British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, shared how to overcome self-doubt on the path to success. He wrote about this in his monthly column “Ask Richard” at website Recruit social network LinkedIn.

Branson urged people to be less skeptical when making decisions and quoted American poet and philosopher Susie Kassem: “Doubt kills hope more than failure.” According to the businessman, he first heard these words several years ago and remembers them to this day.

The billionaire believes that doubts and fears are inherent in man, but they should not interfere with the achievement of the goal. He said that every success is built on a thousand failures. “I remember the wonderful discoveries that would not have occurred if their inventors had given in to their skepticism,” Branson wrote, and suggested that the scientist Thomas Edison and the writer Gertrude Stein also hesitated from time to time, but did not allow it to be doubted. Leading them off the right track…

Branson recalled a case in his life when, in 1984, after the first flight of the Virgin Atlantic airline he had founded, a bank representative came to him and threatened to close it. According to the billionaire, it was a very exciting moment, but he did not let doubts prevail and soon found the right solution.

Also, in moments of doubt, the businessman advises to breathe fresh air on the street, have a cup of tea or go for sports.

On July 11, 70-year-old Richard Branson made a suborbital flight in Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity craft. Alongside him were pilots Dave McKay and Michael Masucci, Virgin Galactic Chief Astronaut Beth Moses, Principal Operations Engineer Colin Bennett, and Vice President of Government Relations Sirish Bundel. The ship climbed to an altitude of 86 km.

A few days later, Jeff Bezos, Branson’s rival, Amazon founder, climbed 107 kilometers above the surface of the earth in his own ship, the New Shepard. After this news, Virgin Galactic shares fell about nine percent.