Richard Branson

Only a fool never changes his mind.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

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

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

You don’t learn to walk by following rules, you learn by doing and by falling over.

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

Work is our sanity, our self-respect, our salvation. The day’s work is the center of everything.

Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

I don’t know the exact details of his background but from what I have read Mr. Abramovich had a very humble start in life and has made his own luck.

Listen – it makes you sound smarter.

A world where men ran half our homes and women ran half our institutions would be just a much better world.

Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.

The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.

In the long run people are going to buy the cheapest and the best article no matter where it is made.

See what a 25-cent raise will do to us, said Mr. Ford. So they figured the daily and monthly cost of a 25-cent increase. Put on another quarter and see what that will cost, he said. And so they went on, 25 cents a step. Finally the wage of $2.34 stood at $4.75–more than 100 percent increase. One of the associates–a good financial head–remarked rather sarcastically that if they were going to be fools, why not be first-class fools and make it $5. All right, said Mr. Ford, let’s make it $5.

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

People in the beauty community don’t like copycats, so I think it’s important to stay true to who you are and people will stay your customer.

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

I own buildings. I’m a builder; I know how to build. Nobody can build like I can build. Nobody. And the builders in New York will tell you that. I build the best product. And my name helps a lot.