My people are at the core of everything I do, and I recognize the importance of giving them the flexibility to balance work around their personal lives.

When you are ready to make your first hires, look for people who understand your passion, want to add to your ideas and can envision ways to make improvements.

Half the art of ballooning is to make your crashes so gentle that you can fool yourself into calling them landings.

I was a risk-taker as a young man, and I don't regret it. I'm not adventurous in quite the same way now, but I still love the challenge of testing myself to the limits, flying around the world, or seeing if I can be the first to fly a balloon across the Atlantic, or trying to take people into space at an affordable price in an environmentally friendly way. I'll be going into space with three generations of my family!

I think business leaders all over the world should not just think of how we can make lots of money, which is fine, but to take some of the problems in the world and get out there and tackle them using business. I think that if businesses do that we can get on top of these problems.

We're introducing separate rooms with double beds in all of our planes so people can actually go with their partner and have a proper night's sleep...

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