Luck or Skill?

Benjamin Franklin once said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." This surely holds true for Sir Richard Branson, who has worked tirelessly throughout his career. Even Sir Richard Branson himself agrees and has been quoted as saying, "We were lucky to sign Mike Oldfield and we were lucky to get hold of the Sex Pistols in 1977. We've also been lucky that people liked Virgin Atlantic's unique airline service across the Atlantic, and I was lucky to survive all my balloon and boat trips!" So, it is probably some combination of the two, but without skill, all the luck in the world would not result in one of Sir Richard Branson's greatest accomplishments – knighthood.

As impressive as his portfolio, his bank accounts, and his list of accomplishments may be, though, perhaps Branson's greatest accomplishment is in creating an absolutely fabulous life for himself. He travels the world, spending winter holidays with his fmaily at his South African game preserve and summers at his private island in the Caribbean. As he put it in a 2003 interview with Fortune, "I don't think of work as work and play as play. It's all living."

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