For Richard Branson, being an entrepreneur has a lot less to do with the hard-wired business side of things and everything to do with the uniqueness of the idea at hand.
Entrepreneur recently attended a talk the billionaire gave at Virgin Hotels Dallas amid the relaunch of the company’s entrepreneur-focused program, RM72. The event brought together entrepreneurs, mentors, and mentees to help foster business connections and listen to Branson dole out his ever-coveted advice.
During the gathering, Branson said that when he embarks on a new endeavor or business with Virgin, he thinks less about how much it will cost the company and more about whether or not the idea is strong enough to separate itself from competitors.
Richard Branson speaks at the re-launch of RM72 at Virgin Hotels Dallas (Entrepreneur)
“My attitude is ‘Screw it, let’s do it’. Let’s see if we can create something better than anybody else has done it and the figures should stack up at the end of the year — that’s been my approach,” he said at the event. “And sometimes we’ve fallen flat on our face, but we’ve always, I think, created something special. So even where things haven’t worked out, we have left our hopefully happy memories and what our team tried. And fortunately, more worked out than not.”
Branson, who founded Virgin Records in 1972, has since gone on to pursue multiple other endeavors under the Virgin Umbrella, including Virgin Hotels, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Voyages, and more.
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Branson said that the importance of branding and wanting to use that branding to be the best in any given space or industry has been one of what he believes is any entrepreneur’s key to success — regardless of budget and regardless of industry.
“What matters is can you create the best? The best hotel? Can you create the best cruise line? Can you create the best airline? Can you create the best train company? Can you create the sexiest space company, and so on,” he said. “If you can, if you create something really, really special, generally speaking, as long as you haven’t completely f****d up, the figures will add up in the end. And so, at Virgin, I think our teams have created the best in every field.”
Branson’s net worth as of Wednesday afternoon was an estimated $2.9 billion.
Related: Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and Others Explain What It Takes to Find Big Success
