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Lessons from a Billionaire and Strength Training

Applying Sir Richard Branson’s success habits to strength training

I’m an avid reader, averaging three to five books a week. I do most of my reading during the first two hours of my day, and I have a lot of time to read on transatlantic flights. My approach is to spend the first hour on personal growth topics such as business building and communication skills, and the second hour on technical information that keeps me ahead in the industry. Much of this information I look for in peer-reviewed journals, and I favor topics such as nutrition, biomechanics and acupuncture.

I pick up most of my business books at airports. One title recently caught my attention: Screw It, Let’s Do It by Sir Richard Branson. Branson is an English business tycoon – you may know him from his Virgin brand of 360 companies. Despite having dyslexia, which affected his performance in school, he had already started two businesses by age 15, and two years later he set up his own charity. In 1970 Branson started a mail order business, in 1972 opened Virgin Records, and in 1980 established Virgin Atlantic Airways. He was knighted in 1999, and this year Forbes ranked Branson as the 236th richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately $7.9 billion.

Screw It, Let’s Do It is essentially Branson’s autobiography, and it’s loaded with great business tips. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in the last five years. Now I’ll share with you five of Branson’s success habits and show how they apply to the field of strength and conditioning.

Branson success habit #1: Lead the way
Branson has always been an innovator, succeeding where everyone predicted he would fail. From the airline and railroad industries to alternative energy sources to peace efforts, Branson has led the way. He has done so by never following the rules and by shutting out early criticism. How does this idea apply to strength training? Let me explain by example.

During a seminar for the Canadian National coaches prior to the Los Angeles Olympics, I talked about periodizing tempo for achieving maximal gains in both strength and power development. Two university professors in the audience gave me a tongue-lashing, saying that you should only use maximal rate of force development and that periodizing the tempo prescription was a waste of time.

Both professors proceeded to do their own individual studies to prove me wrong. It turned out that the subjects in their studies who periodized the tempo not only got better at high velocities than the high-velocity-only group, but also got stronger at low velocities! Both professors apologized to me, to their credit, as their studies proved me right. If I had waited for approval from my peers or for the scientific literature to validate my decisions, I would have wasted four entire Olympic cycles.

Branson success habit #2: Work hard, but make sure to have some fun
One of Branson’s mottos is “When it’s not fun, move on!” Likewise, one of the secrets of my success has been to follow this paradigm by always including some fun at the end of training sessions, sort of like a dessert. Whether it’s drop sets, or a gripping contest among athletes of different sports, you can inject fun in the training session.

With only a simple sledgehammer you could develop a solid, muscular pair of strong forearms and a grip to match by doing what I call “finish-off drills.” André Benoit, a PICP Level 5 coach and one of my course conductors, has a host of drills involving just a simple hockey stick that will forge an impressive set of forearms. We showed a glimpse of these drills at a PICP Level 3 course held at the Leicester Tigers training facility, which left the students asking for more. In fact, we could easily do eight hours of teaching on just those drills alone.

Branson success habit #3: Make every minute count
Branson works hard but also plays hard. His special passions include sailing and ballooning, activities in which he just so happened to break world speed records. He owns two different islands: one in the Caribbean and another in the South Pacific. He spends plenty of time on those peace asylums with family and friends, working only 15 minutes a day to run his business conglomerate. The same approach applies in training. For example, don’t waste your time on planks and Body Blade drills; instead, choose exercises with the most bang for your buck, such as squats, chins and presses.

Branson success habit #4: Set challenges instead of goals
Both Branson and I are big believers in setting goals, but we prefer to call them “challenges.” Whether it’s building a fortune or building Herculean strength, challenges are essential to success. You have to stretch the envelope to get ahead.

Call it semantics or splitting hairs, challenges are more motivating than goals. Branson and I both find that the dare “I bet you can’t do it” is very motivating. For example, I’ve always put bonus clauses for medals in my letters of agreement with national teams. It’s a win-win situation: The prospect of receiving a bonus motivates me to give 110 percent while training the team, and the team responds with their best when they have an enthusiastic and creative coach. It’s always a pleasure cashing in on a bonus at the end of the season…especially when the team has forgotten about agreeing to it!

Branson success habit #5: Build a great team
All successful people I’ve ever met have surrounded themselves with a great team so they all can contribute their strengths. Applying this to the strength and conditioning world is simple: Surround yourself with a great nutritionist, a great chiropractor or osteopath, a great tax advisor or accountant. Your athletes need to recover well and heal well, and your own business needs the support too. You can’t do it all. Don’t let your ego get in the way – get the help of people who know far more than you do. Your clients will have even more respect for you.

Screw It, Let’s Do It is a very easy read – you can finish it in about two hours. But I guarantee you, the time you spend learning about Sir Richard Branson is an investment that will pay big dividends in your business, your strength training and your life.