Richard Branson (Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson) born (18 July 1950) in Blackheath, London, England. He is a famous businessman, philanthropist and investor. He founded Virgin Group, which holds more than 400 companies. Richard Branson was very curious about entrepreneurship from very young age and he started his first venture a magazine called Student, at the age of 16. Like other entrepreneurs, Richard Branson has also gone through lows and highs in his journey. Yet he didn’t give up and to get going in life, he continued his journey passionately. I hope these powerful Richard Branson quotes will give you boost up to succeed in your craft.
Powerful Richard Branson Quotes
- “If you spot an opportunity and are really excited by it, throw yourself into it with everything you’ve got.” , Richard Branson quotes opportunity
- “You’ve got to take risks if you’re going to succeed. I would much rather ask forgiveness than permission.”
- “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.”
- “Remember it’s OK to be yourself.”
- “And you know, I’ve had great fun turning quite a lot of different industries on their head and making sure those industries will never be the same again, because Virgin went in and took them on.”
- “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.”
- “Chance favors the prepared mind. The more you practice, luckier you become.”
- “Life is a hell of a lot more fun if you say yes rather than no.” , Richard Branson quotes say yes
- “Education doesn’t just take place in stuffy classrooms and university buildings, it can happen everywhere, every day to every person.”
- “Once a changemaker, always a changemaker but only a few swim against the tide.” , Richard Branson quotes on change
- Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
- “If you want swashbuckling action in your life, become an entrepreneur and give it a go.”
- “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” , Richard Branson quotes clients do not come first
- “It’s rare for a startup to make money immediately, so you need to make sure that you have enough saved or that you have another income stream that can support you.”
- “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.”
- “I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “There’s nothing like the endorphins from being fit, and the incredible endorphin rush that goes with that.”
- “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.””
- “There’s an inherent danger in letting people think that they have perfected something. When they believe they’ve ‘nailed it,’ most people tend to sit back and rest on their laurels while countless others will be labouring furiously to better their work!”
- ‘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 guarantee hit records.”
- “Right now I’m just delighted to be alive and to have had a nice long bath.”
- “A good leader doesn’t get stuck behind a desk.” , Richard Branson quotes on leadership
- “An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.”
- “The true cost to the world of a burger is far greater than the money you hand over to buy it.”
- “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 15 years old. And if I’m not interested in something, I don’t grasp it.”
- “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.”
- “From my very first day as an entrepreneur, I’ve felt the only mission worth pursuing in business is to make people’s lives better.”
- “Great thinkers don’t act solely with their own interest in mind; they drive change to affect society for the better.”
- “If you don’t have time for small things, you won’t have time for the big things.”
- “From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.”
- “A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be?”
- “As a father and now a grandfather to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes. Being able to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones is absolutely vital, especially early on.”
- “I’ve never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people’s lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.”
- “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
- “Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.” , Richard Branson quotes about leadership
- “Don’t become a slave to technology – manage your phone, don’t let it manage you.”
- “Engage your emotions at work. Your instincts and emotions are there to help you.”
- “All you have in business is your reputation – so it’s very important that you keep your word.”
- “You should not build your customer service system on the premise that your organisation will never question the whims of your clients.” , Richard Branson quotes customer service
- “The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master.”
- “An important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.”
- “There’s no point in starting a business unless you’re going to make a dramatic difference to other people’s lives. So if you’ve got an idea that’s gonna make a big difference to other people’s lives, then just get on and do it.”
- “Fun is one of the most important – and underrated – ingredients in any successful venture. If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.”
- “You never know with these things when you’re trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.”
- “I always find the time to exercise – kitesurfing, tennis or cycling – and to spend time with my loved ones.”
- “I’m a bit like the Queen in that I don’t carry much cash.”
- “Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.”
- “Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop.”
- “You can’t do a good business with a bad person. Find the right people to work with and you can’t go wrong.”
- “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’.”
- “In business, if you realize you’ve made a bad decision, you change it.”
- “We’re one of the only animals in the world that don’t really think of ourselves as animals, but we are animals, and we must respect our fellow animals.”
- “We are going to transform Britain’s rail system from the worst in the world to the best. If you can do a few things like that, when the body gives out, you can say you’ve lived a good life.”
- “Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.”
- “It’s a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur’s metric for success. It’s not, and nor should it be.”
- “Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness. But I know I am successful, wealthy, and connected because I am happy.”
- “Starting your own business isn’t just a job – it’s a way of life.”
- “The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them – preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.”
- “By putting the employee first, the customer effectively comes first by default, and in the end, the shareholder comes first by default as well.”
- “My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.”
- “The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers.” , Richard Branson quotes treat your staff
- “With Virgin, I’ve just loved creating things. And as a private company, I can get away with moving Virgin from records to airlines to train companies to space companies to whatever, without ever having to worry about analysts knocking the value of my stock.”
- “If you are a small company taking on a big company, you need to have a sense of humor.”
- “Every successful businessman will have experienced set-backs and failures – they’re lying if they say they haven’t. Virgin has had some tremendously successful businesses and some that have not quite worked out. Virgin Cola springs to mind – the product wasn’t distinct enough from Coca-Cola.”
- “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.”
- “Be willing to use yourself to get out there and put the company on the market. If you have to make a fool of yourself, make a fool of yourself, but make sure that you end up on the front pages, not the back pages. In time, it’s possible that your company will stand out from the crowd, and you’ll be successful.”
- “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”
- “I felt that I could make a difference. That’s the best reason to go into business.”
- “I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It’s done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.”
- “My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.”
- “Material things are delightful, but they’re not important.”
- “Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.”
- Richard Branson quotes images
- “Screw it. Let’s do it.”
- “Can you imagine what a different world we will live in when businesses do what’s right for the communities and the environment in everything they do?”
- “If you want to be more productive, then start at the start: get there on time. Whether it is a meeting, a flight, an appointment or a date, it’s important to ensure you are there when you say you will be there. This may feel like an old-fashioned tip to give, but it has served me well for five decades in business.”
- “Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club!”
- “My definition of success? The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.” , Richard Branson quotes on success
- 90th Richard Branson Quote: “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.”
- “Happiness is the secret ingredient for successful businesses. If you have a happy company it will be invincible.”
- “Whatever business you are in, every company can shoot for the stars in their own way.”
- “Cover the downside.”
- “A complaint is a chance to turn a customer into a lifelong friend. I say that seriously, not as some press release baloney.”
- “Especially when you’re at a high level in an organization, criticism can be devastating to an employee. I prefer to praise employees for what they’re doing right, and it tends to lead to them doing more of the same. Not always, but it’s the way I choose to bet.”
- “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.”
- “Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words.”
- “Listen. Take the best. Leave the rest.”
- “If you don’t succeed at first, there’s no need for the F word (Failure). Pick yourself up and try, try again.”
- “Your company should act as a springboard for ambitious employees, not a set of shackles.” ,Richard Branson quotes on employees
- “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.”
- “If you don’t have time for the small things, you won’t have time for the big things.”
- “Life is a series of ups and clowns. Make it worth your wild!” , Richard Branson quotes about life
- “The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.”
More Richard Branson Quotes
- “Take a chance. It’s the best way to test yourself. Have fun and push boundaries.”
- “Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”
- “Please be polite. Nothing in life should erode the habit of saying thank you to people or praising them.”
- “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.”
- “Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.”
- “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
- “When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.”
- “I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
- “One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.”
Interesting facts about Richard Branson:-
- He dropped out of school at the age of 16 after struggling with dyslexia
- In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “services to entrepreneurship”
- During the 1980s, Richard Branson established Virgin Atlantic Airline
- In 2002, he was named in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons
- In 2004, he founded spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic(world’s first commercial spaceline), noted for the SpaceShipOne project
- Forbes listed Branson’s estimated net worth at $5 billion in March 2017
- In 1999, he launched Virgin Mobile
- His mother’s entrepreneurship venture was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins
- Richard Branson has been Awarded By the UN for his contribution to the education, upliftment of life of African children and contributions to the environment and humanitarian causes
- He broke the world record for being the first and only person to cross the Atlantic in the largest hot air balloon in 1987
