Business Stripped Bare

by Richard Branson

  I have spent over thirty-five years building the Virgin brand, and if I do get run over tomorrow, I think it will live on without me, just as Google will live on without its founders, and Microsoft will live on without Bill Gates. For me, the major job has been done. A lot of people worked exceptionally hard in the early years to build the brand. With or without me, Virgin will be around for many years to come.

  Is this power? In a sense, I suppose it is. But the idea that I somehow 'control' the brand is a bit sinister and silly. I gave birth to the brand. I've nurtured and I continue to nurture it. I brought it into being, and I champion it. Thinking about it is one of the things that gets me up in the morning. But you can't really control ideas.

  The other thing that gets me up in the morning is the idea of making a difference. It's why I've never wanted to run a big company, and it's why I get huge enjoyment out of creating and tending to lots of smaller ones. (I have to be careful of my terms here, because airlines are hardly small companies! But I hope by now that you know what I'm getting at.) Virgin, by remembering what it is to be a small entrepreneur, has made large amounts of positive difference in many diverse business areas.

  I think that the more you're actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel. Actually, that might even be my definition of success. Right now, I find myself doing more and more to help safeguard our future on this planet. Does that make me successful? It certainly makes me happy.

  I hope you've found the thinking and the stories in this book useful. I think you can see that my definition of success in business has nothing to do with profits solely for their own sake. This is very important. Success for me is whether you have created something that you can be really proud of. Profits are necessary to invest in the next project – and pay the bills, repay investors and reward all the hard work – but that's all. Nobody should be remembered for how much money they have made in life. Whether you die with a billion dollars in your bank account or $20 under your pillow is actually not that interesting. That's not what you've achieved in life. What matters is whether you've created something special – and whether you've made a real difference to other people's lives. Entrepreneurs, scientists and artists who died as paupers are often the heroes.

  Successful people aren't in possession of secrets known only to themselves. Don't obsess over people who appear to you to be 'winners', but listen instead to the wisdom of people who've led enriching lives – people, for instance, who've found time for friends and family. Be generous in your interpretation of what success looks like. The best and most meaningful lives don't always end happily. My friend Madiba spent twenty-seven years of his life in prison. If he had died there, would his life hold no lessons for us?

  In business, as in life, all that matters is that you do something positive. Thanks for reading – and enjoy your life. You only get one.

  IF –

  If you can keep your head when all about you

  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

  If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

  But make allowance for their doubting too;

  If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

  Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

  Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

  And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

  If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

  If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

  If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

  And treat those two impostors just the same;

  If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

  Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

  And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

  If you can make one heap of all your winnings

  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

  And lose, and start again at your beginnings

  And never breathe a word about your loss;

  If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

  To serve your turn long after they are gone,

  And so hold on when there is nothing in you

  Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

  If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

  Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,

  If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

  If all men count with you, but none too much;

  If you can fill the unforgiving minute

  With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

  Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

  And – which is more – you'll be a Man, my son!

  Rudyard Kipling

  Copyright Acknowledgements

  Every reasonable effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. If any have inadvertently been overlooked, the publishers would be glad to hear from them and make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention. For permission to reprint copyright material the author and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following:

  Quotation by Sir Brian Pitman from '"No killing" to be made in Rock deal', 6 February 2008, reprinted courtesy of the Financial Times

  Extract from Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey Sachs published by Penguin Books 2008, copyright © Jeffrey Sachs 2008, reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd

  Extract from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, copyright © 1994, 1995 by Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. By permission of Little, Brown and Company

  Quotations by Herb Kelleher taken from Nuts: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success Austin, Texas Bard Press, 1996 cloth edition. Broadway (Random House), New York 1998 trade paperback edition

  Quotations by Alan Davison and Stanley Simmons in articles in Music Week reprinted courtesy of Music Week, copyright CMPi

  Quotation from the Santa Barbara Independent interview with Muhammad Yunus courtesy of the Santa Barbara Independent

  Quotation by Matthew Parris from article published in The Times 25 October 2003, copyright © The Times reprinted courtesy of The Times/NI Syndication

  Quotations by Jacques-Yves Cousteau taken from Window in the Sea, part of The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau published by Prentice Hall

  Parliamentary material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO on behalf of Parliament

  'If' by Rudyard Kipling reproduced by permission of A P Watt Ltd on behalf of The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty