How do you keep your passion for business burning and maintain your zest for new opportunities while living like a rock star?
Kian (RockstarPreneur) Kaze,
Manila, Philippines
?
My motto in life and in business is this: Life's too short, if you don't enjoy it, don't do it!
From the day I started my very first business, Student magazine, right up to now, including our work on Virgin Galactic and commercial space travel, this philosophy has guided our team at Virgin. I've learned that if a new project or business opportunity doesn't seem exciting, it's likely because it won't make a difference in people's lives and allow us to have a lot of creative fun in the process. I would much rather pass on it quickly and work on a project that does.
To keep both your personal and professional life exciting, have Fun, yes, with a capital "F." Having what we like to call serious fun is at the core of the Virgin way, and that's something for which I will never apologize.
It sometimes puts us in places that more straight-laced organisations might fear to tread. For instance, I have done many slightly crazy things involving racing boats or flying hot-air balloons or jumping off tall buildings. Some may call such actions reckless, but my reply is that I'm taking calculated risks in the name of something bigger.
It's essential that anyone with entrepreneurial aspirations have an unfettered willingness to trust their instincts and follow their own star, even if at times it might appear to be leading them toward a precipice. My star has certainly led me over quite a few cliffs and in some pretty wild and woolly directions. Whether the challenges were physical or financial or both, for me fun has always been inextricably linked with taking risks. Being told that I'd "be crazy to even think about doing that" has always been like waving a red rag at a bull. I love to take on supposedly insurmountable challenges, and I love pushing the envelope and zagging when everyone else is zigging. This is something that just seems to be part of my DNA, and it works pretty well; most of the time, at least.
This advice applies no matter what sort of career path you've chosen. Whether you are in a comfortable job at an established company or you're launching your first startup, if you don't enjoy what you're doing and the people with whom you're doing it, then there is no way that you are ever going to do it well.
Life is not a dress rehearsal, so why waste any of your limited time on this earth doing things that don't light your fire? I am constantly amazed at how many people choose to spend their lives either looking in the rear-view mirror or proclaiming that things are going to be better in the future. All too frequently, "now" gets lost in the shuffle. But now is the time to do, and it's important to remember that these are "the good old days" that you'll be looking back on years from now. Why not enjoy them while you've got them?
This approach has helped to make Virgin successful. Our team almost certainly wouldn't be here if we had not repeatedly dug in our heels and refused to waste time on things that we recognised would just not be right for us.
My zest for our business fuels my desire to learn. The ability to lock in and listen hard is a skill that has served me well in life, and it's directly tied to just how much I enjoy our work. This is true of all our team. One of the things that we at Virgin do very well is nothing more complex than listening. Because we are engaged and enthusiastic, we listen intently to anyone who has an opinion to share, not just the experts. We learn from each other, from the marketplace and from the mistakes that must be made in order to generate ideas that are original and disruptive. This keeps us moving forward and helps us to find opportunities that our competitors can't.
Kian, if you're someone who believes in going your own way and in having a lot of fun doing it–which it sounds like you are–then you're already on the right track. Go ahead, wear your passion on your sleeve for all to see and do a lot more listening than talking. And remember: When in doubt, trust your instincts.
From one RockstarPreneur (I love this!) to the next, good luck!
(Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He maintains a blog at www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/richardbranson. To learn more about the Virgin Group: www.virgin.com.)
(Questions from readers will be answered in future columns. Please send them to RichardBranson@nytimes.com. Please include your name, country, email address and the name of the Web site or publication where you read the column.)