Richard Branson Quotes

We are taking a business-as-usual position at my agency, though business before 9/11 wasn't that hot either!

Today, public companies don't like the idea of conglomerates. People want to buy something in which they know where they are putting their money - into the food business or the oil and gas business. They don't want to put their money into a hodge-podge as a general rule.

But we had a pretty diversified portfolio of businesses around the world and things tended to offset each other. But one or two years ago, we had a lot of things happening at the same time.

You have to build businesses for longer term.

I'm a strong believer that you can build great companies in time of both greed and fear. But you have to be paying attention and operating under the right assumptions. You don't have to believe history repeats itself, but you should accept that history rhymes.

A big company is like trying to steer a luxury liner.

The Interros strategy toward various assets generally depends on the stage of their development and level of their maturity.

Essentially, you have to be aware of a crisis happening: 'Can the company go on if I get hit by a bus?' That's, I think, how you build a great company and something that can scale.

If the investor doesn't have enough time and skill to investigate individual stocks or enough money to diversify a portfolio, the right thing to do is to invest in exchange-traded funds that give you exposure to asset classes. It does make sense for the individual investor to think in terms of holding individual asset classes.

The music and airlines businesses are tough, but I've been successful in them.

I decided that there was only one place to make money in the mutual fund business, as there is only one place for a temperate man to be in a saloon: behind the bar and not in front of it.

In my role as executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization and founder and CEO of my own lifestyle brand, I've had a lot of practice negotiating.

I've spent a lot of time studying corporations and what makes them tick.

Many financial advisors recommend that you diversify for your own protection. What they fail to tell you is that it is also for their protection. Since most financial advisors cannot tell you exactly which stock or mutual fund is a great investment, they tell you to buy a bunch of them.

I think I've changed my business strategy every year since 2003. You have to be watching the horizon constantly. The rug has been pulled out from under our feet so many times.

People should look at building long-term businesses, not just selling a business.

Sometimes, the startup game works in your favor just because you got in at the right time and right environment. Other times, you're a little too late entering an already crowded space. But startups with strong fundamentals withstand external conditions and come out ahead in good or bad times.

We don't want to bank all our risk on a small collection of big companies. We don't want to lose 20 percent of our business if one big account goes away.

We have never shied away from making investments. Even during downcycles, we never stopped our investments.

Diversifying the business is definitely a good thing.

The truth is that the celebrities that transitioned into being business moguls or launching a brand have to be very smart, or at least be advised by very smart people.

I can't tell you the amount we plan to invest in new acquisitions because that will depend on the opportunities that become available to us.

When times are tough, we tend to outperform as margins increase.

The basketball great Kobe Bryant started his own venture-capital firm. LeBron James has rebranded himself as not just an athlete but also an investor and entrepreneur.

In an increasingly competitive technology world, VCs must work more and more closely with portfolio companies to develop superior technology, talent, and operations.