Sir Richard Branson; IS the GREATEST Failure

So, I want to talk to you about someone who I think is the greatest failure in the world, Sir Richard Branson. Now, I’m sure there’s a few of you out there wanting to throw your putting and your pie at me and go, that’s ridiculous. How can you be calling him a great failure? Because he absolutely is. And he’s an icon of mine because of this. You see, I heard a while back from a friend of mine, actually a mutual friend between myself and Richard, Joe Polish. Joe Polish actually uttered these words in a meeting. He said, do you pay to be in business? And I remember at the time thinking, well, that’s a ridiculous statement to make. But it’s not.

You see, a lot of people do pay to do business. I’ve paid to be in business. The point is that we are so ignorant to the thing being able to fail we invest more money into it when we really shouldn’t have. We put more energy into doing what we’re continually doing, being stupid enough to think that the reaction is going to change, the response is going to change, and it’s going to turn them around. When sometimes we should just pull the plug because we’re blowing air into a dead donkey. It just doesn’t work. But we keep going thinking it’s going to turn around. We, therefore, are paying to be in business.

Now, I’ve worked with Sir Richard Branson on a few events within the Virgin Unite, within Necker for his mom, Eve Branson and Rock the Kasbah. I’ve been surrounded by Sir Richard Branson many, many times. And I’ve heard many of the stories and I’ve seen him speak and I’ve been backstage with him many times. And I remember a conversation he had which just completely changed my perspective on the gentlemen. Because a lot of people that are very successful, you can’t help but thinking sometimes, you’re just lucky at it, or you’re good at it. And I’ll never understand. But he gave me something I could understand.

Now, you see the Virgin group have launched over 400 companies and probably growing on a daily basis. And they’ve had some earth shattering mistakes that you look at and go, what were you thinking? They’ve been involved in phones. They’ve been involved in trains, bridalware, music industry, as you well know within the Virgin brand, Virgin Cola. One of the biggest failures of the Sir Richard Branson group was bringing out Virgin Cola. Why would you compete against Coca Cola? Why would you compete against Pepsi Cola? But he did. And he did it in full force until he realized it wasn’t getting anywhere. And then, he let it alone.

Now, you see, this is why I think Sir Richard is so good at what he does. He has 150% focus on everything he releases, all the energy, all the ignorance to failure, until he does. And then, he sees it’s not going anywhere and he doesn’t waste his time. He moves his energy into the next thing. You see, we have to realize that, hey, if it’s not working, it ain’t working. Now, if what you’re doing can be adapted, and edited, and tweaked to make it work, try those things. But, when the night is called, when you realize that you’re pumping good money after bad, that’s the time you need to move away.

And I think one of the best things Sir Richard can teach us, and it’s actually in a Fox Business News article about the Virgin Cola. And he talks about how he actually walked away. He has full energy until the time that he doesn’t need to, until the time that he goes, hey, this isn’t going anywhere. I’m banging my head against a brick wall. I’m not going to keep banging. I’ve moved on. And he walks away.

Now, we’re in a world, at the moment, of confusion, distraction, distortion. We don’t know what’s going on. When will it be back to normal? What is normal? Who knows? But there comes a time when your energy needs to stop. Don’t get an equity loan on your house and force it into something that should be left dead. Focus on, is this worth it? Or is there a version of this that I could launch over here? And that would be the best use of my energy.

Sir Richard is the greatest failure in the planet because of that. He knows when to call it and when to move on. He knows when to stop paying attention to something that isn’t going to work. And I’m wondering, are you going to be able to do the same? Look at what you do. Look at what you put your energy in. This could be a relationship with a loved one. This could be a relationship with a partner of business. It could be the business itself. It could be anything. But look at it and focus on it and ask yourself the question, am I puffing air into a dead donkey? The result is going to be the same. It’s still going to be dead.

Now, I know these are supposed to be motivational, but I don’t agree. I think they are supposed to be activational. I think they’re there to trigger you to do something different. So, I hope you will. This is Steve Sims, The Art of Making Things Happen. Subscribe to me anywhere you can and I’ll speak with you soon. Bye.

Well, there you have it. That was another episode of The Art of Making Things Happen with me, your host, Steve Sims. Hey, if you love what you hear, then share it, subscribe, tell people about it. Or jump over to An Entrepreneur’s Advantage Facebook page. That’s An Entrepreneur’s Advantage with Steve Sims. That’s our private community. We’ll be in there chatting and hopefully helping you more. Look forward to seeing you on the inside. Bye.

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