Meet regularly with your business team and brainstorm. Intricate business problems are mostly resolved at brainstorming sessions.

Give your employees a mission that matches their ambitions. When you challenge people, they surprise you.

I never learned the rules in the first place. To change the game is at the heart of what Virgin stands for, so the company culture has always been: "Don't sweat it: rules were meant to be broken."

The best lessons are usually learned from failure. You musn't beat yourself up if you fail - just pick yourself up, learn as much as you can from the experience and get on with the next challenge...The brave may not live forever, but the cautious never live at all.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.

When people warn me against doing something once my mind is made up, I grow increasingly determined to try it.