Richard Branson People Quotations

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that's what a number of us are trying to do.

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.'

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

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.

So if we were to set up base in this area, I think you would find that it would bring a lot of people to the area to watch the flights as well as fly.

I am sorry to have let people down.

Some of the magic will be lost now that the girls are only four. It's sad to see people so close split in this way.

I think Chris is an astute businessman, but he is not used to running airlines. Virgin Blue needs people with airline experience.

There are already 30 people in the world who have collected enough air miles to fly into space.

Two people can play at that game. Cheers!

We are used to transporting millions of people ... transporting them safely. And we want to keep that impeccable record so. We know what our priorities are.

Generally speaking, when someone goes for a record-breaking attempt, you start with five or six people in the plane. He chose to go it alone.

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.

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...

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've never sued anybody, though there have been one or two occasions I've wanted to strangle one or two people.

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.

Give your employees a mission that matches their ambitions. When you challenge people, they surprise you.

Please be polite. Nothing in life should erode the habit of saying thank you to people or praising them.

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.

Business leaders take things far too seriously, and forget that most of the time people spend in their lives is at work, and it should be fun.

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.

I have always looked on my businesses not just as money-making machines, but as adventures that can, I hope, make people better off.

Commitment is not letting people down. That's very important in life. If you say you're going to do something, make sure you do it. Just try never to let people down.

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.

I'm a true believer in working hard and partying hard. I'm fortunate to be one of those people who can have just as much fun partying without alcohol.

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.

I've been in Africa, and I've been to hospitals of Africa, and they're not hospitals, they're places where people go to die. And rows and rows and rows of people just dying and the waiting rooms of the hospitals are full of people waiting to get into the beds of the people who died the night before, and they're dying from unnecessary diseases.

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 always tell other people to protect against the downside, and not risk roughing on new ventures, but I never stuck to that rule myself.

We have a business that some people feel pollutes, and I happen to agree with them. ... And so on the basis of trying to do good and, you know, hopefully turn a profit, what we did was we pledged that we'd put all the profits from our airline business into trying to develop clean fuels.

I am a believer in trying to treat people properly and trying to respond and making sure that I find the time to be courteous.

You can't do a good business with a bad person. Find the right people to work with and you can't go wrong.

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.

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

Having a personality of caring about people is important. You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them.

Not enough people realize the satisfaction you can get from really pushing yourself to the limits.

It's all about finding and hiring people smarter than you. Getting them to join your business. And giving them good work. Then getting out of their way. And trusting them. You have to get out of the way so YOU can focus on the bigger vision. That's important. And here's the main thing....you must make them see their work as a MISSION.

A company is simply a group of people. And as a leader of people, you have to be a great listener, you have to be a great motivator, you have to be very good at praising and looking for the best in people. People are no different from flowers. If you water flowers, they flourish. If you praise people, they flourish. That's a critical attribute of a leader.

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?

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.

A good leader leads from the front. Don't get stuck in the office. Get out, meet people and listen to their stories.

To get the respect of people, I think you've got to roll up your sleeves and lead with your people. The absolute key is treating your people well. Looking for the best in your people. Lots and lots of praise, no criticism.

When people are placed in positions slightly above what they expect, they are apt to excel.

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.

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

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.

There is no point in going into a business unless you can make a radical difference in other people’s lives.

Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.

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.

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.

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to.

If you create something that makes a difference in people's lives, you are likely to become a business success as well

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

People flourish if they’re praised.

I have always believed that personal relationships are vital in business and that people should be directly accountable for their actions.

It's incredible to get people to turn out right in the middle of no where.

Age isn't as important so long as you are surrounded by people you love, doing things you passionately believe in.

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.

We spend most of our lives working. So why do so few people have a good time doing it?

The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me

... Our first priority should be the people who work for the companies, then the customers, then the shareholders. Because if the staff are motivated then the customers will be happy, and the shareholders will then benefit through the company's success.

You shouldn't be looking for people slipping up, you should be looking for all the good things people do and praising those.

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.

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.

I know enough to know that no man is an island.

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.

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.

It isn't effective or productive to force your employees to do anything. Choice empowers people and makes for a more content workforce.

I decided there must be room for another airline when I spent two days trying to get through to People Express.

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.

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.

My parents brought me up with this philosophy. You must do things. You mustn't watch what other people are doing. You must not listen to what other people are doing.

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.

Look for the best in people to build a fantastic team

I think that being a business a leader that treads all over people to get to the top is actually not the way I think to become a successful business leader.

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.

Business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives...or it's simply not worth doing.

The important thing is that you've got a strong foundation before you start to try to save the world or help other people.

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.

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.

The entrepreneurs who succeed usually want to make a difference to people’s lives, not just their own bank balances.

I'm a great believer in life to saying yes and not saying no, and hopefully making people smile and just having fun in life.

However small a company, its founders should try to expand people's opportunities and choices.

Running a business is making a difference in people's lives

If you can run one company, you can run another. Running companies are about inspiring and driving the best out of people.

There's no better satisfaction than watching the people around you, who have worked day and night to get something right, realising the dream.

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.

People are no different from flowers. If you water them, they flourish. If you are not nice to them, they shrivel up

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

Choose great people and shine in their shadows

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.

Virgin, is how good you are with people. If you're - if you're good with people and you've got - you know, and you really care, genuinely care about people then I'm sure we could find a job for you at Virgin. I think, you know, that, you know, that 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.

People who think and say we more often than I are a lot more likely to succeed.

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.

There is so much to be learned from listening to people's hopes, frustrations, and points of view

When people warn me against doing something once my mind is made up, I grow increasingly determined to try it.

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.

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.