Richard Branson: Thank you very much. The first TED has been great.

CA: Have you met anyone interesting?

RB: Well, the nice thing about TED is everybody's interesting.

I was very glad to see Goldie Hawn,

because I had an apology to make to her.

I'd had dinner with her about two years ago and I'd --

she had this big wedding ring and I put it on my finger and I couldn't get it off.

And I went home to my wife that night

and she wanted to know why I had another woman's big,

massive, big wedding ring on my finger.

And, anyway, the next morning we had to go along to the jeweler

and get it cut off.

So -- (Laughter) --

so apologies to Goldie.

CA: That's pretty good.

So, we're going to put up some slides

of some of your companies here.

You've started one or two in your time.

So, you know, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records --

I guess it all started with a magazine called Student.

And then, yes, all these other ones as well. I mean, how do you do this?

RB: I read all these sort of TED instructions:

you must not talk about your own business, and this,

and now you ask me.

So I suppose you're not going to be able to kick me off the stage,

since you asked the question.

(Laughter)

CA: It depends what the answer is though.

RB: No, I mean, I think I learned early on that if you can run one company,

you can really run any companies.

I mean, companies are all about finding the right people,

inspiring those people, you know, drawing out the best in people.

And I just love learning and I'm incredibly inquisitive

and I love taking on, you know, the status quo

and trying to turn it upside down.

So I've seen life as one long learning process.

And if I see -- you know, if I fly on somebody else's airline

and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn't,

21 years ago, then I'd think, well, you know, maybe I can create

the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on.

And so, you know, so got one secondhand 747 from Boeing and gave it a go.

CA: Well, that was a bizarre thing,

because you made this move that a lot of people advised you was crazy.

And in fact, in a way, it almost took down your empire at one point.

I had a conversation with one of the investment bankers who,

at the time when you basically sold Virgin Records

and invested heavily in Virgin Atlantic,

and his view was that you were trading, you know,

the world's fourth biggest record company

for the twenty-fifth biggest airline and that you were out of your mind.

Why did you do that?

RB: Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure.

And I think if you start a business without financial backing,

you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

We had -- we were being attacked by British Airways.

They were trying to put our airline out of business,

and they launched what's become known as the dirty tricks campaign.

And I realized that the whole empire was likely to come crashing down

unless I chipped in a chip.

And in order to protect the jobs of the people who worked for the airline,

and protect the jobs of the people who worked for the record company,

I had to sell the family jewelry to protect the airline.

CA: Post-Napster, you're looking like a bit of a genius, actually,

for that as well.

RB: Yeah, as it turned out, it proved to be the right move.

But, yeah, it was sad at the time, but we moved on.

CA: Now, you use the Virgin brand a lot

and it seems like you're getting synergy from one thing to the other.

What does the brand stand for in your head?

RB: Well, I like to think it stands for quality,

that you know, if somebody comes across a Virgin company, they --

CA: They are quality, Richard. Come on now, everyone says quality. Spirit?

RB: No, but I was going to move on this.

We have a lot of fun and I think the people who work for it enjoy it.

As I say, we go in and shake up other industries,

and I think, you know, we do it differently

and I think that industries are not quite the same

as a result of Virgin attacking the market.

CA: I mean, there are a few launches you've done

where the brand maybe hasn't worked quite as well.

I mean, Virgin Brides -- what happened there?

(Laughter)

RB: We couldn't find any customers.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

CA: I was actually also curious why --

I think you missed an opportunity with your condoms launch. You called it Mates.

I mean, couldn't you have used the Virgin brand for that as well?

Ain't virgin no longer, or something.

RB: Again, we may have had problems finding customers.

I mean, we had -- often, when you launch a company and you get customer complaints,

you know, you can deal with them.

But about three months after the launch of the condom company,

I had a letter, a complaint,

and I sat down and wrote a long letter back to this lady apologizing profusely.

But obviously, there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

And then six months later, or nine months after the problem had taken,

I got this delightful letter with a picture of the baby

asking if I'd be godfather, which I became.

So, it all worked out well.

CA: Really? You should have brought a picture. That's wonderful.

RB: I should have.

CA: So, just help us with some of the numbers.

I mean, what are the numbers on this?

I mean, how big is the group overall?

How much -- what's the total revenue?

RB: It's about 25 billion dollars now, in total.

CA: And how many employees?

RB: About 55,000.

CA: So, you've been photographed in various ways at various times

and never worrying about putting your dignity on the line or anything like that.

What was that? Was that real?

RB: Yeah. We were launching a megastore in Los Angeles, I think.

No, I mean, I think --

CA: But is that your hair?

RB: No.

CA: What was that one?

RB: Dropping in for tea.

CA: OK.

(Laughter)

RB: Ah, that was quite fun. That was a wonderful car-boat in which --

CA: Oh, that car that we -- actually we --

it was a TEDster event there, I think.

Is that -- could you still pause on that one actually, for a minute?

(Laughter)

RB: It's a tough job, isn't it?

CA: I mean, it is a tough job.

(Laughter)

When I first came to America, I used to try this with employees as well

and they kind of -- they have these different rules over here,

it's very strange.

RB: I know, I have -- the lawyers say you mustn't do things like that, but --

CA: I mean, speaking of which, tell us about --

RB: "Pammy" we launched, you know --

mistakenly thought we could take on Coca-Cola,

and we launched a cola bottle called "The Pammy"

and it was shaped a bit like Pamela Anderson.

But the trouble is, it kept on tipping over, but --

(Laughter)

CA: Designed by Philippe Starck perhaps?

RB: Of course.

CA: So, we'll just run a couple more pictures here. Virgin Brides. Very nice.

And, OK, so stop there. This was -- you had some award I think?

RB: Yeah, well, 25 years earlier, we'd launched the Sex Pistols'

"God Save The Queen," and I'd certainly never expected

that 25 years later -- that she'd actually knight us.

But somehow, she must have had a forgetful memory, I think.

CA: Well, God saved her and you got your just reward.

Do you like to be called Sir Richard, or how?

RB: Nobody's ever called me Sir Richard.

Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard

and think there's some Shakespearean play taking place.

But nowhere else anyway.

CA: OK. So can you use your knighthood for anything or is it just ...

RB: No. I suppose if you're having problems

getting a booking in a restaurant or something,

that might be worth using it.

CA: You know, it's not Richard Branson. It's Sir Richard Branson.

RB: I'll go get the secretary to use it.

CA: OK. So let's look at the space thing.

I think, with us, we've got a video that shows what you're up to,

and Virgin Galactic up in the air. (Video)

So that's the Bert Rutan designed spaceship?

RB: Yeah, it'll be ready in -- well, ready in 12 months

and then we do 12 months extensive testing.

And then 24 months from now,

people will be able to take a ride into space.

CA: So this interior is Philippe Starcke designed?

RB: Philippe has done the -- yeah, quite a bit of it:

the logos and he's building the space station in New Mexico.

And basically, he's just taken an eye

and the space station will be one giant eye,

so when you're in space,

you ought to be able to see this massive eye looking up at you.

And when you land, you'll be able to go back into this giant eye.

But he's an absolute genius when it comes to design.

CA: But you didn't have him design the engine?

RB: Philippe is quite erratic,

so I think that he wouldn't be the best person to design the engine, no.

CA: He gave a wonderful talk here two days ago.

RB: Yeah? No, he is a --

CA: Well, some people found it wonderful,

some people found it completely bizarre.

But, I personally found it wonderful.

RB: He's a wonderful enthusiast, which is why I love him. But ...

CA: So, now, you've always had this exploration bug in you.

Have you ever regretted that?

RB: Many times.

I mean, I think with the ballooning and boating expeditions we've done in the past.

Well, I got pulled out of the sea I think six times by helicopters, so --

and each time, I didn't expect to come home to tell the tale.

So in those moments,

you certainly wonder what you're doing up there or --

CA: What was the closest you got to --

when did you think, this is it, I might be on my way out?

RB: Well, I think the balloon adventures were -- each one was,

each one, actually, I think we came close.

And, I mean, first of all we --

nobody had actually crossed the Atlantic in a hot air balloon before,

so we had to build a hot air balloon that was capable of flying in the jet stream,

and we weren't quite sure,

when a balloon actually got into the jet stream,

whether it would actually survive the 200, 220 miles an hour winds that you can find up there.

And so, just the initial lift off from Sugarloaf to cross the Atlantic,

as we were pushing into the jet stream, this enormous balloon --

the top of the balloon ended up going at a couple of hundred miles an hour,

the capsule that we were in at the bottom was going at maybe two miles an hour,

and it just took off.

And it was like holding onto a thousand horses.

And we were just crossing every finger,

praying that the balloon would hold together, which, fortunately, it did.

But the ends of all those balloon trips were, you know --

something seemed to go wrong every time,

and on that particular occasion, the more experienced balloonist who was with me

jumped, and left me holding on for dear life.

(Laughter)

CA: Did he tell you to jump, or he just said, "I'm out of here!" and ...

RB: No, he told me jump, but once his weight had gone,

the balloon just shot up to 12,000 feet and I ...

CA: And you inspired an Ian McEwan novel I think with that.

RB: Yeah. No, I put on my oxygen mask and stood on top of the balloon,

with my parachute, looking at the swirling clouds below,

trying to pluck up my courage to jump into the North Sea, which --

and it was a very, very, very lonely few moments.