As an entrepreneur, you've got to protect against the company going bust. And as an adventurer, you've got to protect against losing your life. It's even more important as an adventurer to get it right.

I think great businessmen are more likely made than born. I don't know if it's from your upbringing, your parental background, the struggles you go through. In my own particular situation, I left school at 15 and I was struggling to survive in the jungle and that was a great education. So I think just getting out there, hands on, learning to survive teaches you a lot.

Having a good network can be invaluable. It opens doors for you and allows you to enter into opportunities that are beneficial to your business. In this sense, 'who you know' is undoubtedly important, but to me 'what you know' is more important because once an opportunity shows itself, it is up to you to make the most of it, and this is down to your knowledge and skill.

We [Virgin Group] have been successful not by wasting time scrutinising our competitors but by looking at ourselves from the point of view of our customers do and seeking feedback through listening.

Sometimes miracles come in pairs.

If you get into entrepreneurshi p driven by profit, you are a lot more likely to fail. The entrepreneurs who succeed usually want to make a difference to people’s lives, not just their own bank balances. The desire to change things for the better is the motivation for taking risks and pursuing seemingly impossible business ideas.

To succeed in business you need to be original, but you also need to understand what your customers want.