Explore Quotes by Richard Branson

Unless you dream, you're not going to achieve anything.

Throughout my business life I have always tried to keep on top of costs and protect the downside risk as much possible. The Virgin Group has survived only because we have always kept tight control of our cash. But, likewise, I also know that sometimes it is essential to break these rules and spend lavishly.

Only a fool never changes his mind.

Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been key to everything I've done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin's success. I am aware that the ideas of business as being fun and creative goes right against the grain of convention, and it's certainly not how the they teach it at some of those business schools, where business means hard grind and lots of 'discounted cash flows' and net' present values'.

What we are trying to do at Virgin is not to have one enormous company in one sector under one banner, but to have two hundred or even three hundred separate companies. Each company can stand on its own feet and, in that way, although we've got a brand that links them, if we were to have another tragedy such as that of 11 September - which hurt the airline industry - it would not bring the whole group crashing down.

The time to go into a new business is when it’s badly run by others.

What does the name Virgin mean? We are a company that likes to take on the giants. In too many businesses, these giants have had things their own way. We are going to have fun competing with them.

It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.

There have been times when I could have succumbed to some form of bribe, or could have had my way by offering one. But ever since that night in Dover prison I have never been tempted to break my vow.. My Parents always drummed into me that all you have life is your reputation: you may be very rich, but if you lose your good name you'll never be happy.

I am prepared to try anything once.

You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.

As much as you need a strong personality to build a business from scratch, you also must understand the art of delegation. I have to be good at helping people run the individual businesses, and I have to be willing to step back. The company must be set up so it can continue without me.

I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.

I have always believed that the only way to cope with a cash crisis is not to contract but to try to expand out of it.

You can never go too far wrong by thinking like a customer who’s new to the business.

Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.

A company is people … employees want to know… am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really need to feel wanted.

I have always looked on my businesses not just as money-making machines, but as adventures that can, I hope, make people better off.

Engage your emotions at work. Your instincts and emotions are there to help you.

I believe that drudgery and clock-watching are a terrible betrayal of that universal, inborn entrepreneurial spirit.

We need a new way of doing business to get out of the present crisis ... Absolute greed has come close to bankrupting the world. Thanks to the crisis that certain businesses have dumped on everyone a lot of people are going to suffer on a global scale. All of us must learn. It is all the more important that those business leaders that are left standing try to be a force for good.