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key tips to success

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— christian nshimiyimana

He is one of the most successful businessmen in the UK and an icon of entrepreneurship. His latest project is Virgin Galactic, which he hopes will one day become a space tourism company.

Here are his Top Ten Tips for success:

1. Follow your dreams and just do it

Follow your dreams, get involved in life, in the things that interest you. If you are going to create a business, make sure it is your hobby, your passion or something that you really enjoy.

You will live a much better life that way. Don’t just set out to do something for the sake of making money.

I think lots of people have lots of great ideas, but very few people actually go out and try to put them into practice.

There are lots of people who think that somebody must have done that before, or you’ll never raise the money or you shouldn’t take a risk in life.

It’s the people who say I’m just going to do it, that end up having a chance of having a much more exciting and rewarding life.

Student paper — Image captionFor his Student Magazine Branson wrote a lot of letters to celebrities and managed to get many of them to agree to be interviewed

2. Make a positive difference and do some good

The first thing to do if you want to become an entrepreneur is basically to have an idea that is going to make a positive difference to other people’s lives. A business is simply that.

If you’re running a business you are in a position where you can make a hell of a difference in this world.

I also think it’s great for the staff of a company that they can feel good about a company that is actually getting out there and doing good.

3. Believe in your ideas and be the best

You definitely need to believe in your idea. There’s really no point in doing something in life unless people feel really good about it and proud about it. You’ve got to have passion for it and you’ve got to be able to inspire other people to have a passion for it too.

If an idea is a good idea you should be able to pitch it in two or three sentences and two or three sentences fit very neatly on the back of an envelope.

There was no point creating a new airline unless it was going to be palpably better than every other airline in the world, you’ve got to make sure that every aspect of what you do is better than the competition.

Virgin Records shop — Image captionBranson’s record business started out as a mail order company

4. Have fun and look after your team

I 100% believe that it’s important to have fun and if you’re not having fun anymore, it might be time to move on. You should have fun from the top down and create the kind of environment that’s pleasant to work in.

Make sure that you’ve got the kinds of people running your companies who genuinely care about people, who look for the best in people and who praise and don’t criticise.

People are not that unlike flowers. If a flower is watered it flourishes and if a flower is not watered it dries up and dies and I think the same applies to people.

5. Don’t give up

It’s extremely important not to give up. There have been situations in my adventures, like crossing the pacific in a balloon, where the odds were stacked very heavily against us surviving.

Being an entrepreneur is not that dissimilar to being an adventurer. You have plenty of situations where your back is right up against a wall and you’ve just got to work day and night to make sure you overcome the difficulties a particular company finds itself in. Brush yourself down the next day and move on into something else.

I think I’m reasonably good at dealing with failure and not letting it get me down for more than an hour or two as long as I put everything I can into avoiding it.

Richard Branson — Image captionBranson arrived on Necker Island in 1989 hanging from the bottom of a helicopter to marry his wife Joan Templeton

6. Make lots of lists and keep setting yourself new challenges

I make copious lists because I think it’s the little details that make for an exceptional company over an average company. Details are very important and I think it’s important to keep setting yourself new challenges and targets.

I do believe that the first of the year is a good time to write down your goals for the year. Unless you actually organise yourself and write down the kinds of things you want to achieve, there’s a danger that as time slips by, you don’t achieve a lot.

7. Spend time with your family and learn to delegate

One of the early things you have to do as an entrepreneur is learn the art of delegation. Find people who are better than you to run the companies on a day-to-day basis, freeing yourself up to think about the bigger picture and spend time with your family.

That’s very important, especially if you’ve got children, they are what’s going to be left when you’re gone.

I know I’m a good entrepreneur, but I’m not sure that I’d be a very good manager and there is a difference. My mind is always thinking ahead and wanting to create new things.

I just think once I’ve set something up, it’s better if someone else runs it. I can dive in and out and be a pain occasionally, but the day-to-day business is better for somebody else to do.

Richard Branson and children — Image captionBranson has two children Holly and Sam

8. Try turning off the TV and get out there and do things

My mum brought us up very much to get out there and do things, don’t watch other people do things, and don’t watch television. I think that was a good way of bringing up kids. With my own kids, we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the Caribbean and we never watch television there.

I think I am capable of switching off on Necker Island which is where we sort of pull up the drawbridge. But what I’m doing I see as so fascinating, so rewarding, so interesting that I don’t ever really want to switch off too much because I find myself in such a wonderful, challenging position that I don’t want to waste that position and there are just so many important challenges going on.

9. When people say bad things about you, just prove them wrong

There are people who hang onto the coat tails of successful people and try to sell a few books on the back of their name. It’s unpleasant but you know that if you sue them or kick up a fuss, all it will do is publicise the book. So I’ve had to learn the art of ignoring people like that.

I think the best thing to do is just to prove them wrong in every single way. This particular book, (Branson: Behind the Mask by Tom Bower), says that our spaceship programme is a white elephant, later this year we will prove them wrong.

10. Do what you love and have a sofa in the kitchen

You only live one life, so I would do the thing that you are going to enjoy. When life boils down, this might sound like a little much coming from me, I do have my own little island in the Caribbean, but when we are on that island, we tend to just live in the kitchen.

The truth is, so long as you’ve got a kitchen which has space for a sofa, and a bedroom, and a partner that you love, you don’t necessarily need the add-ons in life.

Then, if you’re doing something that really interests you, it will result in a much more enjoyable life rather than just doing something for the sake of making money.

MY JOURNEY AT NKOMBO ISLAND

The construction of a guest house which will have at least 30 rooms, a conference hall, restaurant and bar, is in its final stages.

MY JOURNEY to the island of Nkombo, deep in Lake Kivu, started in Kamembe town, dozens of kilometres away. The road from Kamembe, the main city of Rusizi District, to Nkombo is dusty and sometimes becomes a dark cloud of dust caused mainly by trucks transporting sand and construction stones.

En route, women and girls carrying heavy loads on their backs move in groups of two or three. This is a common practice of carrying heavy loads in this part of the country, a practice common among the Congolese nationals who live on the other side of the border.

For about three hours, the women will trek the dusty road carrying a variety of goods-including foodstuffs and cement, among others.

Some of them earn just peanuts from their services. Vestine Turinabo, a woman in her mid-thirties, said she is paid only Rwf500 to carry a 50-kilogramme cement bag from Kamembe to Nkombo.

Nkombo Island is approximately 11 Kilometres from Kamembe town and 679 metres away from the shores of Lake Kivu. The Island, which is one of the 18 sectors that make up Rusizi District, covers an area of 21 square kilometres and is inhabited by about 17,000 residents.

As I reached the shores of Lake Kivu, at a popular place called Busekanka, I boarded a canoe with three other individuals. One of them was a secondary school girl going to attend classes at one of the three schools on the Island.

The 10-minute boat ride seemed like it took forever. For a first time traveller in a canoe, thoughts of the boat sinking kept sweeping through my mind.

Matters were made worse when the school girl seated next to me exuded extreme fear despite being a regular user.

“I fear crossing this lake. I always think the canoe can sink anytime,” the girl later confesses as we reached the other end of the lake.

But we arrived safely. According to our skipper, who identified himself as Niyonsaba, it is common for visitors to exude fear.

“But we keep telling them to calm down. Indeed there are not a lot of accidents here,” he insists as we moved through the deep waters.

“There are moments when we experience heavy storms and travellers become afraid. But we assure them, ask them to keep calm and we increase speed to get to the other side quickly,” he said on our way back.

Beautiful Island

Unlike other parts of the country where agriculture is the main source of income for the population, Nkombo dwellers live a different life. Here, 80 per cent of the total population depend on fishing, according officials.

A few others live off canoes, ferrying passengers to and from the Island which stands out in the middle of Lake Kivu, not far from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For almost every 15 or 20 minutes, canoes keep ferrying residents and visitors to the Island. Women and girls loading and offloading heavy loads is a common sight.

The movement of the boats on the lake starts as early as 4am and ends later in the day, at around 8pm, according to Niyonsaba.

Seated in the middle of Lake Kivu Nkombo Island is undoubtedly one of Rwanda’s beauties with lush green hills, a peaceful breeze blowing from the lake and a thrilling, calm and tranquil nature.

Untold image

Trees and banana plantations surround the Island making Nkombo an untold image of a ‘green hill’.

Undoubtedly, the Island could become one of the appreciated tourism destinations in the country if efforts are made in transforming it and turning it into a tourism hub, local residents argue.

However, it lacks infrastructure. Apart from electricity, Nkombo lacks almost all other infrastructure that might attract visitors to the Island.

And though accessing Nkombo from Kamembe seems very easy by boats, including motorised ones, it is difficult to travel the 21 square Kms once there.

On the Island, transport on the non-tarmaced roads becomes a challenge. No single vehicle or motorcycle operates at the Island.

The only motorcycles operating there are used by the sector employees and a local health centre, according to officials.

The option is to go along with your own motorcycle rider from Kamembe. The chances of finding the only bar on the island open are also minimal.

“We lack tourism infrastructure on the island,” confesses Nkombo Sector executive secretary, Victor Sebagabo, before detailing a list of planned activities and programmes to boost tourism at the Island.

The priority, he says, is to improve on infrastructure.

A guest house, which is under construction on the shores of Lake Kivu, is the first project being implemented with the aim of bridging the existing gap.

The construction of the facility, which will have at least 30 rooms, a conference hall, restaurant and bar, is in its final stage.

“This is just the beginning and we hope much more is to come,” he said, disclosing that efforts are being made to attract potential investors after showcasing the ‘huge potential’ of the Island.

“People [visitors] come and after touring some parts of the Island go back [without spending a coin here]. We believe developing the tourism sector will bring about positive change here,” Sebagabo says, noting that it would create more employment for local residents and stimulate local initiatives, including the making of artfacts to sell to tourists.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.