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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of assessing risks in business decisions to prevent major failures.
Richard Branson highlights a crucial aspect of making business decisions: understanding and mitigating risks. He suggests that the ability to evaluate the potential negative outcomes of a decision is vital. By asking whether a poor decision could lead to significant consequences, Branson underscores the need to 'protect the downside'—a principle that encourages leaders to consider how their choices could impact the overall stability of the business.
Themes
BusinessDecisionRiskFailureProtectDownside
In practice
Example use cases
During a business seminar, I quoted Richard Branson to emphasize the importance of risk assessment in strategic planning.
More from Richard Branson
All quotes →It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success. It's not, and nor should it be.
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Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn't you have fun at work?
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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.
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Please don’t get hung up on this question of whether you need to have experience in an industry before you launch your startup.
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Always think, 'what's the worst that can happen' and have some kind of strategy to deal with it
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