Legendary Virgin

At 16, he started his first business venture – a magazine called Student – which was an overnight success. From then on, anything he started became a mega success till he became the icon of enterprise. He is best known for his most innovative airline Virgin Atlantic, and his Virgin Group has more than 400 companies.  

This British tycoon is also known for his crazy stunts– he jumped off the top of the Palms Casino in Las Vegas to celebrate Virgin America’s inaugural flight.

He was knighted by the Prince of Wales in honor of his services to entrepreneurship.

Childhood

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on July 18, 1950, in Surrey. He was educated at the exclusive Stowe School but did not excel, possibly due to his nearsightedness and dyslexia. A headmaster once told him he would either end up in prison or a millionaire.

He developed a national magazine, ‘Student’ at the age of 16.

Career

After leaving school, Branson entered the music industry. Considering that he could sell records cheaper than the existing average, he started a mail-order catalogue which was a success. He opened a record discount shop in 1972 and named it Virgin, because it was his first venture.

Mike Oldfield recorded the very first album, and it sold over five million copies. Branson then signed aspiring musical groups like the Sex Pistols as well as artists like the Culture Club, the Rolling Stones, and Genesis, helping Virgin Music become one of the top six record companies in the world.

Branson expanded his entrepreneurial efforts again, this time to include the travel company the Voyager Group in 1980, the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and a series of Virgin Megastores. But Branson’s success was not always predictable. By 1992, Virgin was suddenly struggling to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year to THORN EMI for $1 billion.

Branson was crushed by the loss, but remained determined to stay in the music business. In 1993, he founded the station Virgin Radio, and several years later he started a second record company, V2 in 1996.

Branson’s Virgin Group now holds more than 200 companies in more than 30 countries. He has expanded his businesses to include a train company, a luxury game preserve, a mobile phone company and a space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic.

World record attempts

Branson is known for his sporting achievements, notably the record-breaking Atlantic crossing in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II in 1986, and the first crossing by hot-air balloon of the Atlantic (1987) and Pacific (1991).

He is also a record breaker online, voted the UK’s number one Twitter user, the world’s most social CEO and the world’s most followed person on LinkedIn.

Activism

In 2004 he established non-profit foundation Virgin Unite to tackle tough social and environmental problems and strives.  Since 2010, Branson served as a Commissioner on the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a UN initiative which promotes universal access to broadband services.

In 2013, Branson urged companies to boycott Uganda because of their “anti-homosexuality bill.”

Personal Life

He married Joan Templeman on his private island in 1989. Before the ceremony began, he reportedly made his entrance by helicopter.

In 1998, Branson released his autobiography, titled “Losing My Virginity”, an international best-seller.