Richard's Blog - January 2012

Life begins at 60! Kitesurfing off Necker - video

I blogged recently on sport, and my obsession with kitesurfing, thanks for all your feedback. My nephew Ludo Brockway shot this footage of me kitesurfing off Necker over Xmas. Since I'm pretty proud of it I thought I'd share it with you! But I also wanted to use it as an excuse to speak again about kitesurfing. To me it's the best sport in the world. You can start at eight and keep at it until 80. It's not as expensive as you might think. You find friends to teach you and it doesn't take more…

Would you call somebody sir?

Would you call somebody sir? I have met three families who bring up their children to call every man they meet ‘sir’: the family of King Hussein of Jordan, José María Figueres, former President of Costa Rica and Ted Turner.Even though they are royalty, statesmen and renowned businessmen they and their children address everybody as sir, from family members (son to father) to visitors, dignitaries to delivery boys.I was intrigued why this was the case, so I asked Ted Turn…

Incentivising senior employees very differently

Saw this incredibly interesting video recently. Was impressed not only by its surprising conclusions, but by its original way of presenting information.It’s certainly intriguing. I suspect that my senior people at Virgin will hope I don’t watch this video too often! What do you think about it?

Stephen Hawking on space

Sadly Stephen Hawking couldn’t make lunch on his 70th birthday due to illness so I’m unable to share it with you. However, in case you missed it I’ll share what he said about space a while ago.  He said that life could well be wiped out by a nuclear disaster or an asteroid hitting the planet.But he added: "Once we spread out into space and establish colonies, our future should be safe."He said there were no similar planets to Earth in our Solar System so humans would "have…

Kids ask the questions on Virgin Oceanic

When you want a new perspective on things, sometimes the best people to talk to are children. With that in mind, Here There Everywhere - News for Kids got 20 children to quiz me on Virgin Oceanic. They actually made us think about our project in whole new ways and had some very imaginative ideas. From submarine rockets to deep sea creatures, from food to being frightened, here are the children’s questions and my answers. Thanks for the grilling kids!1. Why not build a submarine rocket so y…

The 4 Bs - lucky charms in sport?

Sport is a superstitious pursuit. While I’ve always believed in creating your own fortunes, when it comes to sport it seems lady luck has a helping hand.I grew up as an avid sports fan. While I was never the greatest of students, being good at sports helped me through my school years. I was captain of the football, rugby and cricket teams, and even proudly held the Scaitcliffe School long jump record. Then I badly tore the cartilage in my knee and a career in sport was no longer an option.…

That's life! That's what all the people (and Christian Slater) say

That's life! That's what all the people (and Christian Slater) say. Spent a wonderful few days in South Africa with Christian a month or so ago, he generously helped to open yet another school for the local community. He was too jetlagged to sing that night but promised to send me a love song - so here it is! Frank Sinatra's classic 'That's Life', as reimagined by Christian. "That's life, I can't deny it/I thought of quitting, But my heart just won't buy it/Cause if I didn't think i…

Shaking up Britain’s banking system

Met around 5,000 Virgin staff over a 48 hour period, travelling across the UK in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Norwich and London. It was a real pleasure seeing them all and welcoming the dedicated staff from Northern Rock into the Virgin family. We look forward to shaking up Britain’s banking system with everybody.Love the new lounges that have already been opened, and it was great going to a lot of the branches and meeting staff and customers. Also got the chance to meet MPs including the depu…

BA Can't Get it Up - best stunt ever?

I think this has to be the best stunt ever. I was woken up at 5.30am one morning to be told that the BA-sponsored London Eye had a technical problem - they couldn’t erect it. They had the world's press waiting to see it going up and I knew we had a duty to give them something to look at. We had an airship company just outside London so we scrambled a blimp and the end result was an airship flying over the wheel bearing the slogan ‘BA Can't Get It Up!!’ What's your …

Ted Turner’s 11 Voluntary Initiatives

I wrote recently about staying with Ted Turner for a few days at his stunning estate in Florida. Was struck by his incredible wit and passion for life, and we got talking about his philosophy for living life to the full. The rules/commandments we live by were written some two thousand years ago. Rules shouldn’t be written in stone. They should be updated with time. I enclose Ted Turner’s 11 voluntary initiatives. How would you change or add to these? 1.       I promi…

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