Re:Read This If You Hate Meetings
by Alex3917 on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @03:54PM
(#728683)
"His leverage is his mystique and his charisma."
I haven't read his biographies, but I'd posit this is how it went (since this is the order it usually goes in):
1. RB takes on a few small projects and ships. Develops a reputation for delivering on his promises.
2. Uses this reputation to get money and resources for bigger projects. Meets lots and lots of people while doing these projects.
3. Is now seen as a leader, which makes him charismatic.
4. Spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to employ full-time voice acting and body language coaches, and further develops his personal brand and mystique.
Now that all this is done, what Richard Branson does for a living is to play Richard Branson. Do you think he actually wants to fly to Fiji and go rock climbing every weekend? Of course not. Most weekends he'd much rather curl up with a pot of tea and read the paper. But he can't; he has to go to Fiji, because that's what Richard Branson would do.
I haven't read his biographies, but I'd posit this is how it went (since this is the order it usually goes in):
1. RB takes on a few small projects and ships. Develops a reputation for delivering on his promises.
2. Uses this reputation to get money and resources for bigger projects. Meets lots and lots of people while doing these projects.
3. Is now seen as a leader, which makes him charismatic.
4. Spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to employ full-time voice acting and body language coaches, and further develops his personal brand and mystique.
Now that all this is done, what Richard Branson does for a living is to play Richard Branson. Do you think he actually wants to fly to Fiji and go rock climbing every weekend? Of course not. Most weekends he'd much rather curl up with a pot of tea and read the paper. But he can't; he has to go to Fiji, because that's what Richard Branson would do.