The lesson: Be someone others find it easy to be around<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nMany people are quite out of touch with how others perceive them and some even get a kick from being intimidating (a sure sign of an insecure ego.) But it\u2019s worth taking a moment to put yourself in the shoes of the people you interact with to consider how they may see you. Often, as people grow more successful professionally, others grow more reticent to approach them, share information and speak candidly. As a result, successful people can become increasingly isolated and out of touch in their ivory tower. Regardless of whether you\u2019re at the ivory tower level or not, making people feel comfortable around you is vital to staying tuned in to what is on people\u2019s minds and forging genuinely rewarding relationships. Richard Branson does just that. (Oh and by the way, our interview went great!)<\/p>\n
Be Real<\/strong><\/p>\nSir Richard Branson may have had a Knighthood bestowed upon him by her Majesty the Queen, but he was clearly not one for titles, nor the pomp and formality that can accompanies such titles.<\/p>\n
Often barefoot on his island paradise, Branson is completely and refreshingly unaffected by his status and has no need to prove himself to anyone \u2013 a hallmark of every genuinely inspiring human being I\u2019ve ever encountered. Of course that doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t have a healthy sense of self-worth, but he isn\u2019t driven by a need to prop it up. Needless to say, it was refreshing to meet someone of his fame and fortune who cares so little about it except to use it for good.<\/p>\n
\nThe lesson: Give up pretense and ditch the ego<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nNot only do you not have anything to prove to anyone, but when you try to do so, it doesn\u2019t enhance how others perceive you; instead, it diminishes their perception.<\/p>\n
Be Playful<\/strong><\/p>\nWatch the business news and you can\u2019t miss a bunch of suited men (and the occasional woman!) talking very seriously about very serious things because, let\u2019s face it, managing a business-economy-country is serious business. But too much seriousness can suck the joy out of life.<\/p>\n
While Richard Branson was not the loud larger-than-life larrikin I had somehow expected, he brought a light-hearted, lets-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously playfulness into our gathering, as he does everywhere. When we gathered at his home one evening to listen to Estelle perform for our group, he was the first to jump up on the bar and start dancing. I quickly threw off my heels and followed suit. Dancing on that bar, I decided I must do it more often. I mean, who needs a dance floor?<\/p>\n
\nThe lesson: Laugh more, stress less and stop taking everything so seriously (yourself included)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIt\u2019s not only good for your health, but it makes you much more fun to be around. So if you think you\u2019ll one day look back and laugh, don\u2019t wait. In the seriousness of life, a little play can make all the difference.<\/p>\n
Be curious<\/strong><\/p>\nEach morning on Necker revolved around a \u201cthink tank\u201d session where we heard insights from a host of people on business, leadership and life. One of them was former NASA Astronaut Captain Mark Kelly who talked about good decision-making. He said, \u201cNone of us are as dumb as all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a great insight on the perils of \u201cgroup-think\u201d and the importance of challenging the consensus thinking. As Kelly spoke, Branson scribbled notes in his small note pad that he takes wherever he goes.<\/p>\n
Sure, he may have built over 100 companies operating in 50 countries around the world, but he was open to new ideas and eager to find better ways of doing things. While being open minded may sound like sheer common sense, I\u2019ve observed that as people grow older, they can easily slip into a fixed view of the world. They become complacent in their approach and closed to new (and better) ways of meeting their challenges.<\/p>\n
\nThe lesson: Be open to unlearning what you think you know so you can re-learn what you need to know<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nKeep asking questions and never assume you have all the answers. Because, no matter how successful you may be, there will always, always, be ways of doing things better.<\/p>\n
Be Passionate<\/strong><\/p>\nAt an age when many would retire to the golf course (or in Branson\u2019s case, to a tropical island), Branson has no interest in putting his feet up and sipping martinis. There are still so many things he\u2019s passionate about, including the various initiatives of his foundation Virgin Unite.<\/p>\n
Of course it\u2019s easy to be cynical and say \u201cAll fine for Richard Branson to do what he likes; he\u2019s loaded!\u201d But the truth is that he got to where he is because of the passion he\u2019s bought to everything he\u2019s done and his willingness to lay it all on the line to turn his audaciously bold dreams into reality.<\/p>\n
Passion is contagious. It rubs off on everyone around you and attracts enthusiastic passionate people to you like moths to the flame. From meeting Branson\u2019s team at Virgin Unite, he\u2019s clearly done just that.<\/p>\n
\nThe lesson: Find what you\u2019re passionate about and then find a way to do more of it<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nIf you\u2019re passionate about what you\u2019re doing, then you\u2019ll not only do it better but you\u2019ll be more successful at it. Branson is a great example of someone who has done just that. Again and again and again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sir Richard Branson is a man I\u2019ve admired as long as I remember. His books \u2013 jammed with stories of his entrepreneurial exploits and intrepid adventures on earth, sky and space \u2013 sit atop my bookshelves, their pages underlined with insights on taking risks, managing setbacks and living bravely. So when the opportunity arose via […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,17],"tags":[154,333,563,628,678,805,863,947,977,1080],"class_list":["post-10883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lead-purposefully","category-speak-bravely","category-courage-at-work","tag-business-chicks","tag-emma-isaacs","tag-leadership","tag-margie-warrell","tag-necker-island","tag-purpose","tag-richard-branson","tag-speak-bravely","tag-success","tag-virgin-unite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}