At least one night every week, I light some candles, burn some incense, strip naked and take a long, hot bubble bath with Richard Branson.
After that little wobble I had the other week, the one that started with one single seed of self-doubt and sprouted into a forest of hesitation and fear, I needed something to keep me going with my start-ups.
So immersed myself in brain porn.I listened to meditations, watched Ted Talks and Youtube motivationals and I turned the first page of Business Stripped Bare.
Dare To Dream
Business Stripped bare is Branson’s guide to starting and running a business and as I quite love the idea of being a globe-trotting entrepreneur, it seemed the perfect read.
Branson is a natural born entrepreneur who started his empire while he was still at school. He created a magazine called Student, which became so popular and so successful that by the age of 16 he was approached by IPC and offered £80k to sell.
What I love most about his first foray into the business world was his childlike, limitless ambition and the response it received in an old school business world.
When he went down to IPC’s offices to talk through the deal, he told them of his ideas for expansion. He wanted Student to be an empire, not just a magazine and he had visions of setting up Student holidays, a travel agency, health clubs and records stores.
Shortly after the meeting concluded, IPC retracted their offer. They decided he was just a teenage boy who’d had a lucky break and was a little bit too much of a dreamer to be in business.
Over the following years, IPC watched on with regret as Branson turned his dreams into a reality and Virgin became the global brand it is today.
The Virgin Type
Chapter one is titled PEOPLE: Find good people and set them free.
It starts with entrepreneurship and finishes with customer service; two of Virgin’s most well-known ingredients for success.
One of Branson’s earliest lessons in business and one that he talks about most today, is his recognition that he couldn’t do it all on his own.
While his limitless ambition, dreams, hopes and aspirations all played a big role in getting things off the ground, building the Virgin empire was very much about surrounding himself by talent.
Hire for attitude and train for skill, he says. Things you learn only complement who you are – and who you are counts for a whole lot.
For Branson, recruiting ‘the Virgin type’ is where it all starts.
The Virgin type is somebody that shares his vision for success, enjoys working with others, smiles freely and is attentive. They’re the kind of person that lights up a room; energetic, enthusiastic and fun to be with.
They ‘have the patience to conduct routine business routinely, the talent to respond exceptionally to exceptional circumstances, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two’.
They’re the ultimate entrepreneur; they know how to turn what excites them into life capital.
So now as I turn what excites me into life capital and expand my team, I’m hunting out the Consciously Curated type.
Talented writers who immerse themselves in the world of conscious fashion and have that entrepreneurial spirit he talks of. The creators, the dreamers and the go-getters.
The kind of people that know we can be so much more than we already are.