Richard Branson: A Biography

By Patrick Evans

Know the Brilliant Entrepreneur who Lives Life to the Fullest and Makes Waves Wherever He Goes

 

As he left school, Richard Branson's headmaster commented that he would either go to jail or become a millionaire. He was right about the latter. Today, Branson is worth billions, $4.5 billion to be exact. He is the founder of the Virgin Group which controls over 400 companies in various sectors.

 

At the core of his business philosophy is the idea of service. How can a business deliver a great experience to its customers? It is this quest to serve with a passion that is the hallmark of each of the Virgin Group companies.

 

Learn about Branson's illustrious personality, his business philosophy, his famous debacle with British Airways, and various business hurdles. How he jumped from one business to another until finally having found his true calling.

 

Here's a preview of what you'll discover in this book:

• Richard Branson's family life, childhood, and early life
• His years as an adolescent and early ventures
• What business challenges he faced early on in life
• Founding Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic
• The business failures he experienced and what he learned
• His dream of commercializing space travel
• Richard Branson, the larger than life character
• The waves he is making with his philanthropic activities

….. and much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: MG Publishing
• Release date: Dec 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393432531

Book preview

Introduction

B

orn on July 18, 1950, Richard Charles Nicholas Branson remains a renowned business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. He is the founder of the Virgin Group, which controls over four hundred companies. Richard showed his great interest to venture into entrepreneurship at a tender age. He ventured into his first business, a magazine called Student, at the age of sixteen. Branson set up a mail-order record business in 1970. Later in 1972, he started a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, which was later called Virgin Megastores. His Virgin brand grew rapidly in the 1980s as he started Virgin Atlantic Airline, and then he expanded the Virgin Records music label. Branson founded a spaceflight corporation, Virgin Galactic, in 2004. It had its base at Mojave Air and Spaceport that is noted for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane purposed for tourism in space.

Branson was honored at Buckingham Palace for his contribution in entrepreneurship, retail, transport, and music in March 2000. He has a good taste for adventure, and his engagement in humanitarian activities has made a very prominent person in the world. He was listed among the top 100 most influential persons in the world by the Time magazine.

Forbes listed his estimated net worth at 5.1 billion US dollars in June 2018.

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Chapter 1

Richard Branson’s Background

R

ichard Branson was born in Blackheath, London. His father, Edward James Branson, was born in 1918 and lived up to 2011. He was a barrister. Her mother, Eve Branson, was born in 1924. She was a former ballet dancer and an air hostess. Branson is the eldest among their three children, having two little sisters. Right Honorable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson was his grandfather and was a judge at the high court of justice and a privy councilor. Branson got his education at Scaitcliffe School, a kind of preparatory school in Surrey, after which he attended Cliff View House School in Sussex.

Branson’s third great-grandfather was John Edward Branson, who is said to have left England for India in 1793. John Edward’s father was called Harry Wilkins Branson, who later joined him in Madras. When you look at the show Finding Your Roots, Branson is shown to having 3.9 percent of his DNA to be South Asian or Indian, which is mostly attributed to intermarriage. He went to Stowe School, which is an independent school located in Buckinghamshire until when he was aged sixteen when he dropped out of school.

Branson had a reading disorder and performed poorly in academics. In fact, during his last day in school, his principal, Robert Drayson, is said to have told him that he will either spend his life in prison or become a millionaire. His parents were so supportive of his dreams even at his early age. Branson’s mother was a business lady, and among many of her successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and bins for wastepaper. Branson started squatting off in London between 1967 and 1968.

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Chapter 2

Branson’s

Early Childhood

D

uring the time that Richard Branson was born, his family did not have enough because he had failed