Whether he’s listening to an employee’s idea or considering investing in a new startup, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson says he looks for one particular quality in anyone he works with: the ability to inspire others.
“You need to be able to inspire people,” the 75-year-old billionaire tells CNBC Make It. “You need to inspire them to believe in an idea and commit to the vision.”
Even the best ideas still typically need a strong sales pitch. A person’s ability to sell their idea effectively — enough to inspire others to believe in the idea as much as they do — can help those merits stand out from the rest, Branson says.
Branson constantly fields pitches, particularly from entrepreneurs who want him to back their big ideas, he says. (Virgin StartUp, his not-for-profit program for funding early-stage entrepreneurs, has distributed more than $80 million in startup loans to over 40,000 founders, Branson wrote in a June 2024 blog post.)
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