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What Can You Do To Make A Difference? And Why Should You Do It? (...) The Scale Of One's Social Investments Doesn't Matter. What Matters Is That You Operate As A Force For Good At Every Scale Available To You.

-Richard Branson

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What Can You Do

Richard Branson

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What Can You Do To Make A Difference? And Why Should You Do It? (...) The Scale Of One's Social Investments Doesn't Matter. What Matters Is That You Operate As A Force For Good At Every Scale Available To You.

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Making A Difference

More From Richard Branson

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

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

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

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

A Business Can Be Started With Very Little Money.

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

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

Screw It, Just Do It!

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

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

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 Have Learnt More From My Failures Than My Successes.

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

Success Comes From Listening To Your Customer.

Enjoy Life - You Only Get One.

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

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

I Am Prepared To Try Anything Once.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

If You're Looking To Become An Entrepreneur Then Don't Waste Your Time Going To University Or Business School - Just Get On And Do It.

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

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

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

One Day Offices Will Be A Thing Of The Past

Universities Are Fantastic Places To Gain Knowledge On A Subject, Develop A Personal Network, Explore Your Character And Learn New Techniques To Approach Problems. I Do However Believe That There Is A Strong Argument For Students Who Have An Idea They Are Passionate About To Just Try And Turn It Into A Reality. I Fell Into This Category And I Don't Regret Not Going To University.

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

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

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

Mentorship Is Key To Unlocking Each Of Our Entrepreneurial Spirits.

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

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

When People Screw Up, Give Them A Second Chance.

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

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

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

Learn To Live On The Edge.

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

Universities Are Fantastic Places To Gain Knowledge On A Subject, Develop A Personal Network, Explore Your Character And Learn New Techniques To Approach Problems.

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

Listen To The Customer's Complaint And Act Fast.

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 Believe In Goals. It's Never A Bad Thing To Have A Dream. If Something Is Really What You Want To Do, Just Do It. Whatever Your Goal.

Don't Wait Till You Are Big Before You Begin Building Your Brand. Build A Brand From Scratch Alongside Your Business.

Like Getting Into A Bleeding Competition With A Blood Bank.

"i Think The Most Important Thing Is That In The Last Seven Days We've Just Had The Greatest Adventure Of Our Lifetimes." "i'm Inquisitive ... And I Love A New Challenge... And If I Feel That We Can Do It Better Than It's Been Done By Other People, We'll Have A Go."

I'd Like To See The Government Back A Programme Of Research Into The Medical Properties Of Cannabis And I Do Not Object To Its Responsible Use As A Recreational Relaxant.

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.

To Be Successful, You Have To Be Out There, You Have To Hit The Ground Running, And If You Have A Good Team Around You And More Than A Fair Share Of Luck, You Might Make Something Happen. But You Certainly Can't Guarantee It Just By Following Someone Else's Formula.

You're Offering A Great Service. People Are Tuning In. So Continue To Find Great People, Continue To Do What You're Doing. And Do It Better Than Your Rivals. I Know That's Easier Said Than Done.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Protect Your Reputation. Don't Be Afraid Of Making Mistakes.

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 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.

A Company Is People … Employees Want To Know… Am I Being Listened To Or Am I A Cog In The Wheel? People Really Need To Feel Wanted.

Sometimes Miracles Come In Pairs.

Most Entrepreneurs Are Not Doing It For Financial Motives In The First Place. They're Just People Who Love Creating.

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

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

People Flourish If They’re Praised.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Chance Favors The Prepared Mind. The More You Practice, The Luckier You Become.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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.

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 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?

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

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.

It's Obviously Incredibly Important To Keep The Body Fit In Order To Keep The Mind Fit, And Be Able To Find Time For Friends.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Entrepreneurial

Exploration Is A Wonderful Way To Open Our Eyes To The World, & To Truly See That Impossible Is Just A Word.

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

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

In The Same Way That I Tend To Make Up My Mind About People Within Thirty Seconds Of Meeting Them, I Also Make Up My Mind About Whether A Business Proposal Excites Me Within About Thirty Seconds Of Looking At It. I Rely Far More On Gut Instinct Than Researching Huge Amounts Of Statistics.

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?"

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 Advice I Got From My Dad? Wear A Condom.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Your Brand Or Your Name Is Simply Your Reputation, You Have To Fight In Life To Protect That As It Means Everything. Nothing Is More Important.

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

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

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

I Think That Marijuana Should Be Legalized. I Think The Only Reason It Isn't Legal Is Because Politicians Who Smoked It When They Were Young Men Or Young Women Just Don't Have The Courage When They Become Politicians To Legalize It.

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

Bad Experiences

Succeeding In Business Is All About Making Connections

Succeeding In Business

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.

It's Really Important To Find An Hour Or Two To A Day To Make Sure That You Keep Healthy, Keep Fit. It's Very Easy Just To Forget That Aspect. And If You're Feeling Really Good And Fit, I Think You Can Get Two Or Three Extra Hours A Day Of Hard Work In As Well.

We Should Focus On What People Get Done, Not On How Many Hours Or Days Worked. Just As We Don't Have A Nine-to-five Policy, We Don't Need A Vacation Policy.

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.

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

Self Improvement

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.

If You Want Swashbuckling Action In Your Life, Become An Entrepreneur And Give It A Go.

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

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

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.

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

Talent Comes From Experience And Failure

Self Improvement

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

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.'

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

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

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

You Need Lucky Breaks To Be Successful.

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

Learn To Use Your Brain Power. Critical Thinking Is The Key To Creative Problem Solving In Business.

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.

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.

I Have No Secret. There Are No Rules To Follow In Business. I Just Work Hard And, As I Always Have Done, Believe I Can Do It. Most Of All, Though, I Try To Have Fun.

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

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

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

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?’

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

If You Spot An Opportunity And Are Really Excited By It, Throw Yourself Into It With Everything You've Got.

People Are No Different From Flowers. If You Water Them, They Flourish. If You Are Not Nice To Them, They Shrivel Up

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Myself Have Benefited From Many Mentors Throughout My Life.

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

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

If You Follow Your Dreams And Spend Your Life Doing What Brings You Joy, You Are More Likely To Find Success

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

It Always Pays Off To Focus On Things That Will Make You Feel Proud. Remember This During Every Difficult Decision You Face.

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

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.

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

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

If People Are Jumping Down People's Throats All The Time, In The End, They'll Just Shrivel Up Like A Flower Shrivels Up That's Not Watered.

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

Important Things

Choose Great People And Shine In Their Shadows

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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