Richard Branson Quotations | Page 5

And ever since then [I] have set up businesses basically out of frustration. I mean, I set up Virgin Atlantic with one second-hand 747 because I hated the experience of flying on other people's airlines. And I thought, you know, I could try to create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on. And people liked it.

In the '80's my gut feeling was that airlines were crap. I hated spending time on planes. I thought we could create the kind of airline I'd like. So we got a secondhand 747 and gave it a go.

In a sense, when we started Virgin Atlantic, I was trying to create an airline for myself. If you try to build the perfect airline for yourself, it will be appreciated by others.

I want Virgin to be as well-known around the world as Coca-Cola.

My very first venture was a national student magazine to try to campaign against the [Vietnam] War. And so I wanted to be an editor. I wanted to bring the magazine out. And in order for the magazine to survive I had to worry about the printing and the paper manufacturing and the distribution. And, you know, I had to try to, at the end of the year, have more money coming in than going out.

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.

First and foremost, any business proposal I like must sound fun.

I prefer to have a great time and to keep my wits about me.

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.

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.

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.

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 - know more about kite-surfing than anyone else. That's where the work comes in. But if you're doing things you're passionate about, that will come naturally.

Because I don't see Virgin as a company but as a way of life and I fully enjoy it, I don't think I'll ever retire.

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?

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.

It is important in life to turn adversity to success

Talent comes from experience and failure

Be bold, brave and not afraid to fall on your face and ultimately you will succeed

It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.

No failure means no risk, which means nothing new

Those who achieve great things are the ones willing to be scared but not scared off. If you dream big and take risks, impossible becomes just a word.

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 make up my mind about whether I can trust someone within 60 seconds of meeting them

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.

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.

What matters is working with a few close friends, people you respect, knowing that if times did turn bad these people would hold together.

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.

The Earth cannot wait 60 years. I want a future for my children and my children's children. The clock is ticking.

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.

And if after all this you eventually fail; don't take it personal. Don't be ashamed to start all over again.

Seek out strategic alliances; they are essential to growth and provide resistance to bigger competition.

Learn to raise capital by any means necessary. That's your primary job as an entrepreneur. You must continually raise capital from family and friends, banks, suppliers, customers and investors.

Free publicity and word of mouth is probably the best and cheapest form of advertising. Learn to use it to your advantage.

I don't buy a lot of things. I like to create things. I've been lucky enough to be able to build my beautiful island in the Caribbean. I certainly haven't regretted 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.

If you're bringing up kids, you just want to smother them with love and praise and enthusiasm. So I don't think you can mollycoddle your kids too much really.

Always think, 'what's the worst that can happen' and have some kind of strategy to deal with it

Look for the best in people to build a fantastic team

I'm not superstitious. I don't really believe in star signs, sorry, or superstitions.

Find somebody else to run your business on a day-to-day basis.

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.

If you don't take risks you won't achieve anything.

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.

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.

Unless you dream, you're not going to achieve anything.

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.

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.

If you want swashbuckling action in your life, become an entrepreneur and give it a go.

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.

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.

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.

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 learnt from an early age the 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?

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.

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

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.

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.

Virgin could never have grown into the group of more than 200 companies it is now, were it not for a steady stream of intrapreneurs who looked for and developed opportunities, often leading efforts that went against the grain.

Don’t just play the game – change it for good.

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 set up this magazine called Student when I was 16, and I didn't do it to make money - I did it because I wanted to edit a magazine. There wasn't a national magazine run by students, for students. I didn't like the way I was being taught at school. I didn't like what was going on in the world, and I wanted to put it right.

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.

As an adventurer...I try to protect against the downside. I make sure I have covered as many eventualities as I can. In the end, you have to take calculated risks; otherwise you're going to sit in mothballs all day and do nothing.

You need lucky breaks to be successful.

I have always been a huge believer in the inestimable value good mentoring can contribute to any nascent business

If you have an idea that's going to make a big difference to people's lives, and other people are not doing it, you know, just say "screw it," do it and get on with it, and give it a go.

THE KEY TO GENERATING LOYALTY AND RISING ABOVE THE GENERAL NOISE SEEMS TO BE ALL ABOUT CREATING AN AUTHENTIC VOICE.

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.

The most important thing for entrepreneurs is not to be put off by failure.

I have learnt more from my failures than my successes.

Learn to live on the edge.

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.

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.

I am no stranger to healthy competition-wor king hard and playing hard

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

My philosophy in life is that you only live once. Live life to its fullest.

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

Sometimes miracles come in pairs.

There is no planet B. We have to take care of the one we have

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.

Can you afford to ignore China? It's like saying you can afford to ignore the internet. I don't think so.

To achieve consistently terrific customer service, you must hire wonderful people who believe in your company's goals, habitually do better than the norm and who will love their jobs; make sure that their ideas and opinions are heard and respected; then give them the freedom to help and solve problems for your customers. Rather than providing rules or scripts, you should ask them to treat the customer as they themselves would like to be treated - which is surely the highest standard.

I'm not the sort of person who fears failure.

Just watching Israel bombarding Palestine and Palestine sending one or two little rockets over to Israel - it's just too sad for words.

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.

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?’

Wine, like life, is meant to be enjoyed.

We'll not be sending anyone into space before it is safe and the vehicle is well and truly tested.

A setback is never a bad experience, just another one of life’s lessons.

I drink about 30 cups of tea a day. I'm a complete tea addict.

If you get into entrepreneurshi p driven by profit, you are a lot more likely to fail. The entrepreneurs who succeed usually want to make a difference to people’s lives, not just their own bank balances. The desire to change things for the better is the motivation for taking risks and pursuing seemingly impossible business ideas.

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

I enjoy the company of other people. That's where I get most of my satisfaction from

Having a good network can be invaluable. It opens doors for you and allows you to enter into opportunities that are beneficial to your business. In this sense, 'who you know' is undoubtedly important, but to me 'what you know' is more important because once an opportunity shows itself, it is up to you to make the most of it, and this is down to your knowledge and skill.

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

Exploration is a wonderful way to open our eyes to the world, & to truly see that impossible is just a word.