The jet stream is a very strong force and pushing a balloon into it is like pushing up against a brick wall, but once we got into it, we found that, remarkably, the balloon went whatever speed the wind went.
The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.
I don’t think so, in that Virgin is already a global brand. Brands like Amazon have had to spend hundreds of millions of pounds you know, building their brands, whereas Virgin is already well-known around the world.
Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words.
You’ve got to take risks if you’re going to succeed. I would much rather ask forgiveness than permission.
Dream big and you will be presented with the opportunity to lead the world on an incredible adventure.
When I was young, every time I criticized someone, my mother would stand me in front of the mirror and say: ‘The flaws you see in others are actually a reflection of yourself.’ That taught me to pay close attention when I looked at others.
We don’t actually plan to launch new businesses over the next few years, but we are planning to take the ones we have into new territories.
If a chairman of a company visits Seattle, that chairman should take all the staff out in the evening and have a few drinks together, talk together and party together and not be embarrassed about the staff seeing the weaker side of you.
It is important to remember that life is not a dress rehearsal and that none of us should waste our time on doing things that don’t spark fires within us. My golden rule for business and life is: We should all enjoy what we do and do what we enjoy.
Any successful entrepreneur knows that time is more valuable than money itself.
There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration.
If you’re looking to become an entrepreneur then don’t waste your time going to university or business school – just get on and do it.
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.
Remember it’s OK to be yourself.
Take a chance – it’s the best way to test yourself, have fun and push boundaries.
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.
Be the best at what you do.
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.
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.