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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.

-Richard Branson

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There Are Millions Of

Richard Branson

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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.

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

My Mother Always Taught Me Never To Look Back In Regret But To Move On To The Next Thing. The Amount Of Time People Waste Dwelling On Failures Rather Than Putting That Energy Into Another Project, Always Amazes Me. I Have Fun Running All The Virgin Businesses-so A Setback Is Never A Bad Experience, Just A Learning Curve.

The Bigger The Dream, The Greater The Opportunity

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

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

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Learning And Leadership Go Together. Too Much Credit Goes To Me For What We Have Achieved At Virgin But The Successes Happen From Working And Learning With Some Of The World's Most Inspiring And Inspired People.

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.

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.

When You Are Ready To Make Your First Hires, Look For People Who Understand Your Passion, Want To Add To Your Ideas And Can Envision Ways To Make Improvements.

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

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

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

Finding Yourself

My People Are At The Core Of Everything I Do, And I Recognize The Importance Of Giving Them The Flexibility To Balance Work Around Their Personal Lives.

Learn To Live On The Edge.

My General Attitude To Life Is To Enjoy Every Minute Of Every Day. I Never Do Anything With A Feeling Of, 'oh God, I've Got To Do This Today.'

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

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.

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

Most People Assume That A Record Shop's Success Lies In Selling Records. In Fact, Virgin's Success Both In Mail Order And The Record Shops Lay In Skill At Buying Records.

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

The Risk Is Worth It. Mike Would Have Been The First To Say That.

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

The Brands That Will Thrive In The Coming Years Are The Ones That Have A Purpose Beyond Profit.

You've Got To Take Risks If You're Going To Succeed. I Would Much Rather Ask Forgiveness Than Permission.

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.

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.

A Setback Is Never A Bad Experience, Just Another One Of Life’s Lessons.

Bad Experiences

Travel The World And Meet People. I've Been Fortunate Enough To See So Much Of The World, And Being Able To Do So Has Brought Me So Many Wonderful Friends And Experiences. There Is No Better Way To Learn Than Exploring New Places.

However Small A Company, Its Founders Should Try To Expand People's Opportunities And Choices.

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

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

Sometimes Miracles Come In Pairs.

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

I Will Work Day And Night To Avoid Failure, But If I Can't, I'll Pick Myself Up The Next Day. The Most Important Thing For Entrepreneurs Is Not To Be Put Off By Failure.

Remain Focused On Fulfilling Your Business Mission. Never Allow Adversity Divert Your Attention And Efforts.

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.

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

Succeeding In Business Is All About Making Connections

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Meet Regularly With Your Business Team And Brainstorm. Intricate Business Problems Are Mostly Resolved At Brainstorming Sessions.

There's No Other Way To Find Out Whether Or Not You'll Be Successful Other Than Just Doing It

Being Successful

I Think In Life The Key Thing Is Just To Fight Really Hard To Make Sure Something Survives. If It Looks Like You've Done Everything You Can To Avoid Failure, Just Move Forward, Move On And Learn From It.

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

Ideas Are The Lifeblood Of Business. Capture Every Fleeting Idea And Drive For Change.

With All My Employees, I Listen To Them, Trust In Them, Believe In Them, Respect Them And Let Them Have A Go! I Never Believe I Know Better Than They Do And Have Been Fortunate Over The Years To Build Up A Very Strong Management Team Whom I Can Trust And Take Advice From.

Engage Your Emotions At Work. Your Instincts And Emotions Are There To Help You.

The War On Drugs Has Gone On For About Forty-five, Fifty Years - And It's Been A Complete Failure. If You Had A Business That Was Failing So Badly, You Would Change Course. And It's Just Incredible That Governments Continue Along The Same Course.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

You Can Create A Business, Choose A Name, But Unless People Know About It You're Not Going To Sell Any Products.

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.

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

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.

Be The Best At What You Do

Self Improvement

Screw It, Let's Do It - Just Get On With It And Do It

Self Improvement

Grow Internally First. Strengthen Your Bottom Line First Before Considering External Growth.

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.

When Employees Tell You About Their Good Ideas For The Business, Don't Limit Your Response To Asking Questions, Taking Notes And Following Up. If You Can, Ask Those People To Lead Their Projects And Take Responsibility For Them. From Those Experiences, They Will Then Have Built The Confidence To Take On More And You Can Take A Further Step Back.

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

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.

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.

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

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

One Key To Entrepreneurial Success Is To Get A Great Group Of People Around You Who Believe In Your Idea.

If You're Hurt, Lick Your Wounds And Get Up Again. If You've Given It Your Absolute Best, It's Time To Move Forward.

My Number One Rule In Business, And In Life, Is To Enjoy What You Do. Running A Business Involves Long Hours And Hard Decisions; If You Don't Have The Passion To Keep You Going, Your Business Will More Than Likely Fail. If You Don't Enjoy What You Are Doing, Then You Shouldn't Be Doing It.

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.

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

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

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.

My Philosophy Is That If I Have Any Money I Invest It In New Ventures And Not Have It Sitting Around.

You Need Lucky Breaks To Be Successful.

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

Good People Have Always Been At The Heart Of The Virgin Business, And That's Largely Because We Have Tried To Keep Our Business Small, And Our Management Teams Tight-knit. I Feel That Small, Compact Companies, Are Better Run. That Is Partly Because People Feel More Connected In Small Companies.

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.

From The First Days Of My Career As An Entrepreneur, I Have Always Used My Own And My Team's Lack Of Experience To Our Advantage. In Fact, At Our First Venture, Student Magazine, We Used Our Newcomer Status To Secure Great Interviews And Generate Publicity - People Were Excited About Our New Project And Wanted To Get Involved. Our Inexperience Fed Our Restless Enthusiasm For Trying New Things, Which Became Part Of Our Core Mission.

Like Getting Into A Bleeding Competition With A Blood Bank.

Branding Is Everything. A Young Girl Once Came Up To Me And Told Me I Could Be Famous Because I Looked Just Like Richard Branson!

In Business, As In Life, All That Matters Is That You Do Something Positive.

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We Don't Actually Plan To Launch New Businesses Over The Next Few Years, But We Are Planning To Take The Ones We Have Into New Territories.

Being An Entrepreneur Simply Means Being Someone Who Wants To Make A Difference To Other People's Lives.

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.

Do Not Be Embarrassed By Your Failures, Learn From Them And Start Again.

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

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

Smoking Marijuana, As Long As You Leave The Nicotine Out Of It, Is Certainly No More Damaging Than Having A Drink, And I Suspect Better For You Than Having A Drink.

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

Red Tape Will Often Get In Your Way. It's One Of The Reasons I Often Carry Scissors!

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

Every Single Astronaut Who Has Come Back From Space Comes Back Determined To Do More To Protect It.

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Above All, You Want To Create Something You're Proud Of.

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

One Thing Is Certain In Business, You And Everyone Around You Will Make Mistakes.

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

I Am Constantly Pushing Myself And My Own Expectations And Have Always Found That I've Always Come Out Better For It. Fear Is Human Nature, But Turning Fear Into Opportunity Is What Will Make A Difference. I Would Much Rather Look Back At My Life Saying "i Can't Believe I Did That," Than, "what If I Had Done That?"

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

I Just Wanted To Create Things That I Could Be Proud Of. Money Was Just An Evil Byproduct To Pay The Bills At The End Of The Year.

The Jet Stream Is A Very Strong Force And Pushing A Balloon Into It Is Like Pushing Up Against A Brick Wall, But Once We Got Into It, We Found That, Remarkably, The Balloon Went Whatever Speed The Wind Went.

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.

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

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.

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My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself

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

Smiling Can Be A Competitive Advantage. It Makes Everyone Feel Better And Every Situation Brighter.

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.

Luck Is When Determination Meets Opportunity

Making Money Never Was My Incentive. I Just Want To Fight Big Companies.

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?

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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

We Need Government And Business To Work Together For The Benefit Of Everyone. It Should No Longer Be Just About Typical "corporate Social Responsibility" Where The "responsibility" Bit Is Usually The Realm Of A Small Team Buried In A Basement Office - Now It Should Be About Every Single Person In A Business Taking Responsibility To Make A Difference In Everything They Do, At Work And In Their Personal Lives.

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.

If Somebody Offers You An Amazing Opportunity But You Are Not Sure You Can Do It, Say Yes-then Learn How To Do It Later!

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

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

People Flourish If They’re Praised.

Anyone Who Makes An Effort At Whatever They Hope To Accomplish Can, And Will, Seriously Improve Their Chances Of Succeeding.

I Believe That Drudgery And Clock-watching Are A Terrible Betrayal Of That Universal, Inborn Entrepreneurial Spirit.

After All - Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal!

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

Commitment Is Not Letting People Down. That's Very Important In Life.

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.

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

We've Always Had A Pretty Competitive And Pretty Ferocious Battle With British Airways... It's Lasted Now About 14 Years, And We're Very Pleased To Have Survived It.

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

Entrepreneursh Ip Is A Great Leveller, Since Having The Benefit Of A Wealthy Background Or A Generous Investor Isn't Always An Advantage. The Wonderful Thing Is That Money Is Not The Sole Currency When It Comes To Starting A Business; Drive, Determination, Passion And Hard Work Are All Free And More Valuable Than A Pot Of Cash.

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.

Set Impossible Challenges. Then Catch Up With Them.

Those Who Achieve Great Things Are The Ones Willing To Be Scared But Not Scared Off. If You Dream Big And Take Risks, Impossible Becomes Just A Word.

We Must Rapidly Wean Ourselves Off Our Dependence On Coal And Fossil Fuels.

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

Look, I Think That When We Started Virgin Atlantic 30 Years Ago, We Had One 747 Competing With The Airlines That Had An Average Of 300 Planes Each. Every Single One Of Those Have Gone Bankrupt Because They Didn't Have Customer Service. They Had Might, But They Didn't Have Customer Service, So Customer Service Is Everything In The End.

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

All Successful People - Not Just Entrepreneurs - Have Got Things Wrong Over And Over Again Before Finding The Right Solution.

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

I Am A Great Believer That You Need Passion And Energy To Create A Truly Successful Business.

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

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.

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.

When You Are Making A Decision About How Best To Serve Your Customers, Your Own Experience Is Often A Better Guide Than A More Sophisticated Analysis Of The Market.

If People Are Crazy Enough To Dare, Impossible Things Happen.

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I Believe A Great Company, Whether Improving A Sector Or Creating A New One, Needs To Have An Excellent Product Or Service At Its Core; Needs Strong Management To Execute The Plan And A Good Brand To Give It The Edge Over Its Competitors. Providing Quality Service, Combined With Value For Money And In An Innovative Way Ensures You Offer Real Value - And Finally To Be Responsible To Society And The Planet.

My Interest In Life Comes From Setting Myself Huge, Apparently Unachievable Challenges And Trying To Rise Above Them.

Your Employees Are Your Company’s Real Competitive Advantage. They’re The Ones Making The Magic Happen-so Long As Their Needs Are Being Met.

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

If You Get Into Business Solely To Make Money, You Won’t. If You Try To Make A Real Difference, You’ll Find Success.

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.

Past Failures Unlock Future Successes

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.

A Business Has To Be Involving, It Has To Be Fun, And It Has To Exercise Your Creative Instincts.

Taking Bold Climate Action Now Has The Potential To Unleash The Full Power Of Business And At The Same Time Lift Millions Of People Out Of Poverty. We're The First Generation To Recognize This And The Last Generation That Will Have This Opportunity.

I Want Virgin To Be As Well-known Around The World As Coca-cola.

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

Put Your Passions To Work To Make This World A Better Place.

Entrepreneurial Business Favours The Open Mind. It Favours People Whose Optimism Drives Them To Prepare For Many Possible Futures, Pretty Much Purely For The Joy Of Doing So.

Well, I Think That There's A Very Thin Dividing Line Between Success And Failure. And I Think If You Start A Business Without Financial Backing, You're Likely To Go The Wrong Side Of That Dividing Line.

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'm Sure You Get The Best Out Of People If You Look For The Best In Them. People Don't Need To Be Told When They've Done Something Wrong - They Know It Without Having To Be Told.

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.

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.

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

The Entrepreneurs Who Succeed Usually Want To Make A Difference To People’s Lives, Not Just Their Own Bank Balances.

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.

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".

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

Trying Something New

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

No Matter How Big You Are, Details Count!

To Stand Still Today Is To Go Backwards...and Quickly...!

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

Life Can Seem Rather Unreal At Times. Alive And Well And Loving One Day. No Longer There The Next.

Just Start. You Will Learn So Many Lessons Just By Doing.

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.

Some 80% Of Your Life Is Spent Working. You Want To Have Fun At Home; Why Shouldn't You Have Fun At Work?

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.

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."

Communication: The Thing Humans Forgot When We Invented Words.

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.

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.

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

Have Faith In Yourself. Think Yes Not No. Live Life To The Full. Never Give Up.

Listen To The Customer's Complaint And Act Fast.

Communicate Your Passion Clearly, Concisely And With Genuine Conviction.

If You Love What You Do And If You Believe In What You Do, Others Will Share Your Enthusiasm. Passionate People Find Their Way To The Virgin Group, And When They Do, We Snap Them Up And Try To Keep Them Within The Family.

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

Business Success

Virgin Could Never Have Grown Into The Group Of More Than 200 Companies It Is Now, Were It Not For A Steady Stream Of Intrapreneurs Who Looked For And Developed Opportunities, Often Leading Efforts That Went Against The Grain.

I Cannot Remember A Moment In My Life When I Have Not Felt The Love Of My Family. We Were A Family That Would Have Killed For Each Other - And We Still Are.

Our Generation Has Inherited An Incredibly Beautiful World From Our Parents And They From Their Parents. It Is In Our Hands Whether Our Children And Their Children Inherit The Same World. We Must Not Be The Generation Responsible For Irreversibly Damaging The Environment.

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

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

Purpose Is Not An Add-on, It’s Not An Initiative. It Is A Culture Change And It Never Finishes

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