Lessons from Sir Richard Branson

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Microsoft Launch the program. I'm Alan Taylor from INC Radio. You can follow us throughout the entire week because we're celebrating National Entrepreneurship Week, and it's presented by Microsoft. Follow us at msftlaunch and you'll be able to see all these great podcasts. Scott Duffy here is the author of the book launch. You get to work with a lot of great people. I know that. Tony Robbins, Sir Richard Branson. Some of the stories you shared with me over the years have just been, you know, inspiring to me. So maybe you can share a few with our audience.

Well, I think as we kick off National Entrepreneurship Week, you know what I think about is some of the inspiration that I got, some of the lessons I got from guys like the ones that you mentioned. But the one that sticks out the most is a story about Richard Branson where a few years ago, I had an opportunity to go to Richard's home on Necker Island. Now, I was there for a Virgin CEO conference. And I remember I was so excited to be there. And on the first night, when it was time for dinner, all of us were asked to come down to the beach and get these little boats because we were gonna go on this little boat ride to the island next door, which, by the way, Richard had just bought called Mosquito. Oh, right there. Well, here's the thing. I guess if you're gonna own one island, you might as well own the one next door, right? So we get off the boats, and Richard had arranged for this huge barbecue dinner, and there were tiki torches and all kinds of cool stuff. And I grabbed my plate and I was looking for a place to sit. There was Richard. So I went and I sat down next to him, and he was on the phone, and he was negotiating this deal, and he was really passionate about it. And it seemed like everybody else knew what it was he was trying to buy. So when he got off the phone, I asked him, I said, richard, what is it that you want to buy? And he said, this. The rainforest. And I'm like, the rainforest? Which one? And he said, the Amazon. Because I guess if you're going to buy a rainforest, you might as well buy the biggest one, right? And then I remember. I remember saying what I guess I thought everybody else was thinking. It was like a cartoon where you try and pull the words back in. I looked at him and I said, that's impossible. And by the way, if there's one lesson that I've learned, you never tell them that something is impossible. And I remember Richard saying to Me in that moment. He said, you want to learn how to buy a rainforest? I'll teach you how to do it. And, you know, in any kind of business place, we have to start with is our why. Why is it that we're doing it? Because you know what? Business can be awful tough, and if we're not deeply rooted and connected into what, our why is when things get challenging, it's too easy to quit. And so Richard's why. His purpose was he wanted to stop deforestation and protect the indigenous animals. Makes sense, right? So now that we know our why, the question is, how are we going to do it? And I remember him asking the question. He said, if that's our why, do we really have to own the rainforest, or could we lease it? Now, for me, that was like a huge shift in thinking.

Sure.

It blew me away. And I said, okay. And he said, and I'm a good negotiator. If you got me in the same place with a willing seller, do you think I could negotiate a good deal? And they said, of course I'd bet on you. And then he asked this. He said, how are we going to finance it? And by the way, that's where so many entrepreneurs get stuck. How are we going to finance it? And I remember that people that were sitting around us started to throw out the names of really wealthy people, like billionaires that Richard knew that may have the same why. And I remember him saying, now, what if it didn't matter effectively if you gave a dime or a dollar? Like, basically crowdsourcing, buying the rainforest.

Crowdfunding it.

Yeah, crowdfunding it. And here's the point. In five minutes, buying the rainforest seemed easier than eating my bowl of soup. And what I learned from Richard that night was this, that if you have the right mindset, you have the right people, the right resources around you, you can achieve virtually anything that you dream.

Well, it's these kind of stories that are inspiring. As you can see how it's changed Scott. It's changed me. We hope we can help, maybe change you just a little bit for the better. That's what this is all about. It's National Entrepreneurship Week. And because of Microsoft and our relationship, we're going to bring you Microsoft, launch the program, come on back, we'll have more for.