“Your reputation is if the people you work with are proud of what they've created,” he says.
Photo: AP
Richard Branson doesn't see money as a measure of a person's success.
In fact, he says he finds it “quite insulting” when someone introduces him as the “billionaire Richard Branson”, despite the co-founder of the Virgin Group.
Whenever Branson starts a new venture – like when he founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984 and Virgin Mobile in 1999 – he asks himself two questions.
As he tells CNBC, it's “very sad” when someone focuses their whole life only on making money.
“Maybe in America, being a 'billionaire' is a sign of success, but that makes me angry,” says Branson. “I think what you create is your reputation.”
Branson has created the Virgin Group, an equity and venture capital firm that owns businesses in a wide variety of industries, from aviation and telecommunications to spaceflight.
This company is largely responsible for fact that Branson has a fortune of $2.5 billion, according to Forbes. But he disputes the idea that he created it to make money.
“Your reputation is whether the people who work with you are proud of what they've created,” he says. “Paying the bills at the end of the year is important, but what entrepreneurs around the world do today – and the only reason they succeed – is to make a difference in other people's lives. And that's all that really matters.”
Every time Branson starts a new venture – like when he founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984 and Virgin Mobile in 1999 – he asks himself two questions:
– If I create this, can it be better than what everyone else is doing?
– Can it make a real difference in the world?
Financial success often followed, but Branson insists that money was never his main driving force.
His first successful business venture, a youth magazine called 'Student', aimed to challenge the outdated versions of the era, says Branson.
“I wanted it to survive. And yes, I wanted to have enough advertising to pay the presses and the paper companies,” he says. “But money certainly wasn't the motivation for publishing a magazine.”
His top advice to anyone who wants to succeed
The entrepreneur's advice to anyone who wants to succeed is to look opportunities that he finds interesting and exciting. That's a recipe for greater happiness and you're more likely to end up successful than if you only think about profit, he says.
“We only have one life,” says Branson. “We spend a lot of time at work and it would be sad if we only do it for the money.”
