#272: Sir Richard Branson — The Billionaire Maverick of the Virgin Empire
The Tim Ferriss Show
How Did You Become an Airline Pilot?
Andi Branson talks about how he got into the airline business. He was in his twenties, and had been away from his girlom for three weeks. One passenger told him to ' sharpen up the service a bit' The company is now one of the world's most successful record companies.
Sir Richard Branson (@richardbranson), founder and chairman of The Virgin Group, is a world-famous entrepreneur, adventurer, activist, and business icon. He has launched a dozen billion-dollar businesses and hundreds of other companies.
His new autobiography, Finding My Virginity, shares the candid details of a lifetime of triumphs and failures and provides an intimate look at his never-ending quest to push boundaries, break rules, and seek new frontiers.
I loved our conversation, and we covered a lot, including:
- Richard's thoughts on "clean meat," block chain, and cryptocurrency
- How he's coped with dyslexia, and how his parents helped make him resilient
- Behind-the-scenes stories of deal-making, PR stunts, big wins, and big losses
- The habits (and life decisions) he's used to maintain high energy levels for decades
- How Richard masterfully caps/limits downside risk, even though he's perceived as a risk taker
- How and why he takes regular 1-2-month (sometimes longer) breaks from alcohol
- Favorite books
- Lessons learned from Nelson Mandela and other mentors
- And much more...
Enjoy!
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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.
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