I am a fan of Richard Branson (I actually once worked at the 100-people Virgin HQ in Notting Hill during an MBA project). His innovating-underdog attitude to business is always refreshing and my experience with Virgin products while living in the UK always met high expectations (Virgin Mobile, Virgin ISP, Virgin Atlantic).

Now read this recent interview

Very interesting promise: Within 1 year Virgin Fuel will be available and work for Virgin’s transportation vehicles at a lower-than-gasoline cost. Wow! Ties in excellently with a previous Vinod Khosla post.
“It will be called Virgin Fuel, yes! It’s not ethanol-based as such, but it’ll be a clean fuel. And if we’ve got it right, it could be a very important breakthrough. We think this fuel will work in cars and trucks and trains within a year.”
I specially liked Branson’s phrase which exactly reflects how I think about entrepreneurs as wire balancing artists, permanently at risk following a thin line to success.

“There is a very, very thin dividing line between survival and failure. You’ve just got to fight and fight and fight and fight to survive.”

And also this other quote about how following your passion it the key to start-up success (and not exclusively making tons of money)

“Ideally, since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours. If you’re into kite-surfing and you want to become an entrepreneur, do it with kite-surfing.”