, Except The Chinese Told Us They Were Going To Shoot Us Down If We Came Out The Far End. So I Spent A Lot Of My Time Contacting Former Prime Minister Tony Blair Begging Him To Tell The Chinese We Were Coming In This Direction By Mistake And Could He Please Say We Have No Nasty Motives For Flying Into Their Territory.

A Little Humour Is Good For The Soul - Regardless Of How Old You May Be.

I Have Always Believed That There Is No Point In Having Regrets As You Learn Far More From Mistakes Than Successes. Embrace A Mistake And Learn From It; Don't Regret Them.

Never Go Into Business Purely To Make Money. If That's The Motive You're Better Off Doing Nothing.

We Hope To Create Thousands Of Astronauts Over The Next Few Years And Bring Alive Their Dream Of Seeing The Majestic Beauty Of Our Planet From Above, The Stars In All Their Glory And The Amazing Sensations Of Weightlessness And Space Flight.

There Have Been Times When I Could Have Succumbed To Some Form Of Bribe, Or Could Have Had My Way By Offering One. But Ever Since That Night In Dover Prison I Have Never Been Tempted To Break My Vow.. My Parents Always Drummed Into Me That All You Have Life Is Your Reputation: You May Be Very Rich, But If You Lose Your Good Name You'll Never Be Happy.

The Quickest Way To Become A Millionaire In The Airline Business Is To Start Out As A Billionaire.

Airline Business

Your Brand Name Is Only As Good As Your Reputation

Any Idea Can Be A Great Idea If You Think Differently, Dream Big And Commit To Seeing It Realized

Ideally, Since 80 Percent Of Your Life Is Spent Working, You Should Start Your Business Around Something That Is A Passion Of Yours

One Of The Best Bits Of Advice I Can Give Is, Early On, When You're Building A New Business, Try To Find Somebody To Run It On A Day-to-day Basis To Free Yourself Up To Look At The Bigger Picture.

To Me, Business Isn't About Wearing Suits Or Pleasing Stockholders. It's About Being True To Yourself, Your Ideas And Focusing On The Essentials.

The Most Breathtaking Thing About Being In Space Is Actually Looking Back At The Earth.

Everyone Needs Something To Aim For. You Can Call It A Challenge, Or You Can Call It A Goal. It Is What Makes Us Human. It Was Challenges That Took Us From Being Cavemen To Reaching For The Stars.

The Truth Is This: The Earth Cannot Provide Enough Food And Fresh Water For 10 Billion People, Never Mind Homes, Never Mind Roads, Hospitals And Schools.

I’ve Always Had A Soft Spot For Dreamers – Not Those Who Waste Their Time Thinking ‘what If’ But The Ones Who Look To The Sky And Say ‘why Can’t I Shoot For The Moon?’

I Think Because I Have Great Difficulty Saying The Word, 'no,' Almost Every Day's A Different Adventure.

What Can You Do To Make A Difference? And Why Should You Do It? (...) The Scale Of One's Social Investments Doesn't Matter. What Matters Is That You Operate As A Force For Good At Every Scale Available To You.

Making A Difference

I'm Sure If Brawn Gp Keep Plying Me With Champagne And Putting Gorgeous Virgin Girls Either Side Of Me, You Never Know!

...making Profits Is Important Because It Keeps All Our People In Jobs And, You Know, It Keeps What We - What We've Created Going, But, You Know, What We're - What I Get My - What I'm Proud About Doing Is Creating Companies Which We're Really Proud Of, You Know, Which We Can Really Be Proud Of And A Byproduct Of That Hopefully Will Be That They'll Be Profitable And Be Able To Pay The Bills.

Money Is A Poor Indicator Of Success.

Universities Are Fantastic Places To Gain Knowledge On A Subject, Develop A Personal Network, Explore Your Character And Learn New Techniques To Approach Problems.

We've Got An Engaging, Edgy, Vibrant, Fun Product, ... It May Or May Not Work, But We're Going To Give It Our Best Shot.

Publicity Is Absolutely Critical. A Good Pr Story Is Infinitely More Effective Than A Front Page Ad.

As People's Access To The Internet Grows We're Seeing The Sharing Economy Boom - I Think Our Obsession With Ownership Is At A Tipping Point And The Sharing Economy Is Part Of The Antidote For That.

If You Do Something For Fun And Create The Best Possible Product, Then The Profit Will Come.

I Am Prepared To Try Anything Once.

Your Company Should Act As A Springboard For Ambitious Employees, Not A Set Of Shackles.

What Is A Business? It's Simply An Idea That Makes Someone Else's Life Better

Look, If You Can Indulge In Your Passion, Life Will Be Far More Interesting Than If You're Just Working. You'll Work Harder At It, And You'll Know More About It. But First You Must Go Out And Educate Yourself On Whatever It Is That You've Decided To Do - Know More About Kite-surfing Than Anyone Else. That's Where The Work Comes In. But If You're Doing Things You're Passionate About, That Will Come Naturally.

We Have A Business That Some People Feel Pollutes, And I Happen To Agree With Them. ... And So On The Basis Of Trying To Do Good And, You Know, Hopefully Turn A Profit, What We Did Was We Pledged That We'd Put All The Profits From Our Airline Business Into Trying To Develop Clean Fuels.

Airline Business

You Shouldn't Be Looking For People Slipping Up, You Should Be Looking For All The Good Things People Do And Praising Those.

Global Warming Is Another Big Area That We Need To Get On Top Of. And Diseases In Africa, Which We're Also Working On And Seeing If We Can Make A Difference On. And There Are Lots Of Issues That Governments Seem To Be Blind About.

Having A Good Network Can Be Invaluable. It Opens Doors For You And Allows You To Enter Into Opportunities That Are Beneficial To Your Business.

My Mother Always Taught Me Never To Look Back In Regret But To Move On To The Next Thing.

Dream Big And You Will Be Presented With The Opportunity To Lead The World On An Incredible Adventure.

I Prefer To Have A Great Time And To Keep My Wits About Me.

Be Swift To Take Advantage Of Business Opportunities. Bigger Companies Are Too Cumbersome To Move Quickly; This Can Be A Competitive Advantage For You.

Look For The Best In People To Build A Fantastic Team

Self Improvement

What's The Quickest Way To Become A Millionaire? Borrow Fivers Off Everyone You Meet.

If You Get Your Face And Your Name Out There Enough, People Will Start To Recognize You.

In Times Of Recession There Are Massive Opportunities And Fortunes To Be Made, So For New Up And Coming Entrepreneurs, This Is The Time To Go And Start A Business.

What's The Most Critical Factor In Any Business Decision You'll Ever Have To Make? Basically, It Boils Down To This Question: If This All Crashes, Will It Bring The Whole House Tumbling Down Like A Pack Of Cards? One Business Matra Remains Embedded In My Brain - Protect The Downside.

What Matters Is Working With A Few Close Friends, People You Respect, Knowing That If Times Did Turn Bad These People Would Hold Together.

I Have Always Lived My Life By Making Lists: Lists Of People To Call, Lists Of Ideas, Lists Of Companies To Set Up, Lists Of People Who Can Make Things Happen. Each Day I Work Through These Lists, And That Sequence Of Calls Propels Me Forward.

And In The Process, We Have Come Up With Fuels - Algae-based Fuels, Isobutanol-based Fuels And Other Fuels - That We Think Will Power The Planes In The Future So That, You Know, By 2020 I Hope That Our Planes Will Be Powered On Fuels That Are Clean Fuels And Are Not Polluting The Environment So That We'll Have A Green Airline And An Airline That Actually Has Fuels That Will Be Hopefully Cheaper Than The Dirty Fuels Of The Past. So [we're] Doing Good And Also Turning A Profit At The Same Time.

I Have Always Believed That The Only Way To Cope With A Cash Crisis Is Not To Contract But To Try To Expand Out Of It.

Well, I Think That There's A Very Thin Dividing Line Between Success And Failure.

To Be Successful, You Have To Be Out There, You Have To Hit The Ground Running, And If You Have A Good Team Around You And More Than A Fair Share Of Luck, You Might Make Something Happen. But You Certainly Can't Guarantee It Just By Following Someone Else's Formula.

Of Course, A Lot Of Businesses Want To Reach Students, So I Funded The Magazine By Selling Advertising. I Sold Something Like $8,000 Worth Of Advertising For The First Edition, And That Was In 1966. I Printed Up 50,000 Copies, And I Didn't Even Have To Charge For Them On The Newsstand Because My Costs Were Already Covered.

Space Travel Will Be Like Every Other Business. There Will Be Competitors. . . . Thirty Months From Now, I'm Confident We'll Be Flying People Into Space.

So I've Seen Life As One Long Learning Process. And If I See - You Know, If I Fly On Somebody Else's Airline And Find The Experience Is Not A Pleasant One, Which It Wasn't In - 21 Years Ago, Then I'd Think, Well, You Know, Maybe I Can Create The Kind Of Airline That I'd Like To Fly On.

The Time To Go Into A New Business Is When It’s Badly Run By Others.

People Flourish If They’re Praised.

Be Bold, Brave And Not Afraid To Fall On Your Face And Ultimately You Will Succeed

We Will Be Producing Supersonic Planes Which Will Go Far, Far Faster Than Concordes. New York To Tokyo Could Be Less Than An Hour. You Could Be Traveling At 19,000 Miles An Hour Orbitally.

We Need A New Way Of Doing Business To Get Out Of The Present Crisis ... Absolute Greed Has Come Close To Bankrupting The World. Thanks To The Crisis That Certain Businesses Have Dumped On Everyone A Lot Of People Are Going To Suffer On A Global Scale. All Of Us Must Learn. It Is All The More Important That Those Business Leaders That Are Left Standing Try To Be A Force For Good.

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

Self Improvement

I Love Creating Things, And As An Entrepreneur, I've Taken On Quite A Lot Of Major Corporations And Done Well. Capitalism Is The Only System That Works, But It Has Its Flaws; For One, It Brings Great Wealth To Only A Few People. That Wealth Obviously Brings Extreme Responsibility.

And From, You Know, Small Ideas, Bigger Ideas Emerge. So We're Starting With Suborbital Space Flights And We'll Then Go Into Orbital Space Flights And, You Know, Maybe One Day We'll Send People On A One-way Voyage Into The Depths Of Space As Per The Science Fiction Trips.

I Know Enough To Know That No Man Is An Island.

I Never Went Into Business To Make Money, But I Have Found That If I Have Fun, The Money Will Come.

Perhaps, Therefore, It Is Odd That If There Is Any One Phrase That Is Guaranteed To Set Me Off It's When Someone Says To Me, 'ok, Fine. You're The Boss!' What Irks Me Is That In 90% Of Such Instances What That Person Is Really Saying Is, 'ok, Then, I Don't Agree With You, But I'll Roll Over And Do It Because You're Telling Me To. But If It Doesn't Work Out I'll Be The First To Remind Everyone That It Wasn't My Idea.'

So I Became A Publisher By Mistake - Well, Not Quite By Mistake, Because I Wanted To Be An Editor But I Had To Make Sure The Magazine Would Survive. The Point Is This: Most Businesses Fail, So If You're Going To Succeed, It Has To Be About More Than Making Money.

As A Leader Of People, You Have To Be A Great Listener, A Great Motivator, Be Very Good At Praising And Bringing Out The Best In People.

I Never Get The Accountants In Before I Start Up A Business. It's Done On Gut Feeling, Especially If I Can See That They Are Taking The Mickey Out Of The Consumer.

The Ability To Bounce Back After A Setback Is The Single Most Important Trait An Entrepreneurial Venture Can Possess.

Entrepreneurial

Protect Your Reputation. Don't Be Afraid Of Making Mistakes.

What We Are Trying To Do At Virgin Is Not To Have One Enormous Company In One Sector Under One Banner, But To Have Two Hundred Or Even Three Hundred Separate Companies. Each Company Can Stand On Its Own Feet And, In That Way, Although We've Got A Brand That Links Them, If We Were To Have Another Tragedy Such As That Of 11 September - Which Hurt The Airline Industry - It Would Not Bring The Whole Group Crashing Down.

By Working Hard, By Making The Right Moves, You Can Create Your Own Luck, I Think. But Certainly Luck Plays A Part.

I Am A Believer In Trying To Treat People Properly And Trying To Respond And Making Sure That I Find The Time To Be Courteous.

I Don’t Think Of Work As Work And Play As Play. It’s All Living.

A Company Is People … Employees Want To Know… Am I Being Listened To Or Am I A Cog In The Wheel? People Really Need To Feel Wanted.

The First Thing To Look For When Searching For A Great Employee Is Somebody With A Personality That Fits With Your Company Culture. Most Skills Can Be Learned, But It Is Difficult To Train People On Their Personality.

I Am Impressed With Just The Enthusiasm For Life And The Fact That Some Of These People Are In Their 80's, Even 90's, And They're Absolutely Determined To Get Out There And Make A Difference.

Too Many Companies Want Their Brands To Reflect Some Idealised, Perfected Image Of Themselves. As A Consequence, Their Brands Acquire No Texture, No Character And No Public Trust.

All In All, The Internet Is A Force For Good, Providing Young Entrepreneurs With Access To An Incredible Wealth Of Information, Has Changed The Way We See The World And Is Also A Great Source Of Innovation And Entrepreneurial Opportunities.

Young Entrepreneurs

Our Model Is To Develop Each Business Separately With Its Own Shareholder And Management - This Way We Can Concentrate On The Job In Hand, Rather Than Be Part Of Some Enormous And Faceless Conglomerate.

We Experiment Endlessly, With New Products, New Methods, New Companies And New Marketing. A Successful Business The Emphasis Is On Experiment And Development, Ideas Are The Lifeblood Of Business.

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Eldridge Cleaver

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