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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.

-Richard Branson

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There's Nothing Like The

Richard Branson

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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.

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You Shouldn’t Blindly Accept A Leader’s Advice. You’ve Got To Question Leaders On Occasion.

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

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.

I'm A Lad Of The '60s. I Started A Magazine To Try And End The Vietnam War, But It Was A Number Of Years Before I Had The Profile, The Financial Resources And The Time To Do More.

If You're Bringing Up Kids, You Just Want To Smother Them With Love And Praise And Enthusiasm. So I Don't Think You Can Mollycoddle Your Kids Too Much Really.

Space Is Hard - But Worth It. We Will Persevere And Move Forward Together.

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

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

Impossible Things

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

Wine, Like Life, Is Meant To Be Enjoyed.

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.

I Find It Very Difficult To Think Of Mistakes; Not That I Don't Make Any But Because I Was Brought Up To Look Only At The Good Things In Life ... As For What Lost The Most Money, Probably Virgin Cola. It Is Still No 1 In Bangladesh Though.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

I Would Not Be Able To Change A Sparking Plug And I Would Not Be Able To Fly A Spaceship Or Build A Rocket Or Whatever. But What I Am Good At Doing Is Finding Brilliant People And Surrounding Myself With Brilliant People.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Communicate Your Passion Clearly, Concisely And With Genuine Conviction.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Doing Good Is Good For Business.

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

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.

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

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

So I've Seen Life As One Long Learning Process.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Surprisingly, A Large Number Of People Who Fell Out With Their Partners Contacted Us, Saying That They Would Love To Fly On A Virgle Spaceship. But Out Of April Fools' Jokes Come Real Things, And I Wouldn't Be Surprised, Within The Next 50 Years, [if] There Are One-way Trips Heading Out Into Space With People On It. It Would Be Very Exciting.

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.

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

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

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.

My Definition Of Success? The More You Are Actively And Practically Engaged, The More Successful You Will Feel.

There Are No Quick Wins In Business - It Takes Years To Become An Overnight Success.

Overnight Success

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.

To Succeed In Business You Need To Be Original, But You Also Need To Understand What Your Customers Want.

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

We're Going Where No One Has Gone Before. There's No Model To Follow, Nothing To Copy. That Is What Makes This So Exciting.

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.

Bakers Bake Bread, Accountants Manage Accounts And Entrepreneurs Turn Ideas Into Reality.

Don't Think About Making Money, Think About Making A Difference, Spot Where Others Are Doing It Badly And Do It Better

Self Improvement

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.

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

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?"

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.

When People Screw Up, Give Them A Second Chance.

Believe In Yourself And Back Yourself To Come Out On Top. A Fulfilling Career Is Waiting For Those Brave Enough To Find It.

Luck Is When Determination Meets Opportunity

The Music Industry Is A Strange Combination Of Having Real And Intangible Assets: Pop Bands Are Brand Names In Themselves, And At A Given Stage In Their Careers Their Name Alone Can Practically Gaurantee Hit Records.

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

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

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

Important Things

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.

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.

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.

I've Been Lucky To Have Survived Balloon Trips, Boating Trips, You Know, A Lot Of Rather Foolish Things In My Life, So I Was Definitely Born Under A Lucky Star.

Whether You Are Launching A Start-up Or Leading An Established Company, You Should Start Establishing Your Social Media Presence If You Haven’t Already.

Of Course An Individual Can Make A Huge Difference But It Is When Those Individuals Come Together With Like-minded Souls That They Can Change The World For Ever And Importantly For The Better.

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.

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.

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

Self Improvement

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

Age Isn't As Important So Long As You Are Surrounded By People You Love, Doing Things You Passionately Believe In.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

To Be Successful, You Have To Be Out There, You Have To Hit The Ground Running

Being Successful

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.

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

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

Self Improvement

Money Is A Poor Indicator Of Success.

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

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

Creating Things

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.

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

The Important Thing Is That You've Got A Strong Foundation Before You Start To Try To Save The World Or Help Other People.

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

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

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

Entrepreneurial

After All - Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal!

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

Enjoy Life - You Only Get One.

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

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

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

Companies Need To Have A Lot More Flexibility With Their People... . If Somebody Wants To Golf Around The World For Two Months, Okay, Well, Maybe On An Unpaid Basis, Let Them Do It. That Sort Of Flexibility I Think Is Incredibly Important Because Most Of Our Time, We Spend At Work.

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

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

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.

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

People Do Not Mind People Who Try Things And Fail. If You're A Good Entrepreneur, You're Not Going To Succeed In Every Single Thing You Try. You've Got To Try To Succeed At More Things Than Fail.

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.

Nothing Else Even Comes Close.

I Drink About 30 Cups Of Tea A Day. I'm A Complete Tea Addict.

Success Comes From Listening To Your Customer.

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.

Past Failures Unlock Future Successes

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!

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

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.

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.

I Believe In Benevolent Dictatorship Provided I Am The Dictator.

Once A Changemaker, Always A Changemaker But Only A Few Swim Against The Tide.

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.

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

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

Don't Think What's The Cheapest Way To Do It Or What's The Fastest Way To Do It. Think What's The Most Amazing Way To Do It.

Mentorship Is Key To Unlocking Each Of Our Entrepreneurial Spirits.

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.

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

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

Screw The Competition - Focus On Good Customer Service.

Good Customer Service

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.

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

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

We Will Eventually Build Space Science Labs And Hotels, Prodding The Capability For Missions Beyond The Orbit Of The Earth. Our Space-hotel Guests Will Be Able To Take Breath-taking Excursions, Flying A Couple Of Hundred Feet Above The Moon's Surface In Small Two-man Spaceships. In Time, We Will Launch Missions To Mars And Beyond.

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

Business Success

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

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.

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.

The Idea That Business Is Strictly A Numbers Affair Has Always Struck Me As Preposterous. For One Thing, I've Never Been Particularly Good At Numbers, But I Think I've Done A Reasonable Job With Feelings. And I'm Convinced That It Is Feelings - And Feelings Alone - That Account For The Success Of The Virgin Brand In All Of Its Myriad Forms.

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

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

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.

Loyal Employees In Any Company Create Loyal Customers, Who In Turn Create Happy Shareholders.

Loyal Customers

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!

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

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

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

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

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

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.

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

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. In This Sense, 'who You Know' Is Undoubtedly Important, But To Me 'what You Know' Is More Important Because Once An Opportunity Shows Itself, It Is Up To You To Make The Most Of It, And This Is Down To Your Knowledge And Skill.

The Balloons Only Have One Life And The Only Way Of Finding Out Whether They Work Is To Attempt To Fly Around The World.

Finding The One

Learn To Live On The Edge.

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

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

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

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.

Everybody Has A Camera On Their Phone These Days, Everybody Wants A Selfie Or A Picture, And The Moment One Person Starts Taking A Picture Everybody Congregates Around So I've Become Quite A Fast Walker. I Don't Like Saying, "no," To People But By Walking Fast One Might Be Able To Avoid The First Photo.

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

Government And Business Must Come Together On The Interlinked Issues Of Conservation, Economic Development And Renewable Energy. There Are Literally Thousands Of Businesses, Many In The Tourism Industry, That Depend On An Intact Marine Environment For Their Long-term Survival.

Innovation Happens When People Are Given The Freedom To Ask Questions And The Resources And Power To Find The Answers.

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.

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.

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

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

To Be A Great Leader, You Must Be A Great Listener

Self Improvement

When You Are Starting A Business Or Going Down Any Challenging Endeavor, You Are Bound To Encounter Challenges. You Are Going To Hit Many Roadblocks And Obstacles. These Are Obstacles That Would Make Any Sane Person Want To Throw In The Towel And Quit. If You Want Your Business To Succeed, You Can’t Do That (duh).

As Much As You Need A Strong Personality To Build A Business From Scratch, You Also Must Understand The Art Of Delegation. I Have To Be Good At Helping People Run The Individual Businesses, And I Have To Be Willing To Step Back. The Company Must Be Set Up So It Can Continue Without Me.

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

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

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

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.

Don't Bother Doing Something Unless You're Radically Different From The Competition.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

You Don't Learn To Walk By Following Rules. You Learn By Doing, And By Falling Over.

I Was Fortunate Enough, After Many Visits To Many Wonderful, Weird People To Come Across Burt Rutan, Who Is A Genius In The Mojave Desert. And Spaceshipone Was Born And Had Three Flights Into Space That Won Something Called The X Prize. And From There, We're Building Spaceshiptwo, Which Is ... A Beautiful Spaceship That Is Very, Very, Very Nearly Completed And Will Be Ready From About Next Christmas Onwards To Start Taking People Into Space.

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

When We Start A New Venture, We Base It On Hard Research And Analysis. Typically, We Review The Industry And Put Ourselves In Our Customer's Shoes To See What We Could Do Better.

I Was The Kind Of Entrepreneur That Never Really Felt I Made It. When Mike Olefield's "tubular Bells" [virgin Records' First Release] Sold 8 Or 10 Million Copies, I Suppose, At Age 19, I Could've Possibly Retired On The Money. Instead, I Immediately Pushed The Boat And Took That Risk Again.

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.

The Best Way Forward Is To Give More People Everywhere Greater Power To Build Their Own Destinies.

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

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.

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

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.

Asking Questions

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

Being Successful

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

Life Is A Helluva Lot More Fun If You Say Yes Rather Than No

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.

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Jeffrey Bernard

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