The Man, The Myth, The Legend
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
He is the perfect example of a self-made billionaire.
Sir Richard Branson is an English business tycoon and philanthropist who owns the Virgin Group.
The Virgin brand was born in 1970 when Richard Branson and his friend Nik Powell launched a mail order record business and chose the name Virgin, because they were entirely new to business.
Equipped with a lot of courage, audacity and youthful self-belief, the mail order business evolved into Virgin Records with a record shop on Oxford Street in London.
The Virgin Group,today, controls more than 40 companies in various sectors including mobile telephony, travel and transportation, financial services, leisure and entertainment and health and wellness. Virgin is now a leading international investment group and one of the world’s most recognized and respected brands.
But, how did it all start?
Branson always had the entrepreneurial streak in him and a knack for making money. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a very young age. He could eye an opportunity where most people didn’t see one and make it into a successful business. He showed entrepreneurial spirit very early when he launched a youth culture magazine “Student” at the age of only 16. Before becoming the iconic Virgin Records, with its humble beginnings was a record shop in Oxford Street, England. Eventually, his efforts in music led him to establish Virgin Atlantic and bring all his companies under the umbrella of Virgin Group. He started Virgin Atlantic Airline and expanded the Virgin Records Music label. He founded spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic spaceplane designed for space tourism.
In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “services to entrepreneurship” for his work in retail, music and transport (with interests in land, air, sea and space travel), his taste for adventure, and for his humanitarian work, he has become a prominent global figure. He was placed in the Times 100 Most Influential People in The World list in 2007. Branson is expanding by getting into the cruise business with Virgin Voyages, expected to take its first passengers in the near future.
Failed business ventures = Stepping stone to success!
It doesn’t always end well, Branson has been involved in a number of failed business ventures, such as Virgin Cola, Virgin Cars, Virgin Publishing, Virgin Clothing and Virgin Brides. However, Branson holds an unusually optimistic view of failure. He has written: “I suppose the secret to bouncing back is not only to be unafraid of failures but to use them as motivational and learning tools.” there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as you don’t make the same ones over and over again.
Some of his noteworthy achievements
He has made several world record-breaking attempts after 1985, when in the spirit of the Blue Riband he attempted the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing. His first attempt in the “Virgin Atlantic Challenger” led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter, which received wide media coverage. In January 1991, Branson crossed the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada, 10,800 km, in a balloon of 2,600,000 cubic feet (74,000 m3), breaking the record, with a speed of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h).
Between 1995 and 1998, Branson, Per Lindstrand, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Larry Newman, and Steve Fossett made attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In the late 1998, they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999.
In 2006, Branson made a high-profile pledge to invest $3 billion toward addressing global warming over the course of the following decade. However, author and activist Naomi Klein has criticised Branson for contributing “well under $300 million” as of 2014, far below the originally stated goal. Additionally, Klein says Virgin airlines’ greenhouse gas emissions increased considerably in the years following his pledge in September 2008. Branson and his children made an unsuccessful attempt at an eastbound record crossing of the Atlantic Ocean under sail in the 99-foot (30 m) sloop Virgin Money.
Branson is looking further into the future with his latest investment in Hyperloop One, a company building high-speed transport and cargo pods that move at 250 miles per hour. In order to achieve this incredible speed, magnetic levitation moves the pods on top of a track resulting in airline speeds that let the pods move over long distances.
Summing up this incredible journey
Branson’s incredible journey isn’t just about creating wealth, but also about putting it to worthy causes. Branson believes in giving back to society. He started his first charity when he was just 17 years old. Branson has been a regular philanthropist to the educational charities working in African countries.
He also serves on the Global Commission on Drug Policy and supports ocean conservation with the Ocean Elders. He is a tie-loathing adventurer, philanthropist and troublemaker, who believes in turning ideas into reality.
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