Richard Branson

What’s the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.

My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.

A touch of the jitters sharpens the mind, gets the adrenaline flowing and helps you to focus.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.

I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

[On being partners with Laura Nyro in Tuna Fish Music (Laura’s favorite food was Tuna Fish)] We became partners in this new publishing company.

We, we – as I say, we go in and shake up other industries and I think, you know, we do it differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.

I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.

Competition is the lifeblood of industry.

[‘Why don’t you manage me’ – Laura Nyro] Eventually I thought do I really believe that she could be one of the biggest stars in the world? Should I give up my career at this point in my life, where I’m doing so well, and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket? And I woke up one morning and I thought if you really believe it – go for it.

The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply.

The union organizers are asking us to sit still while it sells our men the jobs that have always been free.

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.

A monopoly of jobs in this country is just as bad as a monopoly of bread!

About half my time is spent on business operation type stuff.

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.

What right have you, save service to the world, to think that other men’s labor should contribute to your gains?

Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.