hello belief nation I started to mentor
me series with a goal to learn from
people who have done a lot more than us
and try to seek some of their knowledge
their wisdom their mindset their habits
the way that they think and filter it
into our brains to help us become the
best version of ourselves so today we’re
going to learn from Richard Branson on
some of his most motivational speeches
and as always as you’re watching a video
of Richard said something that really
means something to you please leave in
the comments below put quotes around it
so other people can be motivated and
inspired as well I was flying from the
British Virgin Islands no sorry from
Puerto Rico to the British Virgin
Islands and and I was 28 years old and I
been away from home for three weeks and
I this gorgeous lady waiting for me and
and American Airlines announced that
they are banned that then they’re not
going to fly the flight till next
morning they hadn’t didn’t have enough
passengers and I was damned if I was
going to wait till the next morning and
so I went to the back of the airport and
I borrowed a blackboard and I scribbled
Virgin Airlines as a joke $39 one-way to
the British Virgin Islands and went
around all the passengers and I managed
to fill up my first flight and and when
I got to the BVI the guy on my left you
know turned to me and said you know
sharpen up the surface a bit and you
could be in the airline business and and
and the next day and anyway the night
went well the next day oh okay she’s not
my wife out here still days later then
the next day I rang up Boeing and I said
then I’m thinking of going into the
airline business so in fact I just had
my test flight they do you have any
secondhand 747s for sale and the person
who took the phone call I thought he was
going to put the phone down on me but he
you know he hung on in there
so he said well you know what does your
company do and I said well you know
we’re a record company we got the
Rolling Stones we got the Sex Pistols
we’ve
and again he didn’t sound very very you
know they say what’s the name of the
company and I said virgin and there was
a long pause and he said well it will
send a salesman to see you but with a
name like virgin and I just hope your
airline goes the whole way there’s no
point in us going into something unless
we can really shake up an engine see
they could make a major difference
unless it’s going to enhance the Virgin
brand and if there’s any danger of
damaging the brand in any way even if
it’s going to make us a lot of money you
know cigarette companies or something
like that we just wouldn’t we wouldn’t
do it and you know because life is short
you know we want to in you know we want
to enjoy the experience so I mean we’re
not you know I’ve never very rarely
about actually sat down and thought you
know we can we make a lot of money by
going into this industry almost all our
new ventures have come about from there
we go right right back beginning you
know Vietnam war you know let’s you know
let’s edit a magazine to try to have
young people campaigning to you know to
stop the war and let’s give young people
a voice the actual business aspect of it
they’re paying the bills you know that
we had to sort that one out later and
hopefully sell enough magazines and you
know learn about the printing and the
paper manufacturing but that wasn’t our
principal interest and and almost every
venture we’ve gone into we’ve seen a gap
in the market and you know you might get
frustrated flying in other people’s
airlines you know screw it let’s do it
you know we’re just start you know we’ll
start an airline and and and then you
know we try to make sure we can get the
bills paid and actually I think it’s a
better way of doing it and you know if
you you know if you think how can I make
lots of money you know you know let’s
let’s bring the accountants in we’ll
work out some business plans and it’s
the wrong it’s just the wrong way around
I mean you’ll get one set of accountants
will say you know yes you can make lots
of money another set of accountants with
exactly the same input will say no
you’re going to lose lots of money it’s
got to be you know from your heart you
know and and and do something which
you know you’re passionate about which
is going to be your hobby and then it’s
likely to be successful I’ve been
struggling with this business for two
years the economy seems to be falling
apart I’m ready to give up what is
Richard Branson tell me to do did do
everything you can to to survive and not
to give up you know as long as you try
never ever everything you can then if
you fail and you’ll sleep your sleep
okay and and you’ll pick yourself up and
you’ll learn you know and when things
are better you’ll learn for your
mistakes you’ll start again
you know if on the other hand you give
up you know you give up too readily your
your-your-your ever kick yourself and
then and I wish you wish all that wish
you all the best of your best in your
quest because there’s going to be I’m
afraid there’s going to be a lot of
people who will fail but I think I think
the other important thing is just not to
not to take not to take failure too
seriously I mean it’s it’s it’s
something that happens to something like
80% of all small business people fail
and either go into chapter 11 or or
actually go bankrupt and that’s a lot of
people and and and some people take that
really badly and and and and they should
realize that you know it’s it the
important thing just to learn learn from
it and and count and count and come back
and start again and the awful lot of you
know really big you know multi
millionaires and billionaires who’ve
been through two or three bankrupt
companies in their lives and I’ve learnt
from them and have come back come back
the stronger its what you know it’s what
limited companies were designed for by
governments it was it was to say to
people try try things and if you fail it
shouldn’t affect you you personally
people know the risk that they’re having
in dealing with you and you know don’t
be embarrassed about your failure as
long as you’ve tried everything you can
to avoid it then take it too personally
well I mean I also think funds should
come into marketing and they be that
there was a
an occasion where British Airways
decided to sponsor the giant wheel
opposite the houses of Commons in London
England and and this giant wheel was
lying flat on the ground and they got
all the press together one morning where
they were going to lift the wheel up and
I got a call at about 7:00 the mornings
say that saying that BA had technical
problems they couldn’t get the wheel up
and all the press the world’s press were
there waiting
we had an airship company so I rang up
the airship company and we scrambled an
airship and and the airship went right
over the wheel and it had a massive big
banner across it which simply said ba
can’t get it up and anyway we’ve got
more coverage around the world for that
and I think any at any other one single
thing we’ve done on marketing generally
I mean again I think that that the
cheapest form of marketing is not
full-page adverts in the press it’s it’s
free advertising so if you’re up against
a big corporation you do need to use
yourself to try to get free advertising
and you try to do it in fun ways like
that so you stand out from the crowd try
to make sure you you know you end up
doing something that hits the front page
of the newspapers rather than the back
page and but you know you but and you
know obviously we’ve gone to extreme
lengths to try to you know put virgin on
the map you know whether it’s trying to
be the first across the Atlantic in a
hot-air balloon or the Pacific in a
hot-air balloon or and you know but and
you know but it but it did help I think
you know great the Virgin brand make it
a fun brand and and a brand that people
could identify with there’s a very thin
dividing line between survival and not
surviving and most people who start in
business end up the wrong side of that
dividing line because the bigger the
bigger businesses out there will try to
crush small upstart and and you know we
had you know I mean you know we were no
different
anybody else for me when we set up our
airline release excuse me but a slight
cough brilliant British Airways and you
know set up a unit behind you know
behind closed doors and that unit was
set up to crush Virgin Atlantic and you
know they had people illegally accessing
our computer information they were then
they then had a team of people bringing
up our passengers pretending to be from
Virgin Atlantic suggesting that they the
Virgin Atlantic was canceled that day
and maybe you know that British Airways
we could maybe move you over to British
Airways they had people going for my
rubbish bins they had people anyway the
lengths they went were extraordinary I’m
so you know any small business going up
against bigger businesses and likely to
likely to come up with ferocious
competitions so to beat a big business
and you have just got to use your use of
strengths of being small and generally
speaking if you work for a big
corporation it’s quite impersonal and
quite often the staff are not looked
after well and and quite often the stuff
actually don’t like going to work
because they’re not treated well in a
smaller company you can make sure that
your staff are looked after well you can
make sure your staff are proud of what
they’re doing you can make sure that you
know that they believe in what they’re
doing and they work you know long hours
to try to to make to make the company’s
success as a small company you can be
more nimble you can move move more
quickly and I mean with with you know
Virgin Atlantic for instance if we want
to change all our seats in our plane to
better seats you know we can do so in
you know maybe nine months for British
Airways it will take them seven years
and so you know by being more nimble one
can one can one can move quicker one can
be more innovative and innovate more so
it is possible but you know for a small
company if you can keep your overheads
you know lowers so you can actually
undercut the big
most likely the bigger guys had years of
building up you know overheads that you
as a small company haven’t yet got and
hopefully never will have and so so it
is it is possible for smaller companies
to be bigger companies but you have to
be quicker foot and as you say never
take no for an answer
one of the most important sort of
phrases in my life is you know is
protecting the downside and it should be
you know one of the most important
phrases any any business person’s life
so okay we made a big bold move from
going from music company into airline
business but you know we we set myself a
condition that I could hand that plane
back at the end of the first 12 months
if the business if people didn’t like
our business and so one of the most
important ago she ations with Boeing was
you know we have the right to give you
that plane back after 12 months and that
meant that I knew that you know I could
put my toe in the water I could see
whether people like like the airline but
if it didn’t work out it wasn’t going to
bring everything else crashing down I’d
be able to look my record company bosses
in the eye and would still be friends
because they’d still have jobs and you
know so protecting the downside is
critical and so we make bold moves but
we’ll also make sure we’ve got ways out
if things go wrong if you lost at all
you lost everything what would you do
what would be the first thing you would
do to try to rebuild your success well I
think you have to define what success is
I mean to me I’ve spent a lifetime
creating things that I hope that
hopefully I think can make a difference
to other people’s lives genuinely have
never set about to sort of think of
myself as a businessman if I lost it all
and you know I’m sure I’d want to carry
on creating most of my time is now spent
creating not-for-profit ventures like
the elders or the carbon war room or you
know Center for Disease Control we’re
trying to protect species and that’s
where I get my main satisfaction from
and somehow even if I didn’t have any
money I would do my best to continue to
do that
life is short life should be fun and it
should be fun not you know it should be
if the the chairman of the company is
having fun you know if you go to a party
and you know if I let my hair down and
I’m the first to be thrown in the
swimming pool and and I’m not just
sitting there standing in the corner of
the room sipping sherry or something
then everybody will have a laugh and
everybody having fun you know if you’re
jemna come buddy be the first to dance
on the table you know just get everybody
else up dancing on the table and make
sure the parties you know the parties
are laughs so you know so play hard and
play hard work hard and then and you
know follow certain principles in life
you know beep you know you know love
people make make sure you make a
positive difference in this world but
while you’re on it I love learning and
I’ve never actually thought I was you
know starting a company as such and I
just saw situations as I traveled in
life and where I felt I could improve on
the way things were being done by other
people so and you know so I would you
know what one way favorite phrases is
screw it let’s do it and I’ve used that
phrase a lot of times and we’ve and and
we’ve you know we just love going in and
trying to shake up industries and doing
it better than it’s been done before I
am dyslexic and and therefore I think
I’ve been very good at keeping things
simple because you know as a dyslexic I
need to need things to be simple for
myself and therefore virgin I think you
know when we launched a financial
service company or a bank you know we do
not use jargon it’s everything is very
clear-cut very simple and and I think
people you know people have an affinity
to the Virgin brand because we don’t you
know we don’t talk above the mortal
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I love to know what did
you think of this video
it Reacher’s words move you are you
going to make a change now somehow in
your life or your business what did you
enjoy that most what clip was the most
motivational for you leave it down in
the comments below
whatever thinking that you have whatever
new goal you set for yourself if you
write it down and leave in the comment
you’re much more likely to follow
through that process of taking it from
the brain and put it on the screen
really dramatically increases the chance
of you doing something about it so don’t
waste this opportunity please leave a
comment below believe nation will jump
in on discussion I will – thank you guys
so much for watching
continue to believe or whatever your one
word is and I’ll see you soon
me series with a goal to learn from
people who have done a lot more than us
and try to seek some of their knowledge
their wisdom their mindset their habits
the way that they think and filter it
into our brains to help us become the
best version of ourselves so today we’re
going to learn from Richard Branson on
some of his most motivational speeches
and as always as you’re watching a video
of Richard said something that really
means something to you please leave in
the comments below put quotes around it
so other people can be motivated and
inspired as well I was flying from the
British Virgin Islands no sorry from
Puerto Rico to the British Virgin
Islands and and I was 28 years old and I
been away from home for three weeks and
I this gorgeous lady waiting for me and
and American Airlines announced that
they are banned that then they’re not
going to fly the flight till next
morning they hadn’t didn’t have enough
passengers and I was damned if I was
going to wait till the next morning and
so I went to the back of the airport and
I borrowed a blackboard and I scribbled
Virgin Airlines as a joke $39 one-way to
the British Virgin Islands and went
around all the passengers and I managed
to fill up my first flight and and when
I got to the BVI the guy on my left you
know turned to me and said you know
sharpen up the surface a bit and you
could be in the airline business and and
and the next day and anyway the night
went well the next day oh okay she’s not
my wife out here still days later then
the next day I rang up Boeing and I said
then I’m thinking of going into the
airline business so in fact I just had
my test flight they do you have any
secondhand 747s for sale and the person
who took the phone call I thought he was
going to put the phone down on me but he
you know he hung on in there
so he said well you know what does your
company do and I said well you know
we’re a record company we got the
Rolling Stones we got the Sex Pistols
we’ve
and again he didn’t sound very very you
know they say what’s the name of the
company and I said virgin and there was
a long pause and he said well it will
send a salesman to see you but with a
name like virgin and I just hope your
airline goes the whole way there’s no
point in us going into something unless
we can really shake up an engine see
they could make a major difference
unless it’s going to enhance the Virgin
brand and if there’s any danger of
damaging the brand in any way even if
it’s going to make us a lot of money you
know cigarette companies or something
like that we just wouldn’t we wouldn’t
do it and you know because life is short
you know we want to in you know we want
to enjoy the experience so I mean we’re
not you know I’ve never very rarely
about actually sat down and thought you
know we can we make a lot of money by
going into this industry almost all our
new ventures have come about from there
we go right right back beginning you
know Vietnam war you know let’s you know
let’s edit a magazine to try to have
young people campaigning to you know to
stop the war and let’s give young people
a voice the actual business aspect of it
they’re paying the bills you know that
we had to sort that one out later and
hopefully sell enough magazines and you
know learn about the printing and the
paper manufacturing but that wasn’t our
principal interest and and almost every
venture we’ve gone into we’ve seen a gap
in the market and you know you might get
frustrated flying in other people’s
airlines you know screw it let’s do it
you know we’re just start you know we’ll
start an airline and and and then you
know we try to make sure we can get the
bills paid and actually I think it’s a
better way of doing it and you know if
you you know if you think how can I make
lots of money you know you know let’s
let’s bring the accountants in we’ll
work out some business plans and it’s
the wrong it’s just the wrong way around
I mean you’ll get one set of accountants
will say you know yes you can make lots
of money another set of accountants with
exactly the same input will say no
you’re going to lose lots of money it’s
got to be you know from your heart you
know and and and do something which
you know you’re passionate about which
is going to be your hobby and then it’s
likely to be successful I’ve been
struggling with this business for two
years the economy seems to be falling
apart I’m ready to give up what is
Richard Branson tell me to do did do
everything you can to to survive and not
to give up you know as long as you try
never ever everything you can then if
you fail and you’ll sleep your sleep
okay and and you’ll pick yourself up and
you’ll learn you know and when things
are better you’ll learn for your
mistakes you’ll start again
you know if on the other hand you give
up you know you give up too readily your
your-your-your ever kick yourself and
then and I wish you wish all that wish
you all the best of your best in your
quest because there’s going to be I’m
afraid there’s going to be a lot of
people who will fail but I think I think
the other important thing is just not to
not to take not to take failure too
seriously I mean it’s it’s it’s
something that happens to something like
80% of all small business people fail
and either go into chapter 11 or or
actually go bankrupt and that’s a lot of
people and and and some people take that
really badly and and and and they should
realize that you know it’s it the
important thing just to learn learn from
it and and count and count and come back
and start again and the awful lot of you
know really big you know multi
millionaires and billionaires who’ve
been through two or three bankrupt
companies in their lives and I’ve learnt
from them and have come back come back
the stronger its what you know it’s what
limited companies were designed for by
governments it was it was to say to
people try try things and if you fail it
shouldn’t affect you you personally
people know the risk that they’re having
in dealing with you and you know don’t
be embarrassed about your failure as
long as you’ve tried everything you can
to avoid it then take it too personally
well I mean I also think funds should
come into marketing and they be that
there was a
an occasion where British Airways
decided to sponsor the giant wheel
opposite the houses of Commons in London
England and and this giant wheel was
lying flat on the ground and they got
all the press together one morning where
they were going to lift the wheel up and
I got a call at about 7:00 the mornings
say that saying that BA had technical
problems they couldn’t get the wheel up
and all the press the world’s press were
there waiting
we had an airship company so I rang up
the airship company and we scrambled an
airship and and the airship went right
over the wheel and it had a massive big
banner across it which simply said ba
can’t get it up and anyway we’ve got
more coverage around the world for that
and I think any at any other one single
thing we’ve done on marketing generally
I mean again I think that that the
cheapest form of marketing is not
full-page adverts in the press it’s it’s
free advertising so if you’re up against
a big corporation you do need to use
yourself to try to get free advertising
and you try to do it in fun ways like
that so you stand out from the crowd try
to make sure you you know you end up
doing something that hits the front page
of the newspapers rather than the back
page and but you know you but and you
know obviously we’ve gone to extreme
lengths to try to you know put virgin on
the map you know whether it’s trying to
be the first across the Atlantic in a
hot-air balloon or the Pacific in a
hot-air balloon or and you know but and
you know but it but it did help I think
you know great the Virgin brand make it
a fun brand and and a brand that people
could identify with there’s a very thin
dividing line between survival and not
surviving and most people who start in
business end up the wrong side of that
dividing line because the bigger the
bigger businesses out there will try to
crush small upstart and and you know we
had you know I mean you know we were no
different
anybody else for me when we set up our
airline release excuse me but a slight
cough brilliant British Airways and you
know set up a unit behind you know
behind closed doors and that unit was
set up to crush Virgin Atlantic and you
know they had people illegally accessing
our computer information they were then
they then had a team of people bringing
up our passengers pretending to be from
Virgin Atlantic suggesting that they the
Virgin Atlantic was canceled that day
and maybe you know that British Airways
we could maybe move you over to British
Airways they had people going for my
rubbish bins they had people anyway the
lengths they went were extraordinary I’m
so you know any small business going up
against bigger businesses and likely to
likely to come up with ferocious
competitions so to beat a big business
and you have just got to use your use of
strengths of being small and generally
speaking if you work for a big
corporation it’s quite impersonal and
quite often the staff are not looked
after well and and quite often the stuff
actually don’t like going to work
because they’re not treated well in a
smaller company you can make sure that
your staff are looked after well you can
make sure your staff are proud of what
they’re doing you can make sure that you
know that they believe in what they’re
doing and they work you know long hours
to try to to make to make the company’s
success as a small company you can be
more nimble you can move move more
quickly and I mean with with you know
Virgin Atlantic for instance if we want
to change all our seats in our plane to
better seats you know we can do so in
you know maybe nine months for British
Airways it will take them seven years
and so you know by being more nimble one
can one can one can move quicker one can
be more innovative and innovate more so
it is possible but you know for a small
company if you can keep your overheads
you know lowers so you can actually
undercut the big
most likely the bigger guys had years of
building up you know overheads that you
as a small company haven’t yet got and
hopefully never will have and so so it
is it is possible for smaller companies
to be bigger companies but you have to
be quicker foot and as you say never
take no for an answer
one of the most important sort of
phrases in my life is you know is
protecting the downside and it should be
you know one of the most important
phrases any any business person’s life
so okay we made a big bold move from
going from music company into airline
business but you know we we set myself a
condition that I could hand that plane
back at the end of the first 12 months
if the business if people didn’t like
our business and so one of the most
important ago she ations with Boeing was
you know we have the right to give you
that plane back after 12 months and that
meant that I knew that you know I could
put my toe in the water I could see
whether people like like the airline but
if it didn’t work out it wasn’t going to
bring everything else crashing down I’d
be able to look my record company bosses
in the eye and would still be friends
because they’d still have jobs and you
know so protecting the downside is
critical and so we make bold moves but
we’ll also make sure we’ve got ways out
if things go wrong if you lost at all
you lost everything what would you do
what would be the first thing you would
do to try to rebuild your success well I
think you have to define what success is
I mean to me I’ve spent a lifetime
creating things that I hope that
hopefully I think can make a difference
to other people’s lives genuinely have
never set about to sort of think of
myself as a businessman if I lost it all
and you know I’m sure I’d want to carry
on creating most of my time is now spent
creating not-for-profit ventures like
the elders or the carbon war room or you
know Center for Disease Control we’re
trying to protect species and that’s
where I get my main satisfaction from
and somehow even if I didn’t have any
money I would do my best to continue to
do that
life is short life should be fun and it
should be fun not you know it should be
if the the chairman of the company is
having fun you know if you go to a party
and you know if I let my hair down and
I’m the first to be thrown in the
swimming pool and and I’m not just
sitting there standing in the corner of
the room sipping sherry or something
then everybody will have a laugh and
everybody having fun you know if you’re
jemna come buddy be the first to dance
on the table you know just get everybody
else up dancing on the table and make
sure the parties you know the parties
are laughs so you know so play hard and
play hard work hard and then and you
know follow certain principles in life
you know beep you know you know love
people make make sure you make a
positive difference in this world but
while you’re on it I love learning and
I’ve never actually thought I was you
know starting a company as such and I
just saw situations as I traveled in
life and where I felt I could improve on
the way things were being done by other
people so and you know so I would you
know what one way favorite phrases is
screw it let’s do it and I’ve used that
phrase a lot of times and we’ve and and
we’ve you know we just love going in and
trying to shake up industries and doing
it better than it’s been done before I
am dyslexic and and therefore I think
I’ve been very good at keeping things
simple because you know as a dyslexic I
need to need things to be simple for
myself and therefore virgin I think you
know when we launched a financial
service company or a bank you know we do
not use jargon it’s everything is very
clear-cut very simple and and I think
people you know people have an affinity
to the Virgin brand because we don’t you
know we don’t talk above the mortal
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed I love to know what did
you think of this video
it Reacher’s words move you are you
going to make a change now somehow in
your life or your business what did you
enjoy that most what clip was the most
motivational for you leave it down in
the comments below
whatever thinking that you have whatever
new goal you set for yourself if you
write it down and leave in the comment
you’re much more likely to follow
through that process of taking it from
the brain and put it on the screen
really dramatically increases the chance
of you doing something about it so don’t
waste this opportunity please leave a
comment below believe nation will jump
in on discussion I will – thank you guys
so much for watching
continue to believe or whatever your one
word is and I’ll see you soon
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