Richard Branson Quotes

I think the most important trait for an entrepreneur is persistence. When you try to do something new and difficult, you are more likely to fail than to succeed.

Don't let people tell you your ideas won't work. If you're passionate about an idea that's stuck in your head, find a way to build it so you can prove to yourself that it doesn't work.

The most important thing is to be passionate and ready to accept the pains that sometimes go along with the business.

Hearing 'no' a lot of times usually tells you either you're crazy or you're on the right track, and you don't know which one it is until you finally launch.

If there's ever an example of the importance of making bold bets and focusing on what you love, it's Twitter.

You don't have to raise millions of dollars to be successful, you just have to work on something you are passionate about.

I've taken a lot of risks through the years, but I always followed my instincts and always explored new opportunities. The biggest reward has been having an idea and being able to make it a reality. My passions always lead the way - travel and adventure, fitness, art, and home.

I have a mother who never took no for an answer when it came to her creative pursuits. She started a hair salon in her spare bedroom and four years later had 30 employees.

Remember, I'm someone who got fired from Disney and eight days later started the first studio in 65 years with two of the most brilliant, successful people in the history of the entertainment business, doing something everyone said was somewhere between improbable and impossible. I'm afraid that's exactly what I love doing.

I would say if you have a dream - and whether that is you want to be some sort of artist, or you want to start a start-up or a business, anything that very much feels like it's uniquely yours and you may not be able to get traction going through traditional channels - the way to do it is to build it brick by brick on your own in microsteps.

Entrepreneurship is a muscle, and winning is an endurance game.

This is my advice to entrepreneurs. It's easy to give up, but believe in your ideas. Surround yourself with people you respect and are smarter than you.

I think about people like Jeff Bezos or Reed Hastings, and I really marvel at the stamina they've had to keep on trucking no matter what happens.

The most successful people in American life are those that have had horrific failures and have come back, done it again and again until they got it right, whether it's Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.

First of all, you have to born with a brain. I mean, you can't be a dummy and say I'm going to become a multi-billionaire some day. But, more than anything else, you have to love what you do, and beyond that, you can't ever give up.

I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance... Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you're not going to survive. You're going to give it up. So you've got to have an idea, or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you're passionate about otherwise you're not going to have the perseverance to stick it through.

You can't get anywhere without incredible passion, because if you're an entrepreneur, there's gonna be a lot of bumps in the road. A great artist has to do their art. There's nothing that can stop them from doing it. They just have to get it out there. It's the same thing for an entrepreneur. If you don't feel that way, then you're probably not really an entrepreneur.

The determination that led me to create a new sports team taught me an important lesson: opportunity is manufactured.

It doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success.

I always say, "Don't let a 'no' or even a dismissal defeat you, let it be the fire that makes you want to go. Every time someone says, "No," that makes me even more determined. That's one of the things I want to try to teach young people. Oddly, the other thing I want to teach the young people is to get a hobby. That's what I first say: "Do something that brings you happiness other than acting, because this business is so fickle." I make blankets and stuffed animals. I don't know. I'm a weirdo.

The biggest hurdle is rejection. Any business you start, be ready for it. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the successful people do all the things the unsuccessful people don't want to do. When 10 doors are slammed in your face, go to door number 11 enthusiastically, with a smile on your face.

If you feel driven and compelled to make your work and to be fiercely original and have something unique to say, in a compelling way, then chances are the helpers will be there for you the doors will open some, the ice will crack.

To me, crazy is not someone who has a creative vision and will fight for it.

I just think a hustler's ambition is that I never stop. I start off hustling and said I'll never stop hustling. An ambitious hustler is the one to hustle the hustlers. When I grew up, my heroes were hustlers. Now I'm their hero.

Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.