Profile: Richard Branson + 4 Lessons Taught by Branson

Hello all, I thought it might be entertaining/interesting to write some short profiles on famous and influential  entrepreneurs. And... Who better to kick off the series than high-school drop out, jack-of-all trades, and most importantly, highly regarded entrepreneur,  Sir Richard Branson.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. - Richard Branson

Born July 18, 1950, in England, Branson dropped out of high-school at the young age of 16. Branson said this about his decision to drop out,

I was dyslexic, I had no understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests. And it was one of the reasons I left school when I was 15 years old. And if I - if I'm not interested in something, I don't grasp it.

After Branson dropped out of school, he started a youth-culture magazine calles student. The magazine was run entirely by students and made for students. It's first issue managed to sell $8,000 worth of advertising space. A hefty sum for a 16-17 year old boy. 3 years later, Branson is struggling to keep his magazine company afloat (all entrepreneurs fail once in their life, even Richard Branson) he came up with the idea of a mail-order record company. This company was none other than Virgin. Using the modest profit made from the mail-order company he set up a record shop in Oxford Street, London. By 1972, due to the success of his record shop and mail-order record company, he was able to build a recording studio. This was the beginning Virgin Records. 


The first record Virgin Records signed was "Tubular Bells" in 1973. The song turned out to be a smash hit. Staying on UK charts for 247 weeks! Richard Branson went on to sign the Sex Pistols, a band which other major record companies refused to even go near. 


Richard Branson did not just stop at music. Branson has an insatiable hunger for expansion into new industries. His first expansion was into the world of aviation. He purchased Voyager Group in 1980 later renaming it to Virgin Atlantic. However, Branson's foresight was not correct in this instance. The aviation company turned out to be a financial deadweight. Not one to give up easily Branson decided to sell Virgin Records in order to keep Virgin afloat. In 1992, Virgin Records was sold to EMI for $ 1 billion. Branson, reportedly, wept upon the sale of Virgin Records. 


Today, Virgin Group holds 200 companies in over 30 countries. His businesses include, a train company, a luxury game preserve, mobile phone company, and space tourism company. 


Richard Branson is a pretty incredible man. He was unfazed by the grandeur of his dreams. He merely dreamed and did. He was a man destined to be an entrepreneur. 


Books About Branson

Lessons from Branson

1. Customer Service -  "Good customer service begins at the top. If your senior people don't get it, even the strongest links further down the line can become compromised. No company can train its front-end people to handle every situation, but you can strive to create an environment in which they feel at ease 'doing as they would be done by.'" - By this Richard Branson means you better live, breath, and die your customer policy. You can't ask your employees to be kind, courteous, and respectful and not have those traits yourself. When the employee encounters a situation unfamiliar to them they should be asking themselves, "What would my boss do" 
2. Branding -  "When creating your first ads, designing a logo and reaching out to potential customers for the first time, you may be tempted to create a brand that's very corporate and remote. As a consequence, these brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust. Whatever you decide your new brand will stand for, deliver on that promise. And beware: Brands always mean something. If you don't define what the brand means, your competitors will." - This might seem obvious but it is important to always point it out. The most important person in your company is not the CEO, Accountants, etc. but the customer. The customer is the brick and motar of any consumer company. So any advice about catering to the customer is good advice. 
3. Leadership - "Rather than focusing on mistakes, a leader needs to catch someone doing something right every day. If this culture of fostering employee development through praise and recognition starts at the top, it will go far toward stamping out the employee fear of failure that can stunt a business, particularly in its early days. When mistakes happen -- which is inevitable -- you have to learn from them, not dwell on what went wrong. It's almost always better not to go over the obvious with the people involved. They know exactly what happened." - Praise is positive and positivity leads to creativity, independence, and effort. Yelling at people is negative and negativity leads to pressure, stress, and fear of failure. Pretty simple. 
4. Taking Risks - "There is little point in entering a new market unless it provides the opportunity to really shake up an industry. Almost all our new ventures come about from our thinking up a product or service that we believe people really want. Then, if our entry has the potential to make waves, we're going to look at it very closely. But we always protect the downside and make sure we have a way out if things go wrong. If a new business has the potential to damage your brand in any way, you should not invest in it." - In essence take real risk by that I mean your idea is something else besides the norm. However, dont take risks just because its something new.