The Entrepreneurial Journey of Richard Branson.
Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, popularly known as Richard Branson is a flamboyant entrepreneur
and business magnate known for being the founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group.
Mr Richard, unlike most billionaires, prefers to stay outdoors, enjoy the sun and go kite
surfing.
A simple search on the internet will tell you that Richard Branson’s wealth is now
on the $5 billion mark.
However, before all the fame and glory, Mr Branson started somewhere and in this video,
we are going to discover how he became a billionaire.
Sir Richard Branson was born in England to Edward and Eve Branson on July 18, 1950.
As a child, Richard struggled with dyslexia, which affected his concentration and ability
to study like other children.
He often got into trouble for his inability to read and memorize formulas like other students.
Unfortunately he succumbed to an injury which dashed his promising sports career.
At the age of eleven, Richard and his childhood friend, Nik Powell established their first
business.
They decided to breed budgerigars and sell them to the local children.
Richard’s father set up an aviary for the boys and by the time they resumed school,
Richard and Nik had made a few coins.
Later on, his mother was forced to release the birds after they went back to boarding
school.
Richard did not give up and during the Easter holidays, he and Nik decided to go at it once
more.
This time, they planted 400 seeds and planned to sell them during the Christmas holidays
as Christmas trees.
The idea was to sell every tree for £2 and make £800.
Unfortunately, rabbits ate the seedlings and even after successfully hunting down several
rabbits and selling them to the butchers, Richard and Nik could not regain what they
had lost.
This experience was important because you need to understand that you might not succeed
in your first attempt.
At the age of sixteen, Richard Branson started one of his most successful businesses.
He started a magazine called the Student, together with a schoolmate Jonathan Holland
Gems.
The magazine was a voice for Richard and other students against compulsory church attendance,
bullying and cadet matching.
As stated earlier, Richard was never built for school and shortly afterward, he dropped
his science and Latin classes to focus on the Student magazine.
Richard focused on the Student and sent out letter to advertisers willing to commit to
the magazine.
His efforts paid off and eventually, he received a £250 and a hardcopy of the Student.
By this time, Richard had dropped all but one of his classes, ancient history.
After cheating on his last test, the principal wrote to Richard telling him that he would
either go to prison or become a millionaire.
I guess we all know what happened.
The magazine grew and interviewed several prominent people, among them being Peter Blake,
the designer for The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album cover, Mick Jagger and John Lennon.
The Lennon interview was a huge success for the Student, which grew in fame, but not financially.
In an effort to make money, Richard had to be smart.
After carefully observing his environment, he noticed the undying love for music and
wondered if he could sell records at a cheaper price.
The Virgin Mail Order was born when Richard decided to sell cheap mail-order records through
Student.
Unfortunately, no one was interested in acquiring the magazine and in 1970, it died quietly
as Virgin Mail Order continued to bloom.
Unfortunately, in January 1971, the post office workers went on strike which paralyzed Virgin
Mail Order.
Richard and Nick decided to set up a physical shop on Oxford Street.
They convinced a shoe-shop owner to give them the space and got to work immediately.
The shop picked up quickly and even developed a loyal customer base.
Richard never ran out of ideas, and after setting up shop, he thought of setting up
a record studio for rock’n’roll bands.
He wanted to create a studio outside the city because he disliked the formality and tight
schedules in city studios.
It was at this moment the Manor Studio was born.
With the help of his family and a bank loan, he bought an old Manor outside Oxford where
he created a studio.
Manor studios was the first of its kind, located outside populous cities and accepting different
artists.
Initially, he had no plans to venture into the record business until Mike Oldfield showed
him a demo of his music, and Richard was instantly hooked, and thus, Virgin Records was born.
However, as we all know, business is never smooth sailing all the way, and 1971 was a
turbulent year for Virgin Mail Order.
The business was operating from a warehouse and was still providing discounts on records.
Deliveries were becoming troublesome with some customers pretending not to have received
previous records to receive more.
Before they knew it, Virgin Mail Order was 15,000 pounds in debt.
The spring of 1971 was hectic for Mr Branson.
He received a large order for records from Belgium.
He never paid purchase tax for the records and on his way to Belgium, the French authorities
stopped him, and due to lack of certain documentation, Richard was forced back to England.
On the way, he came up with a criminal plan to sell the records by mail or at the Virgin
shop to make money and pay off his debt.
Unfortunately for him, the authorities were aware of his activities.
He was busted by Customs and Excise who conducted searched in his warehouse and all the shops.
He had previously ignored a warning from an anonymous caller and he was now in more trouble
than the 15,000 pound debt.
The matter never got to court because Richard agreed to pay 15,000 pounds immediately, and
45,000 pounds in instalments over the next three years.
His mother was forced to re-mortgage the house to settle the debt.
From this experience, we can all learn that even billionaires make mistakes, and it’s
always wise to learn rather than repeat them.
Virgin Records grew to become a giant in the recording industry.
The label was renowned for producing artists such as Faust and Can and records like ‘Baa,
Baa black sheep’ by Singing Sheep.
The group bought a gay club and signed artists such as Peter Gabriel, Steve Winwood, and
most notably, the Rolling Stones.
Branson confessed that the most memorable part of signing the Rolling Stones was the
hangover he had the following day.
Richard Branson did not stop with Virgin Records.
He expanded into other industries and created the Virgin empire.
By 1983, Virgin Group was operating more than 50 companies from film making to air-conditioning
and making an estimated $17 million in sales.
His interest in the airline industry started after a trip to Puerto Rico where several
trips got cancelled leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.
Out of frustration he hired a chartered plane and divided the costs among the passengers.
The surprising success of the trip inspired Richard and his colleague to start a transatlantic
airline company.
His biggest competitor was British Airlines which Richard new would be difficult to defeat.
However, he braved on and launched Virgin Atlantic, which became successful because
it provided good customer service and exceptional features such as hydrotherapy baths, in-flight
messages, back-seat video screens in every class, and free ice-cream during movies.
Unfortunately for Virgin Atlantic, British Airways was not going down without a fight.
During the 90s economic meltdown, British Airways launched a secret campaign against
Virgin Atlantic.
Virgin Atlantic accused British Airlines of stealing passengers, hacking computer records
and also leaking stories to give the airline a bad reputation.
The battle ended with Virgin Atlantic on the winning side.
British Airways paid £500,000 to Richard, £110,000 to his airline and up to £3 million
in legal fees.
However, it was not all roses for Richard and in 1992 he was forced to sell Virgin Records
to Thorn-EMI to keep the airline flying and settle his debts with the bank.
The loss hurt him and he vowed that he would never be exploited by bank lenders again.
In 2017, Branson gave up leadership over Virgin Atlantic after 33 years of control.
The airline is still successful and Richard led the Virgin Group towards branded venture
capital.
The idea is to launch a massive amount of companies with the Virgin Brand, with minimal
investment.
Branson would trade the name for controlling interest-giving the partner's majority of
the stock.
He would manage the business while the partners financed the ventures.
As a result, Richard now owns or holds interest in more than 400 companies in 30 different
countries including Virgin studios, Virgin radio, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Cola, and Virgin
Net, just to mention a few.
Richard Branson has also proven that he is no ordinary billionaire.
He’s famous for crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon, starting
his own reality show and generally being a nice and fun loving person.
His ability to re-invent himself and continue pushing despite all the challenges he faced
in his business and life is worth revering.
Of course, a lot can still be said about the flamboyant English billionaire, but I hope
his story will inspire you to push yourself to the limits and rise above your challenges.
Thank you so much for watching, please like share and subscribe and I will see you all
in the next one.
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