15 inspiring quotes by Richard Branson for entrepreneurs to stay motivated in tough times
Richard Branson is a British business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist who founded the Virgin Group in the 1970s, which is a conglomerate of over 400 companies in various fields.
From high school dropout to multi-billionaire, Richard Branson is the entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group, a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded in the 1970s. After struggling with dyslexia and being unable to fit in the traditional education system, Branson decided to start a youth culture magazine called “Student” at 16.
The magazine was a success and led him to establish a humble music store, which later became Virgin Records chain of record stores. Today, Virgin Group holds over 400 companies under this brand in 30 countries around the world and is still expanding.
Richard Branson wrote his autobiography ‘Losing my Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way’ among other books, which has sold over two million copies to date.
He has also been involved in many philanthropic issues. He became a founding member of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, which aims to find missing children and stop child exploitation. He also founded Carbon War Room in 2009 which aims to find solutions to climate change.
Here are 15 quotes from the 69-year-old British business magnate to help entrepreneurs to stay motivated through rough patches:
“Don’t be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start all over again.”
“Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underline what is needed to set up a business.”
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”
“I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.”
“A business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better.”
“Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”
“Whatever your goal is you will never succeed unless you let go of your fears and fly.”
"When you create a business without financial backing, there's a very thin line between success and failure."
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
“As soon as something stops being fun, I think it’s time to move on. Life is too short to be unhappy. Waking up stressed and miserable is not a good way to live.”
“To be successful you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running.”
“Entrepreneurship is a great leveller, The wonderful thing is that money is not the sole currency when it comes to starting a business; drive, determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot of cash.”
“Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club.”
“My definition of success? The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.”
“To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.”
(Edited by Kanishk Singh)