Richard Branson

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.

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

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

Acquiring the habit of note-taking is therefore a wonderfully complementary skill to that of listening.

Life is a helluva lot more fun if you say yes rather than no.

If your dreams don’t scare you they are too small.

Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don’t live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter.

Mass production is craftsmanship with the drudgery taken out of it.

I was the most productive when I was in a flex situation. Do not check for me for needless meetings.

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

I have very good executives and great children. They’re very good.

You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard working and pragmatic.

Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.

This is a perverse thing, personally, but I would rather be in the cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.

No one should buy on reputation alone. They should come and see it and inspect it, feel it and touch it.