Richard Branson: Business Stripped Bare

If neither money nor celebrity really encapsulate what success is about, what about personal power? I’ve been asked what happens if Richard Branson’s own balloon bursts: isn’t the Virgin Group far too reliant on one individual? I have jokingly replied that during our spell running Virgin Records, we always found that when a major rock-music artist died the records sales went through the roof.

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.

Rudyard Kipling

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

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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

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