Billionaire without education

Billionaire Richard Branson, knighted for special entrepreneurial merit in 2000, was considered the “dumbest student” at school. At the age of 16, he dropped out to start his first business, and subsequently never received any secondary or higher education.

Branson's first project was Student magazine. He began releasing it in the basement of his parents' house in 1966. The entrepreneur considered the youth magazines of that time too boring and was sure that he could do better. On the pages of Student, among other things, events related to the Vietnam War, of which Branson himself was an ardent opponent, were covered.

The 16-year-old businessman had no money for the project. His mother, Eva Branson, helped him with the financing of the magazine, who sold the necklace she found for £ 100 (about $ 2,000 at the modern exchange rate) and gave the money to her son.

When the first issue of his magazine was published in 1968, the headmaster of the school where Branson studied until the age of 16 wrote to him: “Congratulations, Branson. I predict that you will either go to jail or become a millionaire. " Branson ended up doing both.

Losing Innocence: How Richard Branson Found the Virgin Group

Despite the fact that Branson's magazine published articles and interviews by prominent authors - the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, playwright James Baldwin, writer Alice Walker and poet Robert Graves - it never became profitable.

Later, in 1970, Branson had a new idea: to sell records with records at discounted prices, delivering them by mail. Branson advertised a new project on Student, and the business soon became more profitable than the magazine. In 1971, Branson opened a discount record store. He hired magazine staff as salespeople. He called his store Virgin, since all the participants in the project had no business experience.

In 1973, Branson opened Virgin Records' first recording studio, calling it The Manor. Albums of such musicians as Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, The Smashing Pumpkins and Spice Girls were subsequently released under the Virgin Records label.

In the 1980s, Branson launched several other Virgin-branded companies: video game company Virgin Games in 1981, Virgin Atlantic in 1984, travel Virgin Holidays in 1985. In 1987, the Mates Condoms brand of condoms was launched, which was created to combat the spread of AIDS among young people.

In 1986, the Virgin Airship and Balloon Company was established to provide hot air balloon services. It will later be renamed Virgin Balloon Flights.

In the years that followed, Branson launched dozens of other businesses in publishing, food, entertainment, transportation, beauty, mobile, energy, fintech, and more.

In 1998, Branson's autobiography Losing Innocence was published. Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way.

Now the conglomerate Virgin Group includes more than 40 companies, represented in 35 countries, with more than 60 thousand employees. In addition to businesses, the group includes charitable organizations such as the Virgin Unite Entrepreneurship Foundation and Virgin StartUp.

"The Greatest Adventure of All"

Following aviation, Branson moved on to space exploration. Virgin Group now has two companies in this sector: aerospace Virgin Galactic, which targets the space tourism segment, and Virgin Orbit, which provides small satellite launch services.

Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 after the takeover of SpaceShipOne, which built the first reusable spacecraft. Although Virgin Galactic is positioning itself as a player in the space tourism market, it was revealed last summer that the company had signed a contract to train tourists for flights to the International Space Station.

Richard Branson often took risks in his life and embarked on the most adventurous adventures. In 1986, in a record three days, eight hours, and 31 minutes, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a motorboat. He has taken part in dangerous hot air balloon flights on numerous occasions. In 1987 he flew in a hot air balloon across the Atlantic Ocean, and in 1991 became the first to cross the Pacific Ocean on it. In 2012, Branson and his son Sam set several kitesurfing world records, breaking the English Channel in this way.

At the same time, Branson calls his company Virgin Galactic "the greatest adventure of all." As the entrepreneur said before the flight, which will take place on July 11, he intends to give the opportunity to visit space for as many people as possible.

“When we return, I will announce something very important that will enable more people to become astronauts. Because space belongs to all of us, ”wrote Branson on his Instagram.

In the book "Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life!" Branson confesses: “I have no secret. There are no rules to follow in doing business. I just work hard and, as always, believe that I can do it. But most of all I try to have fun. "

About flight

Branson and five other Virgin Galactic employees flew to the edge of space on Sunday, July 11 , climbing 86 kilometers aboard the Unity-22 spacecraft. The entire journey lasted about an hour for them, and the space passengers experienced the feeling of weightlessness for only a few minutes. In addition to the billionaire, the crew included test pilots Dave Mackai and Michael Mazucci, Sirisha Bundla, Virgin Galactic research director, Colin Bennett, lead engineer, and Beth Moses, head of the astronaut training program.

Employees of leading American TV channels came to New Mexico to cover the event, and the live broadcast on the company's website was commented on, among other things, by the well-known host of the author's TV show, Stephen Colbert. He was joined by former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who became famous for playing guitar aboard the International Space Station.

On the eve of Branson on Twitter, he told when he got the idea to create his own aerospace company. In 1988, the Briton participated in the broadcast of the BBC Broadcasting Corporation and answered a call to the studio of a girl, who asked him about his thoughts on a personal flight into space. Then Branson laughed it off but soon registered the name of the company Virgin Galactic. This company started to work only in 2004, another 17 years had to wait for the dream to come true.