The very fact that people know the name "Richard Branson" and that he's personally involved in all these ventures is a big part of it.

Edit: It's not a criticism--it's hard to succeed in different fields--but the basic idea of the OP, which is to expand your business ventures along the lines of what you know how to do, still applies to Branson a lot more than he's a counterexample of it.

The point about staying in one industry is not about your technical knowledge, it's about your relationships. These are hard to build, and are the major barrier for all new ventures in any business: building your customer base, your sales channels, reaching out. That's tough.

That may be less important for him nowadays with a licensing/franchise model.

I think the point should be experience in a field is extremely valuable given all the time that had to be invested. It really should stop there.

The second conclusion - that you ought not to jump fields because of the experience advantage that you would be losing - is false.

But look, let's keep this in perspective. This is a blog post by an entrepreneur with a new start-up. This is nothing more than press, publicity, visibility, mind-share, whatever, designed to get people talking, discussing, linking. So to be taken with a pinch of salt at best.

And I think a guy that figured out how to make $100,000 a year is a pretty good source of business advice.

> And I think a guy that figured out how to make $100,000 a year is a pretty good source of business advice.

It wasn't a 100k/year. It was a 100 total, over several years, and that's only his word for it. These things tend to be exaggerated. But anyway, so what if he did? I could probably make a 100k a year selling my body, but I'd rather not.