Like a Virgin by Richard Branson

Author:Richard Branson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joosr Ltd

It’s okay to make mistakes; just don’t make the same ones twice

A majority of business experts will tell you that it is important to plan as carefully as possible to avoid making mistakes. While Branson would agree that business planning is a valuable practice, he is not concerned about making mistakes, understanding that these are sometimes unavoidable. In fact, he embraces the risk of making a mistake because this provides Virgin with the opportunity to learn something new.

Virgin operate on the idea that when they get something wrong, they can evaluate the reason why and then make a change for the better. After all, a mistake is only valuable if you learn something from it. As an example, their financial services company Virgin Money initially failed when trying to introduce Virgin-branded credit cards, due to a bad deal with the partner bank that issued these. Rather than give up on the venture, Virgin learned from their mistake and made a hugely successful comeback three years later with a stronger, more reliable partner. Their credit cards are now largely popular with individuals and businesses worldwide.

Virgin could have decided that the financial sector just wasn’t for them and given up on the venture entirely. However, they refused to be discouraged and instead were motivated by their failure. They learned from their mistake, using the experience as an opportunity to improve things, with great success.

If you want to do business the Virgin way, it is essential that you embrace your failures as learning experiences, rather than desperately trying to avoid them, or getting demotivated when they occur. You have to take risks for big rewards, and with every risk, there is the possibility of failure.

If you try something new, like launching a new product or service, and it doesn’t work, act quickly to dissect the failure. It is essential that you systematically evaluate what went wrong. Did it fail to impress customers? Was delivery too slow? Were there too many bugs in the first release? As you identify each point where failure occurred, make a note of this so that you don’t repeat the mistake. Go through this list afterward and find ways to fix or improve each item. This ensures that the next time you try something new it will be free of previous problems.

Branson knows that the most-successful businesses have all failed at some point, Virgin included. If your company makes a mistake, this provides you with the opportunity to improve your offerings. Plus, it guarantees that you will avoid making similar errors in the future.

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