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Virgin Founder Richard Branson: Why you should listen more than you talk

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February 3, 2015, 5:28 PM ET
Richard Branson
British entrepreneur Richard Branson is seen at a Virgin Galactic hangar at Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. Potential space tourists gathered in California's Mojave Desert to see the latest progress from Branson's space tourism enterprise. The company has been testing SpaceShipTwo designed to take paying passengers into space. Commercial flights will begin once testing is complete. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)Photograph by Reed Saxon — AP

LinkedIn influencer Richard Branson published this post originally on LinkedIn.

In this series, professionals share their words of wisdom that made all the difference in their lives.

When I grew up our house was always a hive of activity, with Mum dreaming up new entrepreneurial schemes left, right and centre, and me and my sisters running wild. You were as likely to find me helping Mum with a new project as outside climbing a tree. Amidst all the fun and chaos, Dad was always a supportive, calming influence on us all. He wasn’t quiet, but he was not often as talkative as the rest of us. It made for a wonderful balance, and we always knew we could rely on him no matter what.

Within this discreet support lay one of his best and most simple pieces of advice for me: listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak. Wherever I go, I try to spend as much time as possible listening to the people I meet.

Read the entire post on LinkedIn here.

Watch more about Richard Branson from Fortune’s video team:

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