• Entrepreneurs, athletes and other high performers desperately need good sleep, according to sleep coach, Floris Wouterson.
• Getting enough sleep can actually be more important than eating or exercising well, according to the expert.
• Here are five tips Wouterson gave Business Insider to become a super-sleeper.

"He's a wonderfully creative person, but he shouldn't be getting very little sleep,"Richard Branson said not too long ago, referring to Elon Musk's recent late-night tweeting escapades — and it seems Branson isn't the only one who thinks Musk could benefit from similar advice.

Sleep coach, Floris Wouterson also said: "Entrepreneurs, athletes and other high performers desperately need good sleep," claiming that sleep is even more important than eating or exercising well.

His book "Superslapen" was published in mid-September and is already in its second edition, with nearly 2,000 books already having been sold.

In Europe, Wouterson is the first self-proclaimed "sleep performance coach".

"Although, that's not exactly hard, considering I came up with the term myself," he told Business Insider. "I've been researching everything I could find on optimal sleep for years."

He then started coaching, with athletes and top managers claiming to benefit greatly from Wouterson's approach. Wouterson, based in Flanders, Belgium, comes from an entrepreneurial family himself and since 2002, his wife has set up a number of sleeping comfort stores.

Over the past sixteen years, Wouterson spoke to thousands of customers and became increasingly intrigued by sleep, as he too had struggled with poor sleep for a period of time.

According to Wouterson, the consequences of bad sleep are hugely underestimated. "Fatigue, irritability, loss of concentration, forgetfulness... it works against you in your work as well as in your relationships. The risk of injuries or accidents also increases by 40%."

The long-term effects of bad sleep can also be severe — depression and burn-out can take hold if you don't relax. Here are the five tips Wouterson gave Business Insider to become a super-sleeper.

1. Forget the "eight hours of sleep is a must" myth

According to Wouterson, this rigid notion that you must sleep for eight hours can actually cause sleep stress.

"If you think you should sleep eight hours every night, it can work against you," said the expert. Lying awake and staying in bed because you have to reach eight hours in bed is illogical according to Wouterson.

You have to find your own sleep rhythm, go to sleep at a fixed time, and get up at a fixed time as much as possible. "Don't stay lying down — it's a misconception that sleep will come naturally."

2. Don't believe stories about super-short sleep

Stories about CEOs or politicians who only need a few hours of sleep make them sound tough, but according to Wouterson, only a small percentage of people can genuinely cope with little sleep.

It's possible to train to temporarily sleep less, he said. Wouterson coached Sanne Haarhuis, a pilot in hot-air balloon competitions, to regulate her sleeping pattern and endure heavy, multi-day races with a minimum of sleep. Wouterson also sees top athletes who can quickly refuel with napping.

"You can recharge your batteries with a 12-minute power nap for two hours," said the sleep expert however, you have to wake up in time before you sink into a very deep sleep.

According to Wouterson, you can achieve this by, for example, holding a bunch of keys in your hand while taking a short nap. "As soon as you sink too deeply, your hand relaxes, the keys fall to the ground and you're awake again."

3. Small steps bring about big changes

Wouterson is convinced there isn't just one quick fix to sleep better; there are several areas that demand your attention.

"80% of the five main sleeping problems are learned," he said. You can achieve an enormous amount by taking small steps to alter your diet, exercise, and sleep routine, for example.

But self-examination, looking at your own attitude to sleep, is perhaps most important according to Wouterson.

4. Eat well and take a break from your phone

Eating and resting your head are two things that require extra attention when it comes to ensuring a good night's sleep.

Wouterson said to choose healthy food and to be careful with carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol, adding: "A good night's sleep starts on your plate."

Letting your mind drift is one thing but, of course, brooding and pondering won't help if you want to sleep — negative media reports about "the state of affairs in the world" can keep you feeling worrisome, tossing and turning.

Wouterson advises you to focus on your own circle of influence — what are some challenges in your life you can influence yourself? Focus mainly on those things and try not to keep worrying too much about problems you can't do much about.

A media diet can bring peace — make sure to put your smartphone away in the evening, a few hours before you go to sleep.

5. Employers should see their employees' sleep as an investment

Keep going, slog away, work through lunch, soldier on, stay an extra hour — it may seem logical to squeeze as much as you can out of your employees but it's actually counterproductive, according to Wouterson.

Businesses may see a drastic improvement in the performance of their employees when they've slept better. The number of mistakes decreases, while better decisions will take the company further.

"As an employer, you don't exactly want to be in your employees' bedrooms, but offering sleep training or sleeping facilities can actually be a good investment," said Wouterson. According to the sleep performance coach, this is already a common phenomenon in Japan.

SEE ALSO: Here's why you should always sleep on your side, according to sleep experts

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• Necker Island, billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson's private Caribbean island, reopened to guests in October.
• The resort in the British Virgin Islands was closed down for reconstruction and refurbishment after Hurricane Irma inflicted "extensive damage" in September 2017.
• The island can be rented out for $77,500 a night — here's what it looks like now.

More than a year after Hurricane Irma devastated much of the Caribbean, billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson's private island in the British Virgin Islands has reopened to guests.

Branson and his team reportedly rode out the 2017 hurricane on Necker Island. While nobody was hurt, they announced afterward that the resort had "sustained extensive damage." 

Branson bought the island for a modest $320,000 in 1978, when he was 18 years old, and went on to build one of the most exclusive resorts in the world on it. According to a Necker Island press release, renting out the island for a night will cost you at least $77,500 per night. High-profile vacationers who've stayed on the island include Barack and Michelle Obama, Princess Diana, Mariah Carey, Kate Moss, and even Nelson Mandela. Google co-founder Larry Page had his wedding there.

This isn't the first time Branson has had to rebuild part of the resort: A 2011 fire inflicted major damage on the main house, which took two years to rebuild.

The resort was stunning before the refurbishment, but the updates have left it even more idyllic.

Here's what it looks like now.

SEE ALSO: Richard Branson is sitting on a $5 billion fortune but spent years cringing over displays of wealth — see how the eccentric billionaire likes to spend his money

The 74-acre island, which Richard Branson bought for a modest $320,000 back in 1978, was in need of repairs and refurbishment after Hurricane Irma hit in September 2017.

Source: Business Insider

The al fresco Great House was completely restored, with the addition of two brand-new rooms and an additional Balinese-style guest house. The Great House has 11 guest rooms total.

Source: Virgin Limited Edition

It also has a spacious Mezzanine with skylights and a wraparound sofa.

Source: Virgin Limited Edition

• Having a hobby is important to recharge and relax away from work — even the world's most successful people have hobbies.
• Hobbies can make you even more successful by helping you develop additional skills.
• From Bill Gates' affinity for bridge and Richard Branson's preference for chess to Michelle Obama's love for running and Kate Middleton's taking up coloring, here are the habits of 21 highly successful people.

The most successful people know there is more to life than simply eating, sleeping, and working.

Everyone needs to enjoy some downtime every now and then, and making the most of your free time by taking up a hobby can even help make you more successful.

Playing a musical instrument, for example, can stimulate your creativity, analytical skills, and fine motor skills. Reading can boost different types of intelligence and exercising can help with mental acuity.

Warren Buffett plays the ukulele while other take up different creative hobbies, like George W. Bush's affinity for painting and Marissa Mayer's preference for baking. Others enjoy hobbies that require more thinking and strategy: Richard Branson plays chess, Bill Gates plays bridge, and Condoleeza Rice plays golf.

For a little inspiration, here are the hobbies of 21 highly successful people:

SEE ALSO: 15 high-paying side jobs that will put your hobbies to good use

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Richard Branson plays chess

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Branson is well-known for his adventurous side, and you've likely seen many a photo of the Virgin Group founder kitesurfing and hanging out on the high seas. But perhaps his favorite hobby is far more of a mental activity.

"I think chess may just be the best game in the world,"he writes on Virgin's blog. "It combines the greatest aspects of many different sports — tactics, planning, bravery, and risk-taking — plus you can have a cup of tea and often a stimulating conversation while you play!"

Branson says he's likely played thousands of games in his lifetime, and he tells The Telegraph afternoons on Necker Island are always spent on the beach, oftentimes playing chess with his kids.

Jack Dorsey hikes

In 2011, when Dorsey was running Twitter and Square full-time for the first time, the cofounder told the audience at Techonomy 2011 that, to get it all done, he gave each day a theme. This allowed him to quickly recall and refocus on the day's task once distractions were out of the way.

Dorsey said he would dedicate his Saturdays to hiking.

Meryl Streep knits

The award-winning actress says she loves to knit, and she's even said to have hand-knitted the shawl she wore in the movie "Doubt."

Streep admits that she spends much of her time on set knitting and finds the hobby to be therapeutic: "For me it was a place to gather my thoughts and understand the contemplative (life) ... it's a sort of clearing out place."

In fact, tons of celebrities, especially actors who have plenty of time to kill on set between takes, love to spend their free time knitting. The list includes Julia Roberts, Ryan Gosling, and Christina Hendricks.

• The Great Blue Hole is one of the world's deepest underwater sinkholes.
• The sinkhole has been a popular spot for recreational divers ever since it was made famous by a 1971 documentary.
• Richard Branson joined a team of researchers to explore the sinkhole — and they made an exciting discovery.

Located about 70 kilometers off the coast of Belize City, the Great Blue Hole is the world's deepest underwater sinkhole, after the Dragon Hole in China.

As well as being a sizeable sinkhole, the structure is situated right in the center of the world's second-largest coral reef, the Belize Barrier Reef, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Made famous by a 1971 documentary with marine researcher Jacques Cousteau, the Great Blue Hole has been a popular spot for recreational divers ever since, but not much was known about the origins of the mysterious place.

However, entrepreneur and philanthropist Richard Branson joined a team of scientists and divers to change that.

From above, the view is beautiful, but there isn't really much of a view of the potential wonders at the bottom. It consists of a round, dark circle surrounded by a ring of turquoise water and a coral reef.

With a diameter of 318 meters and a depth of around 124 meters, the Great Blue Hole is one of the largest undersea sinkholes in the world.

Read more:These terrifying photos of bizarre deep-sea creatures will change how you see the ocean

To give you a better idea of the sinkhole's dimensions, two Boeing 724 planes would fit into the hole quite nicely.

Marine research in the livestream

Cousteau's grandson, Fabien Cousteau, joined the British entrepreneur and marine-conservation activist Richard Branson to explore the underwater cave in a submarine, as part of an expedition by Aquatica Submarines.

Last Sunday, spectators from all over the world were able to watch the livestream of the expedition.

Together with a team of scientists, marine researchers, divers, and filmmakers from the Aquatica Foundation, Branson and Cousteau dived to the bottom of the sinkhole several times — they're the first-ever team to not only dive that deep, but to have also captured high-resolution images and produced detailed 3D maps of the hole's interior.

The aim is to raise awareness of marine conservation

The team was also looking to collect and analyze scientific data on water quality and the bacteria living there.

One feature that could be of particular interest in future studies is the low-oxygen layer above the seabed. It may contain evidence of environmental influences that led to the decline of the Mayan civilization between 800 and 1,000 AD.

Branson's hope was that his participation in the project would raise public awareness of marine conservation and help protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030.

During their expedition, the group made an exciting new discovery about the Great Blue Hole which might provide further insight into its origins — the team said it had found evidence the structure hadn't always been an underwater hole.

Read more: Cigarettes are the single largest source of ocean trash, according to this study

Branson and the scientists suspect the sinkhole was probably part of a larger cave system previously above sea level — until a recent ice age, when it was flooded by rising sea levels and ultimately collapsed.

On the south wall of the hole, there is now access to a cave system below sea level, where the team was able to photograph large stalactites.

These are clear evidence of the Great Blue Hole having previously been a cave system, as stalactites only grow in dry caves.

Branson said this is evidence that sea levels were once much lower, and rose dramatically due to climate change.

SEE ALSO: Global warming is making oceans so acidic, they may reach the pH they were 14 million years ago

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• Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic launched a rocket into space for the first time on Thursday.
• The flight ascended just over 50 miles above the earth, which is 12 miles shy of the most common definition edge of the edge of space— though it meets the US Air Force definition.
• Two pilots flew SpaceShipTwo with enough cargo to simulate a full contingent of six passengers. The pilots would have experienced weightlessness in the flight.
• The company says 600 people have already reserved spaces for when commercial services begin.
• Here's how Tesla's SpaceX, Amazon's BlueOrigin, and Virgin Galactic plan to take people to space.

Virgin Galactic launched a test flight for its six-seater passenger spacecraft, which reached space for the first time in the company's history on Thursday.

The space company, founded by Richard Branson, has now demonstrated its technical ability to deliver the commercial space flight product it has been promising for more than a decade.

VSS Unity (also known as SpaceShipTwo) took off at 7:12 a.m local time on Thursday from the company's launchpad in the Mojave Desert of California.

It landed safely at 8:14 a.m, according to live tweets from the company.

Virgin Galactic say the flight — steered by pilots Mark Stucky and CJ Sturckow — reached 51.4 miles above the earth, and hit a max speed of 2.9 Mach (2.9 times the speed of sound, or 2,225 mph). 

Here is the video of the start of the flight:

WhiteKnightTwo is the name of the regular jet plane which carries SpaceShipTwo most of the way up, after which it reaches peak altitude with its own rocket engine.

Fifty miles above the earth's surface is one possible definition of being "in space," and is the one used by the US Air Force. NASA considers space to begin 62 miles up, by which definition Thursday's flight fell short.

Virgin Galactic shared a photo of the team involved after the landing:

Virgin-owner Richard Branson's project seems to be advancing and getting closer to taking paying passengers into space for the first time in history, but it has suffered several setbacks and missed deadlines.

Read more: Virgin Galactic just released its first commercial for a trip to outer space

Branson is well known for setting target launch dates and then missing them. He has previously predicted that space flights would be operational by 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

His prediction in October that Virgin Galactic was "weeks away" from launching into space now seems reasonably accurate.

The Galactic project hasn't been without serious setbacks.

A craft crashed in 2014 killing the co-pilot. It took two years to launch the next manned flight in 2016.

Asides from internal issues, Virgin Galactic is racing against Amazon's BlueOrigin, which has also been developing craft to launch passengers into space, as well as Elon Musk's SpaceX in a close third place.

VSS Unity can carry six passengers, and tickets costs $250,000. The company says 600 people have already reserved spaces on their first commercial spaceflights.

SEE ALSO: Sir Richard Branson just strapped a giant rocket to a 747 jet airplane with his space company Virgin Orbit

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NOW WATCH: How SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan on taking you to space

• Moguls like Richard Branson and Shaquille O’Neal are asked for advice every day, but they too once sought guidance from more experienced business leaders.
• The best advice Branson received from a mentor was "Make a fool of yourself."
• O'Neal's top mentor was his mother, who once told him "Focus on the solution, not the problem."
• Lewis Howe, Daymond John, Jeanine Blackwell, and seven other moguls and business leaders share the best pieces of advice they received. 

Moguls like Richard Branson and Shaquille O’Neal are asked for advice every day, but they too once sought guidance from more experienced business leaders. Years later, even with all of their accomplishments, certain lessons they were taught early on have stayed with them.

Here, Branson, O’Neal, and other top entrepreneurs and Advisors in The Oracles share the No. 1 piece of advice they received from their mentors.

1. Make a fool of yourself.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies; investor, author, and philanthropist worth over $5 billion; previously named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World:

I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without the mentorship of Laker Airways founder Sir Freddie Laker. He once told me: “You’re going to have to get out there and sell yourself. Make a fool of yourself — whatever it takes. Make sure you appear on the front page and not the back pages.”

Since that day, I’ve lived very openly, giving others a window into both my business and personal lives — and doing things to get noticed. The public came with me on many ballooning adventures. They were privy to the goings-on of our legal battle against British Airways. They’ve seen my children grow up, and follow my daily life on social media.

2. Focus on the solution, not the problem.

 Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most dominant basketball players in NBA history; entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist worth $400 million:

My closest mentor is my mom, Lucille O’Neal. The No. 1 piece of advice she ever gave me was this: “Don’t worry about the problem; worry about the solution.”

Too many times when we focus on the problem, we create a bigger problem. Focusing on the solution is the only answer to all our problems.

3. Never stop learning.

Daymond John, Shark on “Shark Tank,” NYT best-selling author of “Rise and Grind,” creator of Daymond on Demand, and founder of FUBU, which has generated $6 billion in sales:

Be a sponge and absorb everything. Listen, read, and research. Ask questions. Take classes, attend workshops, and watch YouTube videos.

Always be willing to learn, no matter how much you think you might understand about your business and its market. There is always another perspective that you can learn from or a demographic that understands your market better than you do.

• Richard Branson has tapped a boutique investment bank to raise funds for two space companies within the Virgin Group.
• Branson backed out of talks with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund for more than $1 billion in investments after the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which has been attributed to the country's government.
• LionTree Advisors, founded by former UBS executives, previously advised Liberty Global's $23.3 billion takeover of Virgin Media.

Sir Richard Branson is looking for another source of funding for two of his space companies after cutting ties with Saudi Arabia.

In October, the Virgin Group founder said that Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit would suspend its discussions with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund following the disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Virgin Group's space divisions had been in discussions with the Public Investment Fund for more than $1 billion in investments, Reuters reported.

Now, Branson has tapped boutique bank LionTree Advisors to line up funding for the space companies. In December, Virgin Galactic reached space for the first time in a successful test flight, buoying investor interest in the company. 

Branson is reportedly seeking to raise at least $250 million for a minority stake, valuing the companies at $2 billion, according to Sky News. The Virgin spokesman declined further comment, and LionTree declined to comment. 

LionTree is reportedly in discussions with a variety of potential investors, including sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, high net worth individuals, and strategic partners.

New York-based LionTree, founded by former UBS executives Ehren Stenzler and Aryeh Bourkoff, previously advised Liberty Global on its $23.3 billion purchase of Branson's Virgin Media. 

LionTree didn't crack the top 50 US investment banks by deal value last year, though it did land at 48 in 2017, with $8.3 billion of deals advised, according to Dealogic's league tables. 

• Read more:
• Sir Richard Branson just strapped a giant rocket to a 747 jet airplane with his space company Virgin Orbit
• How SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan on taking you to space
• Watch Virgin Galactic's Rocket Go Mach 1.4 In Its Highest Test Flight Yet

Join the conversation about this story »

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• British billionaire Richard Branson said on Monday that he will stage a massive pop concert just outside Venezuela to raise money for the country, which is in deep crisis.
• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded by announcing his plans for a rival concert the following day.
• Maduro has systematically blocked US aid from entering the country. The US, EU, and most of Latin America have pledged support his rival, self-styled interim president Juan Guaidó.

Richard Branson and Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro are planning rival pop concerts in a bizarre twist to the country's economic and political crisis.

The contest began when Branson announced a concert to be held this Friday on the Colombia side of the Colombia-Venezuela border, which he wants to raise money for the Venezuelan people, who are suffering food shortages.

After the plan became public, Maduro announced his own two-day concert, due to begin the day after Branson's. Maduro's concert will be called "Hands Off Venezuela," The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Maduro will put on a show on this coming Saturday and Sunday on the Venezuelan side of the border, the AP reported. Venezuelan information minister Jorge Rodriguez as saying. It is not clear how far apart the sites will be, as the Maduro government has not yet announced a venue.

In an interview on Monday with the AP, Branson said he would stage a pop concert on Friday in Cucuta, a Colombian city outside Venezuela's border that has hosted hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees over the past few months.

Branson said he plans to raise $100 million for Venezuela's citizens, who are suffering through one of the world's worst economic crises and massive shortages of food and medicine.

A combination of decreasing oil prices, corruption, and hyperinflation has led to Venezuelans barely being able to afford food and medicine.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens have also been demanding Maduro's resignation for weeks, saying that his presidency is unconstitutional and fraudulent. Maduro refuses to stand down.

Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly president, declared declared himself Venezuela's interim president in late January. Branson also openly backs Guaidó.

The US, EU, Canada, and most countries in Latin America also pledged their support for Guaidó over the past few weeks. Russia, China, Turkey, Syria, Bolivia, Cuba, and many of Venezuela's military leaders back Maduro and have characterized international support for Guaidó as foreign meddling.

Read more:Trump urges Venezuela's military to back its self-declared interim president, saying socialism has ravaged the country

Branson also said that he hopes his concert will open up Venezuela's borders for international aid to come in, without specifying how that might work. 

Maduro's government has systematically blocked all US aid from entering his country, arguing that allowing access could lead to a US military invasion. He said on Monday that the US wants to "enslave us" with aid, according to the AP.

His concert on Saturday is on the same date Guaidó called on his Venezuelan supporters to bring aid from Colombia. Guaidó said that if Maduro's concert disrupts his mission, he would keep trying on subsequent days, the AP said.

Maduro also said that his government would import 300 tons of aid from Russia, but did not give an exact date of arrival.

Read more:The US sent a military plane full of soap, toothbrushes, and nutritional products to Colombia to help Venezuelan citizens — but Venezuela's president won't accept it

Branson expects up to 300,000 attendees at his concert, which will feature talent like Mexican band Mana, Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, and Dominican artist Juan Luis Guerra, the AP reported.

Spanish-French singer Manu Chao was previously reported to be joining, but the AP said on Tuesday that was no longer the case. 

All of the singers set to perform come from countries that back Guaidó.

It's not clear who will headline Maduro's pop concert.

Guaidó called Maduro's rival concert "desperate," according to the AP.

SEE ALSO: Venezuela was once the richest, most stable, democracy in Latin America. Here's what went wrong.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Hurricane Irma, which struck the Caribbean and the southeastern US in September 2017, was one of the largest and most powerful storms in history.
• Virgin Group founder Richard Branson rode out the storm at his compound on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. 
• Branson likened the experience to "14 hours of a screaming train going by."
• Irma directly affected 1.2 million people and caused more than $3 billion in damage.

Hurricane Irma was one of the largest and most powerful storms in history. Irma, which struck the Caribbean and the southeastern US in September 2017, was a Category Five hurricane that generated sustained winds of 187 mph. The storm was also massive — roughly the size of Texas. 

This is why many were shocked when Virgin Group founder Richard Branson decided to ride out the storm at his compound on Necker Island, one of the British Virgin Islands. 

Branson and a handful of Necker's staff spent the night in the private island's reinforced wine cellar. 

Recently, Branson recounted what that evening was like for those in the cellar.

"It was 14 hours of a screaming train going by," Branson said in an interview with Business Insider. "We were very lucky to be in a wine cellar, a good concrete wine cellar."

According to Branson, the group took full advantage of the wine cellar's contents during the night to pass the time.

"It didn't feel so bad when we came out, we were all in a good mood," he said. 

Read more: I flew Virgin Atlantic from London to New York to see if Richard Branson's airline is still one of the world's best — here's the verdict

However, the devastation caused by the hurricane was sobering for Branson.

"It is a traumatic time here in the British Virgin Islands," he said in a blog post published on Virgin Group's website the day after the storm struck. "Hurricane Irma is continuing a path of destruction that brought the eye of the storm to Necker Island, Moskito Island, and the whole surrounding area."

He continued: "I have never seen anything like this hurricane. Necker and the whole area have been completely and utterly devastated. We are still assessing the damage, but whole houses and trees have disappeared."

The doors and windows outside of the wine cellar were blown 40 feet away, he said.

All local communications networks were knocked out by the storm. As a result, his blog post had to be dictated through a satellite phone.

In total, Irma directly affected 1.2 million people and caused more than $3 billion in damage as it carved a path of destruction through the islands and the American South. Tragically, the storm also caused 129 fatalities in the US alone. 

For Branson, this story has a happier ending.

"We've had 500 wonderful people for 18 months rebuilding Necker Island and also helping rebuilding schools in the area and it's now back and beautiful again," he said. "So we have our home back which is great."

SEE ALSO: Richard Branson reveals how his new adults-only cruise line, Virgin Voyages, will turn the cruise industry upside down

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• Virgin Voyages officially opened for business last week. Sir Richard Branson proudly announced that Virgin Group's adults-only cruise line will set sail in April 2020. 
• Tom McAlpin is the cruise line's president and CEO.
• According to McAlpin Virgin Voyages will stand out for its unique take on luxury, gratuity free policy as well as its commitment to environmental protection.

Virgin Voyages officially opened for business last week. Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson proudly announced his adults-only cruise line will set sail in April 2020. 

Sir Richard may be the face of Virgin Voyages, but the company's president and CEO is Tom McAlpin. And while Branson is a cruise industry neophyte, McAlpin, who helped found Disney Cruises and served as its president for half a decade, is not. 

Now, McAlpin will be tasked with bringing Virgin Voyages, a joint venture with Bain Capital, online. 

As will anything associated with Virgin, there's always going to be a slight twist on the traditional formula. For McAlpin, the key ingredient is finding the right mixture of personalities.

"It's a combination of having people who know the Virgin brand and that secret sauce and what makes it tick combined with people that have cruise industry experience," he said in a recent interview with Business Insider.

According to the CEO, his company went out of its way to recruit those who could provide a balance between industry knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking. 

"We want to take the creative thinkers in the industry so they are not too rigid but they know what they are doing," McAlpin said. In addition, the cruise line also brought in folks from other industries with experience at companies like JetBlue and Uber.

Read more: Richard Branson reveals how his new adults-only cruise line, Virgin Voyages, will turn the cruise industry upside down.

Beyond the creative and management teams, McAlpin contends that Virgin Voyages will stand out from its contemporaries for the way the company treats its crew and customers. That begins with gratuities. Mainstream cruise lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean charge guests a set daily gratuity. For Carnival, it starts at $13.99 per day, per person. At Royal Caribbean, it starts at $14.50 per day, per person. At Virgin, it's $0.  

"Not requiring gratuities does two things, it creates a better experience for our sailors because they don't have to worry about paying gratuities," McAlpin said. "But also we are able to pay our crew salaries so they won't have to worry about whether they are going to make enough money this month."

McAlpin is also committed to creating a family-like and supportive culture at the company. 

"We're going to recruit the best, we're going to invest in them with the best training," he told us. "As Richard said before, you want to train them to be the best so that they could leave, but you want to take such good care of them that they never want to leave."

The company is also committed to increasing the number of women in technical roles, which according to Virgin, accounts for only 3% of in the cruise industry. In fact, Branson recently recounted to reporters his unsuccessful attempt to recruit a female captain away from a rival cruise line. 

As for Virgin Voyages's on ship product, it'll be a bit different from the status quo as well. 

"We use this term 'rebellious lux,'" he said. "We want you to be able to enjoy yourself as a billionaire would and that doesn't mean marble as far as the eye can see. That doesn't mean a stuffy dining room with a waiter serving you in a tux and white gloves and 14 glasses in front of you."

"It's getting stuff when you want it, where you want it, and doing it in a kind of rebellious way," McAlpin added. "It's okay to bend the rules a little bit but always quality."

As with all things Branson touches, environmental protection and sustainability are ingrained in the company's DNA. 

"It's a philosophy, it's a culture you create around the environment," McAlpin said.

The cruise line has banned all single-use plastic from its ships. The company hopes that by doing so it can limit the number of plastic water bottles, straws, stirrers, and individual serving packets that end up in the oceans. 

"This is bold, this is costly, because companies make a lot of money selling water bottles, but we think this is the right thing to do," McAlpin told reporters last week. 

In addition, Virgin's ship, the Scarlet Lady, is designed with an energy efficient hull and its propulsion system is equipped with a heat-energy recovery system to create clean energy. And then there are small energy saving features like kitchen grills, fans, and hoods that only turn on when needed. 

Virgin Voyages is expected to make its maiden voyage in April 2020 from Miami to Havana, Cuba. 

SEE ALSO: Richard Branson reveals what it was like to ride out one of history's most destructive hurricanes in his wine cellar

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• Virgin Galactic, the space-tourism company founded by Richard Branson, on Friday launched its first non-pilot beyond what NASA considers the edge of space.
• Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, flew in the passenger cabin and was accompanied by two pilots.
• SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, rocketed the three-person crew to nearly 56 miles above Earth, providing a few minutes of weightlessness.
• But Jeff Bezos, who also owns a space-tourism company, Blue Origin, earlier this week questioned the capabilities of Virgin Galactic.
• Bezos said vehicles that don't fly above 62 miles, an internationally recognized boundary of space, risk leaving "asterisks" next to a space traveler's name.

Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic has flown its first non-pilot on a rocket-powered spaceship.

The flight is part of a decades-long effort by multiple companies to usher in an era of frequent and safe suborbital space tourism, in which vehicles can fly high enough to briefly enter space, provide minutes of zero gravity, then return to the ground.

On Friday, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle, named VSS Unity, did just that. Unity lifted off the ground under the wings of a double-bodied airplane mothership called WhiteKnightTwo. At the proper altitude, Unity dropped from its mothership, ignited a rubber-fuel rocket engine, and soared high above Earth.

Unity accelerated to about three times the speed of sound and reached an altitude of 55.87 miles, or 89.9 kilometers, according to Virgin Galactic. That's about 10 times a typical passenger jet's cruising altitude. It's the second flight to puncture the boundary that the US government considers the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic's first passenger wasn't a tourist who bought a $250,000 ticket, though — it was Beth Moses, the company's chief astronaut instructor, who tested the passenger cabin and experienced several minutes of weightlessness inside. The company says Moses is the first woman to fly aboard a commercial spaceship.

"The crew enjoyed extraordinary views of Earth from the black skies of space and, during several minutes of weightlessness ... Beth floated free to complete a number of cabin evaluation test points," Virgin Galactic said in a press release. "The human validation of data previously collected via sensors, and the live testing of other physical elements of the cabin interior, are fundamental to the provision of a safe but enjoyable customer experience."

However, another billionaire interested in furthering space tourism — Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the aerospace company Blue Origin— questioned the capabilities of Virgin Galactic earlier this week.

"One of the issues that Virgin Galactic will have to address, eventually, is that they are not flying above the Kármán line. Not yet. The vehicle isn't quite capable," Bezos said during a private event at the Yale Club in New York on Tuesday.

Bezos said that not going beyond this point would leave "asterisks" next to space flyers' names.

What the Kármán line is and why Blue Origin is targeting it

There is no official, globally recognized boundary for where Earth ends and space begins. Just this month, for example, researchers said the fringes of Earth's atmosphere stretch more than 150,000 miles beyond the moon.

Still, Earth's air pressure drops off dramatically at high altitudes, and wing-based lift begins to peter out after a vehicle gets dozens of miles high. NASA and the US Air Force consider the demarcation between pilots and astronauts to be at an altitude of 50 miles.

But Bezos said during his interview, which was hosted by the Wings Club and moderated by Jeff Foust of Space News, that "for most of the world ... the edge of space is defined as 100 kilometers" or 62 miles high.

That boundary is named after Theodore von Kármán, who in his book "The Wind and Beyond" said that above 57 miles in altitude, "there is no longer any air to contribute lift." The World Air Sports Federation, which logs international aviation records, recognizes a line 5 miles higher as the boundary where space begins.

Read more: The space between Earth and the moon is mind-boggling. This graphic reveals just how big it is — and what's out there.

Bezos said he thinks Virgin Galactic will have to figure out how to get above the Kármán line.

"We fly to 106 kilometers," or 66 miles, he added. By "we," Bezos was referring to Blue Origin, which has developed an autonomous, fully reusable rocket-and-space-capsule system called New Shepard.

The squat rocket launches the capsule on a ballistic (up-and-down) trajectory, then returns to Earth and lands, allowing it to be refurbished and reused. Meanwhile, the sleek crew capsule continues flying upward, providing about four minutes of weightlessness for passengers.

Read more:SpaceX's list of competitors is growing — here are 9 futuristic rockets in the pipeline for the new space race

New Shepard was designed to pierce the internationally recognized boundary of space, Bezos said, to remove any doubts about status.

"We've always had as our mission that we wanted to fly above the Kármán line, because we didn't want there to be any asterisks next to your name about whether you're an astronaut," he said.

Bezos added that Blue Origin planned to launch its first people on New Shepard imminently.

"This is the first time I've ever been saying 'this year,'" he said. "For a few years, I've been saying 'next year.'"

A series of firsts for suborbital space tourism

A Virgin Galactic representative responded to a request for comment to Bezos' critique, but did not provide a statement in time for publication.

Nevertheless, Branson's space-tourism outfit publicly claimed a series of achievements.

"Today's flight notched several additional firsts for the industry," Virgin Galactic said in its release. "The flight was the first time that a non-pilot flew on board a commercial spaceship to space, and it was the first time that a crew member floated freely without restraints in weightlessness in space onboard a commercial spaceship; it was the first time that three people flew to space on a commercial spaceship, and Dave Mackay became the first Scottish-born astronaut."

Virgin Galactic shared a video of the launch on Friday:

The flight also marked the company's fifth back-to-back supersonic flight of a SpaceShipTwo vehicle — a welcome shift for the company. In October 2014, one of its pilots died and another was seriously injured during an in-flight breakup of the "VSS Enterprise" SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

"Flying the same vehicle safely to space and back twice in a little over two months, while at the same time expanding the flight envelope, is testament to the unique capability we have built up," Branson said in the release.

He added: "Having Beth fly in the cabin today, starting to ensure that our customer journey is as flawless as the spaceship itself, brings a huge sense of anticipation and excitement to all of us here who are looking forward to experiencing space for ourselves. The next few months promise to be the most thrilling yet."

Correction: A previous version of this post mislabeled Beth Moses, a crew member, as a passenger.

SEE ALSO: SpaceX may launch its new spaceship for NASA in March — a vital test to help show it can safely fly astronauts

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• Silicon Valley startups backed by celebrities like Bill Gates are experimenting with the gene-editing technology Crispr to make lab-grown chicken, pork, and beef.
• Lab-grown meat, also called cultured or clean meat, is real meat brewed up using animal cells. So far, only prototypes exist.
• The idea is to move away from environmentally-damaging meat production methods in favor of a method that could be more sustainable and less ethically fraught.
• Venture capitalists see huge promise in the industry's potential to disrupt the $200 billion global meat industry.

Two emerging technologies with blockbuster biotech potential are the gene-editing tool Crispr and lab-grown or cultured meat.

Crispr has been likened to a pair of genetic scissors: it allows researchers to simply and precisely tweak the DNA of any organism, opening up the potential to cure tricky genetic diseases like sickle cell or even make climate-change-resistant crops.

Lab-grown meat, on the other hand, would free up meat producers from being dependent on farms by allowing for real chicken and beef to be made in a lab from animal cells instead of from slaughter.

What if scientists combined them?

New Age Meats, a startup that recently hosted a public tasting of its prototype sausage, is experimenting with using the technique, along with Memphis Meats, a Silicon Valley startup whose funders include celebrities like Bill Gates and Richard Branson as well as food giants like Tyson.

"Technologies like Crispr allow us to safely increase the quality of our cell growth, which means we will make meat that is tastier, healthier, and more sustainable than slaughtered meat," Brian Spears, the co-founder and CEO of New Age Meats, told Business Insider.

Memphis Meats declined a Business Insider request for an interview. But in pair of patents — the most recent of which was first published at the end of January — Memphis Meats described a method to create real chicken and beef tissue using Crispr.

In an emailed statement, a company spokesperson said, "As a company focused on research and development, we are exploring a number of innovative techniques that will allow us to make our products better for the environment and public health, as well as more affordable and scale-able."

The spokesperson added that it's too early to say whether products made using the gene-editing tool would make it into its first consumer products, which the company previously estimated would hit stores by 2021 and be available in a high-end restaurant this year.

Lab-made meat has the potential to upend a $200 billion industry, but faces some challenges

Real beef or chicken sourced from animal cells instead of farms has yet to grace a restaurant plate.

But that doesn't mean it's not coming.

Lab-grown meat— often called clean, cultured, or cell-based meat — has attracted the attention of an increasing number of startups in recent years. Most of them are in Silicon Valley, but others are popping up in Israel, Japan, and Europe. The technique relies on extracting a sample of muscle and fat cells from an animal, then brewing them up in vats until there's enough tissue for a slab of edible flesh.

Meat is in high demand, accounting for as many as 30% of the calories humans eat around the world according to data from research firm CB Insights. But there's a growing awareness of meat's negative environmental impacts, from the land and water it requires to the ethical issues surrounding factory farming.

Read more:We tasted the first lab-grown sausage made without slaughtering any animals — here's what it was like

In the Bay Area, the startup that appears to be leading the clean-meat pack is Memphis Meats. Founded in 2015 by cardiologist Uma Valeti and stem cell biologist (and self-professed meat lover) Nicholas Genovese, the company became the first to debut lab-made meatballs to a small group of taste-testers in 2016. Memphis followed up a year later with the first cell-based chicken and duck, served at a tasting with chef Derek Sarno in 2017.

Then last year, the company got an infusion of cash from burger and chicken-nugget maker Tyson Foods. Many interpreted the move as a sign of clean meat's potential to upend even the traditional meat industry.

But there's still a ways to go before most of us are eating clean meat.

Cost is the paramount obstacle, and scale is another issue.

Memphis Meats' first prototypes cost $18,000 a pound, according to CB Insights— putting the pricetag of a clean quarter-pounder at roughly the same cost as monthly rent for an average 2-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Within two years, however, the company said it had reduced the cost to $2,400 per pound.

Similarly, New Age Meats told Business Insider that their first prototypes cost $2,500 per sausage link but said it had recently lowered that cost to $250 per link.

Read more:A new lab-grown meat startup may have overcome a key barrier to making meat without slaughter

Another problem that many clean meat startups have encountered is that cells from chickens and cows don't like to continually reproduce on their own. At first, they happily replicate. But over time, they slow down and then stop.

In an attempt to overcome that, most companies have been feeding their cells a nutrient-dense mixture called fetal bovine serum, or FBS. Although standard and relatively cheap, FBS has one small problem: it's made from the blood of pregnant slaughtered cows. If startups aim to live up to their goal of replacing animal slaughter, they'll need to find another way to keep their cells happy.

Crispr might help.

Crispr could help lab-grown meat become a reality

Crispr could be a helpful tool for researchers as they strive to bring lab-made meat closer to consumers' plates.

While traditional breeding methods hack away at an organism's genome with a dull blade, tools like Crispr can slice and reshape with scalpel-like precision.

The tool is cheap and relatively easy to use, already allowing scientists to explore recipes for cancer-fighting broccoli, potatoes that don't succumb to disease, and cocoa plants that will survive climate change. Mushrooms and corn made using Crispr already exist, though they have not yet been brought to market.

One of the tool's advantages is that as opposed to traditional methods of genetic modification, which can be somewhat haphazard, Crispr allows for precise genetic edits, like clipping out a gene that controls browning and replacing it with one that extends the shelf-life of an apple or tomato.

Both Memphis Meats and New Age Meats are exploring Crispr's potential to encourage animal cells to keep regenerating — resulting in more animal tissue and ultimately, more edible meat. The technique could potentially allow Memphis Meats' cells to replicate "indefinitely," the company's patent reads. Memphis Meats is exploring using Crispr in cow cells and cells from the progenitor of the domestic chicken, a species known as the red jungle-fowl or Gallus gallus.

"One application is to manufacture skeletal muscle for dietary consumption using cells from the poultry species Gallus gallus; another is from the livestock species Bos taurus," Memphis Meats' patent reads.

Several bespoke food and agricultural organizations are interested in resurrecting ancient animal species like the red junglefowl, which have been largely ignored as farming has become increasingly industrialized. Organizations like the nonprofit Livestock Conservancy, for example, note that many breeds related to the red jungle-fowl offer unique genetic traits important to protecting overall animal diversity. Their meat may also offer slightly unique flavors or textures for cooking and eating.

The CEO of Israel-based clean meat startup Aleph Farms told Business Insider that his company had considered using Crispr to make its chief product, cell-based steak. They ultimately decided against it because foods modified with Crispr are considered GMOs and therefore subject to strict regulatory rules. Meatable, a Dutch clean meat startup born out of a partnership with Cambridge, declined to say whether it's exploring the use of Crispr.

Read more:A controversial technology could save us from starvation — if we let it

European regulators treat foods modified with Crispr as genetically modified, or GMO. The situation is more complicated in the US.

When it comes to plants, the US Department of Agriculture has declared that crops modified with Crispr will not be deemed genetically-modified so long as the edited DNA could also have been created using traditional breeding techniques. That decision has been cheered by researchers and scientists who aim to use the tool to bring climate-hardy crops to farmers across the globe and the first Crispr produce to market; anti-GMO activists have not been pleased. 

As far as genetically-modified meat is concerned, the USDA and the US Food and Drug Administration will handle it jointly, according to a statement the agencies released on Thursday. For its part, the FDA will oversee everything related to cell collection and growth (this is also the part of the process when Crispr is used). The USDA will preside over clean meat production and labeling. 

A Memphis Meats spokesperson emphasized to Business Insider that it was not sure if the technology it is exploring now will make it into its final products, or if instead it will merely be used in research.

"We know that trust is paramount, and we are committed to sharing all relevant aspects of our production process with consumers before Memphis Meats products are in our shopping carts and on our dinner plates," they said.

SEE ALSO: An Israeli startup with ties to America's most popular hummus brand says it made the world's first lab-grown steak — a holy grail for the industry

DON'T MISS: We tasted the first lab-grown sausage made without slaughtering any animals — here's what it was like

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• Billionaires may splurge on multimillion-dollar estates and luxury cars, but that doesn't mean they're digging deep in their wallets for the best and most expensive foods.
• Some tech billionaires are well known for their outrageous and unhealthy eating habits.
• These are some of the richest in the tech world who have spoken publicly about their diets.

Just because billionaires have the money to pay for pricey personal chefs or high-end healthy foods doesn't mean they're adhering to diets that are good for them.

Some of the richest people in tech have some pretty terrible — or bizarre — eating habits.

While some experiment with the latest health fads, like the Paleo diet and veganism, there are other tech billionaires who enjoy eating chocolate for breakfast or skip eating altogether for days.

So even though there are some wealthy techies whose diets you'll want to copy to replicate their levels of success, there's no guarantee they'll put you in good health.

Here are some of the diets and foods that tech billionaires swear by:

SEE ALSO: From Elon Musk to Bill Gates, here are all of the notable tech billionaires who own private planes to jet themselves around the world

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, estimates he drinks 20 cups of tea a day. "I'm not sure how I'd survive without English Breakfast tea," Branson told the Daily Mail in 2016.

Source: Daily Mail

Branson said back in 2010 that he eats fruit salad and muesli for breakfast. Occasionally, he'll also eat kipper, a herring-like fish.

Source: Business Insider

Branson lives on his private Caribbean island, Necker Island. The billionaire fills his days with exercise, time with his family, and business meetings, which he prefers to schedule "over lunchtime" to help "lighten the mood." For dinner, he prefers to hold group meals "where stories are shared and ideas are born."

Source: Virgin Group

• Karl Jacob pitched his startup LoanSnap to Richard Bransonduring a kiteboarding trip and walked away with the billionaire's backing for its $8 million Series A in 2018.
• Jacob was an early advisor to Facebook, and says his experience working in the early days of social networking reinforced his belief in taking bigger risks and bigger failures.
• According to Jacob, founders and investors need to be more comfortable with failure and more patient with teams trying to unseat massive entrenched industries.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

Karl Jacob was riding high.

The former Facebook advisor had just started LoanSnap, an AI-powered platform for mortgage lending, and was kiteboarding in the summer of 2018 on Necker Island, one of the sport's premier locations owned by billionaire Richard Branson. Jacob was on the island for an entrepreneurs' retreat, courtesy of an invite passed along by a friend. When Jacob climbed out of the crystal clear waters for lunch, he noticed Branson off by himself.

"It's something I've learned if you see an opportunity like that you take it," Jacob tells Business Insider. "We started talking about our sessions and our tricks and jumps and he eventually asked what I did. When I told him I started a mortgage company, Richard turns to me and with a big smile and says, 'Interesting, I own four of those. We should talk.'"

Read More: Google's AI venture fund is leading a $3.85 million round into a startup that's trying to reinvent the industry for homeowners insurance

According to Jacob, kiteboarding has many parallels with starting a business. There are plenty of risks and anything can go wrong at any moment. People who succeed in both environments share many qualities: they are adventurous, open to risk, and comfortable with failure.

"It's a more natural way for people to meet," says Jacob. "My conversation with Richard started around the sport and ended around business, and our first impressions of each other were about the sport. You know this person is competitive and adventurous and overcame their fear, which is a big part of being a good entrepreneur."

Jacob explains that he is more prone to taking risks now than when he was younger. He emphasized the importance of having investors aligned with longer term goals and bigger risks, and pointed to Pinterest's public offering Thursday as evidence of those risks paying off.

"If you are going after a  big space with game changing idea, you better have patient investors that understand you will fail and you will fail a lot before you make it," Jacob says. "Pinterest is one of the best examples of that. It took [Pinterest cofounder and CEO] Ben [Silbermann] seven years to get Pinterest to work. People who have the discipline to fail and try again, they ultimately win."

In the weeks following Jacob's serendipitous kiteboarding trip, he closed LoanSnap's $8 million Series A led by True Ventures. Branson was among the company's backers.

SEE ALSO: Founders Fund made its first alcohol investment. Here’s how the 28-year old woman who founded the company is trying to change drinking culture for the better.

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• Multibillionaire Richard Branson launched his first business as a teenager, and has since founded a slew of companies and conglomerates, including Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Express, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Cruises and Virgin Galactic.
• He also seems perpetually set to "happy" mode, and is known to truly enjoy the life he has created — which is far more important to him than his wealth. "I've never gone into business to make money," he once said.
• Among his rules for building a successful, happy life: Be fearless in trying new things, and find a hobby that gets you outside.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

By nearly any measure, Richard Branson is at the top of the success-o-meter of life. The multibillionaire launched his first business as a teenager. By 20, he had started a mail-order record business and by 22 he was running a chain of record stores. He has since founded a slew of companies and conglomerates, including Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Express, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Cruises and Virgin Galactic.

But it's not just his ability to create entrepreneurial success that sets him apart. Branson seems perpetually set to "happy" mode. When he's not engaging in some outdoor sport or extreme hobby, he's spending time with family and friends he truly seems to adore.

According to Branson, creating such a life is pretty simple: love others, be grateful for all you have, be kind and be mindful. Oh, and "Never say no, just keep going until you succeed."

So take some tips from the master of success and happiness. Use these eight keys and build your own amazing life.

SEE ALSO: Richard Branson on the 'million-dollar lesson they don’t teach in business school' — plus 12 more secrets from highly successful people

1. Don't measure your success by the amount of money you make

Too often, people measure their success by how much money they make, but Branson assures us that if we're having fun and focusing on making the world a better place, the money will come.

In an article posted on his LinkedIn page, Branson wrote: "It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success. It's not, and nor should it be. I've never gone into business to make money."

No matter what you have achieved in life, you should always feel there is more to be done. Success is a moving target — it's about striving to continue growing, but also appreciating what you have in the moment.

Related: How to Find Your Purpose in Life

2. Unplug and focus on face-to-face conversation

Like most of us, Branson loves technology, but he also sees its limits, especially when it comes between him and those he cares for. Nothing can replace a face-to-face conversation or being in the moment — and for that you have to be willing to put your devices aside, he says.

Branson tries hard to focus his attention on whoever he is with. He works at actively listening and taking notes during meetings, and he makes it a point to put aside his cell phone and keep his attention centered on family during dinner. He also encourages others to put their technology down when they're in a social setting… at least for a little while.

"We can all be more present in our own lives. I really believe that being in the moment is the key to happiness and success — and being constantly glued to your phone can have a big impact on your relationships," Branson writes.

Related: Why You Really Need to Unplug While on Vacation (Infographic)

3. Have fun in everything you do

If you aren't having fun, you're doing it wrong. In everything you do, you should find ways to enjoy and appreciate your life, says Branson. In other words, instead of working to live, you should live to work — because work is fun and enjoyable.

"Fun is one of the most important — and underrated — ingredients in any successful venture," Branson writes in The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership.

Branson has said that when he no longer enjoys a project, it's time to move on. "If you're not having fun, then it's probably time to call it quits and try something else," he says. So stop wasting time doing things you hate or dread, as that will only suck the joy and happiness out of your life.

• The United States' passenger rail system is in dire need of improvement.
• Wes Edens, founder of Fortress Investment Group and the owner of several professional sports franchises, thinks he's found the cure. 
• Edens spoke with Business Insider about his leadership on Virgin Trains USA, which will eventually connect Miami and Orlando, Florida.
• There are nearly a dozen other possible locations for private passenger rail in the country, Edens says, and the West Coast is next on his list.

Hugging Florida's Atlantic coast is a narrow strip of land with some of the country's most recognizable attractions.

From the white sand of Miami's South Beach and its nearby cruise ship ports, through the palm-laden groves of Broward County, all the way up through Orlando and Disney is one of the country's most densely built metropolitan areas.

With an ever-rising ocean on one side, and the Everglades on the other, the region is quickly running out of room to expand traffic lanes and keep up with an increasing population.

Wes Edens, founder of Fortress Investment Group, a private equity and investment management firm with about $70 billion in assets under management, says that combination of space constraints and a dense urban landscape is the "perfect storm" for building passenger rail in the United States that people actually want to ride.

The 57-year-old is the largest investor in BrightLine, now branded as Virgin Trains, with help from media mogul turned travel investor Sir Richard Branson. His other bets include a 2014 purchase of the Milwaukee Bucks, currently a top-seeded Finals team, British soccer club Aston Villa, which is also on a 10-win hot streak in its race to make it back to the upper Premier League, and even a professional "League of Legends" franchise.

"I really wanted to focus on things that I have great passion for, and those things fall into the general classification of infrastructure," Edens told Business Insider in an interview. "Infrastructure really catalyzes economic development in a very material way. Sports, in and of itself, is almost like a social infrastructure."

Sports, in and of itself, is almost like a social infrastructure. It really provides unity, brings people together, and can rebuild downtown areas."

That's exactly what he's done with the areas surrounding Milwaukee's downtown Fiserv Forum arena, and hopes to recreate with its Downtown Miami Central station. The 3 million square-foot complex also happens to be on the site where one of Edens' heroes — Henry Flagler of the iconic 19th century Florida East Coast railroad — built the city's first terminal in 1896.

"I want to build a train station people want to get married in," Edens said, drawing inspiration from London's St. Pancras Eurostar terminal, housed in a grand Victorian building that's part luxury hotel.

Eventually, trains will run from Miami through their current stops in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach as far north as Orlando, with a three-hour journey separating theme parks from cruise ports.

Edens points to Denver as an example of transit-oriented development spurring economic activity, noting that examples like Colorado's capital are "why we wanted to be right in the middle of Miami."

"It's a part of Miami that has been under invested versus the Brickell areas and some of the downtown stuff," Edens said. "It's thick with development activity now and I think the train's been a big part of that."

Too short to fly, too long to drive

American cities like Denver are only part of the story. America, after all, has long struggled to make passenger rail a viable alternative to car-clogged highways — even in dense corridors like the Northeast from Washington D.C. to Boston, via New York City. Edens and other Virgin Trains stakeholders visited dozens of city pairs comparable to Virgin Trains' market across Europe as part of their research.

"These city pairs that are too short to fly but too long to drive are all over the world," he said. "In Europe, the most successful by far obviously is the London to Paris Eurostar route, but there's also Paris to Lyon, Madrid to Seville, Rome to Milan, and others."

The key similarities — despite language or cultural barriers — between these pairs are all roughly the same: the cities are roughly 250 to 200 miles apart, with large populations at either end and in between that need to travel along the corridor.

"That gave us a lot of confidence in the route we are planning initially from Miami to Orlando, which has identical characteristics and is even more constrained in terms of the competition or what you could do by car," Edens said.

In the most successful cases, train services between two major cities in other parts of the world are able to carry more than a quarter of total travel between the two. Virgin Trains has first set its sights on a much smaller "capture rate" of five percent, something Edens says "does not sound like a terribly aspirational goal."

For now, at least, Virgin Trains seems well on its way to that goal. Its hourly departures are reasonably priced, and can make the journey from downtown Miami to West Palm Beach in about 75 minutes. The modern Siemens locomotives and sleek railcar interior evoke a much more European feel than Amtrak's comparable rolling stock, with on-board WiFi and concessions to boot.

Fares run as cheap as $20, too, making Amtrak tickets look more like air travel reservations. 

In April, the company announced it had closed a $1.75 billion private bond package sold to 67 different investors that will help fund Virgin Trains' expansion to Orlando, with assistance from Morgan Stanley.

Edens hopes the success can be replicated, too. The company has plans for a similar project between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the future, with eyes on roughly a dozen city pairs throughout the US that could also benefit from train travel.  

"Atlanta to Charlotte would be another one," Edens said. "Chicago to St. Louis would be maybe the most attractive of them all, and if you look at the business travel market, Houston to Dallas would be a good one too."

Of course, it won't be easy. California drastically slashed the scope of its planned high-speed rail project earlier this year, initially relegating the route to the Central Valley instead of the originally proposed San Francisco to Los Angeles link. Rail proponents in Texas, meanwhile, have struggled to gain possession of crucial land needed to build in the busy I-35 corridor.

Edens is optimistic, but Virgin Trains won't be able to turn the tide on its own.

"Our investment in South Florida will be about $3 billion," he said. "But to build it as true high-speed rail would probably be $10 billion more than that. The government has not actually made it a priority to build it themselves."

"The model we're using could be easily copied in different markets," he continued."These shorter city pairs where you can build that grade and get there in three hours could easily displace lots of automobiles and passenger flights."

SEE ALSO: An Amtrak train with 183 passengers on board was stuck for more than 36 hours after hitting a tree in Oregon

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• College students accrued more than $1 trillion in debt last year pursuing higher education.
• However, there are incredibly successful tech executives, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who started multi-billion-dollar companies without ever getting a college degree.
• Here are 23 tech founders and executives who never graduated college, but nevertheless attained massive success.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's been consistently shown that college graduates are bound to earn more than those without degrees.

But at the same time, college has become more expensive than it's ever been. Student loan debt reached a record high of almost $1.5 trillion at the end of 2018, according to data from New York's federal reserve bank.

The degree-less tale of tech superstars like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates is folklore by this point, but the Facebook and Microsoft founders aren't the only two influential executives who have risen to the top without finishing college. Of the 2017 Forbes ranking of the 400 wealthiest people in America, 17.5% of those on the list— 70 people — never graduated from college, according to analysis from data visualization company Visme.

The founders and CEOs of other prestigious tech companies — including Twitter, Fitbit, WhatsApp, Tumblr, and Square— also forewent higher education to take on the tech world, and their high-stakes bets paid off.

Here are 23 successful executives in tech who never got their college degrees:

SEE ALSO: Here are all the major US tech companies blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall'

Mark Zuckerberg — cofounder and CEO, Facebook

Zuckerberg never did complete either of his two majors (psychology and computer science). He launched "thefacebook.com" while a student at Harvard University, but he dropped out during his sophomore year to move to Palo Alto and work on his company full-time.

Matt Mullenweg — founder, WordPress

Mullenweg developed the open-source software for blogging platform WordPress as a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Houston, where he was studying philosophy and political science. By the start of his junior year, he left college for a job at CNET in San Francisco.

James Park — cofounder and CEO, Fitbit

Like many successful tech moguls, Park dropped out of Harvard. In 1998, he abandoned his major in computer scienceto pursue a career as an entrepreneur. After a brief stint as a Morgan Stanley analyst, he started Fitbit in 2007.

John and Patrick Collison — cofounders, Stripe

The Collison brothers grew up in Ireland and both came to Boston for college: Patrick Collison at MIT, John Collison at Harvard. They hatched the idea for their first business — an online auction management company named Auctomatic — at a local pub, and dropped out of college to build the company's technology in San Francisco.

They sold Auctomatic in 2008 for $5 million, and became teenage millionaires.

Jack Dorsey — cofounder and CEO, Twitter and Square

Dorsey is a two-time college dropout. He first enrolled at the University of Missouri-Rolla, but he transferred to NYU after two years. He reportedly thought of the idea for Twitter while at NYU, where he dropped out a semester short of graduating and moved to the West Coast to work with a tech company.

Daniel Ek — cofounder and CEO, Spotify

Ek grew up in Sweden, and enrolled in college in 2002 at the country's KTH Royal Institute of Technology to study engineering. He lasted only eight weeks, when he found out his entire first year would be devoted to theoretical mathematics. He soon started taking gigs at various tech companies.

Larry Ellison — cofounder, Oracle

As a kid growing up in Chicago, Ellison planned to attend medical school at USC, get married and have kids, and move to Los Angeles working as a doctor. However, that never happened. He tried getting an undergraduate degree twice — once at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (for two years), and again at the University of Chicago (where he lasted only one semester).

After dropping out a second time, Ellison moved to California amid the burgeoning tech scene.

Sean Parker — cofounder of Napster and former president of Facebook

As a senior in high school, Parker was making $80,000 a year through various programming and coding projects. It was enough money for Parker to convince his parents that he didn't have to go to college, and he instead joined up with Shawn Fanning to launch music-sharing website Napster in 1999.

Evan Williams — cofounder and former CEO, Twitter

Williams grew up in a small town in Nebraska, and enrolled for college at the nearby University of Nebraska-Lincoln. However, he felt college was a "waste of time," and lasted only a year-and-a-half taking as few classes as possible and without ever declaring a major. He then moved to Florida and bounced around various cities doing freelance work and tech jobs.

Steve Jobs — cofounder and former CEO, Apple

Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a private university he once said in a commencement speech was "almost as expensive as Stanford." He reportedly dropped out after one semester, but he stayed in the area and attended classes that interested him. One of those classes was calligraphy, taught by a Trappist monk named Robert Palladino, who Jobs later credited with teaching him about typefaces that he later added to the Mac personal computer he developed.

Jan Koum — cofounder, WhatsApp

Koum enrolled in San Jose State University while also working as a security tester at Ernst & Young. While on assignment for EY, Koum was brought on to help out at Yahoo, where he met an employee who went on to be his future WhatsApp cofounder, Brian Acton.

Koum switched jobs to become an infrastructure engineer at Yahoo, and was soon inundated with doing work on Yahoo's servers. Koum said he "hated school anyway," and dropped out to devote his time to Yahoo.

Dustin Moskovitz — cofounder, Facebook and Asana

Moskovitz studied computer science at Harvard, where he was roommates with Mark Zuckerberg. Moskovitz reportedly volunteered to help Zuckerberg work on his new website, and learned a coding language in "a couple of days" to be able to work. Along with Zuckerberg, Moskovitz dropped out of Harvard to move to Palo Alto and work on Facebook full-time.

Travis Kalanick — cofounder and former CEO, Uber

Kalanick, a California native, enrolled in UCLA to study computer engineering. Through the school's Computer Science Undergraduate Association, he met two classmates named Michael Todd and Vince Busam. Kalanick worked with four other students out of Busam's dorm room to develop a peer-to-peer search engine called Scour.

Kalanick dropped out of school in 1998 to work for Scour full-time, and survived by collecting unemployment as the company looked to secure funding.

Arash Ferdowsi — cofounder, Dropbox

Ferdowsi attended MIT and studied computer science. In the summer of 2007, recent MIT graduate Drew Houston reached out to Ferdowsi to team up on an idea for cloud storage service that later became Dropbox. Ferdowsi dropped out of MIT in his last semester to commit himself fully to Dropbox, and worked with Houston out of a small office in Cambridge to build the platform.

Richard Branson — founder, Virgin Group

As a teenager growing up in London, Branson struggled with dyslexia and did poorly in school. His school's headmaster once told Branson that he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire.

As a 15-year-old student still in secondary school, Branson produced a magazine called Student, and dropped out of school to work on the project. Although the magazine failed, he found success in a side hustle selling mail-order records, and turned the business into a successful company called Virgin Records.

Bob Pittman — CEO, iHeartMedia

Pittman grew up in Mississippi, and was already working as an announcer on the radio by the time he was 15 years old. He enrolled in nearby Millsaps College, but he didn't stay for long, and left school to pursue a career in radio. By 18, he was working at a radio station in Pittsburgh as a program director.

David Karp — founder, Tumblr

Karp never even finished high school in New York City — he dropped out at 14. Instead of heading to college, he entered the tech scene, and quickly became the chief technology officer for a now-defunct online messaging board called UrbanBaby that was bought by CNET in 2006.

Michael Dell — founder and CEO, Dell

Dell attended the University of Texas in 1983 as a premed student, but decided by the end of his freshman year that he wanted to drop out. In the summer before sophomore year, Dell sold $180,000worth of reworked PC computers, which was enough to convince his parents he didn't have to go back to college.

Kevin Rose — venture capitalist and cofounder, Digg

By the time Rose enrolled as a computer science student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he was already working as a technician at a nearby Department of Energy nuclear test site. He dropped out of school at the end of his sophomore year to head to the Bay Area.

Barry Diller — founder and chairman, IAC

Diller grew up in Beverly Hills, and attended UCLA in nearby Los Angeles for college. Diller said he lasted"literally, three weeks" at college before he dropped out, because he "wasn't interested or stimulated." Diller landed a job through a friend in the mail room at the talent agency William Morris, a gig that launched his career in the media industry.

Paul Allen — cofounder, Microsoft

Allen dropped out of Washington State University in 1974 after two years to work as a programmer in Boston, where his friend since grade school — Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates — was attending Harvard. Allen got a job offer from Honeywell, and moved to the Boston area with his then-girlfriend.

Bill Gates — cofounder, Microsoft

Gates left Harvard in 1975 to cofound Microsoft with longtime friend Paul Allen.

When Gates left school, he took it as an official leave of absence. Doing that allowed him to return to school "if things hadn't worked out."

• Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, has an estimated net worth of $4 billion.
• When he spends his money indulgently, it's only to make money in return — like renting out real estate he owns, such as Necker Island.
• In fact, Branson once said in an interview that he's "embarrassed" by displays of wealth, like leaving large tips and buying things for "pure luxury."
• A member of the Giving Pledge, Branson would rather spend his money on philanthropy.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Sir Richard Branson wears the same pair of jeans every day, according to Page Six. That's a surprisingly frugal habit for a man with a $4 billion net worth.

The billionaire chair of the Virgin Group, which brings in more than $21 billion annually in global revenue, Branson has overseen approximately 500 companies and is known for his charisma and eccentric behaviors.

Ever the savvy businessman, Branson has spent some of his billions indulgently, but only to make money in return — like renting out real estate he owns (think Necker Island). When it comes down to it, Branson is rather frugal, opting not to own objects of pure luxury. He also donates much of his time and money to philanthropic efforts.

Below, see how the eccentric leader spends his billions.

SEE ALSO: Warren Buffett is the world's third-richest man — see how the notoriously frugal billionaire spends his fortune

DON'T MISS: Bill Gates is worth $95 billion and he plans to give most of it away — here's how he spends his money now, from a luxury car collection to incredible real estate

Richard Branson launched his first business at age 15. In 1972, he founded Virgin Records and went on to launch the Virgin Group conglomerate. Through this, he's built an estimated $4 billion net worth.

Source:Forbes, Business Insider

Branson is well-known for his jet-setting adventures and eccentricity, such as dressing as a butterfly to run a marathon.

Source: Business Insider

Virgin Media, Virgin Australia, and Virgin Atlantic are some of the biggest companies under Virgin Group.

Source:Financial Times

Overall, Branson is frugal when it comes to luxury items, largely because he grew up in a middle-class family. "The idea of having a possession that is there just as pure luxury, and is not actually paying its bills is something which I'd be embarrassed about," he told The Guardian in 2002.

Source:The Guardian

He does have a history of luxury purchases, but they're often more an investment than a personal indulgence.

Source:This is Money

Case in point: Branson once hired a plane for $3,000 when passengers were bumped off his flight to the Virgin Islands. He advertised the flight going one-way at $39 per person and made $69. It was his first ever flight, he said.

Source:This is Money

Also take for example the island Branson owns. In 1978, he purchased Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands for $180,000.

Source: Business Insider

Five years and $10 million later, Branson built a resort on the island, which doubles as a home for him. It's welcomed many celebrity guests, from Kate Winslet and Kate Moss to Princess Diana and Larry Page. The Obamas have even vacationed there.

Source:Business Insider, CNN

In 2006, he estimated the island's value increased to $60 million — a 33,233% increase from his purchase price. He previously called it "the best financial move" he ever made.

Source: Business Insider

In 2009, Branson bought a 32-meter catamaran, which he named Necker Belle for around $6 million. Branson chartered her at Necker Island starting at $60,000 a week and recently sold her for $3 million.

Source:Business Insider

He also bought a mini-submarine, which he named the Necker Nymph, for a reported $547,482. Starting prices to rent her begin at $25,000 for seven nights at Necker Island.

Source:Virgin, Daily Mail

But Necker Island is only one of Branson's luxury real estate holdings, which are known collectively as Virgin Limited Edition. He also owns Son Bunyola; located in northwest Mallorca, the estate offers three luxury villas for guests.

Source:Virgin Limited Edition

Elsewhere in Europe, Branson purchased The Lodge, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps. One room rentals are around $945 a night and exclusive use in the winter for a week is $89,916.

Source:Travel + Leisure

The rest of Branson's properties are located in Africa — like Mont Rochelle, a hotel and vineyard near Cape Town in South Africa.

Source:Virgin Limited Edition

Branson also owns a resort in Morocco called Kasbah Tamadot. There's no word on how much he purchased it for, but the 28 rooms each run for $717 a night.

Source:Travel + Leisure

Branson has a thing for safaris. He owns Mahali Mzuri, a tented safari camp in Kenya's Maasai Nara National Reserve with a 40-foot infinity pool. Rooms are around $590 a night.

Source:Architectural Digest

And Ulusaba, his fourth African property, located in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, also offers safari experiences.

Source:Virgin Limited Edition

Before taking up residence on Necker Island, Branson lived in his Oxfordshire mansion in Kidlington, London. It's unknown how much he paid for it, but he did sell it to his children for $1.78 million.

Source: Virgin Islands News Online

He also owned a home in Holland Park, London. He bought it for $3.3 million and later listed it for $23.12 million.

Source:The Guardian, Daily Mail

In 2002, Branson still paid a mortgage. "It makes economical sense to me to have a mortgage," he told The Guardian. "I don't have a specially arranged discount, only because it might be embarrassing to have a special rate."

Source: The Guardian

You wouldn't find a lot of expensive artwork hanging in any of his homes. He prefers to buy watercolors at a reasonable price, he told The Guardian.

Source:The Guardian

He still owns a refurbished houseboat in London that he purchased for around $2,600, which is available to rent for a little more than $1,000 a week. He said never plans to sell it.

Source:Business Insider, This is Money

To jet around from place to place, Branson owns his own private plane — a Falcon 50EX, which costs around $21 million brand new.

Source:Business Jet Traveler, Business Jet Traveler

Branson also drives a Range Rover, but it's gifted to him every year from the brand.

Source: The Guardian

He also told The Guardian he doesn't spend much on clothes.

Source: The Guardian

He told Page Six he wears the same pair of jeans every day with a plain white shirt: "Whatever I'm doing, whether it's a speech, whether it's going to see the Queen, you know, whatever it is."

Source: Page Six

Branson previously said people won't let him pay for things. "I'll be in a restaurant and the manager will say: 'Oh no, it's on the house,'" he once said in an interview.

Source:This is Money

But he tips big when someone deserves it. "I certainly tip larger if I feel that people have done their work with a smile. But I don't splash out because I think that's embarrassing," he said.

Source:The Guardian

He also tips generously when he has a special request — he once offered a London cab driver two first class plane tickets, worth around $5,276.

Source:This is Money

One thing Branson doesn't spend his money on: Gambling. He once took his two kids to Las Vegas and gave them each $40 in casino chips to teach them the perils of gambling.

Source:CNBC

However, the lesson failed because they accidentally left a few chips behind — which tripled into a small fortune.

Source:CNBC

Branson is big on philanthropy. He devotes 80% of his time to Virgin Unite, the charitable arm of the Virgin Group. Branson and The Virgin Group fund overheads and costs to the non-profit.

Source:Business Insider, Virgin Unite

The charity has founded and supported a variety of projects including The B Team, The Carbon Room, The Elders, and Oceans Unite.

Source:Virgin Unite

Branson has also signed The Giving Pledge, in which he promised to give away more than half of his wealth during his lifetime.

Source:Business Insider

Branson puts time and money toward the environment. In 2007, he offered $25 million to scientists who could discover ways to save the planet from climate change as part of the Earth Challenge.

Source:Reuters

He also pledged $3 billion over the course of a decade to develop low carbon fuel and alleviate global warming.

Source: NBC News

And with more than 60 companies in Virgin's portfolio, Branson continues to invest money in expanding and growing Virgin with new ideas.

Source:Virgin, Business Insider

To Branson, the biggest luxury isn't money: "If we're talking about personal luxuries — and the luxury of being your own boss — the biggest reward is the amount of time one can find for family and friends."

Source:The Guardian

• Some of the world's most successful people are known for wearing the same thing to work every day.
• Richard Branson reportedly wears the same pair of jeans every day, Mark Zuckerberg typically wears either a hoodie or a gray t-shirt while working, and Hillary Clinton is known for her pantsuits.
• Karl Lagerfeld, who died in February 2019, owned 1,000 versions of the same high-collared white shirt that he paired with a tailored black jacket and black sunglasses.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

From tech giants Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg to legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, some of the world's most successful people have been known to wear the same outfit to work every single day.

In many cases, these distinctive "work uniforms" have become synonymous with the person.

Here are 10 famous work uniforms, from Steve Jobs' black turtleneck to Karl Lagerfeld's white collared shirt, black jacket, and black sunglasses.

DON'T MISS: I've been wearing a work uniform 5 days a week for over a year — and no one has even noticed

SEE ALSO: Karl Lagerfeld owned around 1,000 of the high-collared, white shirts that defined his iconic look — here's how you can make your own work uniform

Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple, is perhaps one of the most famous people to adopt a "work uniform."

Source: Business Insider

Jobs was almost always seen wearing his signature black turtleneck, jeans, and sneakers. He once said in an interview that he owned about 100 black turtlenecks made by Japanese designer Issey Miyake.

Source: Gawker

Another tech titan, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is known for his recurring outfits. In Zuckerberg's case, it's usually a black or navy hoodie ...

Source: Business Insider

... which he sometimes removes to reveal a gray t-shirt. The t-shirts are reportedly special ordered from Brunello Cucinelli, and reportedly cost between $300 and $400.

Source: Business Insider

Karl Lagerfeld, the legendary designer who died on February 19, 2019, was known for his iconic uniform of black sunglasses and a tailored black jacket with a high-collared, highly starched white shirt. He usually accessorized with some jewelry and gloves.

Source: Business Insider

Lagerfeld reportedly had 1,000 of the same white shirt.

Source: Business Insider

Condé Nast Artistic Director and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour's distinctive look includes her sleek bob and black sunglasses.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Wintour typically also wears "a patterned or textured skirt, a simple close-fitting jewel-neck sweater and a chunky necklace," as Annette Tapert noted in the Wall Street Journal.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Virgin Group founder and billionaire Richard Branson keeps his uniform simple. "I just wear the same pair of jeans every day," he reportedly told Page Six at a party. "Whatever I'm doing, whether it's a speech, whether it's going to see the Queen, you know, whatever it is."

Source: Page Six

Branson said that he likes to pair his jeans with a simple white t-shirt, noting that his closet only contains two or three pairs of jeans and a few white shirts.

Source: Page Six

Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, before she was charged with "massive fraud" by the SEC and then indicted by a grand jury on "wire fraud schemes," was known for wearing a familiar work uniform.

Holmes was always seen wearing a black turtleneck like Jobs, which later became a symbol of her alleged fraud. "Such an individual uniform has a risk if you don't live up to the promise," fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote in the New York Times.

Source: New York Times, Business Insider

Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made pantsuits her work staples years ago.

Source: Business Insider

She often wears them in bright colors and occasionally in bold patterns.

Source: Business Insider

Fashion designer Giorgio Armani's work uniform is simple yet streamlined.

Source: The Guardian

He is nearly always seen wearing a navy sweater, navy pants, and white sneakers.

Source: The Guardian

Author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz almost exclusively wears a uniform that comprises a jacket (usually designed by Anderson & Sheppard), a men's shirt, Levi's jeans, cowboy boots, and tortoiseshell glasses.

Source: Elle

"I have all my suits and jackets made, but I've never had a shirt made ... it's not as important to me that they fit perfectly," Lebowitz told Elle in a 2015 interview.

Source: Thrillist

One of the most famous proponents of the "work uniform" is former president Barack Obama.

Source: Business Insider

"You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits," he told Vanity Fair in a 2012 interview. "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."

Source: Vanity Fair

In fact, experts say making lots of small decisions like what to wear and what to eat throughout the day can drain your mental energy for when you need to make more important decisions. It is perhaps this "decision fatigue" that drives so many successful people to adopt work uniforms.

Source: Business Insider

• Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson spoke to Business Insider last month about his upcoming album, "Late Night Feelings," and his partnership with Virgin founder Richard Branson's cruise line, Virgin Voyages.
• Ronson also discussed his work with collaborators like Amy Winehouse, Diplo, and Lykke Li, and the effect that the success of his last album, 2015's "Uptown Special," had on his subsequent music. 

Four and a half years after the release of "Uptown Special," which was Mark Ronson's fourth studio album and first platinum-certified LP, the seven-time Grammy-winning producer is set to drop his fifth album, "Late Night Feelings," later this month.

Ronson spoke to Business Insider late last month about the process of making "Late Night Feelings," and about his recently announced creative partnership with Virgin Voyages, a cruise line from Virgin founder Richard Branson that will debut in 2020.

We also touched on Ronson's work with the late Amy Winehouse, whose 2006 album "Back to Black" he coproduced, and his recent collaboration with Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li, who features prominently on "Late Night Feelings."

Joined in the interview by Nirmal Saverimuttu, the chief commercial and experience officer for Virgin Voyages, Ronson discussed his role as a curator for the cruise line's music and onboard record shop, and his and Diplo's scheduled residency of performances for the company.

Our conversation took place over an international call between New York and England, the somewhat tenuous connection of which led to a humorous back-and-forth regarding the pronunciation of Lykke Li's name, among other less interesting moments of clarification.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

John Lynch: What drew you to this partnership with Virgin Voyages as a creative opportunity?

Mark Ronson: I've always been a fan of Sir Richard as a record collector and everything that he did in music, everything about what he's created. And this, like all the other stuff he's done, has a really music-centric component, which is exciting. It's exciting to be part of something that's never been done before, and it makes sense. It's like a blue-chip brand, you know? I guess it's all of the things that they're doing aside from the DJ-ing — the launch of the night club and stuff like that.

And just the fact that they're going to have a record shop onboard. I'm like a nerd who knows everything about music and these kind of things. And knowing that this whole thing started because Richard Branson opened a record shop in the 1970s. I love that there's all that lineage and legacy in it.

Lynch: I saw that Diplo is joining you in this venture. I imagine that will probably result in a Silk City performance or two. How do you think you'd approach that?

Ronson: Yeah, that actually would be a lot of fun. I know that he's just been confirmed. I don't know if we're doing the same dates, but that's my guy. Part of the really fun thing of Silk City of the past year is that it's sort of reinvigorated my love and joy for DJ-ing, playing club music and having fun.

And [Diplo's] the guy. He's turned what he does with club-going into making all these international forms of music, and it seems like that's the only guy going to like Pakistan and Brazil, and all over the place. Now he's doing his country thing, and he obviously makes a lot of sense to be involved with something like Virgin as well. I mean hopefully they book us on the same gig. I don't know if they can afford it. I'm sure he's more expensive than I am. But we'll see.

Nirmal Saverimuttu: We'll see if we can get one good overlap so we have that [laughs].

Ronson: I'd love that. And actually, I'd love going to watch him DJ, too. I caught his set at Coachella, and it was killer.

Lynch: It might be uncouth to say, but what immediately comes to mind with Sir Richard Branson and a "voyage" is that shot of him kite-surfing with a nude model on his back. Is that image at all indicative of the experience one can expect from this, that type of "on-the-sea" lifestyle?

Ronson:I think with anything about the "lifestyle" that you should maybe take it.

Saverimuttu:Yeah. We've really tried to create something that's very different, and we've created this world-class Creative Collective of people like Mark, Concrete Amsterdam, and Tom Dixon. We're actually at Tom Dixon's hotel today, where we had our event. And what we're really trying to do is make sure we bring the radical glamor of a Boutique Hotel to the ocean. Yeah, there's going to be great, great DJ sets and great parties, but there's also going to be a very epic, healthy dose of well-being, because we think that's a really important part of it.

We love yachts, we love the ocean, and we love sailing. But we've got things like outdoor sun decks and outdoor yoga decks, so you can workout outdoors, and we think that it's going to be a magical experience. So I really think about it as kind of the radical glamour of a Boutique Hotel on the ocean with a wonderful well-being and vitamin C program to back it up.

Lynch: Mark, there's this Amazon Echo commercial set to "Valerie" that stopped me in my tracks recently, just hearing Amy's voice in it. And it made me wonder how you reflect on your great work with her, your body of work with Amy Winehouse.

Ronson: I saw that. Are you talking about this commercial with the grandfather and the son, with "Valerie"?

Lynch: Yes.

Ronson: Yeah, I saw that the other day. It's really lovely. I mean, it's crazy because "Valerie" didn't even chart in America when it first came out. It was a hit in England, but that was always this kind of deep cut, so it's really nice to see. I mean, obviously because Amy's so celebrated in every way, people are going to unearth everything she's done. But the way that that song "Valerie" has become this sort of joyous celebration of who she is is something I'm very psyched to be a part of.

And obviously I have really fond memories of the day we recorded it. It was the first time she met the Dap-Kings. They had already played on her album ["Back to Black"], but she had never met them. And it was a beautiful sunny day in Brooklyn. So yeah, I have a lot of good, good memories and, you know, attachment to the music that we made, and our friendship.

Lynch: I have to say, "Late Night Feelings" is a jam. The single, I mean. I haven't heard the full album. But I was wondering about the steel drums on that song, and whether you had this oceanic partnership in the back of your mind at all when making it.

Ronson: We hadn't done the deal quite yet for me to be a part of Virgin Voyages when I wrote that song. But you're right, the steel drum thing. It's definitely an island touch. Actually, for the steel drum on "Late Night Feelings," I found this cool guitar pedal made by Electro Harmonix that has this steel drum setting. So I guess I'll probably bring that with me on the ship and serenade everyone with these steel drum sounds, until they throw me overboard.

Saverimuttu:Like the guys on the New York subway [laughs].

Ronson: Yeah. I'm going to learn "The Little Mermaid" in time for it.

Lynch: [Laughs]. Lykke Li is great on that song, and I saw that she's on a few tracks on the album. How was your experience of collaborating with her?

Ronson: Oh, with Lykke? [pronounced slightly differently].

Lynch: Oh, yeah, with Lykke [echoing pronunciation]. Sorry.

Ronson: No, no — listen, there's no way to say it. It's just a bad [phone] line. I wasn't correcting your pronunciation of a Swedish name that like neither of us are saying properly. I met somebody Swedish recently, and they were like, "Oh, so you're working with Lykke [pronounced to rhyme with 'touché'] ?" And I was like, "What is that?"

But she's actually someone that I've known for a while, and we've been friends. When I started to work on this album, there's this songwriter named Ilsey [Juber], who cowrote "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" and "Late Night Feelings," and a lot of this stuff. We started to write the song, and she was like, "I've been working with Lykke a lot. We should get her to come down and write the song with us, and finish it, and sing on it."

And it's funny because we've been friends for so long, and she almost lives down the street, that I never thought to ask her. And then to think what a big part of this record she's become, since she actually named the album by coming up with the lyric "Late Night Feelings." She's really been a massive part of it.

Lynch: She's drastically underrated in my opinion.

Ronson: Yeah. I think that hopefully this record and the next record she makes will definitely go on the way to changing that.

Lynch: I'm looking forward to the album, as I have for your previous four. I read in various places that you've called this your most personal album to-date. How do you think that manifested itself in the music, or how did your process shift?

Ronson: I guess in my 25 years of DJ-ing in clubs in New York, I think I'm always obsessing over the drum beat, and that's how we usually write songs. Like "Ooh Wee" and "Uptown Funk" and "Bang Bang Bang," they usually come from us making the track first, and then we figure out what the song is after, put a rap over it, write a song to it, whatever it is. This is the first album that I really wrote from an emotional point of view. The emotion came first, and then we figured it out.

So it is a very personal record, and I think that's sort of why it's better. I think the more honesty that you put in your music, the more it reaches or connects to something true and genuine. So, I feel like that's what I'm especially proud of with this record. And it still has the cool baselines and dancy stuff that I've had in some of my other records.

Lynch: In the wake of your last album, "Uptown Special," being such a success, did you feel that with your next solo project you wanted to take a certain amount of time off to kind of bask in it, the success of that album?

Ronson: I think the main thing was just to come to peace with the fact that I'll never make anything that's quite as wildly popular as "Uptown Funk." That's such a crazy anomaly. There was probably a split second where I felt like, "Should I make something like that?" But the fact is when we made "Uptown Funk," we weren't thinking about anything but having fun and making something that felt true in that moment.

And that's the same thing for any records I've been involved with it. You know, none of them really sound like anything out at the time when they come out, whether it's "Locked Out of Heaven," or "Shallow," or "Rehab," or whatever it is. None of these songs really have anything on the radio that sounds like them. So we're always trying to make stuff from an honest place that feels genuine.

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