SIR richard branson

episode 12

Broadcast date: November 2017

The Moonshots Podcast decodes a decodes serial entrepreneur and thrill seeker - Sir Richard Branson. Enjoy everything Branson has to teach - from his enormous courage to his ability to be a life-long learner.

BRANSON INTERVIEWS

Richard Branson's Top 5 Tips for becoming an Entrepreneur

Richard Branson: Talking Management

TED conference Richard Branson

Exclusive Richard Branson Australian Interview (2017)

Career Advice on becoming an Entrepreneur by Sir Richard Branson (Full Version)

CHAD'S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Finding My Virginity

Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won't Teach You at Business School

Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's Friday, November 10, 2017. We're at the huge, the enormous, the gigantic episode 12. I am your cohost Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by mr. Chad Owen. Morning, Mike, how are you? I'm good. I'm I'm using my second cup of coffee to push through the jet lag and I feel like I need some inspiration now from there in Brooklyn, New York, Chad, are you a ready to bring us, uh, an inspiring serial entrepreneur?

Are you ready to bring us somebody to challenge the status quo? I am. So we're going to go on a journey into the Caribbean, to a place called Necker Island and learn from none other than sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, which has how many companies. Oh, my gosh. Can you believe it is actually 400, 400?

Yeah, I think we have a really great clip that just introduces us to a, to Richard and his accomplishments. So I'm just going to dive right into our first clip. Branson was only 16 when he left school, but he was always determined and trusted his instincts. When he started Virgin records in 1973, he signed unknown 20 year old Mike Oldfield whose album tubular bills.

Sold over 16 million copies. The Virgin stable quickly grew and included the six pistols and the rolling stones.

But then the business pushed out into planes, trains, and automobiles. Today. It controls more than 400 companies. 400 companies. Yeah. 50, more than 50,000 employees. And it all started when he left high school rather early at the age of 16. What, what a boggling scale? I don't know how you keep track of any of that.

Yeah, I, I don't think I fully realized kind of what I was getting myself into from a research standpoint, learning about him. I managed to make it through one of his autobiographies, but I skipped over the first one and I feel like I still don't know everything I could about him and all that he's accomplished in his, you know, 40 plus years in business.

Yeah. I mean, I was looking through the, through the list of Virgin company and it's, it's just mind boggling to think he's got everything from launching, uh, you know, rockets to the moon, to he has Virgin money, which has his own bank. Uh, he has obviously, uh, the airline and so forth, but I want to take you back.

Terror lines, airlines, plural. Yeah. I want to take you back just to his first major achievement with Virgin records. And to think that there was culture club, the sex pistols, rolling stones, Mike Oldfield like this define that that music defined a generation it's it's like having the biggest rock stars of a decade all under one label.

And that's obviously why he was able to sell it at one point for a billion dollars to EMI. But. I mean, it's truly a remarkable story. When you think about the fact. What is special about Richard Branson is that he's also dyslexic. He didn't even finish high school. And I think that he can go on and achieve all of these things.

I find that not only inspiring, but sort of, it's a healthy challenge to what we expect and the modern day entrepreneur, which would be probably something along the lines of MBA at a famous business school in the U S. Um, you know, perhaps doing some tenure at a large conglomerate, maybe a startup. I mean, he did none of those things.

Yeah. Well, it, he, he chose to leave school and a private school, no less. His headmaster kind of infamously said, uh, you know, Ricky, I think you're either going to end up in jail or a millionaire. Um, but he left off a zero. No. Well, you know, the, the, the other thing that I think really inspires me is that he just continues to challenge the status quo, uh, whether he's trying to jump in a boat and go around the world, jump in a hot air balloon, get on a rocket to the moon.

I mean, Hey Chad, this guy's even been in a James Bond film. Does it get any better? Yeah, well, he had his own reality TV show as well. And don't, and don't forget, rebel, billionaire. Oh, that's right. That's right. He he's, he's really omnipresent. And to think that he first started his journey many, many decades ago.

And if you actually look at social platforms like LinkedIn, he was the first person, uh, on the LinkedIn platform to reach over a million. Followers, which is really impressive because he's still out there sharing wisdom and advice. Yes. And trying to inspire a whole new generation of entrepreneurs. So I think that makes him rather special.

I think the effort he goes to and really just to help other people and to inspire them to do great things. Yeah. I w what I really enjoyed learning about him through the readings and the, and the interviews that we watched is he has been working. What I think is the same process in the creation of all of his businesses, because he's done it so many times.

I think there's some, some, actually some really good lessons. For us, but I think this next clip really just embodies. So Richard and just kind of his philosophy on life and his bold. Um, so I'll just let him speak for himself here in this next clip. Well, I've always, uh, had the philosophy that, you know, screw it, just do it is a lot more fun than, um, than not screaming.

Um, and, um, and sometimes it's got me into a lot of trouble and sometimes more often than not, it's been, it's been fantastic. Screw it just do it. I think if I had to boil also Richard down into a five words, that would probably be it. Yeah. I, and I love it because what we're going to discover in our journey through his universe.

Is that he has got this underlying courage and tenacity and real fearlessness. He's very lady Gaga in that sense, he'll just go after things where others will stand on the, on the sideline and think a little bit more ponder. He just goes for it. And, um, we've got a lot coming up on the show, which really.

Just demonstrates where he just says, forget it, man. Let's just do something. But what's also really interesting is he's not only this courage and fearlessness, you know, there's a lot of, um, really smart, uh, really practical thinking. And what's also really nice is for such a squash buckling, Maverick, you might expect him to be.

A little rough around the edges, maybe a little hard to work with, maybe a little brutal with feedback, but what we're able to reveal later in the show is this, this deep understanding of how to motivate people. And there's a ton for us to learn from him. So it's, it is once again, Chad, I mean the breadth of what.

So Richard has to officer offer us is, is so exciting. Whether it's mentally the models or behaviors. I think it's an action packed show with, with so much for us to learn from don't you. Yeah. Yeah. And don't forget that, uh, all of the interviews and books and everything that we're talking about on today's show will be on our website@moonshots.io.

So, uh, that you can go and check out for yourself, everything that we reference here on the show. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll even put up a few bonus clips that won't make it into the show because we know how hungry everyone is. Uh, For those clips, but let's jumping into where everything started for his airline business.

And we're going to hear a story now about the moment, the exact moment in time that he had his aha and there is so much to learn and unpack. But first let's start with Richard Branson and the creation of Virgin Atlantic. And a lot of the best ideas come out of personal frustration. Yeah. Um, I mean, I've written this in my book, but you know, I mean, I was in Puerto Rico one day trying to get to the Virgin islands and, um, and the lovely lady waiting for me in the Virgin islands, it was six in the evening.

I was determined to get there. And American airlines announced that canceling the flight and, um, so yeah, and myself and 50 other people are all. Upset. And I went to the back of the airport, a harder plane. I was 28 years old at the time. So it took a bit of a risk. I got a Blackboard and I wrote $29 one way to, to the Virgin islands and went out to all the people who got bumped and filled my first plane.

Um, and you know, and it, and, and, you know, as we arrived in the BVS, somebody said, you know, shopping up the service a bit and you might be in the airline business and. Uh, and I ended up the next day ringing up Boeing and saying, do you have any second hands? Seven, four, seven, six. Okay. You know, it was out of frustration that we ended up getting into the airline business.

Isn't that amazing. The initiative that he taught when the rest, so this would have all like packed our bags and gone back to the hotel and returned to the airport. The next day. He's like stuff at rented a jet plane, and not only walked around with the Blackboard. What a priceless image of that is for $29 to jump on the flight.

But the fact that what I think is really important, this is the very next day he's calling Virgin calling Boeing, sorry. And he's like, I want to do on a plane and. This ability to hit a need in the market. And then he is off and running at light speed that remarkable. I think most other people that have created airlines, Chad has probably taken months if not years on business plans.

And that's the stark contrast to which Richard is just like within 24 hours, he'd done the flight and he was on the phone to Boeing. Oh, yeah, this is probably my favorite story that I came across. And in learning about search Richard Branson because of the speed, I think he raised, Oh, I might be getting Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia confused, but, um, He got Virgin Atlantic off the ground extremely quickly compared to other airlines at the time.

And then he used those learnings to actually launch for Virgin Australia, even faster. I think he started Virgin Australia with only $10 million. And you compare it to an airline that started roughly at the same time, jet blue. And I think they had to raise $140 million to get off the ground. But he's able to do that because he's acting so quickly the speed of which he went from personal frustration to testing a business idea, to validating and making money from that business idea to then scaling it in like a matter of 24 hours is insane, but like, He screw it, just do it, right.

It fits working double down on it and keep doing it. That's my favorite part of this, this story. And, and it, it leaves any Silicon Valley startup for dead on speed. But also, I think he just really is able to listen to his interview and sense a big problem that needs solving. What I think is really interesting of all of the entrepreneurs that we have actually decoded and studied.

He's actually very similar to Elon Musk. He moves very quickly. He really has a strong sense of a use case where there's a problem and he's a potential solution. And he is, goes at Lightspeed to bring it to life. And what is obvious here is that he knows the formula that works regardless of the industry or business that he's looking at.

And as soon as he sees these primary. Pains and gains in terms of the customer's point of view, he's immediately thinking of how to meet those, how to scale those and how to build a, a business around it. And I think a lot of Mo he creates an enormous amount of momentum from that. And as. Is I think about how to decode it for us and for our listeners.

I think we often kill things through making millions of business plans, millions of gases, and in contrast, So Richard, he just goes so quick. He instantly tests and validates his product market fit and he's off to the races. He literally called Boeing the next day. I think that's a great learning for a soul to move quickly into action.

Yeah, I think fundamentally it's. His most outstanding attribute in relation to all of the others that we've discussed on the show, just simply his speed to action. So I really think that that's something that I want to keep learning from him. And even, you know, when I'm doing more research on him and the businesses that he's started to really understand how amazingly he's, he's able to do it so quickly.

And the story of the creation of Virgin Atlantic. Also, I think speaks to just a core belief of his and kind of his worldview of just like being a problem solver. I think he goes into every situation. And rather than like you say, giving up, he really turns, literally turns his frustrations into new businesses.

So here he is talking about how he goes about taking something. That's an idea, and then creating a business from it. The best businesses come from. Um, people's bad personal experiences. I mean, it, you know, people are listening to this program. I mean, you know, if you just keep your eyes open, you're going to find, you'll get, you're going to, uh, find something that frustrates you and then, and then you think w well, You know, I could, I can maybe do it better than, than, um, than it's being done.

And there you have a business. I mean, if you can improve people's lives, you have a business and there is still, you know, people think, well, yeah, everything's been thought of, but, uh, actually you know that all the time and that's the great thing about capitalism there's there's, uh, gaps in the market here, gaps in the market.

There are ways of improving things. Here were ways of improving things. There. It's it's right there. It's pretty simple. It take, you know, be an observer and then take your personal experiences and frustrations and figure out how you can do it better. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and the thing for me that it really reinforces is when you fill these high, high degrees of frustration, he sees business as a legitimate vehicle to tackle it because the beauty of it is that you solve.

You can go out and help people in the world and you actually address problems that they have. But then if you're able to actually to do it in a viable and profitable way, you can actually make some money while you're there. And then sort of the quid pro quo that he's so good at understanding. And that's a huge takeaway for our listeners is don't accept huge frustrations that you see in the world and let them pass by.

They're there to be challenged. And if you want to be a little bit stoic about it, in fact, it's, the challenges is the way. So let's hear now from Richard Branson and how he thinks about challenging the status quo. And I love taking on the, you know, the, the status quo and trying to turn it upside down. So, and so I've seen life as one long, one long learning process.

And if I see, you know, if I, you know, if I fly on somebody else's airline and find the experiences is, is not a pleasant one, which it wasn't in 21. Years ago then I think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on them. So it's got one sort of secondhand 7.7 from Boeing.

Yeah. Just gave it a go. That that's, that whole frustrations into business thing. I think there was a little clue in that clip that we just heard. Which was, he mentioned how important learning is. And you will find that this theme is in almost all of the entrepreneurs that were featured on the show, but importantly, for him, he is linking learning to challenge the status quo.

He's so curious. He's he's often been quoted as saying that he's an insanely curious person. He like investigates these frustrations and quickly comes to a few key insights that kind of launches him off on, on the business. And what Chad, what I find super inspiring here is he doesn't accept anything at face value, and he's quite willing to challenge things that everybody else is is merely accepting.

What I'm trying to think is examples from my own experience. Where maybe I have done this or could have done this, you know, seeing a problem or frustration on my own and, and solve it in a new or interesting way. I, I think, I mean, I would love to be able to learn from, and kind of embody this mental model of being an observer and.

Noticing all of those small frustrations, a mentor of mine, Gary Hoover, who we had on the, uh, the Fred Smith show. I think he's been keeping a business idea list for. You know, 50, 60 years ever since he was like a little kid and he has hundreds and hundreds of business ideas in there. And I think four or five of them, you know, turned into viable, successful companies.

I think that I may have to kind of merge those two practices and just be a bit or observer and notice these things, but then be sure to capture those observations that if I ever wanted to. Act on them. I could, although I guess sir, Richard Branson would say, just do it right then and there. Right. Get out, get out the chalkboard and, and ask people for money.

You're only gonna have 24 hours and then you need to be on the phone to Boeing. So you better be careful what you start. Yeah. Yeah, no, but I think that that perspective is something that I really want to seek out and cultivate. Inside. Yeah. The thing that I do when I think about what you were just saying, I, my steps would be to write down the frustrations and pain points, things that you see that just don't work.

That's sort of the first thing. And then I think you have to put yourself into an exercise or how could you make it 10 times better? Okay. What speaks to you as a massive problem that could be solved in this radical new way to make money vastly better than they are today. And I think, I think the key step that we can all take with this is to see a frustration and to acknowledge it and then immediately ask.

Okay, well, how, how could that be turned into a business that addresses that? Um, I think that's the key thing. Make the observation and immediately challenge yourself to say, okay, how do we go about making this come alive, this new idea, this new approach to improve, uh, the way things are at, what if, what if I already have a product or a company.

Mike, and I want to try and apply this, like, so, you know, say I'm six months or six years into something. How, how do you think we might apply, uh, this into the way that we're doing? Maybe something that we're already currently doing. Yeah. So I would say there's there's um, a couple of things you can do here.

I think the first thing is be careful that you're not, I thought a solution in search of a problem because that's a very dangerous way to engineer any sort of business or product, because what you're essentially doing is assuming a solution. And then you're hoping. To find a problem that fits it. And the outcome of that is generally that people are solving a problem, not worth solving.

Okay. So to turn that around, I would use, so you're saying it's too late. You're done you're toast. No, what I would do, here's the answer I would naturally think. Um, is there a way to elevate. What the, what you're doing to a higher level. And I would simply, we look to ask yourself, well, if that's what I'm doing, how am I going about doing that?

What's the unique way in which I approach. The problem. And then if, if you, we can look at the why it's worth solving and what are the positive outcomes that occur when you, when you solve this thing. And when you get into that Y space and we're just using Simon cynic's golden circle theory here, you'll be in a much higher place.

And when you're in a higher place, you're able to explore much, much bigger opportunities and all the permutations around it. I would say challenge yourself to look bigger, to ask bigger questions and explore where that can take you. And the beauty of that is that you often find bigger problems and when you're solving bigger problems, there is bigger business opportunities.

Hmm. So kind of just inverting things in a way. So instead of being so focused on I've got the perfect API for this data or whatever, you're building, flip it around and see like what. What bigger purpose is that serving and how is that connecting with, with the people that are actually going to use it and pay for it?

Yes. The reason that this is so important is that people don't buy what you do. They, what you do, they buy, why you do it, they buy how you do it. And so by playing in a higher space, you're able to explore many different. Products many different sorts of services because that's becomes the lowest hanging fruit.

The great danger is that if you're in a migraine, solving a very small problem and see, uh, competitors copying the product or service. Uh, you'll often see yourself not having pricing power and as all of these problems that come with solving small problems. And the other thing is that most startups end up.

Succeeding in a business product or service that they didn't originally start with. And so that's the other big dark secret of the startup world is that you've gotta be prepared to change quite a lot. Once you have a really big idea of the, the cause you've changed that you're trying to create in the world.

It becomes very easy to pivot and you don't put on those blinkers and become narrow minded. You have the inverse, you become very open to whatever means you need. To solve your customer's problem. That's a really good way of thinking about it. I, I'm just worried that, uh, he's inspiring me to be too much of a serial entrepreneur and jumped from one thing to the next.

So for those of us, you know, that, that have a thing and we're committing, you know, to making it. Great. I just wanted to be sure that, that we, those of us could take something away as well. Some of us are destined to create and build many different things in some of us, you know, we'll have our one thing.

Mm Hmm. Well, I w I would say that that one thing is often made up of many smaller parts, so maybe the way to internalize, so reach it here. Is to challenge yourself for that next feature or that next service or that new thing that you add to your offering. Um, maybe you should, you should look for the greatest frustration that your customers have and challenge yourself to, to rapid prototype, to test and learn as quick as possible with that idea and just be audacious and saying, I'm going to have this market in an in market in an incredibly short time.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I think, I think that's a great strategy. I think, you know, for the, for the second part of the show, we're going to have a look at some, some really interesting things. I mean, how he learns, how he thinks about people and working with them. We have some great advice for him, from him to us. Also some contrarian thing, things that you might not expect from him.

Uh, we we've found one or two really good, surprising thoughts from him. So there's plenty more to come and remember that whenever you want to track back on any of these ideas and dig a little deeper, you can go to moonshots.io and find all the show notes and all those goodies. Um, so be sure to check that out, but, um, you've had a shot at one or two of, uh, Richard Branson's books.

What do you have to report from the Chad Owen? Yeah, so the, the first book that I picked up was losing my virginity, which was the autobiography that he published in 1998. Um, But then I discovered just this past month he published his second autobiography finding my virginity. And I think because I was more interested in some of the later ventures of his eye, I started there.

So in between I found another book by him. I am, uh, called the Virgin way, uh, which is a book on leadership. And. Pretty sure it was ghostwritten, it's kind of one of those forgettable business books. So I only got about fifth of the way through the Virgin way before I put it down. And I picked up finding my virginity and I made my way through it.

Yeah. Then like three days, uh, it was just a really great book. All of that said finding my virginity is, is actually a really interesting look and unpacking. He kind of takes it a little. That chronologically and then kind of sprinkles in some more personal anecdotes in between kind of about his parents, which were very influential for him, his wife, Joan, and, and his kids.

But he, he picks everything up in 1998, essentially everything that's, you know, not and his previous autobiography. So you get to hear the stories of Virgin money and Virgin train and Virgin Australia. Uh, Virgin America and so many more. He's also, he worked with Kofi Annan. To found an organization and Nelson Mandela called the elders, which is kind of a nongovernmental group of elder States.

People from across the globe to kind of get involved in influence, you know, the geopolitical landscape. I, I think that how do you all the accomplishments when you reflect on his beliefs? Which of his beliefs is reinforced or perhaps highlighted the most. Like you look at the outcome when you look at all the things that the way he did it, what do you pick as being like the essential ingredient and that, that brought about so much success.

It's a little bit of what we've already discussed. And I think what will come up later in the show, I think it's that combination of. Keen insight into really deep frustrations and how he can see helping people in a meaningful way, like what you were saying, that, that 10 X improvement on what they're doing combined with the, just the screw.

It just do it attitude. I think those two things combined is what really makes him. Unique. Um, he's also really fantastic at putting together the right teams to do those things quickly faster. Right? Okay. So putting the right team in place, which totally, uh, really makes me, um, reinforces to me that anything audacious, anything that's radically new, it just cannot be done by one person alone.

I know we do focus on individuals. But in every single one of them in each of their cases, there's always this, a story of an amazing team. And I'm particularly struck by what ed Catmull said about Steve jobs. And, um, the way that after he failed with necks and Apple, uh, he returned a much more humble caring person and he surrounded himself with these amazing patrial people of which all of them remained with him, uh, throughout his journey.

So, um, that really works for me. So, so that's the book of finding Hm. My virginity. Uh, so Richard's brand new. In fact, it's only just come out. Um, new book, which we'll have a link to in the show notes@moonshots.io. So now it's time for us to, to take a little bit of a pivot into the second half of the show and look at some, some really interesting approaches that he has to building those teams is sir Richard Branson talking about protecting the downside.

Supers. Yeah, superficially, it looks like we have a high tolerance for risk. Um, but having said that, um, the, one of the most important sort of phrases in my life is, is protecting the downside and I, and it should be, you know, one of the most important praises, any, any business person's life. So, okay. We, we, we made it a big bold move from going from music company into airline business.

Um, but, uh, you know, we, we S I set myself a condition, uh, that I could hand that plan back at the end of the first 12 months. Uh, if the business, if people didn't like our business. Um, and so one of the most important negotiations with Boeing was, you know, we have the right to give you that plane back after 12 months.

And that meant that I knew that. You know, I can put my toe in the water and I could see whether people like, like the airline. Uh, but if it didn't work out, it wasn't going to bring everything else crashing down. So protecting the downside. What he didn't do was order 16 planes, right. You know, outright.

And he just did one, but that one turned into enough demand for him to then order 16 planes. Right. Right. And, and this, this to me, um, I think what's interesting about this philosophy that he really values gives him permission to go out there and turn frustrations into businesses because a lot of people don't think to protect the downside.

And to make these shrewd moves that serve Richard is doing. So it almost enables this almost Maverick style behavior certainly feels Maverick to us, but actually what's under it is, is a very strong sort of fiscal discipline that he's highlighting here. Yeah, I think. Those of us that may kind of go into our are routines of, you know, building things and, uh, it's, you know, sequestering ourselves thinking that that is the safest thing for us to do.

I think sir, Richard is showing us that that's actually. Not true that you, you need to go out and test the idea in open daylight. And that, that will tell you, you know, whether you're onto something or not. And that's how you can pray. He's protecting the downside by allowing himself to fail and fail, um, rather quickly relative to what he's doing.

And. There have been a lot of failures that he has had and the way he describes it, as you know, I fell on my face, but in such a way that I got right back up and kept going. So that being able to protect the downside, I think is very important for him when he's, when he's serious serially creating these businesses.

Mm. Hm. One of the things that it shows is how, how ready he is to learn. And, uh, that really kind of sets up the next clip that you wanted to share. Chad. So why don't you kind of bring that one? Well, this just gets, I think, to his, his core personality and then the way he looks to other. Smarter people to help him.

And he it's this fascinating admission by a man of great wealth that, uh, is actually really unexpected. So here's sort of Richard. Um, you know, to do anyway, I'm dyslexic. So I know that I, I learned the most from, um, from, um, from know practical experience. So the more one can actually make a school, uh, act like, you know, act practically, I think the better, um, I just had funny story of being a dyslexic, um, and building a group of companies.

And so. Uh, age 50, um, we're having a board meeting and, uh, uh, and I said something like, is that good news or bad news? And I'm one of the fellow directors said, look, Richard, just come outside a minute. And, uh, and he said, look, I don't think you know the difference between net and gross yet.

I said, Well, yeah, I sort of got away with it for the last yes, but so you said that, you know, let me, let me share that here's a bit of paper. Um, here's the ocean, here's the net in the ocean, the Fisher in the net. Uh, That's your profit at the end of the day, you know, the net that's caught the fish and the rest is gross.

That's that's that's yeah, got it. I thought we were doing a lot better than I thought it was the other way.

I'm sorry.

How funny is that is, I mean, that is remarkable in so many ways, Chad, at clear the fact that he's so ready to admit that he's dyslexic. He's so ready to admit. At age 50, this guy is worth $5 billion and he didn't know the difference. And he's just laughing about it. I find that so humble and so counterintuitive to the archetype CEO, I find that very inspiring.

I mean, what, what did you think when you had this chat? I, I thought it was a great color, you know, to his personality. And again, I think speaks to, he's able to put people in place that do know the difference between net and gross. I think his strong suit really is at the outset, you know? Identifying the pain point and envisioning a 10 X future, and then putting together the team quickly to execute on that idea.

So Richard's genius is in that kind of inception phase and then the just acting as a true visionary and kind of protector of the brand. Yes. Yes. And, and it, it really starts to demonstrate there's not one way. Of doing innovation, of being entrepreneurial of creating things. So the 10 times better, there's so many different ways.

And I think the real beauty in what we're seeing here is he's so different Elan it's in some ways. So similar he's a lot like Oprah in many ways. And this to me is really exciting. For all of our listeners, where does decoding these people and we can take some or all of the lessons from each of these people.

That's our choice pick the thing that, that work for us. But it's, it's so exciting to think of all the different paths that you can take to success. I think one of the things that compliments that he's just do it. Can do attitude is he's truly deep interest in building. People into the best they can be to helping to supporting them.

And this next clip really demonstrates how he's worldview of the business really is for all of the exciting flashy, shiny things on the outside. This next clip is, is really powerful in revealing his underlying belief in what a business truly is. So let's listen. Two says, sir, Richard Branson talking about are people truly out of the business?

I think that the most important, uh, the most important thing about, uh, running a company, uh, is to remember all the time, what a company is. Um, a company is simply a group of people. Um, and, uh, as a leader of people, Uh, you have to be a great listener and you have to be a great motivator. Uh, you have to be very good at praising and looking for the best in people.

Um, you know, people are no different from, from flowers. If you water flowers, they flourish. If you praise people, they flourish. And, um, and that's a critical attribute of an, of a leader. Hmm. Yeah. And, and he makes a very important point that I think we can all take away, which is here is all about building.

People are praising people, never criticize, always praise. And, and again, it's what a stark contrast. Bill Gates even admitted that he was too harsh with his feedback. He, he often. Asks Melinda Gates to take care of all the people related matters because he's so technical, cerebral, black and white, if you will, about things.

What we're seeing here from search Richard is a great attention to breaking all of this down into a group of people that need to be motivated that need to be working well together. And I find this quite powerful, given that on the other side, he's turning frustrations into businesses. He's got this, Kandoo go get them attitude.

But there's also this, I dunno how I would describe it yet. It's almost this disarming, uh, care, uh, for the people that work for him. How, how did it feel when you, when you were hearing him talk like this? It's, it's a very nice adjacent, uh, idea to his other ones. Yeah, hearing him talk about the importance of listening.

I really found many, many examples of that. And in his book, finding my virginity, he it's part of his, you know, finding the best problems to solve is really just listening to people, whether that's in starting the new companies or in solving the problems that exist within his companies. It has so many anecdotes about how he'll be in a boardroom or that kind of setting.

And he is the only person taking notes. Um, which kind of dumbfounds him, you know, he's like, you know, are, do you think you're above it? Like, how are you going to take action on what we're doing here? If you're not taking notes. Right. Um, but I I've been really hard pressed to find examples or reporting on.

On him not being a very supportive and encouraging leader, you know, you would think that someone in his position could maybe become quite tyrannical, but that's not the case at all. No, it's, it's, it's not. And I think it would, uh, what it speaks. It's not only his care for people. I think that the only way you could be so prolific in your achievements, More than 50,000 employees, more than $5 billion worth of personal wealth, 400 companies, businesses, philanthropists charities, you name it, world records.

I think it really comes from the fact that not only does he understand people, I think he knows. Where he's underlying passions and interests are. And I think that that's, what's so exciting for me as somebody who's trying to do everything in my career and my professional and personal wealth, which starts with loving the area, the topic, uh, the practice in which I'm involved with.

I just want to do stuff I love with people that I love. And I think I find that really inspiring about Richard. Hmm. Well then listen to this next clip as Richard talks about just that, you know, it's sort of foolish to spend your life, not for, not, not becoming expert at your passions. If you're passionate about something, you're going to give it, um, you're going to give it your all and, um, and you're going to enjoy learning about it.

Whereas if you have no interest in it, um, uh, you're, you're not gonna, uh, you're not going to lap it up. Yeah, I think sir, Richard, definitely someone that has become an expert, his passions, and I think that's what makes him such an interesting entrepreneur to follow. Yeah. So let me ask you this, Chad, you obviously, we are so passionate about storytelling.

What can you share? What your greatest done, what brings you the most happiness through actually making a career out of doing something that you really care about that you love to do? I mean, what's the, what are the good things that happen for you? Because you do something that you love. For me, I think it's creating the emotional response in the audience and whether that's joy or delight or compassion or excitement.

I think for me, the kind of currency that I trade and is that emotional, the emotional currency, if you will. So everything that I do, I, I, hi, hope is in service of creating that emotional response from the people that are watching or listening or. Reading and tell us why that matters. Like, how do you feel when that happens?

Oh, you, do you feel great because you've gotten, you've gotten the response that you're looking for. Right. I mean, if it's as simple as like, if it's for product or service that's being sold, you know, you're, you're exciting that person enough to go and try it out or buy it. Or if it's a documentary you're trying to highlight a group of people that are doing some amazing things, you know, uh, Creating engagement and, uh, and compassion towards, um, you know, that cause is really impactful because you know, now in some small way, you know, you're furthering that cause or helping those people.

And surely that though the goosebumps that you're able to give people. Is a real gift. I mean, this is when people experience these heightened emotional responses to your work, these things permanently marked into their memory, into their being. You've inspired them. You've taught them, they've learned them.

Surely that's the juice that keeps you getting up every morning and making these films right. Yeah, if I've done it well. Okay. And so more successful than others, but yeah, I mean, that, that really is, that really is what, what drives me. Yeah, I couldn't agree more that, that it really is following your passions and delighting other people.

I think when you do things that matter when you work with people and you're always helping others and doing so in, in areas that you really care about, I think so many good things happen. You end up being surrounded by people that inspire you, that teach you that you can. Learn from, but I also think you, you experienced great fortune.

You, you just create this Goodwill that can surround you. And it is so starkly different to people that are not happy, not doing things that they're passionate about, not working with people that they connect with. And so I think that this is a real call to people to not only follow your passion. But I think what Serita really teaches us is to put people first to put the idea, to put the problem solving first and the profits.

Second. I mean, he didn't even know what they were even know what the profits were. And he had 5 billion of them in his own bank account. That's so, so, so remarkable. So that, that brings us to, to the, just one, one more thing on that point, Mike, I just wanted to speak to maybe those of you in the audience that.

Find yourself in a place of work where it's maybe not your true passion, there's got to be, you know, take some inspiration from sir Richard, and there's got to be some area of your work or your personal life, where there's that itch that you want to scratch. You know, that, that frustration find what is most, you know, find the passions in those.

Nooks and crannies and, you know, pick that up as your side project or your side hustle. And then who knows one day it could become your, your full time hustle. I, I totally agree. Like move into action. If you're not playing in a game that is deeply compelling to you, change the game, uh, go out there and find it.

Look in your personal professional life. Uh, and just merely ask yourself, what are the times that you're most happy and what are you doing? What are the areas that interest you? Where do you see the biggest points of friction in those areas? And start to ask yourself, how could they be better? I think that's definitely inspiration.

We can take from, from sir, Richard. Now as I was saying, we have one more clip. I think this really does. If, if just do it is the mental model of syringe. Then I think this next clip really wraps up his and advice that we can all take with us as we think about how he sees the world and the people within it.

And if you treat people well, uh, people will come back and, and come back for more. And, uh, and I think what we, all you have in life is your reputation. And, um, and it's a very small world. Um, and I actually think that the. You know, the best way of becoming a successful business leader is, is, is dealing with people fairly well.

I like to think that's how, how we run Virgin. Yeah. Treat people fairly and well. And he can say that. With the view across 400 of his own companies, 50,000 employees, a bunch of world records and wow. The list as we've said, goes on and on. And what's always a lesson that I continually learn is when you treat people well, it's, you know, even selfishly speaking, it just feels good to do the right thing.

And it's amazing. How sometimes directly and indirectly doing the right thing by others, putting yourself out a little bit can bring back some of the most surprising rewards that you may or may not have even expected. And I think that's a really powerful Manseff uh, so riches. So Richard, to leave us with, I think for me, it's the speed of execution.

The. The constant perspective of how can I turn these frustrations into business opportunities and then the speed of execution to get them done. I just see it in every single one of the companies that he started. And I think that is what has made him so successful. So I'm really curious how I can learn from that and maybe be a little bit quicker to market or quicker to try and.

And if I mess up, I'll pick myself up off the pavement and get right back up and do it. Yeah. I, I, I really agree. Yeah. It's like done don't noodle on an idea for a year noodle on an idea for an hour and then go test it. And I think professionally, particularly the practice of rapid prototyping. Yeah. And also, you know, you will hear a lot of people talk about agile ways of working.

Which is simply just avoiding that traditional waterfall longterm way of working in being much sprint and scrum based small teams, quick validation with customers. I mean, it's like, yes, sir. Richard Branson getting out of the building. Yeah. Get out of the building. Get out of PowerPoint. So Richard Branson was the original address, lean startup guy.

He wrote the book, you know, super, super rich. Spectrum of ideas that he had for us today from challenging the status quo. And then he's taken on banks, airlines, you name it. He's, he's messed with the best, you know, and, um, he just sees everything as a legitimate business vehicle. How, how to turn a frustration into a business opportunity and.

You know, the, the track record speaks for itself, but what is so delightful? What's so pleasing to hear that he's done it in such a people centric. Manoj he's put people before anything else. And, um, certainly Chad, you and I have actually worked together with one of the Virgin companies and we certainly experienced it firsthand.

So I, I, I think again, what is it thoroughly unique entrepreneur? I think he's distinct amongst the company of the other 11 entrepreneurs that we've reviewed. Uh, he's very unique. Isn't it yet? Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of working together, Mike, we have a, an exciting announcement. Indeed. Indeed, indeed. We are.

We are so excited to share with everyone that we are going to do our first and definitely not our last live broadcast and, uh, very official board meeting. And we said, well, where in the world are we convening? That's that's what everyone wants to do. And the other thing was, well, if you're in New York and I'm in Sydney, then what would be strategically sort of in the middle ish between those two.

So where are we going to do our first live broadcast from Chad? Well, fate has us in Amsterdam, the Netherlands towards the end of the month. And you have been working behind the scenes to line up some fantastic Dutch entrepreneurs and audience members for us to do our first. Live moonshots podcast straight from Amsterdam.

That's right. That's right. We will be broadcasting live all over the fabulous internet on November 24th, we will definitely be in a good place for all our us and European listeners to tune in live. For those who are in my Homeland of Australia, I'll need to stay up late. They'll need to get some good espresso, but it would be thoroughly worth it.

We will, in the next show, we'll announce some of the guests that we'll have coming on some famous Dutch. Take entrepreneurs. We'll be broadcasting alive from aunt Sam for the launch of a brand new, uh, company that will tell you more about in the next show. And we'll even be introducing you all to some rather famous Dutch treats.

Uh, we'll have all sorts of yummy cheeses and cookies that we'll be introducing to you because Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to that part. Not only, not only does, uh, Holland. One of the most, um, original lands of the entrepreneur. Uh, I don't know, Chad, the first stock exchange in the world, uh, was the Dutch stock exchange and it wasn't the first corporation Dutch tenants.

Correct. And check this out. When I lived in Amsterdam, I lived in one of the old warehouses of that company, the Dutch East India company, and my apartment was an old spices and ammunition warehouse from the VOC, the Dutch East Indies company. Wow. So it's so exciting to be taking the show and our listeners to Amsterdam to do it live.

Uh, you know, Amsterdam and the Netherlands is just a very special place in the world where the people are super bright, super collaborative. And my gosh, the cheeses pretty good. The cookies are good and we'll be. Uh, sharing all of that and more from, from live from Amsterdam on August, um, November 24th. So we'll be pushing out all our messages and all those fabs social networks, website of ours, moonshots.io.

You name it, we'll have it out there and make sure you tune in for our first live broadcast on the, on the 24th of November. Yeah. And I just wanted to say thank you again to all of our fabulous listeners. It's really encouraging to both Mike and I to see the, uh, the listeners continue to grow all across the world in countries that I didn't even know we had, you know, listeners.

And so I just wanted to say again, thank you to all you listeners. Chad. I even had the first situation. You'll laugh at this. Where, um, we had been announcing Facebook, the, the shows that were coming up. And, um, uh, what have I done? This was chase. See me down. Like, where's the show I've seen the, I've seen the announcements, but I want the show.

How are you up? How are you? Whereas, so that was, that was great. That was great. So, uh, um, really excited for, for the broadcast on the 24th, but I think shabby, we're going to sneak in one more. Of irregular shows before then. And what, what are we thinking? Who should be the subject of our next moonshot podcast?

Well, I think to stay on the serial entrepreneur track, we've been looking at doing Jack Dorsey. What do you think about, uh, picking him up and, uh, diving into, to what he's been doing the past decade? You know, I, I love, um, uh, Jack Dorsey because he's shown some metal, I think the last year or two, he was absolutely one of the Kings of Silicon Valley say three or four years ago.

And I used to run into him at the coffee store in San Francisco all the time. We both used to get coffee at the coffee bar down just by Montgomery street and, uh, You know, definitely with the decline in Twitter, the last two or three years he's reputation sort of was a little bit, you know, up for question, but I've recent times.

Twitter is showing some early signs of regeneration. And he is quite miraculous being both the CEO of Twitter and square. I'm a payments company that he runs and is a founder of, so a truly remarkable, uh, guy and great attention to product design, um, and experienced design. So it's right up my alley. And a super smart guy.

And again, another twist on the entrepreneurial view of the world, different to, so Richard Forshaw, he's probably it's, you know, I can't even pin him close. To anyone else we've had, but I'm super excited to get into his world. Two very special companies that he runs. And I just can't even fathom the idea of, of running two different companies.

So yeah, honestly that are both Silicon Valley tech companies. I don't know if this guy sleeps, Chad. Yeah, that's pretty, pretty incredible, really remarkable, but we're always looking for suggestions from you listeners. So if you have any suggestions, please email us@helloatmoonshots.io or check us out on our website, moonshots.io.

We love to hear from you, uh, and get, and get your feedback. Absolutely, absolutely. So. What's what's left for you chat in the last few hours of that Brooklyn evening. Uh, I am preparing for a two week long documentary shoot before I meet up with you and Amsterdam. So I'm kind of in the final gear preparations for that.

So that's what my evening tonight and day tomorrow is going to be before I head off to Louisiana. Nice. Nice. Well, um, I'm going to. Make my way to the gym and kickoff the dregs of this jet lag. I'm going to, um, get ready to welcome in the weekend, uh, with a weekend of exciting things with the family and friends.

Um, so all is Bryce not only on the moonshots podcast, but both in Brooklyn. Louisiana Amsterdam and Sydney. So let's make it. Yep. And thank you to all our listeners. We hope you enjoyed, sir, Richard Branson and everything. He can teach us and make sure you stay tuned for next week's show with Jack Dorsey.

That's a wrap. Thanks ever so much. And we'll see you next time on the moonshots.