There are a million ways to make a million dollars, and in this video, we’re looking at how the billionaire himself, Richard Branson, did and got rich.
With an estimated net worth of $3 billion, Richard Branson is not only rich but has a lot to say about how he likes to conduct business. So let’s see what you can learn from this.
When he left high school, his headmaster told him: “You’re either going to become a billionaire or end up in jail”.
And funny enough, both of those things happen.
This is how to get rich, according to Richard Branson.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading, you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
1
Don’t start a business if don’t actually want to
We’re starting off this list with something a lot of people need to hear.
Similar to Mark Cuban, whom we covered in a previous video, Richard Branson thinks you should 100% believe in what you’re doing.
Because if “you’re not proud of your idea and you don’t believe in it, why would anyone else?
So many people get drunk on the idea of being entrepreneurs but produce only half-baked crap that doesn’t have any value to anyone.
“If you do something you truly care about, you will be in a much better position to find customers, connect with them, and keep them coming back”
So the first piece of advice is to start with something you actually care about and are interested enough in to make a great product.
2
Be brave when you have to
Richard Branson believes that any aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get rich needs to be an optimist first.
Because starting any kind of business is essentially a bet, and you need to be able to see the glass half full in order to persevere.
And at the end of the day, those who sit on the sidelines need not bother those who take charge.
Success doesn’t come to you on its own. You need to be brave enough to go grab it and also be okay with the idea of missing your shot. Branson had plenty of failed businesses.
Even in recent years, the pandemic put him in a position where we could lose everything.
But that’s a given in the business world. Not everything works out as you expect.
But that shouldn’t stop you from being brave enough to take your chances.
3
Make a great product first
Richard Branson believes that the reason most businesses fail is because they are set up to get rich, not make great products.
Of course, a business needs to be profitable to survive. But there’s a huge difference between profit and product.
When you focus only on profit, you end up gutting the quality of your product in order to sell solutions to problems you create.
That’s why your phone doesn’t come with a charger anymore.
But when you focus on creating a great and finished product, it’s much easier to understand and connect with your customers and grow the business naturally.
You see, great products are few and far between nowadays.
As megacorporations grow bigger, shareholders steal the decision-making authority from creative people.
And this could be an opportunity. The world needs simple things that actually work.
4
Find people better than you
You’ve heard this a million times before.
Find people better than you and have them do the work. But there is one thing that’s missing from this saying. And so far, very few truly successful entrepreneurs are mentioning it.
If you want to work with people smarter than you, you also need to give them a good reason to work with someone dumber than them.
Branson said that a company is simply a group of people. People are no different from flowers. If you water flowers, they flourish; if you praise people, they flourish
You can’t expect people to do their best work if you don’t give them anything valuable in return.
And that doesn’t mean money.
It means understanding what motivates them, what they need to do to make great work, and why they’re doing what they’re doing.
So many wannabe entrepreneurs hire employees and just expect them to be on top of their game because that’s what’s written in the contract.
But in real life, it doesn’t work like that.
5
How to market
There are two reasons why Richard Branson has got this rich and acts the way he does.
One is because he actually enjoys life and doesn’t take himself too seriously. But secondly, it’s also a marketing strategy that one of his mentors taught him.
“Use yourself. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise, you won’t survive”. That’s what Sir Freddie Laker told him when Branson started Virgin Atlantic.
You see, the chances of success depend on how many people hear about you and your business.
It doesn’t matter if you create the greatest product known to mankind if nobody hears about it. And in a world that hunts for every second of your attention span, marketing has become pretty difficult.
But not everyone has millions of dollars to throw at ads and billboards. And even back then, Branson knew he couldn’t compete with other corporations on marketing budgets.
So he became a marketer for his own business.
He did everything he could, using his own image, to get the company name in the front of the newspaper. And he took it to great lengths.
When Virgin Airlines finally got permission to use Heathrow Airport, the competition was not happy. They even called them pirates.
So what did Branson do in response?
He went at 4:30 in the morning, dressed as a pirate, covered with the British Airways display jet in Virgin branding, and did a photoshoot. The skill of marketing on a budget alone can make you millions of dollars.
6
Find your differentiator
When Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines, his main goal was to not get driven out of business by the already established airlines.
When his mentor, Freddie Laker, started Laker Airways, it only lasted a year.
And that’s because British Airways, a goliath in the airline business, did everything in its power to drive out the competition.
You see, Freddie Laker hoped that low fares would be enough to compete with other companies.
But what happened was that British Airways dropped their prices even lower than his because they could afford it. The fact is that they only needed to do that, until Laker Airways went bankrupt, which turned out to not take long.
Branson figured out that simply having cheaper prices is not enough to compete in a market.
Starting a business with your only differentiator being a small price puts you in a position where a corporation has a very simple way of driving you out of business.
So he needed to find a differentiator. Something the competition could not replicate.
And since he came from the entertainment business, he knew just the thing that would cut it.
He started throwing parties during flights. He hired masseuses, comedians, and even jugglers to keep people entertained during their flights.
It turned out to be just the right differentiator to set them apart.
7
Be your own customer
Richard Branson, as rich as he is, doesn’t do board meetings.
As a matter of fact, he said he hadn’t been to such a meeting for more than 50 years.
It’s just paperwork and other things that don’t help the end customer.
Instead, what he likes to do is experience each part of his business purely as a customer, to see what can be improved and what can be done better.
Even when he went to space and officially became an astronaut, he said the main reason he did that, besides the amazing experience, was to try out firsthand what his future customers would go through.
And as a matter of fact, when he landed, he had a list of 35 things that needed improvement.
Things like personalized seats to fit any kind of customer, a more automated seat belt, color-coded seats so people could more easily find their own while floating in zero gravity, and so on.
He said that most leaders live their whole professional lives in offices when the real work must be done in the field.
8
Start with a ring around yourself
Richard Branson has a mantra that says you should start with a ring around yourself.
And inside that ring is just you, and you make sure you’re healthy, balanced, well-rested, and live a good life.
Moreover, you extend that ring to your immediate family and see how you can help them. And then you extend it to your community.
And if you are lucky enough, you get to extend it to your whole country and even the entire world.
The point of this is to teach you to always do good.
Because Richard Branson believes the only reason a company should exist is to improve the life of others, not gather riches.
And if you always have this in mind, you will unlock a whole new level of energy that will fuel your happiness.
9
It can always be done better
Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Richard Branson sought out things that could be done better.
From his music label turned empire that provided everything for artists, to his transportation businesses, taking better care of its customers, and many other ventures, he understood that if your whole point is to make things better, you will eventually succeed.
In fact, this is probably one of the best points on this list. There is nothing out there that’s done to perfection, and it probably never will be.
If your intentions are good and you put in a lot of effort, the chances of making something great happen will increase. And lastly…
10
Have fun
Branson is one of the very few entrepreneurs who believes business should be fun.
As a matter of fact, he thinks it’s crucial, and part of the reason he was able to find success.
You want to smile and have fun. Your staff wants to smile and have fun. And your customers want to smile and have fun.
So really, there’s no reason for that not to happen.
When he took over a chunk of British Rail in the UK, which was previously run by the government, the whole staff was demoralized. And the first thing he did was invite everyone to his country house for the party of their lifetime.
Mind you, we’re talking about 10,000 people.
He set up tents, bands, and playgrounds so people could bring their children and stay overnight, basically organizing a small festival for the whole company.
And surely, that boosted morale across the board.
He said that you, as a leader, should be the first one up on the bar. Or the first one jumping in the pool with your clothes still on. And that’s because you need to allow people to relax and have fun because only then do you get to meet their real selves.
It’s definitely a different approach from how most highly successful entrepreneurs conduct business.
This was how to get rich according to Richard Branson. He stands out from many other billionaires for several reasons, and all of them are worth exploring. See you next time!
