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When Something Doesn't Go Exactly To Plan, Money Is Tight Or A Business Is Struggling - See It As A Challenge Rather Than A Failure. Look Outside The Box And Try And Find A Solution - You'll Be Surprised How Many Great Opportunities And Possibilities Arise When Things Look Bad. You've Just Got To Open Your Mind And Not Be Afraid Of Sticking Your Neck Out!

-Richard Branson

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When Something Doesn't Go

Richard Branson

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When Something Doesn't Go Exactly To Plan, Money Is Tight Or A Business Is Struggling - See It As A Challenge Rather Than A Failure. Look Outside The Box And Try And Find A Solution - You'll Be Surprised How Many Great Opportunities And Possibilities Arise When Things Look Bad. You've Just Got To Open Your Mind And Not Be Afraid Of Sticking Your Neck Out!

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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.

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.

I Was Never, Ever Interested In Becoming A Businessman Or An Entrepreneur. If I Was A Businessman, Or Saw Myself As A Businessman, I Would Have Never Gone Into The Airline Business.

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

I've Used The Phoenix Centrifuge To Replicate What The Body's Going To Go Through On The Flight Up. I've Also Done Some Gravity Tests With Zero-g [a Charter-flight Service In Arlington, Va., That Uses Modified Boeing 727s To Simulate Weightlessness], Which Went Great.

What's The Most Critical Factor In Any Business Decision You'll Ever Have To Make? Basically, It Boils Down To This Question: If This All Crashes, Will It Bring The Whole House Tumbling Down Like A Pack Of Cards? One Business Matra Remains Embedded In My Brain - Protect The Downside.

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.

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

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

Free Publicity And Word Of Mouth Is Probably The Best And Cheapest Form Of Advertising. Learn To Use It To Your Advantage.

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

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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.

If You Do Something For Fun And Create The Best Possible Product, Then The Profit Will Come.

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.

I Think Entrepreneurship Is Our Natural State--a Big Adult Word That Probably Boils Down To Something Much More Obvious Like Playfulness.

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Nothing Else Even Comes Close.

I Like To Set Myself A New Adventure Challenge At Least Once Or Twice A Year Because I Love That Side Of My Life. I Love Getting Fit And Training For It.

I Think A Lot Of Becoming An Entrepreneur Is Something Which People Have To Learn Just From Getting Out There And Giving It A Go, And Having To Learn The Art Of Survival.

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

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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.

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.

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.

Take The Competition Seriously, But Not Yourself.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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We, We - As I Say, We Go In And Shake Up Other Industries And I Think, You Know, We Do It Differently And I Think That Industries Are Not Quite The Same As A Result Of Virgin Attacking The Market.

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

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

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

I Just Like To Enjoy Life And Push Myself. Of Course, There Is Method To My Madness. When You Are Entering Into A New Industry, For Example, It Helps To Do Something To Get Your Name On The Front Pages.

There Is No Planet B. We Have To Take Care Of The One We Have

As We Drifted To Earth I Sat Up On The Glass Roof Of The Capsule, Watching The Beauty Of The Golden Dawn As It Broke Over The Desert. This Was A Day I Never Thought I'd See And The Rising Sun And Growing Warmth Of The Day Seemed Very Precious. It Made Me Aware That Hard-won Things Are More Valuable Than Those That Come Too Easily. It Reminded Me To Always Enjoy The Moment.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Business Can Be Started With Very Little Money.

Remember It's Ok To Be Yourself.

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

If You Aim Higher Than You Expect, You Could Reach Higher Than You Dreamed.

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

Throughout My Business Life I Have Always Tried To Keep On Top Of Costs And Protect The Downside Risk As Much Possible. The Virgin Group Has Survived Only Because We Have Always Kept Tight Control Of Our Cash. But, Likewise, I Also Know That Sometimes It Is Essential To Break These Rules And Spend Lavishly.

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

If 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.

Your Brand Name Is Only As Good As Your Reputation

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

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

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

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.

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

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I Am Always Working On The Go.

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

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

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

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

I Think Business Needs To Have A Heart And To Have A Heart A Company Must Be More Than Just A Moneymaking Machine.

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

The Virgin Brand Is Not A Product Like Coca-cola Or Famous Grouse Whisky. It's An Attitude And A Way Of Life To Many. That Attitude Is About Giving Customers A Better Time And Better Value In A Fun Way That Embraces Life And Seeks To Give The Customers Something New.

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

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.

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

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My Philosophy In Life Is That You Only Live Once. Live Life To Its Fullest.

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When I Was 15, I Left School To Start A Magazine, And It Became A Success Because I Wouldn't Take No For An Answer. I Remember Banging On James Baldwin's Door To Ask For An Interview When He Came To England. Then I Got Jean-paul Sartre's Home Phone Number And Asked Him To Contribute. If I'd Been 30, He Might Have Said No, But I Was A 15-year-old With Passion And He Was Charmed. Making Money Was Always Just A Side Product Of Having A Good Time And Creating Things Nobody'd Seen Before.

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.

Realize That The People Who Are Working With You, This Is Their Life. You Know, 80% Of Their Time Is Spent At Work. Make Sure That They're Proud Of What They're Doing, That They're Enjoying What They're Doing.

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.

Customers Shouldn't Just Think Of Your Business As A Place To Buy A Product Or Use A Service - It Should Be A Fun Place To Be.

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

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

I Never Went Into Business Just To Make Money - But I Found That If I Have Fun, The Money Will Come. I Often Ask Myself, Is My Work Fun And Does It Make Me Happy? I Believe That The Answer To That Is More Important Than Fame Or Fortune. If It Stops Being Fun, I Ask Why? If I Can't Fix It, I Stop Doing It.

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.

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

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Always Think, 'what's The Worst That Can Happen' And Have Some Kind Of Strategy To Deal With It

Self Improvement

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

It Is Not For Me (to Decide). It Is Up To The Company To Decide Whether The Price Is Fair Or Not.

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.

Luck Is When Determination Meets Opportunity

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 Think You Should Do In Life What You Think You'll Make A Real Difference At. And Generally, As A Businessperson, You Do Things You Don't Really Have Experience In.

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.

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.

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.

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

My Biggest Motivation? Just To Keep Challenging Myself. I See Life Almost Like One Long University Education That I Never Had - Everyday I'm Learning Something New.

Self Confidence

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

When Something Doesn't Go Exactly To Plan, Money Is Tight Or A Business Is Struggling - See It As A Challenge Rather Than A Failure. Look Outside The Box And Try And Find A Solution - You'll Be Surprised How Many Great Opportunities And Possibilities Arise When Things Look Bad. You've Just Got To Open Your Mind And Not Be Afraid Of Sticking Your Neck Out!

We All Are Now Very Aware Of What A Connected World We Live In - Connected To Each Other And To The Earth That Gives Us Everything We Have. We Need All Countries And Companies To Step Up And Play Their Part - Setting Strong Goals, Having Clear Plans, And Openly Demonstrating Progress.

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.

We're Introducing Separate Rooms With Double Beds In All Of Our Planes So People Can Actually Go With Their Partner And Have A Proper Night's Sleep...

When People Screw Up, Give Them A Second Chance.

People Who Work For Me Are Working For What I Believe In. The Leaders Who Run Our Companies Do So On The Basis Of Those Who Came First And Who Said, "a Company Is Its People." I Hope My Companies Are Run On The Basis Of Praising Their Workers And Looking For The Best In Them, Not Criticizing Them. In The Same Way That You Water A Plant And It Sprouts Leaves, People Flourish When You Praise Them.

It Is Only By Being Bold That You Get Anywhere. If You Are A Risk-taker, Then The Art Is To Protect The Downside.

All Of Us Have Just Got To Find That Time To Look After Our Bodies. That Helps Us Make Sure That Our Mind Is Sharp. I Know That When I'm Feeling Great And Really Fit, I Can Get In Three Or Four Hours More Of Really Productive Work.

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Too Many Companies Want Their Brands To Reflect Some Idealised, Perfected Image Of Themselves. As A Consequence, Their Brands Acquire No Texture, No Character And No Public Trust.

India Is An Incredibly Vibrant Market, Which Virgin Already, Through Virgin Atlantic, Has The Pleasure Of Working In. I Am Delighted That Virgin Comics Will Not Only Help To Launch The Indian Comic Market And Spin It Into The West, But Will Develop New And Exciting Talent.

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

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

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

I Just Love Every Minute Of My Life. I Love The Variety. Every Minute Of Every Day I'm Meeting Fascinating New People, Learning And Working With Wonderful Teams Of People Creating Wonderful Things.

It Is Important In Life To Turn Adversity To Success

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