Startled?
Don’t worry… this isn’t going to be any sort of scandalous, adults-only blog post! I just wanted to share a few recent lessons learned from the billionaire mastermind of the Virgin Group and the world’s greatest entrepreneur: Sir Richard Branson.
I just finished his autobiography, which shares the title of this post. It was a gift from a great friend & CEO of RealEstateInvestor.com, Colin Egbert.
While Branson’s early sexual promiscuity (he actually “wife-swapped” with his friend for a weekend) and his failure to recognize God as God certainly temper my respect, you can’t help but admire the way he did business.
Here are 8 notes I scribbled as I read the story of his success from 1950-2001…
1. A huge key to Branson’s success was his ability to leverage debt and protect his downside. For many years, the Virgin Group consistently overdrafted millions of dollars to finance their ventures. Why were banks willing to do this? Because of Branson’s uncanny sense of choosing the RIGHT ventures and his track record of success. Each of these ventures involved tremendous risk, but Branson was never without an awareness of where the risks were and rarely without a contingency plan.
2. He never shied away from competition. In fact, he seemed to thrive off of it. He entered the airline industry with a single plane when British Airways was dominating UK market share and eliminating smaller competitors left & right. He launched Virgin Cola, knowing that Coke and Pepsi held 70%+ of worldwide market share but seeing small weaknesses that he could exploit.
3. He kept close guard over public opinion. The first thing he did in the morning was have all press clips with ANY mention of Virgin delivered to him for review (maybe Virgin will RSS my blog!). It’s essential for any business to be aware of what’s being said, to use that knowledge in order to fix weaknesses, and to control brand image as much as possible.
4. He stuck to his vision, regardless of the naysayers. Launching separate ventures in music, airlines, life insurance, cola, movie theaters, trains, cell phones, spas, and space travel didn’t exactly make sense to anyone but Branson himself. But he has always been able to recognize tremendous opportunity, shape a vision for that opportunity, and make light of anyone who mocks the vision.
5. He wasn’t a great public speaker! Which gives hope to many entrepreneurs across the globe.
6. He leveraged his influence for good. Cancelling Virgin Atlantic flights to personally deliver medical supplies and rescue British POWs from Iraq… making a bid to own the British lottery so all proceeds would go to charity… funding a group of “world elders” headed by Nelson Mandela… numerous environmental efforts… and so on. With great power certainly comes great responsibility and opportunity.
7. He MARKETED OUTRAGEOUSLY. Preston Ely doesn’t hold a candle to some of Branson’s marketing tactics! From the original christening of the “Virgin” name to his attempt at circumnavigating the globe in a balloon (sponsored by Virgin), his outrageous marketing directly earned Virgin millions.
8. He’s had a TON of fun. Branson is living proof that dreams of adventure and entrepreneurial success can be pursued and accomplished in parallel. In fact, you can be 100% dedicated to both at the same time.
Fun is at the core of how I like to do business, and it has informed everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success. - Richard Branson
One final thing I realized from Branson’s life is that you can’t simply follow someone else’s business philosophy or “formula for success.” You can’t bottle what Richard Branson or Donald Trump or (on a smaller scale in today’s world of real estate and internet marketing) Preston Ely or Cris Chico or Colin Egbert or even I have done to be successful.
Everyone seems to be looking for a business in a box. A franchise model. That seems to be the easy way, and those opportunities are abundant.
But the individuals who make the big money are the franchisers. The ones who take the best ideas from successful entrepreneurs and create their OWN model to be followed.
That’s why it’s important to continue educating yourself (see “reading”) for the rest of your life. With reading (the right things) comes knowledge. With knowledge (meditated upon) comes wisdom. With wisdom (applied) comes success.
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Posted on Sunday, 27th July 2008 in Books, Business, Life, Marketing, Real Estate | Comments (0)