Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor, author, and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. He opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores, in 1972.

Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label. In 2004, he founded spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic, based at Mojave Air and Space Port, noted for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane designed for space tourism.

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” – Richard Branson
“A business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better.” – Richard Branson
“And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.” – Richard Branson
“Building a business is not rocket science, it’s about having a great idea and seeing it through with integrity.” – Richard Branson
“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
“Chance favors the prepared mind. The more you practice, luckier you become.” – Richard Branson
“Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words.” – Richard Branson
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” – Richard Branson
“Don’t become a slave to technology – manage your phone, don’t let it manage you.” – Richard Branson
“Don’t think what’s the cheapest way to do it or what’s the fastest way to do it…think ‘what’s the most amazing way to do it’.” – Richard Branson
“Education doesn’t just take place in stuffy classrooms and university buildings, it can happen everywhere, every day to every person.” – Richard Branson
“Engage your emotions at work. Your instincts and emotions are there to help you.” – Richard Branson
“Entrepreneurial business favors the open mind. It favors people whose optimism drives them to prepare for many possible futures, pretty much purely for the joy of doing so.” – Richard Branson
“Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.” – Richard Branson
“For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference.” – Richard Branson
“Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.” – Richard Branson
“Happiness is the secret ingredient for successful businesses. If you have a happy company it will be invincible.” – Richard Branson
“I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other – and we still are.” – Richard Branson
“I don’t think of work as work and play as play, it’s all living.” – Richard Branson
“I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.” – Richard Branson
“I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.” – Richard Branson
“I was dyslexic, I had no understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests. And it was one of the reasons I left school when I was years old. And if I’m not interested in something, I don’t grasp it.” – Richard Branson
“I’ve been very lucky. I come from a very close family.” – Richard Branson
“If you don’t have time for the small things, you won’t have time for the big things.” – Richard Branson
“If you don’t succeed at first, there’s no need for the F word (Failure). Pick yourself up and try, try again.” – Richard Branson
“If you spot an opportunity and are really excited by it, throw yourself into it with everything you’ve got.” – Richard Branson
“If you want swashbuckling action in your life, become an entrepreneur and give it a go.” – Richard Branson
“If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” – Richard Branson
“If you’re hurt, lick your wound and get up again. If you’ve given it your absolute best, it’s time to move forward.” – Richard Branson
“Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club!” – Richard Branson
“Life is a hell of a lot more fun if you say yes rather than no.” – Richard Branson
“Life is a series of ups and clowns. Make it worth your wild!” – Richard Branson
“Like getting into a bleeding competition with a blood bank.” – Richard Branson
“Listen. Take the best. Leave the rest.” – Richard Branson
“My definition of success? The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.” – Richard Branson
“My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.” – Richard Branson
“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently un-achievable challenges, and trying to rise above them.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.” – Richard Branson
“Nobody’s ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think there’s some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.” – Richard Branson
“Once a changemaker, always a changemaker but only a few swim against the tide.” – Richard Branson
“One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.” – Richard Branson
“Please be polite. Nothing in life should erode the habit of saying thank you to people or praising them.” – Richard Branson
“Remember it’s OK to be yourself.” – Richard Branson
“Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“Right now I’m just delighted to be alive and to have had a nice long bath.” – Richard Branson
“Screw it. Let’s do it.” – Richard Branson
“So I’ve seen life as one long learning process. And if I see – you know, if I fly on somebody else’s airline and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn’t in – years ago, then I’d think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I’d like to fly on.” – Richard Branson
“Take a chance. It’s the best way to test yourself. Have fun and push boundaries.” – Richard Branson
“The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.” – Richard Branson
“The best advice I could give anyone is to spend your time working on whatever you are passionate about in life.” – Richard Branson
“The best way of learning about anything is by doing.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“There’s nothing like the endorphins from being fit, and the incredible endorphin rush that goes with that.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Richard Branson
“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.” – Richard Branson
“Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.” – Richard Branson
“Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.” – Richard Branson
“Whatever business you are in, every company can shoot for the start in their own way.” – Richard Branson
“When you’re first thinking through an idea, it’s important not to get bogged down in complexity. Thinking simply and clearly, is hard to do.” – Richard Branson
“With the casino and the beds, our passengers will have at least two ways to get lucky on one of our flights.” – Richard Branson
“You can’t do a good business with a bad person. Find the right people to work with and you can’t go wrong.” – Richard Branson
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson
“You never know with these things when you’re trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.” – Richard Branson
“You’ve got to take risks if you’re going to succeed. I would much rather ask forgiveness than permission.” – Richard Branson
“Your company should act as a springboard for ambitious employees, not a set of shackles.” – Richard Branson

Tags: Quotes