A business magnate, an investor, an author, and a philanthropist, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson's achievements are widely known. But the commonality between his personal life affairs and his professional life is lesser-known. As said by Branson's headmaster, he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire Here is a glimpse of Branson's aura and valour.
Branson founded the Virgin Group in the 1970s with Virgin Records as his first-ever big business venture. Before establishing Virgin Records, he owned a record store and once while dealing with a specific stock, he got caught in a fuss where he was questioned in connection with selling export stock records. The matter was resolved soon as Branson agreed to pay £70,000 fine. Branson bought an estate in Oxford shortly and installed a residential recording studio called The Manor Studio. He leased audio time to upcoming as well as established artists. He even signed controversial bands like Sex Pistols, something no other record label company was willing to do at that time. Virgin went on to sign other artists including The Rolling Stones, XTC, Iggy Pop.
It did not take much time for Branson to spread his wing and fly to establish another venture in the Airline Industry. He was on his way to a trip to Puerto Rico when his flight got cancelled. Frustrated, he decided to book a charter plane and give a seat to all the other stranded passengers by just asking for a cost-covering fee. That is when the idea of Virgin Atlantic took a flight and landed straight onto his head. Branson established Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984, followed by Virgin Holidays in 1985.
Ever since then, Branson has sold and bought different ventures from all over the world. He had to sell his music label Virgin Records to keep Virgin Atlantic afloat for $500m to EMI in 1992. Branson then went ahead and bought European Belgian Airlines and named them Virgin Express. He created V2 records in 1994 to re-enter the music industry. In 1997, he bought Virgin Rail Group and the Virgin group. These included some failed ventures as well, such as Virgin Cola, Virgin Cars, Virgin Publishing and Virgin Clothing.
If his contribution in terms of economy is not enough, he has a large variety of philanthropy and humanitarian initiatives to keep his critics out of the show. Branson, along with Nelson Mandela and Peter Gabriel, formed a small group of leaders to solve crucial global conflicts. He became the sponsor of International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), helped set up the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in South Africa in 2005. He has even pledged $3 billion towards fighting Global Warming and Climate Change.
Branson found to be dyslexic during his school years as he struggled and finally dropped out when he was 16. But he got up from there and went on reforming one industry after the other. His mantra? Maybe not so aesthetic but one that works; 'There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration.'
