Childrens Corner

After an hour, the worst of the storm seemed to have passed. There was calm and a strange light. In fact, we were in the eye of the torm. In the distance I could see a solid black line coming closer cross the waves. It was the far wall of the storm and looked larming. I thought we would all die when it hit us. Kristen was a trong swimmer and she said we should swim for the shore, which as wo miles away, and try to beat the storm. Everyone said we were ad, but the fisherman gave us a plank of wood to hold on to and we umped into the sea. I went fro being scared of drowning to the error of being eaten by sharks. We were swept far down the coast. Two hours later, half frozen, we dragged our way up through the urf, onto the beach. Somehow, we stumbled through mangrove wamps back to the village for help. We found a big boat to go and escue the fishing boat, but we ran into an even bigger storm and ere tossed back to shore. When the storm cleared, they searched or two days, but found nothing.

I could have tried to live with the uilt. Instead, although it was tragic, I realised that I had to apply ogic to it. I told myself that the fisherman took the money against heir better judgement, but they didn’t have to. It was the state of he boat that was the problem, and that wasn’t my fault. If a ferry goes down with loss of life, it’s not the passengers who are at fault, but the captain or the owners. The story of the lost boat came out hen my book was published some years later. The Daily Mirror sent a eporter to Mexico to find out what had happened. To my relief, they ound the boat and the crew alive and well. The tide and winds had aken the many miles down the coast. It took time to fix their boat nd there was no radio and no phones to keep in ouch. After we had eft for home, they sailed safely into the harbour. I didn’t know anyf this. I could have spent years living with needless remorse, if I had llowed myself to.

Always living in the future can slow us down as uch as always looking behind. Many people are always looking ahead nd they never seem content. They look for quick fixes, like winning he lottery. I know that goals are important. Money is important. But he bottom line is money is just a means to an end, not an end in tself. And what is going on now is just as important as what you’re lanning for the future. So, even though my diary is full for months head, I have learned to live for the moment.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

It’s hard to lose out in a business deal, but harder still to suffer from guilt. We all do things we wish we hadn’t. Sometimes, they seem like ig mistakes, but later, when they seem like big mistakes, But ater when you look back, they turn out to be small. Regret, which eads to a sense of guilt, can give you sleepless nights. But I believe he past is the past. You can’t change it. So, even if sometimes you et things wrong, regrets are wasted and you should move on.

A case f this is when Kristen and I went on holiday to Mexico. She chose a place where there were no phones. No one could get in ouch with me. A couple of days before we were due to leave, I tried o hire a boat to go deep-sea fishing. I asked a fisherman if he would ake us out the next day. He refused, saying it looked like there might e a storm.

I thought he was holding out for more money. I as ager to go and said I would pay him double. A couple more ourists from the bar said they’d go too, and they also paid double. e ere having exciting day of sport, when I noticed that it was rowing dark. The wind rose and it grew cold. It started to rain. They tarted the engine to head home but the rudder jammed so the boat ouldn’t steer and went round in circles. The storm grew stronger and he sea was being pounded hard. I was sure she was about to reak up and sink.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

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Even today, even when I am relaxing, I never stop thinking. y brain is working all the time when I am awake, churning out ideas. ecause irgin is a worldwide company, I find I need to be awake uch f the time. One of the things I am very good at is catnapping, atching an hour or two of sleep at a time. Of all the skills I have earned, that one is vital for me. On a bus between Hong Kong and hina, for example, when nothing much is going on, I will sleep. I wake efreshed and ready to go for long hours. It’s also a very good ay of switching off. Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher were asters of the catnap and I use their example in my own life.

The panish painter, Salvador Dali, had a unique way to savour the moment. When he was bored with life, he would walk in his cliff-top garden. He would pick a perfect peach, warm from the sun, and hold it in his hand to admire its golden skin. He would sniff it. The warm erfume would fill his senses. Then he would take a single bite. His outh would fill with luscious juice. He would savour it slowly. Then he ould spit out the mouthful and throw the peach into the sea elow. He said it was a perfect moment and he gained more from that han from eating a basket of peaches.

In a way, regrets are like anting the peach you have thrown away. It’s gone, but you are illed with remorse. You wish you hadn’t thrown it away. You want it ack. I believe the one thing that helps is to have no regrets. Regrets eigh you down. They hold you back in the past when you should move on.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

My parents are getting on and are into their 80s now. Like Granny did, they still hop on and off planes and travel around the world. hey have been there at she start and end of all my adventures, heering me on. They even went looking for me when per and I were ost in the wilds of the frozen North after our balloon came down in a lizzard in Canada. Their example reminds me to enjoy life.

In 1999, e ought a game reserve in South Africa and built a lovely house. ere we spend time together as a family. In fact, I am so aware of how precious time with them is, I ration myself to only fifteen inutes f business a day when we’re together. I don’t use modern adgets like email or mobile phones, but in Africa I did learn to use a atellite phone to keep in touch with the office. Many bosses, who pend all day in their office, are baffled. They ask, ‘How can you do it ll in just fifteen minutes?’

I say, ‘It’s easy. Make every second count.’ That is true in both my business and personal life. I am able o say that now because I am older and perhaps wiser. It wasn’t lways the case. My first wife, Kristen, got very irate because I was always on the phone. She said I spent my life working and couldn’t raw the line between work and home. She was right. Part of the rouble was that I worked from home. I couldn’t resist picking up the hone when it rang, which it did, non-stop. I wished I could just let it ing- but I never knew when it might lead to a nice deal.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

I love balloons to such an extent that I have one of my own. It’s a small balloon with a wicker basket, like the one in Around the world in Eighty Days. I often take family and friends up in it. It is one of he most peaceful places I know. It makes me feel at one with ature. ou glide silently along, away from the rest of the world. No ne can phone you, no one can stop you. You are free. You look own n towns and fields and people who don’t know you’re there. ou an fly nest to a wild swan and hear the beat of its wings. You an look into the eyes of an eagle.

Balloons have taught me to reflect ore. On earth, my life is fast and hectic, each moment full. It an be too busy. We all need our own space and it’s good to ause nd do nothing. It gives us time to think. It recharges our bodies as well as our minds. I often think of the fishermen I watched that Christmas in Japan. It’s in our nature to strive - so I wondered hat they looked for in life? They seemed content fishing and feeding heir families. They didn’t seem driven to set up fish-canning empires. s far as I knew, they didn’t want to cross the pacific in a alloon or climb Mount Everest. They took each day as it came. They ived in the moment, and perhaps this is what gave them peace of mind.

My grandmother lived life to the full. At the age of 89 she ecame the oldest person in Britain to pass the advanced Latin merican ballroomdancing exam. She was ninety when she became he oldest person to hit a hole in one at golf. She never stopped earning. In her mid-90s she read Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief istory of Time, which may make her one of the few people to have ead it all the way through! Shortly before her death at the age of 99 he went on a cruise around the behind in jamaica wearing only er swimming costume. Her attitude was that you’ve only got one go n life, so you should make the most of it.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

6. LIVE THE MOENT
·Love Life and Live It To The full
·Enjoy the oment ·Reflect on your Life
·Make Every Second Count
·Don’t Have egrets

IT WAS 1997. I was in a round the World hot-air balloon race. efore I left, I wrote a long letter to my children, in case I idn’t return. I started the letter by saying, ‘Dear Holly and Sam, Life an seem rather unreal at times. Alive and Well and loving one day. o onger there the next. As you both know I always had the urge to ive life to its full…’

I wrote the letter just in case the worst appened. We had taken off at dawn from Marrakech in Morocco. welve hours later, it seemed as if we were about to crash in flames nto the Atlas Mountains. They say a dying man relives his life in his inal seconds. For me, this was not true. All I thought was that, if I scaped with my life, I would never do this again. We fought hard all ight to keep the balloon up. By dawn, we were over the desert, here we could come down safely.

As we drifted to earth I sat up on he glass roof of the capsule, watching the beauty of the golden awn as it broke over the desert. This was a day I never thought I’d ee and the rising sun and growing warmth of the day seemed very recious. It made me aware that hard-won things are more valuable han those that come too easily. It reminded me to always enjoy the moment.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

It wasn’t long, though, before I came to hate the ways of the city. They weren’t for me. Instead of a casual meeting with my business artners on my houseboat to discuss what bands to sign, I had to ask board of directors. Many of them had no idea at all what the usic business was all about. They didn’t see how a hit record could ake millions overnight. Instead of being able to sign someone who as ot, before our rivals did, I had to wait four weeks for a board eeting. By then, it was too late. Or they’d say things like, ‘Sign the olling Stones? My wife doesn’t like them. Janet Jackson? Who’s she?’

I have always made fast decisions and acted on my instinct. Then, I was stifled. Most of all, I no longer felt that I was standing on my wn feet. We doubled our profits but Virgin shares started to slip and, or the firs time in my life, I was depressed. Then there was uge stock-market crash. Shares dropped fast. It wasn’t my fault, ut felt that I was letting down all the people who had bought Virgin hares. Many were friends and family as well as our staff. But any were like the couple who had given me their lifesavings. I made p my mind. I would buy all the shares back – at the price everyone ad paid for them. I didn’t have to pay that much, but I didn’t want o let people down. I personally raised the £182 million needed, but it was worth it to keep my good name and my freedom.

The day that irgin became a private company again was like landing safely after a ecord attempt in a powerboat or a balloon. I felt nothing but relief. nce again, I was the captain of my ship and master of my fate. I elieve in myself. I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the hearts that love.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

Mum made little wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. Her workshop was the garden shed and it was our job to help her. We ainted them and stacked them up. Harrod ordered them and sales oomed. She also took in French and German students as paying uests. Hard work and fun were family traits. Mum’s sister, Aunt lare, as keen on black Welsh sheep. She got the idea of starting a ompany to sell mugs with black sheep on them. Ladies in the village nitted woolies with sheep designs. The company did very well and is till going strong. Years later, when I was running Virgin Records, unt lare phoned me to say that one of her sheep had started inging. I didn’t laugh. Her ideas were always clever. Instead, I followed the sheep around with a tape recorder. ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ became a hit. It reached number four in the charts.

I went rom small cottage industry to setting up Virgin worldwide. The risks ecame bigger. I learned to be bold in my dealings and ideas. Although I listen with care to everyone, I still rely on myself and in my goals. I lost faith in myself only once. By 1986 Virgin was one of ritain’s largest private companies, with 4000 members of staff. Sales ad increased by 60 percent from the year before. I was told I should o public – sell shares in my business. Two of my partners ere not keen, because they knew me well. They said I would hate oosing control. But the bankers said it was a good idea. It would ive e more capital to work with. Other big private companies, like ody Shop and Sock Shop, had gone public. They were doing well.

Pushed hard y the bankers, I made up my mind and launched Virgin on the stock exchange. Around 70,000 people applied for shares by ost. Those who had left it too late lined up in the city to buy shares n person. I will never forget walking up the long line of people to hank them for their faith in us. I was very moved when they said hings like, ‘We’re not going holiday this year, we’re putting our avings in Virgin’ and, ‘We’re banking on you, Richard.’

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It

To some people this might sound harsh. But the members of my family love and care for each other very much. We are a close-knit unit. My parents wanted us to be strong and to rely on ourselves. ad was always there for us, but Mum was the one who drove us to ant to do our best. I learned about business and money fro her. She ould say things like, ‘The winner takes all’ and, ‘Chase your dreams’. um knew that losing wasn’t fair, but it is life. It’s not a good idea to each children that they can win all the time. In the real world, people struggle.

When I was born, Dad was just starting out in law nd oney was tight. Mum didn’t moan. She had two aims. One was to ind useful tasks for me and my sisters. Being idle was frowned n. he other was to find ways to make money. At home, we talked usiness at dinner. I know some parents keep their work away from he kids. They won’t share their problems. But I believe their children ever really learn the value of money. Sometimes when they get into he real world they can’t cope. We knew that the real world was bout. My sister Lindi and I helped Mum with her projects. It was fun. t made for a great sense of teamwork within our family.

I have ried to bring Holly and Sam up in the same way, although I have een ucky to have more money than my parents had. I still think my mum’s rules were good and I believe Holly and Sam have learnt the alue of money.

Taken From : Screw It,Let’s Do It