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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.

-Richard Branson

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Of Course, A Lot

Richard Branson

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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.

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Happiness Is The Secret Ingredient For Successful Businesses. If You Have A Happy Company It Will Be Invincible.

Brave People Don't Live Forever, But Cautious People Don't Live At All.

There Is No Real Difference Between Work And Play - It’s All Living.

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

Your Brand Name Is Only As Good As Your Reputation

It's All About Finding And Hiring People Smarter Than You. Getting Them To Join Your Business. And Giving Them Good Work. Then Getting Out Of Their Way. And Trusting Them. You Have To Get Out Of The Way So You Can Focus On The Bigger Vision. That's Important. And Here's The Main Thing....you Must Make Them See Their Work As A Mission.

Whether We're Fighting Climate Change Or Going To Space, Everything Is Moved Forward By Computers, And We Don't Have Enough People Who Can Code. Teaching Young People To Code Early On Can Help Build Skills And Confidence And Energize The Classroom With Learning-by-doing Opportunities. I Learned How To Fly A Hot Air Balloon When I Was 30,000 Feet Up And My Life Was In The Balance: You Can Learn Skills At Any Age But Why Wait When We Can Teach Everyone To Code Now!

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.

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.

It Is Only By Being Bold That You Get Anywhere. If You Are A Risk-taker, Then The Art Is To Protect The Downside.

If We Can Just Get Young People To Do The Same As Their Fathers Did, That Is, Wear Condoms

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.

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.

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

Success Cannot Be Measured In Wealth, Fame Or Power, But By Whether You Have Made A Positive Difference For Others.

Business Is What Concerns Us. If You Care About Something Enough To Do Something About It, You're In Business

Most "necessary Evils" Are Far More Evil Than Necessary.

We're Introducing Separate Rooms With Double Beds In All Of Our Planes So People Can Actually Go With Their Partner And Have A Proper Night's Sleep...

I Think Business Leaders All Over The World Should Not Just Think Of How We Can Make Lots Of Money, Which Is Fine, But To Take Some Of The Problems In The World And Get Out There And Tackle Them Using Business. I Think That If Businesses Do That We Can Get On Top Of These Problems.

Screwing Business As Usual Fundamentally Recognises That Doing Good Is Good For Business.

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

Breaking The Rules And Challenging Convention Is In The Dna Of Every Successful Entrepreneur. Doing Things Differently And Solving Problems With New, Innovative And Fresh Approaches Are The Very Reason Many Start-ups Are Able To Compete And Sometimes Outpace The Established Market Leaders.

Education Doesn't Just Take Place In Stuffy Classrooms And University Buildings, It Can Happen Everywhere, Every Day To Every Person.

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.

Success Comes From Listening To Your Customer.

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.

The Virgin Brand Is Not A Product Like Coca-cola Or Famous Grouse Whisky. It's An Attitude And A Way Of Life To Many. That Attitude Is About Giving Customers A Better Time And Better Value In A Fun Way That Embraces Life And Seeks To Give The Customers Something New.

Confidence Breeds Confidence And Negativity Breeds Negativity. Treat Those Around You With Respect And Dignity And They Will Thrive.

And You Know, I've Had Great Fun Turning Quite A Lot Of Different Industries On Their Head And Making Sure Those Industries Will Never Be The Same Again, Because Virgin Went In And Took Them On.

People Who Work For Me Are Working For What I Believe In. The Leaders Who Run Our Companies Do So On The Basis Of Those Who Came First And Who Said, "a Company Is Its People." I Hope My Companies Are Run On The Basis Of Praising Their Workers And Looking For The Best In Them, Not Criticizing Them. In The Same Way That You Water A Plant And It Sprouts Leaves, People Flourish When You Praise Them.

In A Sense, When We Started Virgin Atlantic, I Was Trying To Create An Airline For Myself. If You Try To Build The Perfect Airline For Yourself, It Will Be Appreciated By Others.

I Like Challenges In Life And Pushing Myself Out Of My Comfort Zone.

I Have Always Been A Huge Believer In The Inestimable Value Good Mentoring Can Contribute To Any Nascent Business

I Like To Set Myself A New Adventure Challenge At Least Once Or Twice A Year Because I Love That Side Of My Life. I Love Getting Fit And Training For It.

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.

Allowing My People To Have A Good Work-life Balance By Working Flexibly Is Very Important To Me.

If You Look After Your Staff, They'll Look After Your Customers. It's That Simple.

Be Creative. Innovate Consistently On The Little Things That The Big Companies Ignore. Little Things Often Make Big Differences In Business.

I Have Had Fun Running All Of The Virgin Businesses, So I Never See A Setback As A Bad Experience; It Is Just A Learning Curve.

Money Is For Making Things Happen.

I've Been In Africa, And I've Been To Hospitals Of Africa, And They're Not Hospitals, They're Places Where People Go To Die. And Rows And Rows And Rows Of People Just Dying And The Waiting Rooms Of The Hospitals Are Full Of People Waiting To Get Into The Beds Of The People Who Died The Night Before, And They're Dying From Unnecessary Diseases.

I Have Learnt More From My Failures Than My Successes.

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

I Am Always Working On The Go.

Never Take Your Eyes Off The Cash Flow Because It's The Life Blood Of Business.

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.

You Only Live Once, And I Just Don’t Want To Waste A Minute Of My Life.

You Only Live Once

... 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.

If I'm Setting Up A New Business I'll Spend Three Or Four Months Learning Everything There Is About That Business, Everything There Is About That Subject And Then I Will Find Good People To Run It On A Day-to-day Basis, But Whilst They're Running It At Least I Know What They're Talking About When They Come Back To Me.

I Was A Risk-taker As A Young Man, And I Don't Regret It. I'm Not Adventurous In Quite The Same Way Now, But I Still Love The Challenge Of Testing Myself To The Limits, Flying Around The World, Or Seeing If I Can Be The First To Fly A Balloon Across The Atlantic, Or Trying To Take People Into Space At An Affordable Price In An Environmentally Friendly Way. I'll Be Going Into Space With Three Generations Of My Family!

Nobody's Ever Called Me Sir Richard. Occasionally In America, I Hear People Saying Sir Richard And Think There's Some Shakespearean Play Taking Place. But Nowhere Else Anyway.

Unless You Dream, You're Not Going To Achieve Anything.

Having No Regrets Makes Way For The Best Piece Of Advice I Can Give - Don't Be Afraid Of Failure.

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

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

I Make Up My Mind About Whether I Can Trust Someone Within 60 Seconds Of Meeting Them

And If After All This You Eventually Fail; Don't Take It Personal. Don't Be Ashamed To Start All Over Again.

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.'

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

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

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 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.

I Never Went Into Business Just To Make Money - But I Found That If I Have Fun, The Money Will Come. I Often Ask Myself, Is My Work Fun And Does It Make Me Happy? I Believe That The Answer To That Is More Important Than Fame Or Fortune. If It Stops Being Fun, I Ask Why? If I Can't Fix It, I Stop Doing It.

Irreverence Ran On Both Sides Of Our Family...my Parents Brought Me Up To Think We Could All Change The World.

I Was Never, Ever Interested In Becoming A Businessman Or An Entrepreneur. If I Was A Businessman, Or Saw Myself As A Businessman, I Would Have Never Gone Into The Airline Business.

Airline Business

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

Customers Shouldn't Just Think Of Your Business As A Place To Buy A Product Or Use A Service - It Should Be A Fun Place To Be.

I Am Passionate About Many Things But Conserving Our Planet And Its Species Is A High Priority Of Mine.

My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself

Please Be Polite. Nothing In Life Should Erode The Habit Of Saying Thank You To People Or Praising Them.

If People Aren't Calling You Crazy, You Aren't Thinking Big Enough.

If You Take Care Of Your Workers They'll Take Care Of Your Business.

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.

I Just Like To Enjoy Life And Push Myself. Of Course, There Is Method To My Madness. When You Are Entering Into A New Industry, For Example, It Helps To Do Something To Get Your Name On The Front Pages.

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

Be Authentic And Organic. It Can't Be Forced Or It Won't Work. And Most Importantly, Have Fun.

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

I Felt Uneasy About Making The Rapid Decisions I Have Always Made, And Wondered Whether Every Decision Should Be Formally Ratified And Minuted At A Board Meeting.

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.

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

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.

What Does The Name Virgin Mean? We Are A Company That Likes To Take On The Giants. In Too Many Businesses, These Giants Have Had Things Their Own Way. We Are Going To Have Fun Competing With Them.

Learn To Look After Your Staff First And The Rest Will Follow

The Best Advice I Got From My Dad? Wear A Condom.

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

Self Improvement

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.

In 30 Years Time, As Technology Moves Forward Even Further, People Are Going To Look Back And Wonder Why Offices Ever Existed.

I Have Always Looked On My Businesses Not Just As Money-making Machines, But As Adventures That Can, I Hope, Make People Better Off.

Create The Kind Of Workplace And Company Culture That Will Attract Great Talent. If You Hire Brilliant People, They Will Make Work Feel More Like Play.

For A Successful Entrepreneur It Can Mean Extreme Wealth. But With Extreme Wealth Comes Extreme Responsibility. And The Responsibility For Me Is To Invest In Creating New Businesses, Create Jobs, Employ People, And To Put Money Aside To Tackle Issues Where We Can Make A Difference.

I Wanted To Be An Editor Or A Journalist, I Wasn't Really Interested In Being An Entrepreneur, But I Soon Found I Had To Become An Entrepreneur In Order To Keep My Magazine Going.

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.

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

Whenever I See People Getting A Bad Deal I Want To Step In And Do Something About It. Of Course, This Is Not Pure Altruism - There's A Profit To Be Made Too.

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.

A Generation Ago, The Image Was That You Had To Trample Everyone Else Down To Succeed; But I Don't Believe That Makes Good Business Sense.

London Is One Of The Most Exciting Cities In The World With So Many Fantastic Pubs And Restaurants. I Would Urge People To Get Out There And See As Much As Possible.

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We Had An Electrical Fault About 500 Miles Into The Trip And Lost More Than Half Our Fuel. We Had A Fire On The Roof. And Missed Los Angeles By 3,500 Miles At The End Of The Trip And Ending Up In The Arctic In A Snowstorm.

My Philosophy In Life Is That You Only Live Once. Live Life To Its Fullest.

You Only Live Once

There Isn't A Flight Goes By When I Don't Stare Out Of The Window And Thank My Stars For What I'm Seeing And Feeling.

Lavish Praise On People And People Will Flourish; Criticize People And They'll Shrivel Up.

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

I Love The Freedom Of Movement That My Phone Gives Me. That Has Definitely Transformed My Life.

If You Don’t Enjoy It, Don’t Do It. You Must Love What You Do.

Just Watching Israel Bombarding Palestine And Palestine Sending One Or Two Little Rockets Over To Israel - It's Just Too Sad For Words.

Find Somebody Else To Run Your Business On A Day-to-day Basis.

There Is No Point In Starting Your Own Business Unless You Do It Out Of A Sense Of Frustration.

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.

It's Far More Difficult Being A Small-business Owner Starting A Business Than It Is For Me With Thousands Of People Working For Us And 400 Companies. Building A Business From Scratch Is 24 Hours, 7 Days A Week, Divorces, It's Difficult To Hold Your Family Life Together, It's Bloody Hard Work And Only One Word Really Matters - And That's Surviving.

I've Never Sued Anybody, Though There Have Been One Or Two Occasions I've Wanted To Strangle One Or Two People.

I May Be A Businessman In That I Set Up And Run Companies For Profit, But When I Try To Plan Ahead And Dream Up New Products And New Companies, I'm An Idealist.

The Key To Generating Loyalty And Rising Above The General Noise Seems To Be All About Creating An Authentic Voice.

You've Got One Go In Life, So Make The Most Of It.

Choose Great People And Shine In Their Shadows

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

One Day Offices Will Be A Thing Of The Past

We'll Go Into Orbit. We'll Go To The Moon. This Business Has No Limits.

I Have Always Believed That Personal Relationships Are Vital In Business And That People Should Be Directly Accountable For Their Actions.

I Learnt From An Early Age This Need To Delegate Responsibility Out To Other Team Members As There Is Just Too Much For One Person To Do Themselves. What Is The Point Of Hiring Talented Team Members If You Don't Give Them The Freedom To Make The Most Of The Chance You Have Given Them?

Virgin, Is How Good You Are With People. If You're - If You're Good With People And You've Got - You Know, And You Really Care, Genuinely Care About People Then I'm Sure We Could Find A Job For You At Virgin. I Think, You Know, That, You Know, That The Companies That Look After Their People Are The Companies That Do Really Well. I'm Sure We'd Like A Few Other Attributes, But That Would Be The Most Important One.

Tough Times Are Inevitable In Life And In Business. But How You Compose Yourself During Those Times Defines Your Spirit And Will Define Your Future.

We'd Love To Be Involved With The Creation Of Something Very Special, Something Quite Large And Something Quite Exciting.

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.

I Doubt That I Would Have Been Successful In My Career And Happy In My Personal Life If I Hadn't Prioritized Health And Fitness. Staying Active Ensures Mental Preparedness And The Courage To Try New Things. It Helped Me To Stay Focused On Work But Also To Have Fun And Try New Approaches And Explore New Places. That's The Spirit Behind Virgin Sport - We Wanted To Introduce Fitness Activities That Are Enjoyable, Accessible And Part Of Your Overall Lifestyle.

Fantasizing About The Future Is One Of My Favorite Pastimes.

You Can't Run A Business Without Taking Risks. The Brave May Not Live Forever - But The Cautious Do Not Live At All!

I Think You Can Get Happiness Through Making A Real Difference In Other People's Lives By Setting Out To Make Other People's Lives Better And Setting Out To Right The Wrongs In The World.

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

Failing Can Provide Invaluable Lessons And Making Mistakes And Experiencing Setbacks Is Part Of The Dna Of Every Successful Entrepreneur.

We Always Enter Markets Where The Leaders Are Not Doing A Great Job, So We Can Go In And Disrupt Them By Offering Better Quality Services.

There Are Quite A Few Things I've Done That Even I Thought Might Have Been One Step Too Far. But If You Are Willing To Make A Fool Of Yourself And Make People Smile, As Long As You Do It With A Sense Of Fun, You Can Get Away With It.

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

Capitalism Has Never Stood Back And Examined Itself Properly. I Think Everybody Knows That Capitalism Is The Only Thing That Works, But Is The Current Form Of Capitalism The Best Way Of It Working?

When I Started Virgin From A Basement Flat In West London, I Did Not Set Out To Build A Business Empire. I Set Out To Create Something I Enjoyed That Would Pay The Bills.

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.

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.

I Had No Plans To Be An Entrepreneur. I Just Wanted To Be A Journalist And Write For A Magazine. At 15, I Just Decided To Leave School And Launch A National Student Magazine.

But The Majority Of Things That One Could Get Stressed About, They?re Not Worth Getting Stressed About.

If Something Can't Be Explained On The Back Of An Envelope, It's Rubbish.

And Obviously, From Our Own Personal Point Of View, The Principal Challenge Is A Personal Challenge.

It Can Be A Challenge Not To Let Failure, Or Negativity From Others, Prevent You From Going After What You Believe In And What In Your Gut You Know Can Work. However It Is Important To Face These Challenges Head On And Give Them A Go And Importantly Don't Beat Yourself Up If You Fail - Just Pick Yourself Up, Learn As Much As You Can From The Experience And Get On With The Next Challenge.

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.

Not Enough People Realize The Satisfaction You Can Get From Really Pushing Yourself To The Limits.

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

I Believe That Today's Businesses - Regardless Of Their Size - Must Be Prepared To Do Good In Societies Around The Globe. I Am Cautiously Optimistic That We Can Make The World A Far Better, Safer And More Equitable Place - But Business And Enterprise Must Sit At The Heart Of This Process.

The Way You Treat Your Employees Is The Way They Will Treat Your Customers

Employee Appreciation

I Was Trouble - And Always In Trouble. Aged Eight I Still Couldn't Read. In Fact, I Was Dyslexic And Short-sighted. Despite Sitting At The Front Of The Class, I Couldn't Read The Blackboard. Only After A Couple Of Terms Did Anyone Think To Have My Eyes Tested. Even When I Could See, The Letters And Numbers Made No Sense At All.

I Rely Far More On Gut Instinct Than Researching Huge Amounts Of Statistics.

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

I Personally Don't Believe Anything Is Impossible. With Enough Determination And Effort, Almost Everything Is Possible.

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.

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

I Read A Fair Amount [of Science Fiction], And You Know It Was Certainly Inspirational. I Have To Pinch Myself To Think That We Might Be Able To Make Some Of [what I've Read In Science Fiction Books] Come True.

An Entrepreneur Is Somebody Who Is Taking Bold Risks, Is Often Doing Things That Have Never Been Done Before, Trying To Do Things Better. And An Adventurer Is Challenging Themselves, Often Doing Things That Have Never Been Done Before, Seeing What They're Capable Of. In Both Cases, You've Got To Protect Against The Downside.

Every Risk Is Worth Taking As Long As It's For A Good Cause, And Contributes To A Good Life.

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

Entrepreneurial

First Of All, If You're Setting Up A New Company, You Want To Try To Find A Brand That Can Work On A Global Basis.

If You Look For The Best In Your Employees, They'll Flourish. If You Criticize Or Look For The Worst, They'll Shrivel Up. We All Need Lots Of Watering.

Listen More Than You Talk. Nobody Learned Anything By Hearing Themselves Speak.

The Most Important Thing For Entrepreneurs Is Not To Be Put Off By Failure.

Important Things

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.

Every Aspect Of Life Is Magnificent And Wonderful. It's So Important To Keep Fit And Healthy.

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.

I've Been Very Lucky. I Come From A Very Close Family. I'm Also In A Relationship That's Been Really Good. Lasted A Long Time. We've Got Wonderful Kids From That Relationship, And They've Had The Benefit Of Being Together. It's Fantastic To Have That Sort Of Togetherness. It's A Rarity These Days.

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.

Records Are Made To Be Broken. It Is In Man's Nature To Continue To Strive To Do Just That.

Have Passion For What You Do; Believe In Yourself And Your Product And Your Customer; Persevere; Delegate; Listen. Have Fun. Today, I Add: "do Good".

By Nature I Am Curious About Life, And This Extends To My Business.

There Is No Such Thing As A Boring Person: Everyone Has Stories And Insights Worth Sharing. While On The Road, We Let Our Phones Or Laptops Take Up Our Attention. By Doing That, We Might Miss Out On The Chance To Learn And Absorb Ideas And Inspiration From An Unexpected Source: Our Fellow Travelers.

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.'

If Family Or Friends Are Unwell Or Ill - It's Perhaps The Only Thing That Really Can Make One Feel Vulnerable.

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

Look For The Best In People To Build A Fantastic Team

Self Improvement

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

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.

It Took Me Years To Work Out The Difference Between Net And Gross. In Meetings I Just Used To Say, 'tell Me If It's Good Or Bad News.

I Think You Should Do In Life What You Think You'll Make A Real Difference At. And Generally, As A Businessperson, You Do Things You Don't Really Have Experience In.

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!

No Failure Means No Risk, Which Means Nothing New

Sometimes I Do Wake Up In The Mornings And Feel Like I've Just Had The Most Incredible Dream. I've Just Dreamt My Life

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.

Sometimes The Riskiest Decision You Can Make Is To Do Nothing.

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

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

Complexity Is Your Enemy. Any Fool Can Make Something Complicated. It Is Hard To Keep Things Simple.

Any Successful Entrepreneur Knows That Time Is More Valuable Than Money Itself.

I Love Stirring The Pot. I Love Giving Big Companies A Run For Their Money - Especially If They're Offering Expensive, Poor-quality Products.

A Successful Business Must Have A Sound Knowledge Of Its Market And Work On How Its Product Or Service Will Be Different, Stand Out And Improve People's Lives. If You Can Ensure It Responds To A Real Need In The Market Place, Your Business Can Punch Well Above Its Weight.

I've Had To Create Companies That I Believe In 100%. These Are Companies I Feel Will Make A Genuine Difference. Then I Have To Be Willing To Find The Time Myself To Talk About Them, Promote Them And Market Them. I Don't Want To Spend My Life Doing Something That I'm Not Proud Of.

Play Fair, Be Prepared For Others To Play Dirty, And Don't Let Them Drag You Into The Mud.

We Have The Enormous Opportunity In Our Hands To Make A Positive Difference For Business, People, And The Planet.

If You Find Yourself Stuck In The Middle There Is Only One Way To Go, Forward.

Finding Yourself

A Good Leader Leads From The Front. Don't Get Stuck In The Office. Get Out, Meet People And Listen To Their Stories.

You Can Never Go Too Far Wrong By Thinking Like A Customer Who’s New To The Business.

Because I Don't See Virgin As A Company But As A Way Of Life And I Fully Enjoy It, I Don't Think I'll Ever Retire.

The Years I Would Have Spent At University, I Spent Building Student Magazine And Virgin Records. For Me That Was Far More Fun And Satisfying. I Have Treated Everyday As The University Education I Never Had And Think I Learnt More About Business And Life Than I Would Have At University In The Process.

All Good Leaders Listen To Their People And Empower Them To Go Away And Turn Any Innovative Ideas They Have Into A Reality.

Learn From Failure. If You Are An Entrepreneur And Your First Venture Wasn't A Success, Welcome To The Club.

It's Better To Say Nothing Than Spend 1,000 Words Or An Hour Speech Saying Nothing. Get To The Point.

Be The Best At What You Do

Self Improvement

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