Quotes by Richard Branson
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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.

If you can make peoples lives a lot better, you've got a really good business.

A generation ago, the image was that you had to trample everyone else down to succeed; but I don't believe that makes good business sense.

You know I think if the people who work for a business are proud of the business they work for, they'll work that much harder, and therefore, I think turning your business into a real force for good is good business sense as well.

Good customer service begins at the top. If your senior people don't get it, even the strongest links further down the line can become compromised.

Screw the competition -- focus on good customer service.

Lead by listening -- to be a good leader you have to be a great listener.

The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.

About 40 percent of my time is spent on social issues and building new organizations, more for the benefit of the climate or health issues.

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

A good leader leads from the front. Don't get stuck in the office. Get out, meet people and listen to their stories.

If people are crazy enough to dare, impossible things happen.

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 believe in myself. I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the hearts that love.

I have always lived my life by thriving on opportunity and adventure. Some of the best ideas come out of the blue, and you have to keep an open mind to see their virtue.

All good leaders listen to their people and empower them to go away and turn any innovative ideas they have into a reality.

It's worrying to think more than half the world's population lacks internet access and therefore lacks an equal opportunity to improve their lives.

Life's too short. If you're passionate -- stand up.

Have faith in yourself.
Think yes not no.
Live life to the full.
Never give up.

Loyal employees in any company create loyal customers, who in turn create happy shareholders.

I have always lived my life by making lists: lists of people to call, lists of ideas, lists of companies to set up, lists of people who can make things happen. Each day I work through these lists, and that sequence of calls propels me forward.

You need lucky breaks to be successful.

Set impossible challenges. Then catch up with them.

If you go back into military history, the person who's leading the troops ought to be in with the troops and not just standing on the backline sending them into battle.

If you're hurt, lick your wounds and get up again. If you've given it your absolute best, it's time to move forward.

Ever since I saw the moon landing as a young teenager, I was determined I would go into space one day.

If you are a new startup company, try not to arouse the interest or suspicion of your competition; especially if they are a bigger company. They can crush you while you are still in your startup phase. Lie low while still strengthening your bottom line.

We should focus on what people get done, not on how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine-to-five policy, we don't need a vacation policy.

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.

Smoking marijuana, as long as you leave the nicotine out of it, is certainly no more damaging than having a drink, and I suspect better for you than having a drink.

Rather than getting nostalgic...embrace the new opportunities and challenges available to you now.

Irreverence ran on both sides of our family...my parents brought me up to think we could all change the world.

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

There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration.

Everything in your business can be outsourced... if you're not emotionally attached to doing it all.

Past failures unlock future successes.

The best lessons are usually learned from failure. You musn't beat yourself up if you fail -- just pick yourself up, learn as much as you can from the experience and get on with the next challenge...The brave may not live forever, but the cautious never live at all.

If you're lucky enough to have a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank account, that should be sufficient for your own personal needs, and anything more than that you've got to put to good use.

And we hope to sell the clean fuels to other airlines. I mean, the exciting thing about the breakthrough with clean fuels for the airline industry is there's only 1,700 pumps in the world that fill up the airlines.

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.

Everyone needs something to aim for. You can call it a challenge, or you can call it a goal. It is what makes us human. It was challenges that took us from being cavemen to reaching for the stars.

Not enough people realize the satisfaction you can get from really pushing yourself to the limits.

Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn't you have fun at work?

My number one rule in business, and in life, is to enjoy what you do. Running a business involves long hours and hard decisions; if you don't have the passion to keep you going, your business will more than likely fail. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, then you shouldn't be doing it.

I have enjoyed life a lot more by saying yes than by saying no.

Succeeding in business is all about making connections.

If you find yourself stuck in the middle there is only one way to go, forward.

For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility.

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.

I learnt from an early age this 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?

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.

At the end, entrepreneurship is not about wearing expensive suits and earning a lot of money. It is all about being true to yourself, to your values in life. Your dreams.

The best way forward is to give more people everywhere greater power to build their own destinies.

I have had fun running all of the Virgin businesses, so I never see a setback as a bad experience; it is just a learning curve.

There is no real difference between work and play -- it's all living.

Allowing my people to have a good work-life balance by working flexibly is very important to me.

You only live once, and I just don't want to waste a minute of my life.

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

All in all, the internet is a force for good, providing young entrepreneurs with access to an incredible wealth of information, has changed the way we see the world and is also a great source of innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.

We should all seek to innovate, or be curious about innovation. Innovation truly is one of our greatest gifts.

It took me years to work out the difference between net and gross. In meetings I just used to say, 'Tell me if it's good or bad news.'

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.

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.

Whether you are launching a start-up or leading an established company, you should start establishing your social media presence if you haven't already.

Launching a business is essentially an adventure in problem-solving.

A business can be started with very little money.

Don't be afraid to take that leap into the unknown.

No failure means no risk, which means nothing new.

We Experiment Endlessly, With New Products, New Methods, New Companies And New Marketing. A Successful Business The Emphasis Is On Experiment And Development, Ideas Are The Lifeblood Of Business.

I never really felt secure until I was well into my 30s, because anytime I had success, I would invest in new projects.

Explore this next great frontier where the boundaries between work and higher purpose are merging into one, where doing good really is good for business.

The quality of business communications has become poorer in recent years as people avoid phone calls and face-to-face meetings, I can only assume, in some misguided quest for efficiency.

We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory and the amazing sensations of weightlessness and space flight.

Being dyslexic can actually help in the outside world. I see some things clearer than other people do because I have to simplify things to help me and that has helped 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.

I've been taught not to have any regrets. If we were to add up all of the hours spent regretting mistakes and use that time to develop new ideas, who knows how many brilliant new businesses would be created.

I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we've just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes.

I'm inquisitive ... and I love a new challenge... and if I feel that we can do it better than it's been done by other people, we'll have a go.

I have never had an office that I work out of and work has become intertwined with my personal life.

My people are at the core of everything I do, and I recognize the importance of giving them the flexibility to balance work around their personal lives.

So unlike having to convert, you know, all the cars' or all the lorries' petrol stations, once you've actually got the clean fuels, it's relatively easy to, you know, get it to the airplanes.

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.

Failing can provide invaluable lessons and making mistakes and experiencing setbacks is part of the DNA of every successful entrepreneur.

Two heads are definitely better than one and by sourcing ideas from each other, you have a better chance of coming up with a strategy that will allow your business to overcome a setback or challenge.