Richard Branson

Branding

In the beginning it was just about the business – now it’s about the brand.

If you get your face and your name out there enough, people will start to recognize you.

Branding is everything. A young girl once came up to me and told me I could be famous because I looked just like Richard Branson!

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.

Business

Most of our businesses do succeed, but if something completely fails, then as long as we bow out gracefully and pay off all our debts, and nobody gets hurt, then I don't think people disrespect Virgin for trying. The public appreciates someone having a go; it appreciates the attempt. Who's been a success in life who hasn't failed?

If you can run one business well you can run any business. There just needs to be a crying-out need for you to enter the marketplace. The time to go into a business is when it's abysmally run by other people.

Fun

Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn’t you have fun at work?

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

Goals

My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had - every day I'm learning something new.

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.

Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

Look, if you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you're just working. You'll work harder at it, and you'll know more about it. But first you must go out and educate yourself on whatever it is that you've decided to do.

What's the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.

Ideas

I keep a notebook on my pocket all the time and I really do listen to what people say, even when we're out at a club at 3 a.m. and someone's passing on an idea in a drunken slur. Good ideas come from people everywhere, not in the boardroom.

Money

Money is for making things happen.

Work

If you’re good with people … and you really care, genuinely care about people then I’m sure we could find a job for you at Virgin.

I don't think of work as work and play as play. It's all living.

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 doing nothing.

We look for opportunities where we can offer something better, fresher, and more valuable, and we seize them. We often move into areas where the customer has traditionally received a poor deal, and where the competition is complacent.

Give people a second chance if they screw up. Even people who have stolen from us have become, when given a second chance, incredibly loyal and valued employees. I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't been given second chances.

Lavish praise on people and people will flourish; criticize people and they'll shrivel up.

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