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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.

-Richard Branson

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There Is No Greater

Richard Branson

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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.

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

We've Definitely Cracked The Technology. Now We're Just Trying To Be Able To Produce The Amount Of Fuels That We Need To Satisfy Our Own Needs And Then Other People's Needs.

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

Conflicts Often Stem From A Couple Of Leaders On Both Sides That Are Badly Brought Up. They'd Rather Go To War Than Compromise. And In Business, You're Competing With Other Companies All The Time, But You Don't End Up Going To War With Each Other.

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

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.

I Moved Into A Nice Houseboat In Little Venice When I Was 15 Years Old. I Found A Girlfriend Called Monday And A Houseboat Called Friday, So I Had The Week Sewn Up.

Flowers Flourish When They're Watered, And Shrivel Up When They're Not. People Are No Different. The Best Leaders Are The Ones Who Look For The Best In People.

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

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.

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.

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

As Men, We All Have Something To Give. We All Have The Power To Do Our Own Part To Stop The Global Pandemic Of Violence Against Women And Girls. It Is Holding Us All Back.

Give Your Employees A Mission That Matches Their Ambitions. When You Challenge People, They Surprise You.

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

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.

Fortunately We're Not A Public Company - We're A Private Group Of Companies, And I Can Do What I Want.

Breaking The Rules And Challenging Convention Is In The Dna Of Every Successful Entrepreneur.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Focus On Your Business Strengths And Keep Its Weaknesses Away From The Competition Or Public.

You See, It's Essential That One Of Us Stays Awake During The Flight [ballon]. So, Rather Than Using The Comfortable Virgin Seats Which We Used To Cross The Atlantic, We've Asked British Airways For Two Of Theirs.

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.

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

If You Want Milk, Don't Sit On A Stool In The Middle Of A Field In The Hope That A Cow Will Back Up To You.

Please Don’t Get Hung Up On This Question Of Whether You Need To Have Experience In An Industry Before You Launch Your Startup.

Having Colleagues Nearby, Whether At The Beach Or In A Crypt, Means The Ideas Are Always Flowing

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

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

Being Dyslexic Can Actually Help In The Outside World. I See Some Things Clearer Than Other People Do Because I Have To Simplify Things To Help Me And That Has Helped Others.

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.

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.

I Have Had A Lot Of Fun Pushing The Boundaries On My Balloon And Kitesurf Adventures, Breaking Some World Records In The Process, And I Think This Attitude Of Having Fun Whilst Working Hard Is One That Lends Itself Very Well To Successful Entrepreneurship.

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?

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

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.

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.

People Flourish If They’re Praised.

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

I'm A Great Believer In Life To Saying Yes And Not Saying No, And Hopefully Making People Smile And Just Having Fun In Life.

Entrepreneursh Ip Is Not About Getting One Over On The Customer. It’s Not About Working On Your Own. It’s Not About Looking Out For Number One. It’s Not Necessarily About Making A Lot Of Money. It Is Absolutely Not About Letting Work Take Over Your Life. On The Contrary, It’s About Turning What Excites You In Life Into Capital, So That You Can Do More Of It And Move Forward With It.

When People Screw Up, Give Them A Second Chance.

I Enjoy The Company Of Other People. That's Where I Get Most Of My Satisfaction From

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.

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

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

Talent Comes From Experience And Failure

Self Improvement

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

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.

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

Communicate Your Passion Clearly, Concisely And With Genuine Conviction.

I Never Really Felt Secure Until I Was Well Into My 30s, Because Anytime I Had Success, I Would Invest In New Projects.

However Tight Things Are, You Still Need To Have The Big Picture At The Forefront Of Your Mind.

Making The Extra Effort To Say Thanks In A Genuine, Personal Manner Goes A Long Way. It Is Pleasurable To Do, And It Encourages More Of The Same Good Behavior.

Well, I'm Somebody Who Is Just Living ...living Life, And If I Get Frustrated By Something, Then I Like To Try To Put It Right.

If You Can Make Peoples Lives A Lot Better, You've Got A Really Good Business.

It Isn't Effective Or Productive To Force Your Employees To Do Anything. Choice Empowers People And Makes For A More Content Workforce.

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

When I Was Young, Every Time I Criticized Someone, My Mother Would Stand Me In Front Of The Mirror And Say: 'the Flaws You See In Others Are Actually A Reflection Of Yourself.' That Taught Me To Pay Close Attention When I Looked At Others.

I Am No Stranger To Healthy Competition-wor King Hard And Playing Hard

Money Is A Poor Indicator Of Success.

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.

I Am Prepared To Try Anything Once.

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

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.

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

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.

If You Run A Business, Put On Top Your Employees, Then Your Consumers, And Then Your Shareholders.

Don’t Just Play The Game – Change It For Good.

It Is The Satisfaction Of Doing It For Yourself And Motivating Others To Work With You In Bringing It About. It Is About The Fun, Innovation, Creativity With The Rewards Being Far Greater Than Purely Financial.

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

Airline Business

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

Being Successful

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

Actually, We Did A Fun April Fools' Thing With Google A Couple Of Years Ago, Which We Called Virgle. And We Looked For Volunteers To Go On A One-way Trip To Mars.

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

The Best Lessons Are Usually Learned From Failure. You Musn'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 Brave May Not Live Forever, But The Cautious Never Live At All.

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

The Best Advice I Ever Received? Simple: Have No Regrets.

Fun Is At The Core Of The Way I Like To Do Business And It Has Been Key To Everything I've Done From The Outset.

People Who Think And Say We More Often Than I Are A Lot More Likely To Succeed.

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.

I'm Hopeful That After Iraq, Those In Charge Will Think Twice About Taking Us Down That Route Again.

Seek Out Strategic Alliances; They Are Essential To Growth And Provide Resistance To Bigger Competition.

I Learnt Earlier On That If You Can Run One Company.you Can Really Run Any Company.a Company Is All About Finding The Right People And Inspiring Those People,drawing Out The Best In People

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

A Good Idea For A New Business Tends Not To Occur In Isolation, And Often The Window Of Opportunity Is Very Small. So Speed Is Of The Essence.

Unless You Dream, Nothing Will Happen. If You Dream, You Might Be Able To Make Your Dreams Come True.

I Think That Not Relying Too Heavily On One Bank And One Bank Manager Is A Good Rule To Learn.

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.

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

You Don't Have To Be One Of The Elders. You Don't Have To Be Well Known. You Just Have To Be Determined To Care About People. That's All It Takes.

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 Believe A Good Leader Brings Out The Best In People By Listening To Them, Trusting In Them, Believing In Them, Respecting Them And Letting Them Have A Go.

Kitesurfing Is One Of The Greatest Sports In The World. I Highly Recommend This To Anyone Who Has Access To The Ocean. There Is Nothing More Freeing Than Being Out There And Kitesurfing. When My Schedule Permits, It's The First Thing I Do In The Morning, Before I Have Breakfast. Tennis Is Also Fun, Especially Against Someone Far Better At The Sport Than I Am.

You Must Have The Courage To Trust Your Instincts And Be Ready To Question What Other People Don't. If You Do That, You Can Seize Opportunities That Others Would Miss. Believe In Yourself, And Use Everything You Can - Including The Obstacles - To Propel You Along The Road To Success. Who Knows What You Might Achieve?

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.

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

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

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.'

I Don't Think So, In That Virgin Is Already A Global Brand. Brands Like Amazon Have Had To Spend Hundreds Of Millions Of Pounds You Know, Building Their Brands, Whereas Virgin Is Already Well-known Around The World.

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

I Think I've Learned That If You Have A House, You End Up Living In The Kitchen, So If You Have One Big Kitchen And Then Enough Bedrooms For Your Family, That's About All You Need For A Home.

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.

Like Getting Into A Bleeding Competition With A Blood Bank.

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

If You Have Conflicts, Everything Breaks Down In Society. Kids Can't Go To School. Basic Health Can't Be Looked After. Every Aspect Of Society Falls Apart.

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

Brands Always Mean Something. If You Don't Define What The Brand Means, Your Competitors Will

I Suspect In Most Companies, The Public Relations Person Is Down At No. 20 In The Pecking Order. But Here, He Is Fighting Incredibly Important Battles. If A Negative Story Starts Running Away With Itself In The Press And Is Not Dealt With Fast, It Can Badly Damage The Brand, And So We Put Enormous Weight On Our Pr People.

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

Money Is Only Interesting For What It Lets You Do And Create.

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.

If You Can Run One Business Well, You Can Run Any Business Well.

Success Comes From Listening To Your Customer.

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

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

Successful Entrepreneurs Don't Wait For The Perfect Moment - They Create It

Good Brands Reflect The Histories Of The Time And The Group Of People That Made Them. They Can Not Be Copied. They Can Not Be Recycled.

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

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

Two Bricklayers Work Side By Side. The First Lays Bricks. The Second Builds Magnificent Cathedrals. Think Small Vs. Think Big.

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

Lead By Listening - To Be A Good Leader You Have To Be A Great Listener.

Starting A Business Is A Huge Amount Of Hard Work... You Had Better Enjoy It.

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

I've Obviously Been Born Fortunate. I Love People. I Enjoy Every Single Minute Of My Life.

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

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.

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

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.

I Have Learnt More From My Failures Than My Successes.

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

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

Respect Is How To Treat Everyone, Not Just Those You Want To Impress.

One Day Offices Will Be A Thing Of The Past

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.

My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself

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

Listen To The Customer's Complaint And Act Fast.

Half The Art Of Ballooning Is To Make Your Crashes So Gentle That You Can Fool Yourself Into Calling Them Landings.

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!

I Believe In Benevolent Dictatorship Provided I Am The Dictator.

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.

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

I've Been Taught Not To Have Any Regrets. If We Were To Add Up All Of The Hours Spent Regretting Mistakes And Use That Time To Develop New Ideas, Who Knows How Many Brilliant New Businesses Would Be Created.

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

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.

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

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.

Choose Great People And Shine In Their Shadows

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Two Heads Are Definitely Better Than One And By Sourcing Ideas From Each Other, You Have A Better Chance Of Coming Up With A Strategy That Will Allow Your Business To Overcome A Setback Or Challenge.

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?’

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

Self Improvement

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

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".

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.

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.

Dream Big By Setting Yourself Seemingly Impossible Challenges. You Then Have To Catch Up With Them.

Enjoy Life - You Only Get One.

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.

Every Success Story Is A Tale Of Constant Adaption, Revision And Change.

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 Love Eating Meat, But I Love Our Planet Even More. So I Will Join This Campaign And Stop Eating Meat At Least One Day A Week.

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

Wine, Like Life, Is Meant To Be Enjoyed.

I Think Sometimes When You Come From A Conservative Background, You Want To Rebel A Little Bit. I Dropped Out Of School At 15 And Learned Early In Life That Saying Yes Was A Lot More Fun Than Saying No. If You Have The Opportunity To Explore The Skies And Attempt Something People Haven't Done Before - Well, I Was Damned If I Was Going To Sit Around Watching Television While Someone Else Was Doing It.

The Quality Of Business Communications Has Become Poorer In Recent Years As People Avoid Phone Calls And Face-to-face Meetings, I Can Only Assume, In Some Misguided Quest For Efficiency.

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

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

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

If You Are Seizing On A New Business Opportunity, Deliberately Move Your Customers' Expectations Up A Few Notches And Consistently Over-deliver On Your Promises - You Will Leave Your Competitors Struggling To Catch Up.

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.

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.

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

Screw It, Just Do It!

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.

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

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

Ridiculous Yachts And Private Planes And Big Limousines Won't Make People Enjoy Life More, And It Sends Out Terrible Messages To The People Who Work For Them. It Would Be So Much Better If That Money Was Spent In Africa - And It's About Getting A Balance.

I Am Always Working On The Go. I Have Never Had An Office That I Work Out Of And Work Has Become Intertwined With My Personal Life. Fortunately I Am Able To Work From My Home And Can Answer My E-mails In The Morning, Play Tennis Or Kitesurf In The Afternoon To Keep Fit And Have Meetings Or Phone Calls In Between.

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

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.

If You Want To Stand Out From The Crowd, Give People A Reason Not To Forget You

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

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.

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.

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.

Cities In The World

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.

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.

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

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