{"id":3714,"date":"2016-05-17T15:23:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=3714"},"modified":"2016-08-08T18:28:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T18:28:01","slug":"richard-branson-if-its-not-fun-its-not-worth-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/spring-2016\/richard-branson-if-its-not-fun-its-not-worth-doing\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Branson: Not Fun? Not Worth Doing"},"content":{"rendered":"

B<\/span>ack in 1965 when many of the baby boom generation were either backpacking around Europe, thinking of themselves as hippies or being swept up by political protests, one 16-year-old was convincing his parents he should drop out of school and start a student newspaper.<\/p>\n

Richard Branson, or \u201cRicky\u201d to his mother, showed the beginning of his entrepreneurial skills when he became passionate about starting Student, a youth-culture magazine. It was the beginning of Branson\u2019s many early stage passions, which ultimately made believers out of his parents.<\/p>\n

In his latest book, The Virgin Way\u2026If It\u2019s Not Fun, It\u2019s Not Worth Doing<\/em><\/a> (Penguin Random House LLC), Richard Branson describes this first venture into what would become to him a logical progression of exciting ideas and businesses and to others, dumb luck or a topsy-turvy career path.<\/p>\n

Early Entrepreneurial Signs<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhen I shocked my parents as well as friends by dropping out of the prestigious Stowe School https:\/\/www.stowe.co.uk\/school,\u201d Branson said, \u201c I did it with my young eyes wide open in order to pursue a dream of starting my own magazine publishing business. In my heart of hearts I knew that making Student<\/em> magazine a success simply didn\u2019t necessitate me spending any more of my precious time sitting in stuffy classrooms. The idea of spending another couple of years memorizing mind-numbing facts from textbooks, wrestling with the joys of calculus and defining little-known Latin verbs seemed totally irrelevant to my future life and so I had to escape or risk my sanity.\u201d\n[awesome-gallery id=3786]

Photo: Virgin.com<\/p><\/p>\n

A Parent\u2019s View of a Kid Who Wanted to Do His Own Thing<\/h4>\n

Branson\u2019s mother pays a heartwarming tribute to her son in the book, noting how as parents they had somewhat of rollercoaster ride with their budding entrepreneur. \u201cWhat if we had insisted that you not take on so many silly risks and, rather than allowing you to drop out of school at sixteen, forced you to buckle down and complete your education?\u201d Mum said. \u201cWhat we saw as being a pig-headed little boy who was utterly determined to do his own thing, turned out to be nothing more than the growing pains of a budding entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early Days<\/h4>\n

Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born in Surrey, England in 1950. His father, Edward James Branson \u201cTed\u201d was a barrister and his mother, who Branson describes as an entrepreneur in her own right, was an airline attendant early in her life.<\/p>\n

A few years after starting the magazine, Branson started his company, Virgin, as a mail order record retailer in 1970. He founded Virgin Records and opened a record shop on Oxford Street, London. After building a recording studio, The Manor, the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded and released Tubular Bells<\/em>. Virgin Records went on to sign household names from the Sex Pistols to The Rolling Stones, becoming the biggest independent label in the world. All this from a high school dropout.\n[awesome-gallery id=3799]

Photo: Virgin Galactic<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/p>\n

Flying High<\/h4>\n

Spreading his wings, Branson founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984. It established itself as a leading global airline after overcoming British Airways Dirty Tricks campaign in the early 90s where British Airways sought to diminish Virgin Atlantic\u2019s business by stealing passengers and computer hacking.<\/p>\n

Virgin Australia, Virgin America, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Limited Edition, Virgin Trains, Virgin Hotels and Virgin Galactic<\/a> have followed in travel, while expansion elsewhere has seen Branson become the only person to build eight billion-dollar companies in eight different sectors.<\/p>\n

\"Richard-Branson---single\"

Photo: Virgin.com<\/p><\/h4>\n

Personal Bests<\/p>\n

Branson has challenged himself with many record breaking adventures, including the fastest ever Atlantic Ocean crossing, a series of hot air balloon adventures and kitesurfing across the English Channel. He has described Virgin Galactic<\/a>, the world\u2019s first commercial spaceline, as being \u201cthe greatest adventure of all.\u201d Space travel has been a dream for Branson since he watched the moon landings on TV, and he registered the Virgin Galactic name in 1999. Testing for commercial service is underway with Branson planning to join his family on the first space flight.<\/p>\n

Life Not Without Failure<\/h4>\n

Life for Branson as an entrepreneur, as he is quick to point out in his book, has not been without failure. Along with his successes, there have been some losers like Virgin Cars (selling half of the goal amount), Virgin Brides (wedding dress business), Virginware (lingerie) and, perhaps the most well known, Virgin Megastore (digital music market proved too much for the music stores).<\/p>\n

Two years ago, a Virgin Galactic spaceship performing an experimental spaceflight broke up inflight and crashed in the Californian Mojave Desert. One pilot was killed, and the other was seriously injured.<\/p>\n

After extensive investigation, it was determined by the National Transportation Safety Board that human error and inadequate safety procedures were the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n

A year and a half later at the company\u2019s Mojave, California factory, Virgin Galactic introduced its new spaceship, VSS Unity. More than 700 believers have registered to fly with Virgin Galactic. Those who wish to sign up for \u201ca seat to space with Virgin Galactic and membership of the Future Astronaut community request\u201d need only to pay an upfront deposit of $250,000.<\/p>\n

Social Media Guru<\/h4>\n

He is also a record breaker online, voted the UK\u2019s number one Twitter user, the world\u2019s most social CEO and the world\u2019s most followed person on LinkedIn. Branson maintains a daily blog on http:\/\/virgin.com, discussing everything from entrepreneurship, conservation and sustainability to travel, music and humor. He has more than 11.5 million followers across five social networking platforms. He has also written six books including his autobiography, Losing My Virginity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Giving Back<\/h4>\n

Since starting Student<\/em> magazine, Branson has found entrepreneurial ways to stimulate positive change in the world. He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people overcome issues ranging from abortion to sexuality. He set up the Virgin Earth Challenge in 2007 \u2014a $25 million prize for scalable and sustainable ways of removing greenhouse gases from the air.<\/p>\n

In 2004, he established the nonprofit foundation Virgin Unite to tackle tough social and environmental problems and strives to make business a force for good. Most of his time is now spent working with Virgin Unite and organizations it has incubated such as The Elders, Carbon War Room, B Team and Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship. He also serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy and supports ocean conservation with the Ocean Elders and Ocean Unite.<\/p>\n

Sir Richard<\/h4>\n

Branson was awarded a knighthood in 1999 for services to entrepreneurship. He lives on Necker Island with his wife, Joan and has two children, Holly and Sam.<\/p>\n

Branson\u2019s Handle<\/h4>\n

From Branson\u2019s viewpoint, he describes himself as a tie-loathing adventurer, philanthropist & troublemaker who believes in turning ideas into reality. Otherwise known as Dr. Yes.<\/p>\n

\"THE-VIRGIN-WAY-book-cover-for-article\"Thought-provokers from Richard Branson<\/h4>\n

Throughout The Virgin Way<\/em> book, Branson offers advice and inspiration. Here are some of his tips and insights to be found in the book answering these questions:<\/p>\n

How would you describe how you have chosen to live your life?<\/h5>\n

Having a great time while building a highly diversified global business with an extended family of simply wonderful people.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your secret for getting to know other people?<\/h5>\n

Actively creating meaningful ad hoc or semi-formal opportunities to speak with rather than at your people, and then actually listening attentively to their responses, achieves some incredibly positive outcomes.<\/p>\n

What are the top Virgin leadership attributes?<\/h5>\n

Integrity, a sense of humor, an entrepreneurial spirit, they have to be ultra-gregarious, they should truly care about their people, be able to delegate work (and credit) where it\u2019s due.<\/p>\n

Would you describe yourself as lucky in business?<\/h5>\n

I believe that a lot of very hard work has played a major part in any luck that has come my way. I must admit to sometimes struggling to figure out where coincidence stops and good luck begins, or put differently, how just happening to \u201cbe in the right place at the right time\u201d can so dramatically play into one\u2019s path through life.<\/p>\n

You seem like a natural speaker. What\u2019s your secret?<\/h5>\n

It takes practice, but it can be done. Close out your mind to the fact that you\u2019re on a stage with hundreds of people staring at you and instead imagine yourself in any personal comfort zone like your dining room at home where you\u2019re telling a story to a group of friends over dinner. I know it sounds a little corny but try it\u2014it has certainly worked for me.<\/p>\n

How do you instill good working relationships among your employees?<\/h5>\n

There is a lot of ancient and still valid symbolism involved with breaking bread together. It is something that healthy families will still do, while dysfunctional households seldom sit down to a meal together. In business too there is a lot to be said for encouraging all of your employees to mingle over mealtimes and if you are the head honcho, you should try and make a point of joining them on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

How would you describe a strong leader?<\/h5>\n

Strong leaders \u2026 while maintaining stability, must have vision, creativity and, perhaps, most importantly, the ability to influence others to follow and support them in the challenges of moving an organization into uncharted and often highly risky territory.<\/p>\n

Good leadership is by definition all about taking the venture forward and finding viable new avenues where business can evolve and prosper. Poor leadership typically tends to be static, much more about protecting the status quo and resting on laurels.<\/p>\n

How do you turn doubters into believers?<\/h5>\n

One of my favorite lines when someone expresses doubts about trying something new for reasons like \u201cit has never been done before\u201d is to say (with a smile), \u201cGreat! Well, why don\u2019t we look at how we can do it differently and be the first ones to make it work?\u201d<\/p>\n

What \u201csecret sauce\u201d has made Virgin a success?<\/h5>\n

The easy answer is \u201cMy brilliant, visionary leadership\u201d\u2014I am kidding, of course! The honest answer is one hundred percent down to the people-first culture that we started way back in the last century. There was a lot of hard work and plenty of sleepless nights worrying about all kinds of issues, but overall we stuck with it because we were enjoying what we did on any given day; and \u201ctomorrow,\u201d as Annie would have said, was always a day away.<\/p>\n

What is your business philosophy that might serve as advice for entrepreneurs or people looking for a second career?<\/h5>\n

I have always had one paramount philosophy: if a new project or business opportunity doesn\u2019t excite me and get my entrepreneurial and innovative juices flowing, if it\u2019s not something with which I sense I can make a difference while having a lot of seriously creative fun, then I\u2019d far rather pass on it and move right along to something else that does excite me.<\/p>\n

If you want to be inspired to think outside of the box, or to \u201cget out of your cage,\u201d or catch some of the Dr. Yes fever, you will find Branson\u2019s The Virgin Way\u2026If It\u2019s Not Fun, It\u2019s Not Worth Doing<\/em> filled with ideas and recommendations for how to bring out your own inner entrepreneur and to succeed in your own business. You can also follow him on Twitter<\/a> \u00a0and join the over 7.5 million followers or add to his more than 2.6 million likes on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reprinted from THE VIRGIN WAY: If It\u2019s Not Fun, It\u2019s Not Worth Doing by Richard Branson with permission of Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright \u00a9 Richard Branson, 2014.<\/strong><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New book by Richard Branson offers inspiration and leadership tips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2016-features","category-spring-2016"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3714"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4226,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3714\/revisions\/4226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}