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

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

Important Things

The Earth Cannot Wait 60 Years. I Want A Future For My Children And My Children's Children. The Clock Is Ticking.

Clock Is Ticking

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

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

The Best Advice I Could Give Anyone Is To Spend Your Time Working On Whatever You Are Passionate About In Life.

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

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

Build Your Own Business Team. Survival In Business Requires A Synergy Of Skills.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Finding Yourself

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.

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

I Think The Thing About Capitalism Is It's An Evil Necessity, Capitalism. Communism Has Been Tried And Failed, And Socialism, That Doesn't Work Very Well. Capitalism Works, But The Problem About Capitalism Is It Does Mean That A Few Individuals Become Very Wealthy. Therefore, I Think Those Individuals Have Enormous Responsibility To Redistribute That Wealth Either By Creating New Businesses Or Creating New Jobs And Making Sure That Money Just Doesn't Lie In A Bank Account For Future Generations.

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

Sometimes Miracles Come In Pairs.

If You Don't Succeed At First, There's No Need For The F Word (failure). Pick Yourself Up And Try, Try Again.

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

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

All You Have In Life Is Your Reputation: You May Be Very Rich, But If You Lose Your Good Name, Then You'll Never Be Happy. The Thought Will Always Lurk At The Back Of Your Mind That People Don't Trust You.

I Think That You're Going To Get So Much More Out Of Life If You Just Say Yes At Every Opportunity.

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.

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.

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

Business Success

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.

We've All Got To Do Everything We Can To Avoid Conflicts.

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

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

No Matter How Big You Are, Details Count!

With Space Travel, [it's] No Different. You Know, In 1990 I Read The Name Virgin Galactic Airways. Loved The Name. And Set Out To Try To Find An Engineer Or Rocket Scientist In The World Who Could Build A Safe, Reusable Rocket That Could Take People To And From Space And We Could Start A Whole New Era Of Commercial Space Travel.

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

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.

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.

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

Listen To The Customer's Complaint And Act Fast.

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

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

It's Never Easy To Set Up Any Business, But It Comes Back To Determination And Drive And The Love Of What You Do!

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

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.

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.

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

Be The Best At What You Do

Self Improvement

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.

It's Incredible To Get People To Turn Out Right In The Middle Of No Where.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You Only Live Once

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

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

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

I Have Always Believed That Business Should Be A Force For Good.

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.

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

One Thing Is Certain In Business: You Will Make Mistakes. When You Are Pushing The Boundaries, Mistakes Are Inevitable-how You React Is Important.

To Be A Real Entrepreneur You Always Have To Be Looking Forward. The Moment You Rest On Your Laurels Is The Moment Your Competition Overtakes You.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

In The Beginning It Was Just About The Business - Now It's About The Brand.

It's Worrying To Think More Than Half The World's Population Lacks Internet Access And Therefore Lacks An Equal Opportunity To Improve Their Lives.

Internet Access

Well, The Odds Must Be Against Anybody Being Able To Fly Around The World In A Balloon On The First Attempt. All Of Us Who Are Attempting To Go Around The World In Balloons Are Effectively Flying In Experimental Craft Because These Craft Cannot Be Tested.

As Much As You Need A Strong Personality To Build A Business From Scratch, You Also Must Understand The Art Of Delegation.

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

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

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!

Choose Great People And Shine In Their Shadows

Nothing Else Even Comes Close.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Avoid Litigations. They Are Expensive And Consume Loads Of Time But If You Have Got A Good Case And A Better Chance Of Winning; Then Fight It Out.

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

Growth Does Not Always Lead A Business To Build On Success. All Too Often It Converts A Highly Successful Business Into A Mediocre Large Business.

If Young People Do See Me As An Example (i'm Very Flattered If They Do!) I Hope It Is As Someone Who Will Go Out There And Live Life To The Full.

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

Drive, Determination, Passion And Hard Work Are All Free And More Valuable Than A Pot Of Cash.

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 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.

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

I 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.

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.

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

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

After All - Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal!

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.

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

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

I Think It's Quite Great To Set Yourself A Big Challenge And Then You've Got Another Reason For Keeping Fit.

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

And 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.

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

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

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

Being Successful

Every Success Story Is A Tale Of Constant Adaption, Revision And Change. A Company That Stands Still Will Soon Be Forgotten. Trying To Provoke Positive Change Is A Principle We've Embedded Across The Virgin Family For More Than Four Decades.

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.

It's So Graceful To Be Blown By The Wind, To Go Where The Wind Takes You. Just Drifting Over Beautiful Rivers In A Balloon Is Perfect.

A Business Is Simply An Idea To Make Other People's Lives Better.

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.

Only A Fool Never Changes His Mind.

I Was Born Under A Lucky Star, And I Have Nothing Whatsoever To Regret. I Wouldn't Change A Thing About My Life.

I Can Honestly Say That I Have Never Gone Into Any Business Purely To Make Money. If That Is The Sole Motive Then I Believe You Are Better Off Not Doing It. A Business Has To Be Involving, It Has To Be Fun, And It Has To Exercise Your Creative Instincts.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

Self Improvement

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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?"

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.

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

Communicate Your Passion Clearly, Concisely And With Genuine Conviction.

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

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.

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.

Like Getting Into A Bleeding Competition With A Blood Bank.

Screw It, Just Do It!

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

Self Improvement

Learn To Live On The Edge.

I Like To Take Chances On People, And Whenever Possible, Promote From Within - It Sends A Great Message To Everyone In The Company When Someone Demonstrates A Passion For The Job And Leadership Skills At Every Step Along The Way And Is Rewarded With A Leadership Role.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

Entrepreneurial

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.

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

One Day Offices Will Be A Thing Of The Past

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.

I Think Great Businessmen Are More Likely Made Than Born. I Don't Know If It's From Your Upbringing, Your Parental Background, The Struggles You Go Through. In My Own Particular Situation, I Left School At 15 And I Was Struggling To Survive In The Jungle And That Was A Great Education. So I Think Just Getting Out There, Hands On, Learning To Survive Teaches You A Lot.

Screw The Competition - Focus On Good Customer Service.

Good Customer Service

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

Those People Who Spend Their Time Working On Things They Love Are Usually The Ones Enjoying Life The Most. They Are Also The Ones Who Dared To Take A Risk And Chase Their Dreams.

You Know I Think If The People Who Work For A Business Are Proud Of The Business They Work For, They'll Work That Much Harder, And Therefore, I Think Turning Your Business Into A Real Force For Good Is Good Business Sense As Well.

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

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

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.

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. More Than Any Other Element, Fun Is The Secret Of Virgin's Success. I Am Aware That The Ideas Of Business As Being Fun And Creative Goes Right Against The Grain Of Convention, And It's Certainly Not How The They Teach It At Some Of Those Business Schools, Where Business Means Hard Grind And Lots Of 'discounted Cash Flows' And Net' Present Values'.

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.

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.

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

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

Doing Good Is Good For Business.

Running A Business Is Making A Difference In People's Lives

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

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

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

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.

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

I Truly Believe That Capitalism Was Created To Help People Live Better Lives, But Sadly Over The Years It Has Lost Its Way A Bit. The Short-term Focus On Profit Has Driven Most Businesses To Forget About The Important Long-term Role They Have In Taking Care Of People And The Planet.

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.

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

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

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

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

Money Is For Making Things Happen.

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.

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.

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

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.

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Norodom Sihanouk

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