Failure is an art but great entrepreneur...
Sir Richard Branson (born July 18, 1950) is an English business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin group, which controls more than 400 companies.
At the age of 16, while in school, Branson launched a magazine called ‘The Student’, with an idea of using it to sell records by mail order to the music-loving readership. The magazine failed but the mail order business was not. Branson formed a mail order music company called Virgin, offering 40 percent of the new company to his friend Nick Powell.
When a seven-week strike by postal workers in 1971 put the mail order business out of action, Branson convinced a shoe store on London’s Oxford Street to let them use an upstair room as a record store. Before long, the Virgin store became the cool place to buy records.
Branson embarked on an ambitious expansion plan, investing the cash generated by the growing number of stores. By Christmas 1972, Virgin had become one of the UK’S largest chains of record stores. Branson bought a run-down manor house in Oxfordshire and converted it into a recording studio – one that offered musicians a chance to record in a relaxed environment.
In 1973, he started a record company with virgin label, releasing an album that had been recorded by an unknown artist, Mike Oldfield, titled Tubular Bells. It went on to sell 15 million worldwide. He used the revenue to contract new artists, often anticipating new trends in popular music.
However, the company’s progress was not smooth contrary to the expectations. In 1980, with Virgin facing a near £1 million loss, Branson decided to take on two struggling nightclubs with interest-free loans provided by the breweries who supplied the clubs.
Since Powell disagreed with the move, Branson agreed to buy out Powell’s 40 percent share. It was in 1984 that Branson took the momentous decision to set up a new airline, taking advantage of the London Gatwick–newark New Jersey route freed up by the collapse of Laker Airways. He went into competition with British Airways for the lucrative transatlantic business.
By 1986, Virgin had become one of Britain’s largest private companies, employing nearly 4,000 people and with sales of £189 million.
The company went public in that year, with over 100,000 private individuals applying for shares. Branson, used to making quick decisions with a few key executives, soon found the restrictions of public ownership difficult. In 1988, Branson led a management buy-out of the company. With the company privately owned once
HE REMEMBERS WHAT HIS FATHER TAUGHT HIM WHEN HE WAS YOUNG: “ROBIN, WHEN YOU WERE BORN, YOU CRIED WHILE THE WORLD REJOICED. SON, LIVE YOUR LIFE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WHEN YOU DIE, THE WORLD CRIES WHILE YOU REJOICE.”
more, Branson was back in sole control.
Yet, his problems did not stop even at that stage. In 1992, he faced a bitter battle British Airways competing each other and at one point he faced the real possibility that his Virgin Atlantic would run out of cash and go bust, possibly taking Virgin Music with it.
Branson initiated libel action against British Airways over denials that they had operated a campaign of ‘dirty tricks’ against Virgin Atlantic. British Airways was forced to pay £500,000 to Branson for the personal libel and £110,000 to Virgin Atlantic. British Airways also picked up the legal bill of some £3 million.
To solve the company’s debt problems once and for all, Branson sold Virgin Music to Thorn EMI for £560 million.
Branson runs the Virgin group as a ‘branded venture capital conglomerate’, launching companies and allowing them to develop into independent entities, with his own shareholding varying from case to case. Now it has financial services and a UK train service.
“I give free rein to my own instincts,” he wrote. “First and foremost, any business proposal has to sound fun. As well as having fun, I love stirring the pot. I love giving big companies a run for their money – especially if they’re offering expensive, poor-quality products or services.”
In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for ‘services to entrepreneurship’. In June 2018, Forbes listed Branson’s estimated net worth at US $ 5.1 billion.
What lessons can we learn from Richard Branson? 1. Politeness matters
Richard Branson was unfailingly polite. When he was a kid, if he criticized someone, his mother would make him stand in front of the mirror at home and say, “What you’re seeing in others is really what you’re seeing in yourself. So, look in the mirror.” This educated him on the key leadership habit of looking for – and then encouraging – the gifts and talents within other people.
2. Be truly independent
When Branson was just four years old, his mother stopped her car and instructed him to find his own way home, over two miles. When he was about 12, she told him to cycle 20 miles to Bournemouth alone, to visit a relative. These childhood experiences were his mother’s way of growing his selfreliance. And building the invincible inner core that has served him so well as an entrepreneur.
3. Just do it
What makes a great company (and great life) isn’t so much the inspiring idea as the flawless execution around the big idea. As Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Richard shared that much of his success came from his philosophy to disregard the naysayers and those telling him his dream was impossible and just get the dream done. This is a man with a giant bias towards action.
4. Praise lavishly
Branson often said this: the bigger the dream, the more important the team. It is beautiful to have a brave vision. But the real key is finding the genius-level talent to get that vision delivered into reality. Branson is brilliant at finding the right people that bring his targets of opportunity to life. And he confirmed that once they are on his team, “I lavish them with praise.”
5. Be a radical innovator
When he was a young entrepreneur with nothing more than the little college newspaper The Student, he showed signs of a radical. He challenged the status quo. And disrupted what was considered normal. An example: he somehow was able to get John Lennon to do an original piece of music for him. He then put the song on a special disc and packaged it into the newspaper, right next to the interview he’d done on the rock ‘n roll legend.
At Virgin Atlantic, he gave passengers massages on airplanes and dropped them home in limos. Fantastically bold!
6. Build your brand
Branson knows what he and the Virgin name stand for Fun! Good value! Strong customer service! And at every possible opportunity, he evangelizes all it stands for – from hot air balloon adventures that made global news to showing up at a press conference nearly seminaked to promote Virgin mobile.
7. Don’t do it if it’s not fun
Branson wears a smile much all the time. He loves his life – and all that’s in it. He says, “Life’s just too short to be doing work that destroys your soul. Find work you adore and get busy changing the world with it.”
8. With wealth comes responsibilities
Branson says, “With great wealth comes great responsibility.” And so, he spends a lot of his days with his foundation that helps kids in need. He remembers what his father taught him when he was young: “Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Son, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice.”