Richard Branson

I had an interesting conversation with Timothy this past weekend. This involves Mr. Richard Branson, the founder of all that is Virgin. Mr. Branson is Stewie’s most inspirational business hero. The ultimate poster boy of entrepreneurs, this man has been through all depths of hell in the business world and has lived to tell about it. In fact he’s thriving like a plant on “super-gro” fertilizer.

Before I read about Sir Richard Branson, I thought that he was a rather normal businessman. Stereotypically thinking, I presumed that his character was similar to other rich people such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc. Of course he never did fit that mold. When I finished reading about him, the book destroyed any preconceptions I had.

Let me digress and point out the motivation for entrepreneurship. People sometimes say “I’m doing business for entrepreneurial glory and because I love doing it.” Don’t pay too much attention to that. People do it for the money. It’s the same anywhere, sports, music, etc. In the end, it’s all about the Benjamin’s – the faces on the US dollar. Or in the case of Malaysia, the Zetis – the faces on the RM note. Anyone who says otherwise is lying through his or her teeth. No offense. So anytime someone appears on MTV or Channel V saying “I’m doing singing for the love of music,” just replace music with money; and you’ll have an accurate statement.

As interesting as Branson’s story is, the average person will have trouble following in his footsteps to entrepreneur riches. This man is like an athlete who has some insane talent. Think of the Wayne Rooneys, the Michael Jordans, etc. The truth is most people will never have that kind of talent, so most people can never expect to become fantastic entrepreneurs in the mold of Richard Branson. So what is Richard Branson’s entrepreneurship style? It took me a while to come up with this term, I’ll call it “Run and Gun” entrepreneurism.

So, “Run and Gun” entrepreneurism, exactly why do I say it like that? After reading Branson’s book, How I lost my Virginity, I had this feeling of the wild wild west shoot-em-up movies. A few survive, but most end up dead. People will disagree, but I feel Branson is a bit like this in his book. It’s one of those too good to be true stories. So, Branson is insanely good, lucky, or he told a damn good story. Speculation aside on the accuracy of his autobiography, I believe he’s insanely good. I can’t really argue with his results.

Sometimes, I believe people read this story and immediately say “holy shit, I wanna be just like that guy.” Hopefully, they’ll calm down and realize that jumping into the fighting ring with a guy 5 times your size without a well-planned strategy doesn’t sound like a good idea. I lost count how many times Branson has almost went bust. Surprisingly, he always managed to come back. Most people fall down and never get back up.