Richard Branson - Entrepreneurial Philosophies

ladies and gentlemen Sir Richard Branson it's just like doing a radio show and normally I'm behind a microphone only this time all of the listeners are right in front of us so this is going to be a piece of cake and we're going to have a lot of fun this is so cool I can't tell you this has been a dream of mine for many years um to interview Richard Branson and I'm just thrilled and honored I've been such a huge fan of yours as has everyone here and true to form you are such a classia act sir Branson I understand that many people have paid a lot of money to be here today but that all the proceeds from your speaking engagements worldwide go to a charity near and dear to your heart so in many respects all of you are contributing to those Charities and I'm wondering if you could elaborate on which charity they're going to Richard um no I just say thanks very much for coming hopefully um you know hopefully we can share share some interesting thoughts today um but um uh uh but I think that if if you are um a successful entrepreneur um you know wealth and um wealth comes with it and uh and responsibility comes um with that wealth and um and you can make a real difference and um so um virgin has one particular charity called virgin unite that unites the 50,000 uh employees who works for Virgin worldwide um to tackle you know some of the ma the major issues in the world um and obviously Africa um is a place that uh just has numerous problems um but a a lot of those problems I believe are um solvable problems um they're not insurmountable problems they they just need you know entrepreneurial social workers with resources um to resolve them so um so the the money that that you've paid today that um I've managed to extract from the uh the organizers um is going going towards the specific hospital that's being built in um in Africa which will uh cater for about 200,000 people in a community that actually don't have any medical services and um so it'll make a big difference Richard when we watch the film and we look at the Myriad and compilation of the various companies you've built under one brand into one of the world's biggest and largest companies in the early years and you started virgin I believe when you were 20 I'm sure that people were telling you from the sidelines this can't be done you could never build this kind of company with this many different entities how have you dealt over the years with adversity and also with other people's opinions um yes I mean conventional wisdom will say that um and I suspect you know any any of you who've been to Business Schools you'll be taught you know you should specialize in one area and try not to stray from that area and that uh the best businesses in the world are those best those businesses that uh stick to their core um and actually if you look at uh if you look at the top 20 um uh brands in the world um you have got you know Nike specializing in shoes you do have Micro Microsoft specializing in computers or Coca-Cola specializing in soft drinks and you can't really imagine you know Coca-Cola Airline or um so uh um but I don't think uh you know I mean personally I think rules are made made to be broken and what what we've at virgin tried to do um is to create a um a way of life brand um a brand that you know tackles major companies in quite a lot of different sectors um and it wasn't something we actually set out to do um I mean I you know left school at 15 to uh you know because I wanted to start a magazine run by students to uh to try to put the world right I mean there was the Vietnamese War going on I'm afraid you know the equivalent of what's happening in Iraq but in Vietnam um I was against it and I was um you know campaign wanted a voice to campaign to try to um you know to to stop it or have it our little play our little bit in trying to stop it there was you know the way we were being taught at school um you know you would you would spend eight years learning French and in in an English school and you'd come out not speaking French and and and the way we were being taught was not conducive to learning it so so my principal aim was to create a business that um you know to create a magazine that that would make a difference and you know it wasn't going into creating a magazine to make money or to become an entrepreneur it was creating a magazine um you know to make a difference and you know since then you know we've gone into a lot of different areas a lot of different businesses again you know not with the purpose of becoming a Serial entrepreneur um but because you know we we have seen um you know I mean I used to fly when we had a record company on a lot of other people's Airlines and the experience was Dire um uh and if you've ever flown on an American Carrier um I won't mention Canada Canadian carriers um you you'll know what I mean and and so I decided that if you if you could create an airline that um you know where the staff were actually enjoying you know working on that plane and they were actually proud of you know the the tools they were given and and and and uh and they were proud of the service they were offering the consumers and it was actually a fun airline to fly that it might be successful and um so in that particular case um you know sat down with Boeing and said you know um like to buy a secondhand 747 um and you know you know I you know I was the person that brought brought them brought the sex pistols and a few other bands they actually must have thought me absolutely mad um but um anyway they they sort of maybe spotted something in me that made me made them think that we could maybe build a competitor to British Airways um uh but I also made a stipulation because I didn't want to bring everything else that I built come CR crushing down if I if I was wrong about the airline business I said look you know I've got to protect the D side I may be completely wrong that there's an opening um for Virgin Atlantic um at the end of the first year I want the right to hand that plane back to you if you know if if I'm wrong and it might mean that you won't make any money um but you know you won't lose any money either and and you know and and we can both walk away from it and so you know by protecting the downside I could then convince well just about convince my fellow directors at Virgin Records uh to let us start an airline and as it turned out after the first yeah things were going quite well that's a very interesting and novel concept one that I've written down staff who enjoy working on an airline and I think that has some marketing prowess um I wanted to ask you an interesting question I've heard it said many times that adversity is to men or women Richard what carbon is to Steel what are some of the biggest adversaries that that you've had to face in your life and how have you overcome them and you're also fond of saying never give up well um as a in business obviously there've been numerous adversities and um and you know and anyone here who's trying to set up their own business without any Financial backing uh will know just how difficult it is um and for a number of years the there's only one word that really matters and that is survival um because um you know the difference between survival and you know get there there's a very thin dividing line between survival and not surviving and most people who start in business end up the wrong side of that dividing line um because the bigger the bigger businesses out there will try to crush um small upstarts um and you know we had you know I mean you know we we were no no different from anybody else when we when we set up our Airline um Bri excuse me but a slight cough um BR British Airways um you know set up a behind you know behind closed doors and that unit was set up to crush Virgin Atlantic um and you know they had people illegally accessing our computer information um they um were then they then had a team of people ringing up our passengers pretending to be from Virgin Atlantic um suggesting that um they um that that Virg Atlantic was cancelled that day and maybe you know but British Airways we could maybe move you over to British Airways they had people going through my rubbish bins they had people um anyway the lengths they went were extraordinary um so you know any small business going up against bigger businesses um are likely to you know are likely to come up with uh ferocious competitions so to beat a big business um you have just got to um use your use your strengths of being small um you you you generally speaking if you work for a big Corporation it's quite impersonal and and quite often the staff are not looked after well and and quite often the staff actually don't like going to work because they're not treated well in in a in a smaller company um you can make sure that your staff are looked after well you can make sure your staff are proud of what they're doing you can make sure that you know that they believe in what they're doing and they work um you know long hours to try to um to make to make the company a success um as a small company you can be more Nimble you can move move more quickly um I mean with with um you know Virgin Atlantic for instance if we want to you know change all our seats in our plane to better seats um you know we can do so in you know maybe nine months for for British Airways it would take them seven years um so you know by by being more Nimble one can one can um one can move quicker one can be more Innovative um and innovate more so it is possible for you know for small companies you can keep your overheads you know lower so you can actually undercut the bigger guy and most likely the bigger guys had years of building up um you know overheads that you as a small company haven't yet got and hopefully never will have and so uh so it is it is possible for smaller companies to beat bigger companies but uh you have to be uh quick of foot and as you say um never take not for an answer Richard you spent a feron of your life running across the ocean and go fast boats hanging on to balloons and altitudes that that are Unthinkable um in fact it was rainning Richard Branson here on the weekend you were hanging from a helicopter somewhere do you believe that without these challenges you would be who you are today and do you believe that you can truly reach your goals without being challenged in life well I I think that there isn't a lot of difference between being an adventurer and and being an entrepreneur if you're you know an entrepreneur um you are pushing the limits um you're trying to as I said before trying to protect the downside and the downside as an entrepreneur is um is going bust um as an adventurer you're pushing the limits um you want to protect the downside because the downside possibly is losing your life um so you particularly want to protect the downside um and um and I mean I realized quite early on in life that um in order to put virgin on the map on a global basis I didn't have the AV izing par uh of our big rivals um so I would have to utilize myself um to get out there and make sure that the world knew about Virgin um and I've had a lot of fun doing it as well as um you know the sort of normal stunts you do when you when you launch new businesses so you know trying to beat the record for the fastest boat across the Atlantic um you know yes we ended up sinking the first time but you know we came back and um was successful the second time um you know trying to be the first person to fly the Atlantic and a balloon yes we sank the first time um but you know anyway the second time we were successful and and so on so um but but I think it it helped um portray virgin you know as a a company that was adventurous and um you know was willing to um literally you know push the balloon out or the boat out um you know believing in that in their company enough to um to put it on on the map and um and uh anyway it seems It's been a lot of fun doing it and it seems to have worked you've talked a lot about living in the moment and I know that you own a couple of islands possibly a couple of continents by now um in living in the moment and I was reading your book it was very interesting to me that you could accomplish as much as in 15 minutes as many people can accomplish in a month how have you found a way to make every second every moment really um well I mean I you know I'm very fortunate I love I love life enormously I love people um love meeting new people uh love learning you know about new things um and you know I find myself in quite a unique position and so don't want to waste the position I find myself in um don't want to wa you know waste my time and um and I think I'm you know I'm in a position I think to um you know make a difference in employing more people and and and challenging you know big business around the world um but equally about 50% of my time I think we we can um you know we can literally make a difference in the world on on quite a some of the big social issues so um so living for the moment um is fun and it you know makes a lot of sense and it would be very sad I think if somebody got into the position I've got um and uh they didn't live life to its full you've often said never do anything in life or in business where you can't sleep at night have youever been in a situation where you were on the verge of doing a business deal or been involved in a business transaction where you felt uncomfortable about it and pulled out where you couldn't sleep at night I think I mean I think that you know from a an early age um and when I was 19 um I had a wrap on the the back of my Knuckles from the customs and excise in UK um and and that taught me um uh that sleeping at sleeping well at night is absolutely critical and running um your companies ethically is absolutely critical and um and you know I hope that you know subsequent to that we've got it about right um and it is very important because I think you know the reputation of a company or an individual can be destroyed overnight if you if if you get it wrong Michael Eisner said something very interesting about giving people Second Chances in your group of companies Richard do you give Second Chances yes I mean I think you know that the the the word family is used by big business to to to uh talk about their company and I'm afraid quite often misus I remember you know CBS records um in New York U had a very impersonal company and you know people they were people were high hard and fud uh at at a moment's notice and you know you'd find you know the managing director was the managing director or the deputy managing director one year was certainly not not there the next year and so on um but I think you know I think that you uh that a good company um you know does run you know run its company as if it's a family and you know if you know you if if your um well if your son messes up you don't you don't kick him out of the um you know of the family I remember when I was um you know 7 years old we had a sweet shop next door and um uh or six or seven years old and and and I've discovered where my father had left his his pocket money uh or sorry his his spare change in in his top drawer of his chair so so I went in one day and you know got got some money out went to the Sweet Shop got a big pile of suets and Mrs AEL rang up my dad and and um said I think you should come along to the Sweet Shop and um my dad arrived and she said well you know I'm sure you haven't given him this money to come and buy all these sweets and my dad looked at her and went of course I have um and um and it anyway it taught me that um uh you know I've I've had similar situations with employees where you know where where they've maybe stolen a bit from the company and so on but by you know by sitting them down and talking to them they' become the most Lo loyal you know loyal people um you could imagine you said you don't kick your son or daughter out for what they've done in my case I have three sents that I'm thinking depends on which one um what I'd like to do with your permission Richard is I'd like to open up the floor for questions for you is that all right and I know we've got a couple of Runners out there with microphones so if you have a question if you raise your hand and we'll uh try and find you ra here's a question over here in the front and we'll get a microphone over to you as soon as we can I don't know whether we should put the lights on for this maybe should we turn the lights up a smidge a spot hi there uh my question is that you're consistently innovating getting into new businesses like Virgin Galactic where do you get your new ideas um the question was where we get our new ideas and for new businesses um some uh some come from um my own personal gut feeling um uh I mean space travel uh is something I'm old enough to remember watching the moonlandings and thinking you know I would love one day to have the opportunity to go into space um and assumed that in my lifetime you know it would it it would have gone without saying that you know having been able to land Man on the Moon that that NASA would have then moved on to enabling uh members of the public to be able to uh experience the wonders of space um uh you know waited you know a couple couple of decades two or three decades found that um you know they really weren't interested in uh sending us human beings into space um and so in the early '90s went out to um to look for somebody who um you know look for who who could be the best person to build a reusable space rocket commercially that could send people safely to space and even more importantly safely back to Earth um and um came across ber rutar and um and you know space travel um you know I think we'll be the only company in the world offering space travel for a while um it'll be great for the brand uh it'll be you know Wonderful to experience it personally and hopefully in time we'll be able to bring the price down to um enable a lot of people to to be able to travel into space um equally importantly on that one because um you know we we spend a lot of time on um on clean energy you know we we're trying to build spaceships that you know are thousands of times more environmentally friendly than uh NASA spaceships because otherwise I think in this day and age it would be unacceptable to set to send people to space with uh the dangers that are happening to this earth um while we're waiting for the next question I'm just wondering how long will it be before the Rolling Stones perform on Mars I'll I'll smck the next time I see him anyway um yeah I think Mars is uh um Mars is a little bit further off anyway do we have another question yeah okay but the way they're going they may still be around when we get there hello hi over here Richard I I I can't see you but I can hear you okay just wondering um how the festival went this weekend and will you do it again next year Well apart from um one one of the the headline band being stopped at immigration and told they couldn't come in which didn't uh didn't help um I I think it was a I think think people had a good weekend and um you know we had a lovely sunny Sunday um not not such a sunny Saturday maybe maybe we should try it in in July rather than September next time um but um uh but you know 30,000 happy people were there and and we'll certainly uh do it again next year Richard while we're waiting for the next question who's the most influential person in your life today uh um well obviously apart from the family um I think I think the person um I admire the most in the world and I'm very fortunate to you known him ever since he well even before he came out of prison was his Nelson Mandela um he and actually his wife obviously remark remarkable people and um and um and we're working together actually in setting up an organization which um May you know something quite good may come of it and um basically he and his wife have agreed to be um the founding Elders um of uh an organization called the elders and uh the the idea is that um that initially he and his wife will appoint the 12 most most respected people in the world um uh people uh like say Archbishop tutu or people like say President Carter or um you know maybe Kofi andan when he steps down from the UN and um and those people those 12 people will be properly funded to um to look at the the bigger issues of the world that um that uh presidents and politicians um don't look at they'll be they'll they'll think more long term so um if you'd say take global warming as an example I mean i' I've spent spent a lot of time the last few years reading reading about global warming um I started by reading a book called The skeptical environmentalist which um put this skeptical side on about global warming um but since then I've read numerous books and met numerous scientists and uh and sadly I think we that the world is careering uh into a catastrophe and uh and it's a beautiful world and we can't we just can't let that happen um and uh and it is possible I believe to stop it happening um I mean there are you know one or two you know scientists like James Lovelock who um discovered the ozone Lair who actually think we've let it go too far and we can't stop it now but um but but the majority of scientists believe that we can uh prevent catastrophe um but in order to prevent catastrophe um you know we you know I believe that we need you know an organization like the elders can do quite a lot in alerting the world to an issue like that um to you know I mean for instance setting up an Internet site where everybody throughout the world can contribute to what they're doing to um to to doing their bit to prevent global warming um I mean if everybody in this room makes sure you keep your air conditioning units turned off um uh you know when you're out of the house and so on I mean it you know it it all it would start to make an enormous difference so um so the elders will will look at issues like global warming they look at issues um uh uh like I mean you know AIDS in South Africa I mean you've got you know a president South Africa who believes HIV um and AIDS is not connected and they've got a health minister in South Africa who is saying that you know garlic is the way to you know um to cure uh AIDS and therefore thousands and thousands of people are dying unnecessarily um you know maybe the elders could have a quiet word with um uh with the president president um and um so U you know there are conflicts that are taking place in the world I mean you know at the time when Israel um uh in invaded Lebanon um two or 3 months ago um the same week Somalia um uh in sorry Ethiopia invaded Somalia but there were just two little lines on the on the internet uh I mean almost nobody in this room I suspect would know that happened um uh it can be possible for for um a group of Elders to go along and knock heads together quietly behind the scenes and maybe um you know find out why why this invasion's taking place you know what the Grievances are and and try to um resolve it um Mandela's managed to do it on on his own um and U but he's not going to be with us forever um so the idea is to you know set up this group of Elders that can you know last for hopefully generations to come and look at some of the bigger long-term issues i' just like to point out [Applause] yeah this is a topic on leadership and I think what Richard Branson has done right now is exemplified why he truly is one of the world's great leaders with the triple bottom line people planet and profets Richard and it's really spectacular to see that we have a question from over here go ahead please what advice would you give to somebody just starting out in their career that wants to be really successful for themselves their family and the World At Large well I think um the first of all you can't be successful for the World At Large and you know you can't make a big difference the world and large and unless you look after yourself and and make sure that you're successful initially so you know I think that you know realistically it is unfair to ask for small struggling companies to say contribute Cash To The World At Large they they can do play their bit in the environment and uh you know make sure that the directors are not driving around in you know big cars and and you know all all the all the things all all the all all all the various areas that they can contribute to but um so so the important thing is if you're setting up um you're setting out in business is you you've got to actually look after yourself um and your family first and make sure that um that that you you that you do well and you that and that you're a successful as possible ideally I think you you you know since you're going to spend your life most likely um you know building say a business or or working in a business um it must be something that you enjoy it must be something you're going to get satisfaction from and I'm and I'm sure actually you know getting satisfaction from it is more important than you know making another five $5,000 or $10,000 a year or whatever it is um so you know so you know if you can get involved with something which is your hobby or something which you know really interests you I think that you know that that's important and if you're actually you know trying to to build a business uh you if you if you you know if you have a passion for what you're doing um you're going to be able to do it to do it that much better are you you planning to get into business yourself yes one day they um anyway well good luck with it thank you do you have fun with everything you do Richard is that part of your strategy if it's not fun we don't do it I think it's I think it's extremely I I remember when we started you know Virgin Atlantic the Rival airlines put out a press statement saying you know how what you know what does somebody from the entertainment business know about the airline business um and you know what what chance have we got to survive uh I I think what they didn't realize was actually you know people in life like to be entertained people like to um you know like to have fun um and you know if you if you're going to spend um 80 or 90% of your or 80% of your life in the workplace it's got to be enjoyable um you've got to you know the people are running companies must realize that that um you know that the people that they're they're working with or working for them um you know this is their life it must be a pleasurable experience um and at virgin you know we we do try to make sure that you know we we throw lots of parties and and that um you know the chairman of the group uh make sure that he's the last home and and and and that's why I suspect I got a a deep throat today um and um uh but if I do go to a party and you know I'm and and and I'm socializing I'll make sure I always have a notebook in my back pocket because you know if you're if you're partying with with with people who you work with they're all going to have ideas um they're all going to have suggestions um and if and and if you just listen and you've got a drink you're not going to remember it the next day so you know scribble all those ideas down and make sure you you address them the next day um and I think what what makes an exceptional company over an average company um is uh is the detail um you know on our claims for instance I mean you know we we we've striven to get all the little detail right um you know even to the extent that you know if you you know we've got these lovely little pepper pots and salt salt pots on Virgin Atlantic and um we know they're going to be stolen so um you know so underneath the salt pots we've got stolen from Virgin Atlantics so so um it's uh they get they get passed around various households when they get home am I paraphrasing this correctly when I heard you say you like to party does that mean we should fly everybody here to London England your place for Christmas does that work for you or they um well I do have a party for all our staff in England um uh and it's now got to 880,000 people come and it's it's spread over eight days so don't come please it's a lot of handshake let's try and squeeze in a few more questions yes over here go ahead please Sir Sir Richard uh I'm interested in the uh uh the business acquisition criteria that you Ed you've you've mentioned it's got to be fun what about uh relationship to your other companies what about return on investment risk growth category unfulfilled need what would be your top three business acquisition criteria well um as a group of companies it's extremely rare that we we'll acquire other companies um we we've um planted you know we we almost all the 300 companies we've got um we we've planted the acorns and then you know put some water on them and you know if they start to flourish we'll put more water on them and we let we let them grow um but my criteria is um you know there's only so many hours you know in the day and um and and it's ready to go into businesses where um where we can make a fund fundamental difference to a sector or or or just a fundamental difference I mean I've talked about global warming um you know virgins in a position um where uh we can invest a lot of money in um businesses that can tackle global warming so um you know so we've spent the last 18 months um uh you know in investing in um you know building new ethanol plants we've been you know we've been talking to ien in Canada about um cell cellulos cellulosic ethanol um we we've been investing in enzyme companies to try to you know break down the cellulose to um uh you know to to to try to um be able to use waste product rather than um than grain and corn to to create ethanol um we've been developing a new fuel uh so a derivative of butanol which is again a very clean fuel like ethanol but um it's more powerful than ethanol and um and uh and you know so we will be spending hundreds of millions of of dollars of you know profits we make from you know our mobile phone businesses and our Airlines and other things in in um in in developing you know a whole series of different areas to to tackle global warming and I suspect other you know as many companies who can afford to right now um ought to be looking at at at at doing the same thing I mean if we can you know if we can actually you know a company could consider you know trying to you know develop a little you know the most efficient solar panels to go on people's houses that that you know Poss possible or the most efficient you know wind wind power to go in people's homes I mean everybody I think in this room knows that they've got to play their their bit and dealing with global warming um I I suspect for entrepreneurs in this room um you know it's going to become a bigger and bigger issue and it would be be something worthwhile um you know a lot of entrepreneurs in this room Cons considering as as as a really important business to go into U so it can be you know a good business um it can do a lot for the world and and and and uh and uh and and yeah and I suspect make a real difference Richard you have a history of doing great things for the world and if we have time I wonder if you could give us a brief synopsis of what you did with Virgin um during the Iraq War um well uh we we um sorry I'm trying to okay well there been a a couple of Iraq Wars um they they um no I mean again I suppose you know one advantage of becoming a public figure um and um is that you know you can pick up the phone to anybody and you can you know maybe cut through and and and get things done and and get and um and I happened to know King Hussein of Jordan and there were quite a few hostages um in Iraq but um uh that um obviously didn't want to be in Iraq and and and it looked like um America was going to um to invade and um so we managed to persuade King Hussein to uh write a letter to Saddam Hussein and and um and uh and you know persuaded Saddam Hussein to get the hostages released and then flew flew in on a uh 747 into Baghdad airport no no plane had been there for 3 years it was dark and uh and um the only other plane there was a bombed out British Airways plane that had been blown up um a few months earlier so it was um it it was a uh an aery experience but it was most incredibly wonderful experience when we when we actually then ended up um flying out of Iraq and um so it's you know so it's um you know there are advantages in in in um you know in becoming a public figure and there are a few disadvantages but not many a question over here yes uh up at the front please with the microphone hi uh Peter foren calling uh Mell professional development um I wanted to say thank you very much for coming into our homes uh every week with your show a couple of seasons ago I felt that uh I learned a lesson in business from every one of those shows the question is um the person you hired at the end of that uh where is he today and how have you learned uh from that whole experience um well I had a uh a ball making the shows um and it was it was a lot of fun and thank you for the kind words um Shan um came and worked with us for a while and has now gone back um to run love sacks and we've actually invested in this company and uh and he's doing great um Sarah um who we gave the million doll dollars to to set up a charity we we've now um we're actually launching a charity called women on the Move um in Atlanta in a couple of weeks time and basically it'll be to empower women uh particularly in Africa because um you know women women uh women actually particular African women um uh I think can you know can help stop the spread of things like AIDS um perhaps more effectively than men and and and address a lot of the problems that need to be addressed um and um uh and a couple of the other people have also um you know um joined up with us so um so we we managed to find three or four very good people from the show thank you thank you do we have another question from over here right there go ahead please okay how do you approach mentoring your own children in terms of teaching them life skills um well I think the um you know I think the key to being a good boss is not that different from the key to being a good father in my own opinion and that is um you know to Lavish praise um to very rarely criticize um and you know if you lavish you know we're talking about watering trees earlier if you lavish praise then you know people will um will flourish and um and you know if you if you criticize people will shrivel shrivel up people know when they haven't got it quite right you don't need to you don't need to say it and so with my kids I Hope they've been brought up in an atmosphere of you know a lot of love and uh a lot of care and and um lots of praise and um and um and anyway they seem they're great kids medine so far so good and a question from here please Sir Richard Branson you've achieved so much in your life and can you tell us who or whom has been an inspiration in your life and to or what is your driving force to continue to achieve each of your goals um I Su SP my I mean I spent my own parents um were uh en enormous uh influence in my life and still are fortunately um you know my mother um never sits still um she wouldn't you know let me watch television as a child I had to get out and do things and uh you know she would you know put me on bicycles and make me ride 300 miles to see you know to see Granny um when I was six or seven years old um and uh you know she may me do things that she would have got arrested for today but um they um uh but anyway she she taught us to stand stand on our own two feet and you know I spent the rest of my life trying to trying to keep up with her so um you know so we've been very fortunate as a family that um you know that um you know lots of lots of love and lots of support Richard we're just about out of time I wanted to ask you I was in London this summer and in London this summer I heard a BBC I think it was a repeat BBC interview with you and it mentioned your daughter Holly and were alluding to the fact in fact you were being interviewed that your daughter I believe her name is Holly has been seeing Prince William if I'm not mistaken and I'm wondering is there going to be a Branson in Buckingham Palace not to start rumors well I think the word seeing is is is as they do in newspapers is uh very much in inverted comment I mean they're both good friends um uh I'll end on just an amusing note um Holly went to Prince William's 21st uh birthday party at Windsor Castle um actually I'll even switch I'll I'll switch back a minute um 16 years before this birth um birthday party um Princess Diana uh named one of our PLS uh lady in red and Princess Diana was great fun and she was a good friend and she went into the cockpit and um and we were flying over wind the castle and and she had Prince William on her knee in the cockpit and in the days when you were allowed in the cockpit it and um and she had the had had the microph the speaker on and she said to the everybody in the plane and if you look to the right uh you'll see Granny's house um and um anyway so uh you know a number of years later when Prince William was 21 um uh Holly was there and there was this giant iced elephant uh with this enormous trunk and um and there were boys at the top you know pouring shots at the top of the elephant this is in Windsor Castle and uh Holly was kneeling at the bottom waiting to receive receive the shot um through the uh they the the M through through the trunk of the elephant and her eyes glanced up to see the queen looking down at her very disapprovingly we're just out a out of time Richard but I'd like to ask you one last question um how would you what would your advice be for everybody in this room this afternoon about following their dreams um well I I just uh um think that um get you know you know live life to its full um uh you know enjoy life to its full uh you know don't waste a minute of it uh um uh you you know friend I mean a lot of what I'm sure most people know already but I mean you know just you know get around you you know a great bunch of friends and you know support each other and uh get out there have fun enjoy yourself and thanks very much for listening thank you I would like to mention that one of our dreams has been to take the packaging and distribution of fulfillment for human beings to the rest of the world if you like Sir Richard Branson's message and Bill and Lance's message and The Power Within next week we launch power within broadcasting on International satellite television and radio and that's one of our goals to take this information worldwide Richard on behalf of all of us thank you thank you thank you so much than thank you Jesse and thank you sir Richard Branson and to all of

Channel: Megacast

Views: 177,309

Keywords: Megacast, Richard Branson, Entrepreneurship, Virgin

Id: 23Frvd3pp5Q

Length: 44min 7sec (2647 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 09 2014