“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over” is a motivational saying that has been printed on many images. English businessman and investor Richard Branson wrote in Business Stripped Bare:  Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur (2008):
 
“There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over.”
 
Branson’s advice (minus the last clause) has been frequently cited in business articles.
 
 
Wikipedia: Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Kt (born 18 July 1950) is an English businessman and investor. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies.
 
At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic and expanded the Virgin Records music label.
 
Google Books
Business Stripped Bare:
Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
By Richard Branson
London: Virgin Books; New York, NY: Distributed by Macmillan
2008
Pg. 6:
Every business, like every painting, operates according to its own rules. There are many ways to run a successful company. What works once may never work again. What everyone tells you never to do may just work, once. There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over, and it’s because you fall over that you learn to save yourself from falling over.
 
Twitter
Nigel Warner
‏@nglwarner
“There are no rules. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing.” Richard Branson
5:31 PM - 3 Jun 2009
   
Industry Leaders magazine
10 Must-Have Leadership Traits: What World Leaders Have Said About Leadership
PATRICK ALAIN, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
(...)
7. You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and by falling over.” : Richard Branson
‘Learning from your mistakes’ is a general must-do for everyone, more so for the leaders. Everyone makes mistakes but the ones who learn from their mistakes move past them and become better with every fall. One who learns from an earlier mistake will never commit it again and reduce the chances of failure in the future.
 
Business Insider
101 Best Inspirational Quotes For Entrepreneurs
Renée Warren, Onboardly
Sep. 7, 2013, 12:49 PM
(...)
77. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.” —Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder
 
Entrepreneur
5 Insanely Inspirational Quotes For Entrepreneurs
By Lewis Howes
SEPTEMBER 09, 2014
(...)
4. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”—Richard Branson
 
It’s said that Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student, but later discovered his superpower to network (something he and I have in common).
   
The Motley Fool
Sep 21, 2014 at 5:05PM
25 Motivational Quotes From Self-Made Billionaires
The best motivational quotes from people with massive success in life.
By Dan Dzombak
(...)
5. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”—Richard Branson
   
Virgin.com
27 October 2014
You learn by doing and by falling over
By Richard Branson
Forget the rules, and learn from first-hand experience instead. There’s so much more to be gained from not knowing how to do things the ‘correct’ way, and learning to do them your own way.