We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 040 : Richard Branson - Screw it, Let's Do It (Investing Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 We study billionaires, and this is episode 40 of The Investors Podcast. Broadcasting from Bel Air, Maryland. This is the Investors Podcast. They'll read the books and summarize the lessons. They'll test the waters and tell you when it's cold. They'll give you actionable investing strategies. Your host, Preston Pish, and Sting Broderson. Hey, how's everybody doing out there?

Starting point is 00:00:30 This is Preston Pish, and I'm your host for the Investors. podcast. And as usual, I'm accompanied by my co-host, Stig Broderson, out in Denmark. And so this week, we've got a book that we're going to be doing. And the name of the book is Screw It. Let's Do It by Sir Richard Branson. So I've always been intrigued by Richard Branson. I don't know about you, Stig, but I read a lot of his quotes because we send out a lot of quotes on our Twitter feed and things like that. And he's always got these really good quotes. It really seems to empathize with a lot of people whenever they see anything with Richard Branson on it. So I was really kind of quite excited to dig into this book. What were your thoughts before you

Starting point is 00:01:07 started reading it? Yeah, I was very curious about him because I think I just know him and an eccentric billionaire. Like, he's doing things that other people are not doing. So I was really interested in seeing behind that, like what's really shaped Richard Branson to, for him to become the person than he has today. So that was my thoughts before reading the book. I didn't know that much about him. So it was I mean, I know he had Virgin Records. He's got the airline. I mean, I knew the basics, but I didn't really know kind of like how he got his start or any of that kind of stuff. So I was really excited to read this book.

Starting point is 00:01:42 With that said, after reading it, I really wasn't all that impressed with the book. I thought it was good. Don't get me wrong. And I think for maybe a younger generation, somebody who really doesn't have a lot of business experience, somebody who's looking for a little bit of motivation, I think it'd probably be a good book for you. but for me it just wasn't I thought it was okay there was some points in here I really liked and then a lot of other points that I thought were very mediocre at best

Starting point is 00:02:06 so and I'm assuming you had the same opinion stick yeah it was definitely not a step by step guy to becoming a billionaire I gotta say that where is that book by the way yeah where is that book by the way but you know it has some good nuggets here and there but it's really

Starting point is 00:02:22 about you know him as a person and he's telling him about his family and so on we'll dig more into that it's not more like this is how you build a business. I mean, it's not one of those books, I got to say. Yeah. No, but it was good. So what we'll do is we'll just kind of go through and kind of hit the high points like we usually do. For anybody, if you want to download the executive summary of this book, Stig and I type up an executive summary for every single book that we read that we do on the show. So if you guys go on to our website, the investorspodcast.com,

Starting point is 00:02:54 and just right there on the top, you can see there's a link almost on every single. single page where you can sign up for our list. We only send two emails a month with these book summaries attached. We don't send out emails for anything else because we absolutely hate spam. So if you want to get our summaries for free, sign up on our list and we'll send them to you. You can save a little bit of time. So let's go ahead and talk about the first chapter of the book. And the first chapter is just do it, which I think he stole that from Nike. I'm not sure. but this was a good chapter. The one thing that I think is the point I really want to talk about with Stig is this idea that people called Richard Branson, the doctor yes, meaning he would pretty much say yes to so many different things.

Starting point is 00:03:39 And it's funny because I've read quotes and I've seen things that other people have said and it really kind of flies in the face of what other billionaires say because they say that you've got to say no a lot. And so I found that to be really interesting that there was a little bit of contrast there because I think I kind of side a little bit more with the no crowd. And I'm real curious to hear what Stig's opinion is on this. I think I'm the same team as you, Preston, because I know that is at least what Barnabwebitt is saying. And I guess I really take his word like for me in a good opinion. But I think it's the gospel. Yeah, it's the gospel.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Yeah, that was the word I was looking for. No, I also guess it depends on how you are defining it because I'm thinking a billionaire like Richard Branson, he can't say yes to everything. I mean, if he would do that, he would never get anything else done. So I think you should probably read in the context. So for instance, he talks about inventions. He's very passionate about inventions. And he says that inventions doesn't have to be profitable in itself. And he's saying about Virgin Records, like, yes, it actually gives them, you know, a bit of cash, but that was really not the purpose. He was more thinking it was the stabbings stone to airlines. So I think that's what he means by, should we say yes? Should we say no? I think he's saying if you do say yes, it will open up to a ton of other opportunities. I think that was his way of thinking. Yeah, and you know, I think you're right. I think that maybe I took it a little bit out of context the way that I was reading it in the book. And I think that you are right. I think that that's probably what he was trying to get at more than that he says yes to

Starting point is 00:05:16 everything. The thing that I wanted to talk about real fast, just to kind of give some people some context and some background on how Branson kind of got his start. So Branson, as a young kid, he was in high school or what he called grammar school. And what he did was he started his own magazine company, even at like a really young age. He was in what? He was like 16, 17 years old Stig whenever he started this magazine company. Yeah, it was really young. I was really impressed that he had this drive that young. Yeah. So he had this, you know, enormous drive early on. He started this magazine company, turned it into what I would imagine was a very valuable business just through pure hustle. I mean, he was cold calling people. That's the one thing

Starting point is 00:05:59 that he talks about a lot is the fact that he was cold calling in order to set up purchase orders and just kind of really ran with it for a kid at that age. You typically don't see that kind of drive until maybe somebody's like in their 30s or something that would have the thought process. And the The ability to think so big, I think is probably the key takeaway from this is Branson at age 17 was thinking, I can start my own multimillion dollar company right now. Like, I don't need to be 30, 40 years old. So he was a big thinker early on. And I think most people, it takes some decades to get to that point where they have the confidence in themselves that, hey, I could start a multimillion dollar company. He was just like, no, I can do that right now.

Starting point is 00:06:42 No hesitation whatsoever. So that's the part I really liked. Go ahead. Yeah, I was really impressed that he had no fear of rejection. And I just think of Gillian's book, Gillian So Siegel that we have a few shows ago. And she was talking about the same thing. I think that she has no fear of rejection herself, though. But she was always referring to these billionaires that one of the secrets to the success,

Starting point is 00:07:05 for instance, Sarah Blakely, you know, the founder of Spanx, she would just drive alone throughout the country and trying selling her products. and people will just keep saying no to her. And that's really not fun at all. And I think that you might be able to do that, say, when you're 30s and you have something to show for. But when you're 17 and you know, have nothing and you know that people will just reject you and perhaps even be rude to you, I think that takes a lot of moxie to do that. Yeah, it takes a lot of courage for sure. But it definitely is one of the separating pieces and one of the pieces that we see that's very common amongst all these billionaires. is that they just go for it.

Starting point is 00:07:45 And if they get rejected, they're like, oh, that's no, that's no big deal. It wasn't meant to be with you anyway. So I'm going over to this other person who they already got lined up that they're, you know, already moving in that direction. So that's a really common thread and a common theme that we see amongst all these people. And we definitely saw that with Branson 10fold, you know, he was definitely that type of person. So the next chapter was called Have Fun, which if you go to our website, the investors podcast.com, and we have two things listed.

Starting point is 00:08:12 The first one is we like to have fun. So we totally empathize with this chapter big time, and we believe that that's a key ingredient to success. If you're not having fun and what you're doing, why in the world are you there? You know, there's things out there. I don't care who you are. There's something you enjoy doing.

Starting point is 00:08:33 And the faster you're able to align that with your ability to work and provide value to society, the faster you're going to find yourself succeed, because when you align those two together, you have no choice but to succeed. You really don't. It's not really an option because if you're doing something you enjoy, you're going to put in more than eight hours. You're just going to do 12 hours. I know Mark Cuban in one of his books.

Starting point is 00:08:57 He talks about, I just love the fact that I could sit down and computer program for 24 hours straight. He's like, and it just went by because I was loving and I was really enjoying it. And I think that that's such a key ingredient that he talks about. Stig, what's your thoughts? I think my key takeaway from this chapter was when he talked about how he bought his island, Negro Island. I just think there was a funny story. But the reason why I actually thought it was very funny was not long after I read this chapter,

Starting point is 00:09:28 I got an email one morning from you, Preston. You remember that? Yeah. And it was sent out to me and it was also sent out to the other guys in the mastermind group. And, you know, I can't remember, like, the exact topic with something like, hey, we should rent Branson's Island or something like that. And you found this amazing, was it like $11,000 or something? Yeah. A few days. Yeah, for 11. And yeah, you have to bring, like, sorry. No, for 11K, we could take a group of 30 people to the island for, what was it, five days or seven days or something like that. And we'd have the entire island to ourselves. And we'd have a, and we'd have. his whole staff. You know, I think that's a win, but hey, maybe some other people might disagree. We will have the Investor's podcast annual meeting on that island, Preston. Yes, absolutely. So I don't know when we're going to do that, but I'm sure we probably will do it.

Starting point is 00:10:26 So if you are interested in that, shoot me and know it and let me know. And we'll put your name on a list. But yeah, so sticks exactly right. So in this chapter, he talks about how he purchased this island, which I thought was a really neat story because he went down, and this is down in the, Bahama, Virgin Island area. And the person who was selling the island wanted three million pounds for the purchase. And Branson offered, like, he low-balled him so much that the guy was just totally insulted. And so time went by. He obviously didn't buy it at that point in time because Branson talks about how he didn't

Starting point is 00:10:58 even have the money to buy something that expensive at that point in time. But he kept at it and he kept looking and seeing and watching that property, that specific island because he really wanted it. And he ended up getting the almost really close to the deal that he originally lowballed it for. And with some contingencies that he had to set up some type of fresh water system on the island and some other contingencies. But he eventually did it. And if you go online and you look up Necker Island, it is just gorgeous. In fact, this is a really interesting point.

Starting point is 00:11:30 They recently had a Bitcoin conference out at Neckar Island and they brought all the core developers out to Necker Island. With Branson, Branson was there. I know he was there because I have a friend that's a programmer for Bitcoin and he got a picture with Branson. So it's pretty amazing to see that Richard Branson's got his hands in some of that stuff. But that's a side point. So the whole point of this chapter, I know we got a little bit off on some tangents here, is that you've got to have fun at what you do. And when you do and you align that with your work, you're going to be successful. Okay.

Starting point is 00:12:04 So in the next chapter, he talks about the name of this chapter is Be Bold. which I agree, you've got to be bold. But he talks about his purchase of Virgin Airlines. And I'm really curious to know Stig's opinion on Virgin Airlines. I just don't know why anybody would want to own an airline. I just, I don't get it. But I'm curious to know what Stig thinks about it all. Yeah, yeah, I guess that, you know, I'm a different person that's Richard Branson.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And whenever I hear airline, I'm thinking, so that's a lot of capital expenditures. I mean, that's the first thing that comes into my mind. And then the Red Risa Branson first thought, and that was like, wow, this just sounds awesome. Yeah, that seems like that was his reason for doing it, which I think is really quite interesting, because I don't think you see too many billionaires that really think like this, where he was, I just want to do it because I think it'd be awesome to own an airline. Like, no other reason. Like, it didn't really seem to, I mean, he got a sweetheart deal the way that he set up his first aircraft purchase through

Starting point is 00:13:05 Boeing and how he was able to, basically Boeing had a surplus of, I forget which type of aircraft it was, but he was able to basically lease the aircraft from them. His downside was next to nothing. His upside was pure profit if he was successful. So it was kind of an interesting story of how that all unfolded, but I just could never understand why would you want to get into that line of business where it's so competitive, the people your customers are always just looking for the cheapest price. And so it's really cutthroat.

Starting point is 00:13:36 There's not much margin at all in that line of business. So I was really surprised to see him wanting to do it. And whenever you read the book and you see that it wasn't really based on the numbers, it was based on the passion of owning an airline company. You kind of understand why he did it. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right. I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer.

Starting point is 00:13:59 You got long days of daylight, incredible food, floating saunas on the the Oslo Fjord, and every conversation you have is with people who are actually shaping the future. That's what the Oslo Freedom Forum is. From June 1st through the 3rd, 2026, the Oslo Freedom Forum is entering its 18th year bringing together activists, technologists, journalists, investors, and builders from all over the world, many of them operating on the front lines of history. This is where you hear firsthand stories from people using Bitcoin to survive, currency collapse, using AI to expose human rights abuses, and building technology under censorship and authoritarian pressures. These aren't abstract ideas. These are tools real people are using right now.

Starting point is 00:14:43 You'll be in the room with about 2,000 extraordinary individuals, dissidents, founders, philanthropists, policymakers, the kind of people you don't just listen to but end up having dinner with. Over three days, you'll experience powerful mainstage talks, hands-on workshops on freedom tech, and financial sovereignty, immersive art installations, and conversations that continue long after the sessions end. And it's all happening in Oslo in June. If this sounds like your kind of room, well, you're in luck because you can attend in person. Standard and patron passes are available at Osloof Freedom Forum.com with patron passes offering deep access, private events, and small group time with the speakers. The Oslo Freedom Forum isn't just a conference.

Starting point is 00:15:27 It's a place where ideas meet reality and where the future. future is being built by people living it. If you run a business, you've probably had the same thought lately. How do we make AI useful in the real world? Because the upside is huge, but guessing your way into it is a risky move. With NetSuite by Oracle, you can put AI to work today. NetSuite is the number one AI Cloud ERP, trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It pulls your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into one unified system.

Starting point is 00:16:00 And that connected data is what makes your AI smarter. It can automate routine work, surface actionable insights, and help you cut costs while making fast AI-powered decisions with confidence. And now with the NetSuite AI connector, you can use the AI of your choice to connect directly to your real business data. This isn't some add-on, it's AI built into the system that runs your business. And whether your company does millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get their free business guide

Starting point is 00:16:32 demystifying AI at netsuite.com slash study. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash study. NetSuite.com slash study. When I started my own side business, it suddenly felt like I had to become 10 different people overnight wearing many different hats. Starting something from scratch can feel exciting, but also incredibly overwhelming and lonely. That's why I having the right tools matters. For millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. from brands just getting started to household names. It gives you everything you need in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics. So you're not juggling a bunch of different platforms.

Starting point is 00:17:21 You can build a beautiful online store with hundreds of ready-to-use templates and Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions and even enhance your product photography. Plus, if you ever get stuck, they've got award-winning 24-7 customer support. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash WSB. Go to Shopify.com slash WSB. That's Shopify.

Starting point is 00:17:56 slash WSB. All right, back to the show. Yeah, and I also think it was because that he saw a need for, at least a need for this type of airline, that a part of the brand, a part of the Virgin brand. So the reason why I'm saying that is I think brands are wearing thinking is if there's need, that's enough. I mean, that's enough for me to get started. And from there, I will figure out how I've reached that goal.

Starting point is 00:18:24 I think that was his process. I mean, me and perhaps also Preston more analytical, we would probably, you know, have some projections and we want to look at a budget. But it didn't appear to me that there was Branson's way of doing things. And, you know, I guess that's why people would rather listen to Branson than us, Preston. So this is, this thought just came by head about this chapter. So he talks about being bold. So he does some crazy stuff. And one of the things that I read in this book that I was just like, this guy is a.

Starting point is 00:18:55 a strange cat was he was talking about how he was on, and I don't think it was in this chapter, I think it was later in the book, but he talks about how he was out at Necker Island for one of the only hurricanes that kind of came through that area. And because he wanted to be able to feel the strength and the power of the storm, he went out into the swimming pool at Necker Island, which you got to realize, this is not a big island. This is like his own private island. It's not like the emergency crews are going to come and rescue him if something happens. He goes out and he gets inside the swimming pool as the hurricane is going by so he could

Starting point is 00:19:32 keep his body into the water and stick his head out of the top of the water and experience the strength of a hurricane. I read this and I'm thinking to myself, this guy is officially off his rocker. Like, Stig, what did you think when you read it? Like, what were you thinking? I was thinking, I don't know. I mean, I was completely floored about that. Yeah, I mean, Speechless. Yeah. But I think that just shows that he's the real deal. I mean, he's in his 60s right now.

Starting point is 00:20:03 And, you know, he could do everything he wants to do. Like, he couldn't live on a resort and just relax. But, no, he keeps on living 100%. Or at least, he's the version of living. I'm not sure my version of living is. For me, I'm like, you know, he has a family. He has kids. Like, what in the world is he thinking?

Starting point is 00:20:22 You know, like, I guess that's where my mind goes. was immediately, like, I would never do that to my family to potentially kill myself because I wanted to experience the wrath of a storm. I mean, come on, man, get a hair dryer and blow it over your face or something. I don't know. But no, I don't know. I read that. I was like, oh, my gosh.

Starting point is 00:20:39 The other story that I can't remember if it was in this chapter or not, but it talks about being bold is this idea that he wanted to be the fastest boat across the Atlantic, leaving from the United States over to the UK. And so on his first try, he had a boat and they were going and they were almost there and they ran into this really bad storm. And it basically split the boat in half and they had to be rescued out at sea in the storm. And so you would think, you know, if that was me, I'd be like, okay, I ain't doing that again would be my thought process. But what was it? Within a year, he had purchased another boat and he was making another run at it.

Starting point is 00:21:18 So he doesn't seem to really be phased by anything that could physically kill him. And there's another story about him in a hot air balloon. Okay. So in chapter five of this book, there was a really interesting discussion or story that Branson told about his company and how he was taking it public, meaning that he was going to start issuing shares of the business because up to that point it had been a private company. And although he had a lot of support to take it. the company private. He ultimately brought the company back as a, he ultimately brought the company back as a private company that only he held the control of. And I found that to be a really interesting point. I thought it was something that Stig and I could have a good discussion on. So the question I

Starting point is 00:22:05 guess I got for you, Stig, and I have my own biased opinions, which I'll talk about after I hear your opinion, is what do you think is a better structure for a person to have a private company or a publicly held company. A real thing, it depends on your own situation, because as we all know, the reason why you would go public is really to raise money. But, you know, I can easily understand, for instance, the Koch brothers, why they are not listed their company. Because it has a lot of benefits. And it's really not about keeping things secret, in my opinion. But it's really like if you are a public company, you just have to follow certain rules. And as I guess we all know, if you have to follow rules. Sometimes that can, you know, strain you. And, you know, I'm pretty sure at least for

Starting point is 00:22:51 someone like Richard Branson have to following rules, that is just not at all in his line of business. So I think that was my, was my takeaway. There was more suited for his personality to have it as a private company. So, yeah, and I totally agree with you. I think it's really situational dependent in what your interests are. So people that have, and I love doing this, and my, my wife and my family think I'm just really quite strange whenever we go into a business, particularly like a restaurant, and it's just really good service. When you go in, you can tell that they really don't have really high margins. And I always say, oh, this has to be a private company.

Starting point is 00:23:30 And my wife just looks at me like, what are you even talking about? And like, that's probably the most boring thing I think I've ever heard all day. But I say that because for me, whenever I go into a company and I see that they have really good customer service. And it seems like everything's about the customer. And it doesn't seem like they're more motivated by profit margins. You can typically identify a private company over a public company because you're not having to feed the shareholders. You're not having to meet their interest necessarily.

Starting point is 00:24:02 So a great example of that in the United States. And I'm sorry if you don't, if you're not familiar with this company stick. But there's a company called Chick-fil-A. And what they do, and there's another one out in California called In-N-Out Burger. And so these two companies are restaurants, fast food restaurants, and their service is just insane. Like you go to Chick-fil-A, they've actually got real flowers on every single table in the restaurant. And so when you see that, you immediately know that is not a publicly traded company because that's profit sitting there on the table, that they're just making their environment nicer for their customers.

Starting point is 00:24:37 So I'm of the opinion that if you're the type of person that wants to run a business, for the long term and you want to continue to hold on to it, I can't understand for the life of me why you'd want to take that company public and offer up shares of it unless you're in a position where you need the money and you need to raise money and then that's where you're giving up control of your business. So like myself, I own a holding company, a private company. I have no interest whatsoever in making that a publicly traded business in the future or offering shares to anybody else because I want to retain control of

Starting point is 00:25:13 of that. I want to run that business the way I want to run it. And so I thought this was a really interesting point that Branson brought up in the book was just talking about how he was going to take the company public. And I think it was because he was trying to raise money for his airline. I can't really remember the reason why. Yeah. And I think Branson feels the same way as you, present. For him, it's not about the money or at least money is only a very small part of it. It's about the game. And again, it's about having fun. And you know, you can have a lot of fun. if it's your own, if you were completely 100% charge, you know, you can do

Starting point is 00:25:47 whatever you want to do. And I think that's very fitting for someone like Branson that you can just do what he wants to do. He doesn't want to wait for a public announcement or he doesn't want to follow the regulations. So he's just doing what he's doing with his own company. And so I

Starting point is 00:26:03 think that is the driver for most entrepreneurs. So I guess that's also why you see that private companies are just more entrepreneurial because if you were not that, you might have chose to list your company way sooner. Well, and I think that a lot of entrepreneurs that own their own private company for a long time and it really kind of grows into something, they have an appreciation for the goodwill and the

Starting point is 00:26:24 brand that they build by maybe taking a lower margin on whatever their product or services. I know that that's not always the case, but I think that, you know, you look at a company like Chick-fil-A, they're much more interested in making sure that their customers happy. They have an amazing experience when they go to the restaurant. And because of that, they build this goodwill within the customer that they're going to come back. They're going to tell their friends. And it builds into like this marketing strategy at the same time. So I find that really interesting.

Starting point is 00:26:53 And I find it completely in contrast to the people that start a business and their whole goal is to take it public so that they can have a share offering and they can make a bunch of money and sell it and get out. I just find that the two different approaches to be, you know, really interesting. to dissect and look at the interests of the people running the businesses. So one of the things that Branson talks about, and this is mostly, I think, in chapter six, where he's talking about live in the moment. I really liked his discussion of when you're in a certain setting, if I'm with my family, it's all about being with my family. He's living in that moment.

Starting point is 00:27:29 When I'm working, I give it my all into whatever I'm working on. And I think that's really important because a lot of people find themselves in their head, either thinking about something that's going to happen tomorrow or in a year from now or they're thinking about something that happened a year ago and they're not in the present moment enjoying that for what it is. For me personally, once I had kids, that was, you know, and you look at the pictures as they're growing. You're like, oh my gosh, where in the world did the time go?

Starting point is 00:28:01 And you really do learn to have this deep appreciation for right now, this moment to just like live it and to just enjoy and be thankful for it. And I really like this point in the book. And I think that it's such a profound point that when you're there sitting with your family, you're not on your iPhone reading email traffic. You put it off. You turn it off. It's not what your focus is.

Starting point is 00:28:26 Your focus is on the moment right now. I'm going to enjoy this meal with my family or whatever it might be. I really like this chapter. And I think it adds some real value in my life and for anybody else. Okay, so now that I gave Branson some props for that chapter, because I really thought it was great, I'm going to talk about something that I thought was kind of ironic and something that I didn't really necessarily agree with. So in chapter 7, he talks about the importance of value and your family and friends, which he obviously values his family and his friends tremendously. And there's nothing that I want to say to contradict that because I don't know him.

Starting point is 00:29:01 I haven't been around him. but one of the things that I found just totally ironic and that really didn't add up and make sense to me was why in the world would you do these like these hot air adventures where he was in a hot air balloon and the person he was flying with had to jump out and they were in the ocean and he goes off to another and yet he does it again or you're in the boat trying to cross the Atlantic and it cracks in half and you're stranded its seat and you do it again for me I and I'm not saying. saying that he did anything right or wrong. I don't really want to focus on that. But for me, if I was in those circumstances, I would have a very hard time justifying another attempt at something like that with those kinds of probabilities and those kinds of potential outcomes, knowing that I could leave my family behind. It didn't make any sense to me. And so I appreciate the fact that he talked about how much he values his family and friends in the book. But I guess I'm having a hard time seeing some of his actions.

Starting point is 00:30:02 back up what he is saying in the book. And I know that's really bad of me to judge him that way. But I guess that's those were my thoughts as I was reading the book. I think is the best way for me to describe it. It didn't make sense to me. It didn't really add up. But go ahead, Stig. Yeah. I just think it's a question of values because there was something that was really surprising for me to read about Branson. But yet again, you know, I meet a lot of different people every day and they do very different things than what I do. And I basically just think it all comes down to values. I mean, I think he's saying you need to value your family and friends. And when I hear that, you know, I'm thinking about something specific by my family, just as I'm sure when you're reading this person, you're thinking about, okay, so valuing family means this.

Starting point is 00:30:47 So for Branson, I just don't think that these two things are mutual exclusive. I think that he's really paying close attention to how he can be there for his family, but it's still so important for him to experience a hurricane. it's really important for him to fly in a balloon. And so I just think it's a question of value. So at least that was my take on it. And another thing I really like in this chapter was that he says that money is there to create things. And I actually think that that's the reason why he's a billionaire. Yeah, I love that point.

Starting point is 00:31:25 I'm really glad you brought that up. Keep going. Tell the people more about that quote because this is a really, I think, profound point. Yeah, so he was, you know, when he was young, he did a lot of, I would like to say he done a lot of silly stuff, I guess. Some would say that he kept doing that, but, you know, he was doing a lot of different silly stuff. And one of the things was he was buying this huge real estate and he couldn't afford it.

Starting point is 00:31:49 And I think it was his aunt or his mom or something that had loaned him the money to do that. But then he gives this quote that, in his opinion, money is there to create things. And I think that was why he figured out really soon, like when he was 16 or 17, that he needs to be a billionaire. It's not because he would like to have a lot of money, but he figured out that if you want to realize all of these dreams that he was having and living out his values, one way to do that was to get very, very rich. And I think that that was actually his main driver for doing what he's doing. Like, it's not to become the Forbes, whatever, on the wealthiest person on the planet list. That's just so he has more toys to do funny stuff with. Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors.

Starting point is 00:32:38 No, it's not your imagination. Risk and regulation are ramping up, and customers now expect proof of security just to do business. That's why VANTA is a game changer. Vanta automates your compliance process and brings compliance, risk, and customer trust together on one AI power. platform. So whether you're prepping for a SOC 2 or running an enterprise GRC program, VANTA keeps you secure and keeps your deals moving. Instead of chasing spreadsheets and screenshots, VANTA

Starting point is 00:33:08 gives you continuous automation across more than 35 security and privacy frameworks. Companies like Ramp and Riter spend 82% less time on audits with Vantta. That's not just faster compliance, it's more time for growth. If I were running a startup or scaling a team today, this is exactly the type of platform I'd want in place. Get started at vanta.com slash billionaires. That's vanta.com slash billionaires. Ever wanted to explore the world of online trading, but haven't dared try? The futures market is more active now than ever before, and plus 500 futures is the perfect place to start. Plus 500 gives you access to a wide range of instruments. The S&B 500, NASDAQ, Bitcoin, gas, and much more. Explore equity indices, energy, metals, 4x, crypto, and beyond. With a simple and intuitive

Starting point is 00:34:03 platform, you can trade from anywhere, right from your phone. Deposit with a minimum of $100 and experience the fast, accessible futures trading you've been waiting for. See a trading opportunity, you'll be able to trade it in just two clicks once your account is open. Not sure if you're ready, not a problem. Plus 500 gives you an unlimited, risk-free demo account, with charts and analytic tools for you to practice on. With over 20 years of experience, Plus 500 is your gateway to the markets. Visit Plus500.com to learn more.

Starting point is 00:34:38 Trading in futures involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. Not all applicants will qualify. Plus 500, it's trading with a plus. Billion dollar investors don't typically park their cash in high-yield savings accounts. Instead, they often use one of the premier passive, income strategies for institutional investors, private credit. Now, the same passive income strategy is available to investors of all sizes, thanks to the Fundrise income fund, which has more than $600 million invested and a 7.97% distribution rate. With traditional savings yields falling,

Starting point is 00:35:15 it's no wonder private credit has grown to be a trillion dollar asset class in the last few years. Visit fundrise.com slash WSB to invest in the Fundrise income fund in just minutes. The fund's total return in 2025 was 8%, and the average annual total return since inception is 7.8%. Past performance does not guarantee future results, current distribution rate as of 1231, 2025. Carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information can be found in the income funds prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right. Back to the show. Yeah. And I totally agree. And if you see like some of the things that he was trying to create even recently,

Starting point is 00:36:03 one of the stories I really liked was he was talking about Saddam Hussein. And what he was trying to do was he was trying to use his Virgin airline to fly down, get Nelson Mandela, to fly up, up and meet Saddam Hussein with the president of Jordan. He was orchestrating, Richard Branson was orchestrating this whole thing to try to get Saddam Hussein to basically step down from his rule in Iraq. And I think that that's what he was really, I think, wanting from a very early age, is this ability to create circumstances, to be able to have massive influence. And I think the only way that he knew he could do it was to be able to employ capital at a compounding rate that would allow him to do that later on in his life. So I love this quote that was it his mother or was it

Starting point is 00:36:53 his aunt, did you say? I can't remember. Yeah, one of those two. It was his mother, his aunt. When she loaned him the money, she said, you know, money is used to create things. And I love that. I absolutely love that quote. And I totally agree with it. So the last thing we're going to talk about, and this is a pretty common theme on our podcast for anybody that listens that you guys know that we typically hit on this one. The last point in his book was do some good. Instead of talking about what he really goes into in the book, I think that I'd rather highlight to everybody, don't you think it's ironic that every one of these people that we read about

Starting point is 00:37:29 talk about how they want to do good and how they want to add more value and how they want to give back to society? That is such a common theme. That is the most prominent theme out of any book we read about billionaires. And I really don't want to say anything else, because I want that to sit with people and I want them to say, well, you know, why is that? Why do you see that? And I really think that the goodwill that these people compound upon themselves whenever they do good for society,

Starting point is 00:37:56 it comes back to them. I totally believe that. I don't know if you would believe it, but that's up for you to decide. Yeah, I think it pretty much comes down to that no one can really be successful all by themselves. So that's also why you see that these very generous people, they always end on top. And you might think it's contradictory because they're giving so much away. But I think as Preston is saying, they compound so much goodwill. And that's the reason why they're sitting at the top.

Starting point is 00:38:22 Yeah. I like to always say, in order to receive, you have to give. And it's not the other way around. And a lot of people think that they have to take in order to have things. But it doesn't work that way. It works in the manner where the only way you're going to receive something is you have to give it first. And I think whenever people start taking on that approach, they're going to see a dramatic change in their life. All right. So, here's the thing. So Stig and I at the start of the show, we said that we didn't really particularly care for this book. But you know what? There's a lot of points in this book that make you think. And I'll tell you, there's a lot of good stories in this book, which I did like. A lot of stories that I didn't know about. Richard Branson, it definitely keeps your interest. So I'd say those are the high points. The low points are some of the ironic pieces that we saw that we maybe talked about in this interview that you heard. But regardless, if you want to read the book, you know, go out and go out and go out.

Starting point is 00:39:12 get it, it's a very short read. This thing is small. It looks almost like a little pamphlet. But if you do want the, the Cliff Notes version of what we typed up in our executive summary, go ahead and sign up on our list on our website, and we'll mail that to you guys. And you'll get all of our future executive summaries as well. All right, so this is the point in the show where we take a question from our audience. And this question comes from Justin Shin. Hi, Preston. Hi, hi Stig. My name's Justin Chin and my high school senior from San Diego, California. First off, I wanted to thank you guys for all the contributions that you guys are

Starting point is 00:39:44 doing for me as a student who is really interested in a lot of the topics you guys are talking about. And I wanted to find out what your guys' thoughts were on saving up for my retirement at an early age. In our government class, we're learning a lot about IRAs and 401Ks. But I wanted to get your guys' thoughts on whether or not as a young person, it would be better for me to invest actively or invest more passively towards my retirement. Thank you. All right, Justin. Fantastic question. And Stig's going to go ahead and answer this for you. You know, Justin, I'm very envious of you because, you know, when I was your age, I had no clue what to do about retirement. And, you know, that was the least thing that was on my mind. So

Starting point is 00:40:29 just that you're thinking about right now that really puts you ahead of the pack. So that's, that's fantastic. You know, when it comes to investing, And you're probably in your early 20s or something like that. I think that you question about passive or active investing pretty much comes down to how much effort and time do you want to put into this. And I just come to think of some of the recent interviews we have with people that have been interviewing billionaires. And even billionaires, they're saying that unless you really, really know what you're doing when it comes to individual securities, then you should just have a passive approach. And I think especially in your situation that you are really young and perhaps you're not spending too much time because you're busy with your studies so you won't have too much time to look into investing. I think that just getting your feet wet and starting with their passive investment vehicle, something like an S&P 500.

Starting point is 00:41:24 I think that that's a really good thing. So that's really one side of it. And then the other side is when you talk about investing, everybody talks about money. And I know I said this before, and I'm just going to repeat myself, for me, investing that's about accumulating knowledge. And especially when you're in your early 20s, you have all the resources and all the opportunities in the world to acquire necessary knowledge when it comes to investing. And I think that's real investing. I don't know what your take is, Preston. Yeah, I would agree with Stig. I think that the more you can compound your knowledge and your

Starting point is 00:42:00 knowledge base, that is essential. The other piece, the other piece, you know, the other piece, of that, which is basically like the other arm of that knowledge is the ability to actually execute on that knowledge. And that's what's going to allow you to create assets that are going to give you a really big return. And I think that's where a lot of people that first start studying investing, maybe look at a guy like Warren Buffett and be like, oh, this guy was an investor and he became a billionaire. But I think what a lot of people don't realize is that at the essence of what Warren Buffett is, he's a businessman. and he's running a, you know, a billion dollar corporation, and he has that skill set to manage and to think like a businessman. And I think that that's extraordinarily important for a person your age to realize that

Starting point is 00:42:45 investing in the stock market with the money that you're making from, you know, a job that you might hold. That's a very difficult path to accumulate a lot of wealth, financial wealth. So what I would tell you is continue to increase your knowledge of business. this in general, like marketing, you got to understand finance, you got to understand operations. How do I become an operations officer within a business and run the show for products and services? Like that kind of stuff is what's going to really separate you from the pack. And what it's also going to allow you to do later on down the road is you're going to be able

Starting point is 00:43:20 to create your own business or create your own assets. And that's where you really start getting large returns. So you look at any of these billionaires that we're reading books on or talking to different and people, guess what? They created something. They created their own business. You know, they weren't just sitting around investing in an IRA account. And not that there's anything wrong with that. Don't misconstrue anything that I'm saying here. I'm just saying that if you really do want to accumulate large amounts of wealth, financial wealth, you're really going to have to create something. And now what that is, that's a whole other discussion. But I would tell you

Starting point is 00:43:57 to invest because that's going to teach you about business. But at the same time, you need to be thinking how can I hone my skills as a businessman to create something of my own and really run with it. That's the best advice I could give you. Yeah. And I think that's a terrific advice person because you are really talking about how to get a head start and how to start accumulating. And I think that's really necessary. And I just want to say the other side of the kind of that is not to incur in the debt. And at least that's something I probably should have listened to myself when I was younger. Now, it's such a simple thing, but it's also something that you need to have in your upbringing, I guess, spend less than you make. And I know it seems so simple.

Starting point is 00:44:40 And, you know, there's no reason to elaborate too much on that. But the one thing I do want to say about that is, you know, if you spend less than you make and you're just an average investor, and again, you're not in a hurry, you will become very, very wealthy. So I think the difficult thing, especially in the early trend, is to think I should probably be a millionaire before I'm 30. So I need to speed things up and take a lot of risk. I think that's definitely the wrong way to approach that. And I guess I do speak from experience. No, there's one other thing that I want to highlight about my comment was a lot of people misconstrue the idea of buying an asset or creating an asset. And whenever you're stock investing, guess what?

Starting point is 00:45:24 you're buying an asset. Somebody else created an asset, the equity of the business that you are buying as an investor. Okay. So that's one form. And the other form is you create the asset. There's a lot more value in upside. Now, there's also a lot of risk in doing that, especially if you're borrowing a lot of capital in order to do it. But if you can find out something that doesn't require a lot of capital that you can create on your own, I think that you're going to find that you get a much faster and fruitful return on that investment from a knowledge perspective and from a monetary perspective. So just think of it in that context.

Starting point is 00:46:01 Think, am I buying an asset or am I creating an asset? And you've got to be able to distinguish between the two. And, you know, great investors like Warren Buffett, they're doing both. They're creating and buying assets simultaneously and they're mixing those two together. So some interesting things for you to think about. All right. So that's all we've got. Justin, we will send you a free sign copy of the.

Starting point is 00:46:20 the Warren Buffett Accounting book. And for anybody else out there, if you want to get your question answered on the show, go to Ask the Investors.com and record your question there. So we really want to thank everybody for joining us this week. We'll be sending out our Richard Branson summary of Screw It. Let's do it on our email list. So if you want to get that, go ahead and sign up on our email list. And for everybody out there leaving us reviews on iTunes, thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:46:42 You don't have any idea how much that means to us. It really helps out our show. And so we just really are so thankful for our audience because you guys do so much for us and you give us such great feedback. So we'll see everybody next week and thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening to The Investors Podcast. To listen to more shows or access to the tools discussed on the show, be sure to visit www. www.theinvestorspodcast.com.

Starting point is 00:47:06 Submit your questions or request a guest appearance to the Investors podcast by going to www.org.com. If your question is answered during the show, you will receive a free autographed copy of the Warren Buffett Accounting Book. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. This material was copyrighted by the TIP Network and must have written approval before commercial application.

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP 040 : Richard Branson - Screw it, Let's Do It (Investing Podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.