Branson - Lets not screw it, lets just do it: new lessons for the future

Throughout my life I have achieved many remarkable things. In Lets Not Screw It, Lets Just Do It , I will share with you my ideas and the secrets of my success, but not simply because I hope theyll help you achieve your individual goals.

Today we are increasingly aware of the effects of our actions on the environment, and I strongly believe that we each have a responsibility, as individuals and organisations, to do no harm. I will explain why we need to take stock of how we may be damaging the environment, and why it is up to big companies like Virgin to lead the way in a more holistic approach to business.

In Lets Not Screw It, Lets Just Do It , Ill be looking to the future. A lot has changed since I founded Virgin in 1968, and Ill explain how I intend to take my business and my ideas to the next level and into new and exciting areas such as launching Virgin Fuels. But I have also brought together all the important lessons, good advice and inspirational adages that have helped me along the road to success. I have never been one to do things by the book, but I have been inspired and influenced by many remarkable people. I hope that you too might find a little inspiration between these pages.

Richard Branson

I was first invited to write Screw It, Lets Do It for World Book Day 2006. The idea was to offer something enjoyable and inspirational to emergent readers that would encourage them to pick up books and read more.

The first edition of my little book did far better than I ever dreamed it would. It sold all around the world, reaching No. 1 in South Africa as well as the bestseller list in Australia. I was enormously gratified by the degree of enthusiasm with which it was received. Many people wrote to me saying how much the book had encouraged and inspired them. I also discovered that it had reached out far beyond the emergent readers for whom it had been written.

A year on, I was asked if Id like to write a revised and expanded version for a wider readership. In this new version, now called Lets Not Screw It, Lets Just Do It , you will find all my original lessons in life as well as new ones that look to the future.

Though I have never followed the rules, at every step I learned many lessons along the way. They began at home when I was young. They continued at school and in business, when I ran Student magazine in my teens. I am still learning and hope I never stop. These lessons have held me in good stead throughout my life and I hope that you will find something in these pages that might inspire you.

Newspapers call my partners and me at Virgin Mavericks in Paradise perhaps because I own two idyllic tropical islands; one in the Caribbean and one off the coast of northern Australia. Theres no doubt that we tend to do things in a less stuffy way than most businesses, and for me, it works. I work hard and I play hard. I believe in goals. Its never a bad thing to have a dream, but always Im practical about it. I dont fantasise and sit daydreaming about the impossible. I set goals and then work out how to achieve them. Anything I want to do in life I want to do well and not half-heartedly. At school, I found reading and writing hard. Back then, dyslexia wasnt understood and my teachers thought I was lazy. So I taught myself to learn things by heart. Now I have a very good memory. It has become one of my best tools in business.

We have come a very long way since I launched Virgin back in 1967. We started small and grew big. Sometimes the pace of our expansion into numerous fields and enterprises, from cola, to wine, wedding gowns to mobile phones, books, comics, animation, credit cards, planes, trains and even space travel, seems incredible. Nothing seems impossible or too big to tackle. Virgin really does wholeheartedly embrace my maxim Screw It, Lets Do It, and I love to see the enthusiasm and energy generated by our team. I relish it when we take on a new idea and make it fly.

But we are now into the new millennium and the old ideas that industry is king and the devil take the hindmost are changing. With huge leaps in science and our understanding of the way the Earth and the Universe work, we have come to realise that everything is linked; nothing stands alone or acts on its own. For every act there is a consequence. Because of this, I feel it is very important to know how Virgin is going to work in the twenty-first century.

On a global level, the behaviour of people, industries and enterprises has immediate and often long-term effects on our world. If mankind makes a mistake, it can be catastrophic. On a personal level, Virgin employs over 50,000 people, and their livelihoods will be affected if we dont succeed in all the many areas we have established ourselves. As a businessman, of course, I want to get on and be successful, and sometimes the cheaper option in manufacturing methods seems the better one. But one of my rules is: Do no harm.

It seems to me that, along with my responsibility as chairman of one of the worlds most successful and entrepreneurial companies, I have a responsibility and duty, as much as is humanly possible, to ensure that we do no harm. I have taken to heart the fact that everything we do touches something, or someone, somewhere.

For a long time I have been drawn to the Gaia Theory, a hypothesis formulated by James Lovelock almost forty years ago, which states that the Earth is a living entity, like a single cell, and, like a single cell, everything it needs for its existence is contained within it. Moreover, Professor Lovelock believes that the planet can heal itself if damaged. But even with Gaia there is a point of no return, beyond which the damage could be irreversible. Environmental scientists have warned us that the pace of development and industry, as well as the loss of vast tracts of rainforest, has released so much CO2 into the atmosphere we have entered into a cycle of global warming which could lead to the destruction of most forms of life on Earth. This is happening now. We must put the environment first if we are to survive.

As a capitalist I faced a stark question: was I doing harm? Careful research and investigation revealed that there was a way in which I could be a capitalist and still embrace my long-held environmental philosophy. By looking at ways in which Virgin could develop new fuels to reduce carbon emissions, we could help to reverse global warming. We could also take steps to make our group of companies more environmentally responsible. I coined the phrase Gaia Capitalism as a tenet, a catchy phrase, and as a way forward.

I have come to realise that while industry and enterprise exist on a wide-scale commercial level, they dont have to be bad. Of course we all want to have refrigerators, drive cars, hop on planes and trains, live our normal, busy and satisfying lives. But at the same time, we must be more aware of how our actions damage our environment. I believe that it is up to big companies like Virgin to lead the way with a holistic approach, one which, while creating and maintaining successful, entrepreneurial companies, also helps maintain the balance of nature and does as little harm as possible.

Virgin can do this because we are a private company. I dont believe in going by the book. I will change things where I can if its for the better and I will work by setting an example. In this I have been influenced by many good and brilliant people. As well as James Lovelock, I draw inspiration from the ideas of my relative, Sir Peter Scott, who set up the World Wildlife Fund before his death; Jonathon Porritt, co-founder of Forum for the Future (and Founder of Greenpeace); Australian scientist and environmentalist, Tim Flannery, who says in his groundbreaking book, The Weathermakers , that we can all influence the global climate in a positive way; and Al Gore, who has made it his mission through his film and book, An Inconvenient Truth , to get the message across that the world is on the brink of an environmental catastrophe.