Richard Branson – (Sir Richard Branson actually!) is the British Entrepreneur, most famous for his publicity stunts and founding Virgin Atlantic Airways. How has he become so successful? Was it his likeable personality and ability to entertain, a bit of good luck, hard work or a combination of all those qualities, as well as many others?
Sir Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur, famous for his Virgin brand of over 200 companies. Today, his worth is estimated at over US$7.8 billion according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2006.
Sir Richard's first successful business was at age 16, when he dropped out of secondary school and moved to London to set up a magazine called Student. His next business, a record mail-order company, led to his big break: a chain of record stores called Virgin Megastores, now with over 100 stores worldwide.
Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s when he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways. Other brands that have followed since include Virgin Cola, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Finance, Virgin Brides, Virgin Cinema and over a hundred others.
Not all of Sir Richard’s ventures have been a success: Virgin Trains damaged the company’s reputation, as they inherited many of the problems left over from British Rail. He also had to sell Virgin Records in 1992 to keep his airline alive: a move he regretted, resulting in the launch of V2 Records a few years later.
Other interesting facts about Sir Richard:
- Virgin Galactic plans to make flights to outer space available to the public with tickets priced at US$200,000.
- His company is called Virgin, because Sir Richard and the other co-founders were all “virgins to business”
- He owns Necker Island, a 74-acre island in the British Virgin Islands.
- He has been involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts for oceans crossings by both boat and hot air balloon.
- He had a reality TV show called The Rebel Billionaire
- The Simpson's have based a character on Sir Richard
- He was knighted in 1999 for "services to entrepreneurship"
- Sir Richard appears at No. 85 on the 2002 BBC list of "100 Greatest Britons"
- Sir Richard was ranked in 2007's Time Magazine Top 100 Most Influential People in the World.
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