“If someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you’re not sure your can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.” Richard Branson

I did just that. I got the pleasure to hear Richard speak and afterwards I meet him behind the scenes. Sometimes opportunities come to us but only once in a life. If it is something you really don’t want to miss out on its best to say yes and than figure out how to make it work later.

To be honest this wasn’t a hard challenge to overcome for me but there was a moment of thought in which I was like, should I or shouldn’t I? Of course I did. I said yes!

With out getting too of track from the purpose of this post I just want to delve into this practice of grabbing hold of opportunities that present themselves. It is easy to say no to opportunities but equally it is easy to say yes.

We often hold back from saying yes because we are busy, time poor, strapped for cash, unsure, or perhaps fearful.  If we say yes first we open ourselves to this opportunity further and this will allow us to process the how.

If after that process it turns into needing to be a no, that is ok, yet it is better to say yes and try than to say no and regret. It is a safer way of channelling the right thoughts.

I truly believe that the speed of saying no in life will directly affect future opportunities presenting themselves. If we get into the habit or practice of always saying no we will find ourselves faced less with opportunities to respond to.

Everyday we are all faced with a countless amount of opportunities, for some more than others, this may relate to ones openness and awareness of them. Just try saying yes to the next opportunity, say yes to the next initiation, say yes and you may just be surprised as to where the journey takes you.

The most successful and most popular entrepreneur on the planet was sitting and speaking only 2 meters from me. I was in absolute observation and absorption mode. Watching his every move and listening to each and every word he spoke.

He is, like the rest of us, just another human being but certainly people of this calibre you can learn a thing or two from.

When faced with this kind of opportunity my mind just wants to cling onto everything he does in hope to pick up just a few things that may benefit me in my life both personally and professional. So here are my 6 take-outs.

1.     Start somewhere. Richard was not simply born into his success; he had to work on it. The beautiful thing about life is that even the most famous and successful people; the people you idol, your hero’s, all had humble beginnings. Well most did at least. Richard is certainly no exception.

He told a story of his early days at the age of 16, when he started writing a magazine called ‘Student’. To get hold of prominent personalities to interview Richard had to make the call from the old fashion pay phones, these were the tools available.

He was short on coin for the phone so he would cheekily call the phone assistant and claim the machine took his money, the assistant would than dial the number on his behalf and connect him with the person on the other end. He said it was like having his on personal assistant.

He had this look on his face as if in deep reflection and giggled, “I was a bit cheeky back then”. I think still to this day it is his cheek that brings him a lot of his success. It is this ability when starting out to just take risk, break some rules and find a way rather than discourage yourself that you cannot.

It makes you understand that we all have a beginning and when we go out and compare ourselves to these very highly successful people and tell ourselves we can’t we must kick and remind ourselves that even these people started somewhere. You just have to do what it takes.

2.     Use humour. He talked briefly on this and says humour has a very appropriate place in life and should absolutely be used. He is known for his very bold humour to promote his businesses but equally is known for being a little bit crazy himself at times, and all in the name of fun.

Being humorous and having a bit of fun everyday in work and life is healthy. It does a few things I believe. Number one it lets down peoples guards. We become so wound up in our egos and hide behind our tittle that we forget who we are. This in itself is limiting.

By being slightly silly, humours and having fun in your own way, true to yourself, makes you more vulnerable and vulnerability is the key to being transparent to others. People like people for who they are yet sometimes it is this make up that we wear that people find us less comforting. This is a very large reason why so many like Richard as a person because he shows his real self, even though he is a billionaire.

Be authentic, be true to who you are, and let this be visible in all that you do. This will allow you to have greater success.

3.     Focus on the little things, the finer details. He does this very well in all his businesses and retells a story about his individual salt and pepper pods he used on his flights that used to get stolen very regularly.

His accountant told him it was costing too much so instead of removing them and using what every other airline did he had written on the bottom of each pod, “stolen from Virgin Airlines”. He figured this way every time someone had a dinner party the guests would read the bottom making way for great diner party conversations and of course Virgin branding. Clever man!

Yet in our work and life it is often the smaller things that can be the most appreciated yet often the most overlooked or even those things we take mostly for granted.

I believe the focus on little things in life make both us and others feel incredibly good. The sea breeze on your face and the smell of the ocean, the look on your daughters face as she eats her ice-cream, helping the older lady with some groceries into her car, the warm feeling of sun on a chilly day.

There are so many small things that we can feel ourselves and that we can provide to others in life that will make huge impact. Often they don’t take great efforts either, just a little thought.

Life is made up of a bunch of moments and it is each of these moments that we should be truly present and just enjoy. The finer details make the bigger picture.

4.     Work-life integration. This is a new term and one that I really love as my thoughts always revolved around work-life balance, why not integrate the two.

The difference is this; one is you simple learn to get a healthy balance of both work and life yet they are two separate elements while the other is when you can integrate the two together.

They still both apply however for me, and most of you out there, I am sure the integration of the two is the goal. This is when you find yourself doing what you truly love and are passionate about it. When you do this it almost becomes integrated with your life in total.

Richard has always been a big advocate for this work-life integration and he was asked the question about work life balance. His thoughts are that for everything he has ever done he has always made time for life; he stated, “that without it there is no life”. Good point.

He has always worked from home and this has allowed him with some ease bringing the two together, rather than what is typical for many of us travelling to one place for work and another for life, he just combines the two.

When it comes to finding the balance he simply said the biggest key by far is delegation. You must delegate your work to create additional time. Delegation is perhaps one of the most common traits among the successful.

By delegating those things that consume your time you can suddenly become more effective. You will have more time to focus on growth and more time to do those things you love and continue on living life. And besides sometimes it just makes sense to get the experts to do the job leaving you focus on what you are good at.

5.     Find time for the good things in life. This continues on from the above point of delegation and that is to always make room for the things you enjoy in life. Richard said second to delegation that when it comes to living life he simply schedules it in. He wakes up almost every morning and plays tennis, goes kite surfing or does something along those lines.

This can be an interesting strategy that may seem at first awkward to most however for many of us it may be the most beneficial thing we can do. Try to schedule life first and then work second.

I know that when I previously had an ambition to focus on health I would wake up go to work and then come home with the goal of going for a jog. At the end of the day however it was more a challenge and often something else got in the way. I easily found myself procrastinating and not doing it at all.

When I changed my routine to do exercise in the morning, first thing, I suddenly found myself rarely skipping exercise. This is also a reason why I write in the morning because it is the thing I desire to do the most and if I don’t do it then I may never do it.

Tackle those things that mean the most to you first up everyday, I can guarantee you that it will bring you great joy and happiness to your life. And schedule time for life, family and enjoyment because if you don’t work will consume you and life will pass you by. Go out there and live!

6.     Dream, vision, and do it. This almost goes without saying yet when it comes to having a big dream and great vision Richard is certainly the man for the job.

He talked briefly about his current project and passion, Virgin Galactic, which is a clear example of his ability to dream and take action. He said he simply thought it would be great to be able to take people into space and from that thought he was on a plane in search of an engineer to start working on the project.

When you have that burning desire or passion within you that you simply cannot put to bed perhaps its time to make your dreams a reality and start doing. Never benchmark yourself against anyone else or even the rest of the world. Never limit your mind as to what you can achieve and continue to dream big!

Dream so big that people laugh at you and tell you that it’s impossible. Than go out there and chase it, do every thing in your power to make it happen and if all else fails, never mind just start again, move onto the next big thing and keep pushing forward.

Richard would not be where he is today if it wasn’t for his ability to dream big, tackle great challenges and forget about the competition and the naysayers. Without a clear vision of where you want to go how will you know which path to walk?

So there you have it, Dicky’s 6 key points to success. Start somewhere, use humour, focus on the finer details, get some work life integration happening, make time for the good things in life and dream big.

When will you start?

I hope this helps and feel free to reach out if I can assist in any way. Peace, passion and purpose.