Since dropping out of school at age 16 to start his first business , billionaire Richard Branson has overseen hundreds of companies. Along the way, he’s met and worked with brilliant leaders and entrepreneurs.
« No two successful entrepreneurs are the same, » the Virgin Group founder writes on his blog. « In fact, it’s their individuality and different ways of thinking that make them successful. »
« The luckiest people in business are those that are prepared to take the greatest risks, » Branson writes. « We can all create our own luck by taking the necessary risks to open the door to change, progression and success. »
It’s similar to the advice PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel gave Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg , according to Zuckerberg: « Peter was the person who told me this really pithy quote: ‘In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.’ I really think that that’s true. »
He’s not the only billionaire entrepreneur to credit failure for eventual success. Spanx founder Sara Blakely goes so far as to say that failure is the secret to her success. (Thiel, however, calls failure » massively overrated. « )
» Communication makes the world go round. It facilitates human connections, and allows us to learn, grow and progress, » Branson writes.
Effective communication is more than just being able to speak — to make it in the entrepreneurial world, you need to « listen more than you talk, » he says. After all, « if you aren’t listening, you are missing out. «
