Have no fear of failure. Even in 1970 Sir Richard Branson dreamed of “doing lots of different things” for young people and even starting an airline – he was only 18 years old and intrinsically understood a complex risk culture. Will Whitehorn discusses his journey to the top of Virgin Galactic and lessons he took away from this experience.

William Whitehorn joined the Virgin Group in 1987, progressing his way through the ranks to eventually becoming Sir Richard Branson’s Special Adviser and ‘right hand man’. In his time at Virgin, he projected the Virgin brand into new ventures, including telecoms and financial services. He later became the President of Virgin Galactic, the company's spaceline business venture. Since leaving Virgin in 2011, Will went on to being non-executive director of Stagecoach Group plc., and then most recently appointed as Chairman of the British Government’s Transport Systems Catapult, developing new transport technology.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx