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.
Richard BransonRead
You can't run a business without taking risks. The brave may not live forever - but the cautious do not live at all!
Interpretation
Taking risks is essential for success in business, while caution can lead to missed opportunities.
This quote emphasizes the importance of embracing risk in the pursuit of success, particularly in the business world. Richard Branson suggests that while being brave may expose one to potential failure or challenges, living cautiously can result in a life devoid of fulfillment and achievement. The underlying message encourages individuals to be bold and proactive rather than playing it safe, as true living involves pushing beyond comfort zones.
In practice
In a motivational speech to aspiring entrepreneurs.
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.
It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success. It's not, and nor should it be.
Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn't you have fun at work?
Values cannot be speedily forgotten if it is inconvenient or commercially expedient. Values have to have meaning and longevity; otherwise they are valueless. You cannot embrace innovation up to a point or only sometimes. Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking cords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.
Please donβt get hung up on this question of whether you need to have experience in an industry before you launch your startup.
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.
One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead. So we want people that are fired up and passionate about their mission... and people that aren't so married to spreadsheets and thinking that kind of voodoo controls the future. Because it doesn't.
I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master in that line. I have no faith in the policy of scattering one's resources, and in my experience I have rarely if ever met a man who achieved preeminence in money making.. certainly never one in manufacturing.. who was interested in many concerns.
The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.
I celebrate a victory when I start walking off the field. By the time I get to the locker room, I'm done.
Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.
...so remember: great achievements take time, there is no overnight success.
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