By Duke London

 

For the past couple of days, roughly 15,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs have been packing into Chicago’s McCormick Place for Sage Summit, the world’s largest gathering of small (and medium!) businesses. From Sage’s website:

Sage Summit is the largest gathering of small and medium businesses in the world. Where business gets personal with celebrated speakers, business experts, tech innovations, mentor and peer networking, in-depth education, interactive training, Sage certification, and off-the-chart experiences. Discover how you can ignite your passion by joining everyone at Sage Summit.

Richard Branson, one of the “celebrated speakers” at this year’s Sage Summit, interpreted some of the above statement very literally. The Virgin mogul took his business talk in a very personal direction, igniting the passion of everyone in attendance by giving some high-ly polarizing parenting tips.

“If they’re going to have a joint, do it with them,” said Branson, who has two children. “Don’t let them sneak off and do it on their own.” The statement was in response to a question from Sage CEO Stephen Kelly about how Branson instilled his values in his kids.

If attendees had read the outspoken billionaire’s 2011 masterpiece Screw Business As Usual, they might have seen the alternative viewpoint coming a mile away. That wasn’t the case at Sage Summit. Scattered, nervous laughter could be heard in small pockets of the audience, but for the most part, the business owners were stunned.

A world-class kitesurfer, Branson’s enhanced agility and balance helped him regain composure, and in turn, his firm grasp on the crowd’s attention. He followed up the hottest of hot takes by reassuring the convention goers of his involvement with the Global Drug Commission, where he advocates for drugs to be considered “a health problem and not a criminal problem,” which the audience seemed to agree with, at least at a higher clip than his last bit of advice.

The Virgin Records founder has long fought for marijuana legalization, and even the decriminalization of all drugs, around the world.

Kelly quickly moved the conversation to safer topics like the origins of Virgin’s airline business and Branson’s attempts to normalize commercial space travel. After the speech, Branson’s team didn’t make him available for follow-up questions or clambakes in the parking lot.