Although my spelling is still sometimes poor, I have managed to overcome the worst of my difficulties through training myself to concentrate.
I am a great believer that you need passion and energy to create a truly successful business. Remember many new businesses do not make it and running a business will be a tough experience, involving long hours and many hard decisions – it helps to have that passion to keep you going.
There is no such thing as a boring person: everyone has stories and insights worth sharing. While on the road, we let our phones or laptops take up our attention. By doing that, we might miss out on the chance to learn and absorb ideas and inspiration from an unexpected source: our fellow travelers.
I will work day and night to avoid failure, but if I can’t, I’ll pick myself up the next day. The most important thing for entrepreneurs is not to be put off by failure.
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 – 21 years ago, then I’d think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I’d like to fly on.
If you get your face and your name out there enough, people will start to recognize you.
We’re going where no one has gone before. There’s no model to follow, nothing to copy. That is what makes this so exciting.
I never really felt secure until I was well into my 30s, because anytime I had success, I would invest in new projects.
Drive, determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot of cash.
You can never go too far wrong by thinking like a customer who’s new to the business.
I think entrepreneurship is our natural state – a big adult word that probably boils down to something much more obvious like playfulness.
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.
My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself.
Your brand or your name is simply your reputation, you have to fight in life to protect that as it means everything. Nothing is more important.
I never set out to be a businessman.
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.
Confidence breeds confidence and negativity breeds negativity. Treat those around you with respect and dignity and they will thrive.
I’m a lad of the ’60s. I started a magazine to try and end the Vietnam war, but it was a number of years before I had the profile, the financial resources and the time to do more.
Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you’re in business.
Not enough people realize the satisfaction you can get from really pushing yourself to the limits.