Branson Quotes

Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.

If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!

Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.

Life is a helluva lot more fun if you say yes rather than no

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

The brave may not live forever – But the cautious do not live at all

You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

Throwing yourself into a job you enjoy is one of the life's greatest pleasures!

As soon as something stops being fun, I think it’s time to move on. Life is too short to be unhappy. Waking up stressed and miserable is not a good way to live.

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 not doing it. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

Business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another one coming.

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.

Only a fool never changes his mind.

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.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

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

Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.

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

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.

Do you know great minds enjoy excellence, average minds love mediocrity and small minds adore comfort zones?

Branson ate his salad, and left the rest of his fish untouched, while Grace tucked into his steak and kidney pudding with relish. 'I read a while ago,' he told Branson, 'that the French drink more red wine than the English but live longer. The Japanese eat more fish than the English but drink less wine and live longer. The Germans eat more red meat than the English, and drink more beer and they live longer too. You know the moral of this story? 'No' 'It's not what you eat or drink - it's speaking English that kills you.

Business isn't about ties, suits and briefcases. It's about adventure.

to be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running

I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.” Sir

When you walk in silence your excellence will always speak for you.

You need to choose your association according to your vision.

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.

The best lesson I learned was to just do it. It doesn’t matter what it is, or how hard it might seem, as the ancient Greek, Plato, said, ‘The beginning is the most important part of any work.

When you walk in distinction, even the photocopying machine can’t replicate your unique quality.

If you opt for a safe life, you will never know what it's like to win.

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.

What the average call excellent, the excellent call average.

One of the things I’ve learned about vision is people will grab it mentally or, have a crab mentality.

How you react when your back is against the wall will determine if you see what's actually over the wall.

Even though he wasn’t in front of me, he had control over me and could make my body quiver.

the best motto to follow is ‘Nothing ventured; nothing gained’.

Yes, content is king but excellence is his queen. ~ Onyi Anyado.

You’re guaranteed to miss every shot you don’t take.

Richard Branson likes to say, is that “business opportunities are like buses; there’s always another coming around.

You get the idea. Every business, like a painting, operates according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it's because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over. It's the greatest thrill in the world and it runs away screaming at the first sight of bullet points.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter

I'm wearing my Midnight Black Dancing Shoes. They are shaped like vintage locomotives, and I move like the memory of Branson in 1991—which fluctuates by minutes every day, just like the scene at my duck farm.

Acquiring the habit of note-taking is therefore a wonderfully complementary skill to that of listening.

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.

A person who values their goals actually values their achievements.

They encouraged me to always look for the good in people instead of assuming the worst and trying to find fault.

If someone offers you an Amazing opportunity and you're not sure you can do it, say Yes - then learn how to do it later.

Whatever your goal is you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.

I believe that listening is one of the most important skills for any teacher, parent, leader, entrepreneur or, well, just about anyone who has a pulse.

The article in the News had called it a falling accident, and it was true that Branson Buddinger had taken a fall. What the News neglected to mention was that he fell from a stool in his closet and he had a noose around his neck at the time.

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.

The call of distinction cannot be heard by the average, neither can the vision of distinction be seen by the eyes of the mediocre.

Serving my generation with excellence will in turn mean my generation can lead with excellence.

In five minutes you should know if people have confirmed, calculated & considered your vision.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Developing mental toughness isn’t just about being resilient – it’s about accessing your reserve tank when you think you just can’t go any further.

Entrepreneur, either your brand is distinct or your brand is distant.

Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been key to everything I've done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin's success. I am aware that the ideas of business as being fun and creative goes right against the grain of convention, and it's certainly not how the they teach it at some of those business schools, where business means hard grind and lots of 'discounted cash flows' and net' present values'.

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.

Whenever you are setting up a new project, the most important thing is to surround yourself with people who are better than yourself, have different skills and a healthy combination of enthusiasm and experience.

In 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. More recently, even Richard Branson felt compelled to pen an article about Cuba’s extraordinary medical achievements and how the idiotic embargo prevents ordinary Americans from benefiting from Cuba’s medical innovations.

how slim the line is between genius and insanity and between determination and stubbornness.

When you walk in distinction, you don’t compete with anyone but competition wants to compete with you.

Writing and achieving your goals is not failure, not having a goal to write in the first place is the start of failure.

With the world now a global village, your vision has to transcend different races and faces in different places around the world.

Do you know invisible determination and effort will always accomplish visible distinction and excellence?

One of the things I’ve learnt about goals is people will write them or wrong them.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak

Your distinction shouldn't be measured by your duration but rather, your donation.

Live for the present –’ I heard my parents’ old maxim in the back of my head ‘– and the future will look after itself.

is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

I took several deep gulps of air, which filled my lungs, and it was as if each pore on my skin had absorbed some of his musk.

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

New Rule: Since Glenn Beck is clearly onto us, liberals must launch our plan for socialist domination immediately. Listen closely, comrades, I've received word from General Soros and our partners in the UN--Operation Streisand is a go. Markos Moulitsas, you and your Daily Kos-controlled army of gay Mexican day laborers will join with Michael Moore's Prius tank division north of Branson, where you will seize the guns of everyone who doesn't blame America first, forcing them into the FEMA concentration camps. That's where ACORN and I will re-educate them as atheists and declare victory in the war on Christmas.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!

We can fight about it until Branson hears us, or we can get him together quietly," I went on, narrowing my eyes. "Your choice." The high-arched portico covering the fortress's main entrance suddenly exploded, jetting out fire and pieces of stone. I ducked from instinct, but Vlad walked right toward the burning chaos, the fire parting to let him pass. "Does that answer your question?" he asked.

And yet Branson (a notorious risk addict with a penchant for crash-landing hot air balloons) is far from the only one willing to stake our collective future on this kind of high-stakes gamble. Indeed the reason his various far-fetched schemes have been taken as seriously as they have over the years is that he, alongside Bill Gates with his near mystical quest for energy “miracles,” taps into what may be our culture’s most intoxicating narrative: the belief that technology is going to save us from the effects of our actions. Post–market crash and amidst ever more sinister levels of inequality, most of us have come to realize that the oligarchs who were minted by the era of deregulation and mass privatization are not, in fact, going to use their vast wealth to save the world on our behalf. Yet our faith in techno wizardry persists, embedded inside the superhero narrative that at the very last minute our best and brightest are going to save us from disaster.

Allen Leech is Tom Branson: The car I drive is a 1920 Renault and it is an absolute nightmare with all the double declutching. The owner drives it first, then I get in and the gears start clunking. Once I heard a massive clunk and I looked back and a huge piece of metal had fallen out into the road - he had to go back and get it. He'd driven that car to France and back, so I blame the owner for losing half the gearbox, not my gear changing! It's a hand-crank start and you have to be careful how you do it because once it starts spinning you can lose your thumb.

I'm trapped here, in a nosedive, in my life, in the cockpit of a jetliner with the flat yellow of the Australian outback coming up fast. And there's so many things I want to change but can't. It's all done. It's all just a sotry now. Her'es the life and death of Tender Branson, and I can just walk away from it. And the sky is blue and righteous in every direction. The sun is total and burning and just right there, and today is a beautiful day.

I'm trapped here, in a nosedive, in my life, in the cockpit of a jet-liner with the flat yellow of the Australian outback coming up fast. And there's so many things I want to change but can't. It's all done. It's all just a story now. Here's the life and death of Tender Branson, and I can just walk away from it. And the sky is blue and righteous in every direction. The sun is total and burning and just right there, and today is a beautiful day.

If only we had the power to see ourselves in the same way that others see us.’ Of all the mantras one might adopt in life, this is surely one of the better ones and for anyone in a leadership role it should be an essential part of the checks and balances that are built into a company’s standard operating procedures.

You have to grab the goal, visualise your vision, excel in excellence and then become distinct in distinction.

The only day you should never write and achieve your goals is when the day ends with the letter y.

Entrepreneur, don't just read history, write it so people can see the future in the present.

hard-won things are more valuable than those that come too easily.

Respect is about how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.

Look, it comes down to whether or not you love me! That's all! That's it! The rest is detail

Entrepreneur, if you're going to start up, make sure you start up with excellence in mind”.

If I had to give one reason why I have been fortunate enough to experience some success, it would be my knack of bringing together wonderful people.

The way to become a great leader is to look for the best in people – seldom criticise – always praise.

When I asked Richard Branson if he felt luck played a part in his success, he answered, “Yes, of course, we are all lucky. If you live in a free society, you are lucky. Luck surrounds us every day; we are constantly having lucky things happen to us, whether you recognize it or not. I have not been any more lucky or unlucky than anyone else. The difference is when luck came my way, I took advantage of it.” Ah, spoken like a man knighted with wisdom. While we’re on the topic, it’s my belief that the old adage we often hear—“Luck is when opportunity meets preparation”—isn’t enough. I believe there are two other critical components to “luck.

Capitalism – which in its purest form is entrepreneurism even among the poorest of the poor – does work; but those who make money from it should put back into society, not just sit on it as if they are hatching eggs.

The key enterprising skills I used when first starting out are the very same ones I use today: the art of delegation, risk-taking, surrounding yourself with a great team and working on projects you really believe in.

Or as billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson said far more colorfully in an interview: “I don’t know why the tie was ever invented … now everyone looks the same and dresses the same. I often have a pair of scissors in my top pocket to go cutting people’s ties off. I do think that ties most likely are still inflicted on people because the bosses, they had to wear it for 40 years and when they get into positions of responsibility they’re damned if they’re going to not have the next generation suffer.

There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it's because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over.

I don’t believe it can be taught as if it were a recipe. There aren’t ingredients and techniques that will guarantee success. Parameters exist that, if followed, will ensure a business can continue, but you cannot clearly define our business success and then bottle it as you would a perfume. It’s not that simple: to be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running; and, if you have a good team round you and more than your fair share of luck, you might make something happen. But you certainly can’t guarantee it just by following someone else’s formula. Business is a fluid, changing substance.

Bu ömür boyu sahip olduğum altı yüz kırk birinci balık. Tanrı'nın yarattığı başka bir canlıya bakmayı ve sevmeyi öğrenmem için ailem yıllar önce ilk balığımı almıştı. Sahip olduğum altı yüz kırk balıktan sonra öğrendiğim tek şey, insanın sevdiği her şeyin bir gün öleceği oldu. O özel kişiyle karşılaştığın ilk anda, onun bir gün ölüp toprağın altına gireceğine emin olabilirsin... ... Gerçek, parlayıp ışık saçmaz. ... Öyle sıkıcı işler vardı ki, çalışmamak için insan kendini sakat bırakabilirdi. ... Zamanın sınırlı olduğu, kanunlar ve emirlerle dolu ve mülkiyete dayalı bu dünyada insanların yaşayabilecekleri tek gerçek macera uyuşturucu. ... Birinin zayıf olduğunu hayal etmek, onun güçlü olduğuna inanmaktan çok daha kolay. ...

In every potential sponsor’s eyes, I was a nobody. And soon I had notched up more rejection letters than is healthy for any one man to receive. I tried to think of an entrepreneur and adventurer that I admired, and I kept coming back to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin. I wrote to him once, then I wrote once more. In all, I sent twenty-three letters. No response. Right, I thought, I’ll find out where he lives and take my proposal there myself. So I did precisely that, and at 8:00 P.M. one cold evening, I rang his very large doorbell. A voice answered the intercom, and I mumbled my pitch into the speakerphone. A housekeeper’s voice told me to leave the proposal--and get lost. It’s not clear quite what happened next: I assume that whoever had answered the intercom meant just to switch it off, but instead they pressed the switch that opened the front door. The buzzing sound seemed to last forever--but it was probably only a second or two. In that time I didn’t have time to think, I just reacted…and instinctively nudged the door open. Suddenly I found myself standing in the middle of Sir Richard Branson’s substantial, marble-floored entrance hall. “Uh, hello!” I hollered into the empty hall. “Sorry, but you seem to have buzzed the door open,” I apologized to the emptiness. The next thing I knew, the housekeeper came flying down the stairs, shouting at me to leave. I duly dropped the proposal and scarpered. The next day, I sent around some flowers, apologizing for the intrusion and asking the great man to take a look at my proposal. I added that I was sure, in his own early days, he would probably have done the same thing. I never got a reply to that one, either.