10 Lessons from The Virgin Way
Doing things the Virgin way can help you grow every day.
The Virgin Way by business magnate Richard Branson.
It’s a business book filled with nuggets of wisdom, sage advice that I believe can be useful in one’s personal and professional life. Following are some of the key takeaways.
1) Be willing to give people a second chance.
It can be hard to forgive & forget if somebody wrongs us. It takes effort, but each time you do it, it makes you stronger. By forgiving and showing compassion, it could also turn the other person around, leading to a win-win situation.
2) Listen to what the other person is saying instead of planning your response.
I sometimes like to say that we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak. It’s so tempting to plan our own response to what the other person is saying, especially during a debate or argument, but we’re doing an injustice to the other person by not hearing them out. We should listen and understand before responding.
3) Be humble enough to admit mistakes and failures.
No one’s perfect. We all make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them, but that first requires us to admit that we did mess up. Once we accept it, we can move onto the next step of self-reflection and figuring out how we can improve going forward.
4) No matter how good something appears to be, there’s always room for improvement.
Again, no one’s perfect. Just like the previous one, it requires some humility to accept that we ourselves have room for improvement. Likewise, anything we’re working on — either a personal project or something for work — can benefit from some fine-tuning and feedback. We may never achieve perfection, but there’s nothing wrong with pursuing it. The effort will only lead to a better outcome than settling for “good enough”.
I think a better way to go about life is to be more efficient and effective with one’s time, to add value, and to put quality over quantity.
5) You’ll learn many more lessons by doing than by mulling it over.
Nothing beats the hands-on experience of getting out there and facing your fears, even if it sometimes leads to failure.
We can spend time deliberating and overthinking, worrying about what could go wrong. We can fall into the trap of “paralysis by analysis”. Sometimes it’s better to follow Nike’s slogan and “just do it”. I’m not saying we should take this approach to everything in life, but it’s better than being stuck in the mud. If you can let go of the fear and get in there and get your hands dirty, you’ll learn and grow in the process.
6) Earn your position rather than having it bestowed upon you.
It happens — people get promoted to a higher position at work because of favoritism or maybe even nepotism. They might have the title and authority, but do they actually have people’s respect? On the other hand, you could have someone who’s not a manager, but has earned people’s respect through his actions and character; this in essence elevates him to a position of leadership.
7) If you aren’t making a positive difference in the world, you shouldn’t be in business.
Some money-hungry executives might not want to hear this, but corporations can have such a major impact on the people and resources of this world that it only makes sense to do something positive. Think long-term value and conservation instead of obsessing over short-term gains that cause irreparable damage. Branson even argues that doing good is good for business.
8) Train people well enough that they could leave. Treat them well enough that they don’t.
Some organizations may hesitate to invest in their people because they think the person will leave for a better opportunity. That could happen, but by treating them well and creating a positive environment, they’ll most likely want to stay. I mean, the alternative is to have low-skilled people who stick around but don’t add much value.
9) It’s not the hours you put in. It’s what you put into the hours.
There’s something called Parkinson’s Law that says work expands to fill the available time. Maybe you know someone who does this, or maybe you do it yourself. That’s one way to go about life. Basically doing only what’s asked of you, never going above & beyond. But I think a better way to go about life is to be more efficient and effective with one’s time, to add value, and to put quality over quantity.
10) Character is higher than intellect.
I saved this one for last because I found it thought-provoking. This is one that Branson borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s short & sweet, but what does it really mean? Here’s one way to interpret it — intellect can help you devise some scheme to cheat people out of tons of money, but character is what would prevent you from doing so.
Doing good is good for business.
And there you have it. Ten pieces of wisdom that, if you apply, can help you grow both personally and professionally.