Virgin company Geniuses of our time: the eternal teenager Richard Branson. Selling Records and Virgin Mail Order Records

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VIRGIN WAY, BRANSON, RICHARD. While building the Virgin Group over forty years, Richard Branson has never shied away from seemingly outlandish challenges that others (including his own colleagues on several occasions) ...
Richard Branson False Greatness, Bower Tom. Richard Branson One of the most famous, wealthy and lucky people in the UK. An entrepreneur without fear and reproach. Creator of the business empire under the brand of Virgin Group. This image ...

Richard Branson is a vibrant personality, a person who is used to challenging. He did not study well at school due to dyslexia and created his own journal. He crossed the Atlantic in a balloon and dressed as a woman. Now owns more than 350 companies around the world, united under the Virgin brand.

He traveled around the world, beat speed records, sent people into space, lived in a houseboat, built a submarine, performed in a wedding dress, competed in Coca-Cola, showed his bare ass in advertising, saved British hostages and helped Kuwaiti refugees ... And this is not a complete list of the outstanding actions of Richard Branson. The history of business development is penetrated through with eccentric antics and rebellious acts.

Who is he: Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson - a famous British tycoon, whose fortune for 2016 was estimated at 5.1 billion dollars. Founder and owner of the diversified corporation Virgin Group, under whose brand more than three hundred different companies are united.

In the photo: Virgin-style business Richard Branson builds on his own rules

In Russia, Richard Branson gained fame thanks to his books, which talk about business, describe his biography, give motivating advice and share his own rules for success. His most famous books: “To hell with everything!” Take it and do it! ”,“ Losing innocence ”,“ Reaching heaven ”,“ Virgin style business ”,“ My rules ”,“ To hell with business as always ”,“ Naked business ”and others.

Businessman with diapers

The future billionaire was born on July 18, 1950 in the Blackheath area of \u200b\u200bLondon. Branson's mother constantly came up with ways to earn extra money: she organized a business in her own garage and at home. Her irresistible will and persistence in achieving goals had a huge impact on Richard.

Baby photo of Richard Branson - the future billionaire

Branson studied at a private school, and teachers considered him lagging behind, and even lazy. The reason for this was dyslexia - it was difficult for the boy to master reading and writing skills. At 8, he still could not even read. Henry Ford, the world automotive legend, was also ill.

At 9 (!) Years, Ricky decided to start a business selling Christmas trees. With a friend, they bought seeds, dug holes and planted spruce. But the rabbits dug the seeds and ate them. Then Richard realized that money does not grow on trees.

The following Christmas, he came up with the idea of \u200b\u200braising and selling budgies. The father even built an aviary for these purposes, but here the boy also failed - the demand was not high, and after some time the rats attacked the aviary and killed the birds.

At the age of 15, he decided to leave school and implement another business idea together with a friend - to create a magazine for young people. Parents supported the boy, having decided that he would attend only the lessons of ancient history, which brought him pleasure.

His life credo: to do what you get joy from. He admits that he never made plans to become rich. All he wants is to enjoy life and overcome trials.

In the photo: Richard Branson: “I achieved everything I dreamed of at 20”

The first success in entrepreneurship was the Student magazine for British youth, the creation of which Branson and a friend worked in the basement of a friend's parents' house in London. For days on end Richard phoned from a pay phone to potential advertisers and offered to post in his still-defunct magazine. Together with a friend, they sent hundreds of letters offering advertising spots (Richard’s mother gave money to buy stamps).

They met with celebrities and interviewed them. Branson managed to talk with Jame Baldwin, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mick Jagger, John Lennon and many others.

Then Branson did not think about how celebrities of this scale agreed to talk with a 16-year-old teenager and to print for free in the Student magazine. He just took and did, however, like everything else in his life and business.

In the photo: Branson with the fruit of his first serious undertaking - Student magazine

About those times, Richard writes that their life has turned into a brilliant chaos, into a party that never ends. They drank beer, met girls and interviewed celebrities, but they also worked pretty well.

Branson did not read books on business and did not study in business schools, he is sure that the rules exist to break them. It is recognized that if he began to delve into all the pros and cons of entrepreneurship, he would never dare to start a business. For several years, Branson and his wife lived in a houseboat. The main places for work were: a house, a yacht, a hammock.

Advertisers appeared, the first thirty thousand copies of the Student magazine coming from the printing house had to be sold. Branson hired students, offering them a bundle of magazines at half price, the profit they could take for themselves. Some students took magazines for sale and often forgot to repay the debt. But it didn’t matter. The main thing is that the magazine gained popularity, they found out about it.

When the circulation became huge, friends decided to expand the business and sell records. They placed the first ad in the last issue of the magazine. It was decided to open a record store. Friends agreed with the owner of a shoe store to give them free space ...

Birth of a virgin

The question arose what to name the future record store and the brand as a whole. Comrades sorted out the options. So the name was born legendary brand - Virgin, which translates from English as "virgin."

At a party in the late 70s, Branson was asked: did he name his business in honor of the Vergins? He replies: that at that time he had never been to the Vergins Islands, but named his company because he himself was a virgin in business at that time. Later, a businessman bought the Necker Island, located on the Vergins.

Regions of presence of Virgin Group companies: Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Russia (Internet Service Provider), United Kingdom, United States.

The total turnover amounts to tens of billions of dollars and continues to grow (24 billion dollars in 2012).

Personal life

Branson is married a second time, he has two children. He admits that his wife Joan, with whom he has been together for more than 40 years, supports all his crazy ideas and undertakings and he is happy that he met such a woman in his life. He has two children: a daughter, Holi, and a son, Samuel.

In the photo: The wedding of Richard Branson and Joan Templeman

How Richard Branson built a conglomerate of 300 companies from scratch

To bookmarks

The site’s browser explored the history of the formation of Richard Branson and his Virgin group of companies, which deals with many business areas - from mobile communications to space flights. The material talks about how adventurism, a love of risk and perseverance made Branson one of the most discussed global entrepreneurs.

Richard Branson is perhaps one of the most prominent entrepreneurs of our time. His company is akin to the billionaire himself - the clearest example of success created with the help of a non-standard culture, risky business models and a clear understanding of the necessary trends.

At the moment, the Virgin Group is a conglomerate that includes recording studios, music stores, an airline, space tourism, its own publications, and much more. The founder of the company did all this, in fact, on his own, fulfilling his main rule - "to hell with everything, take it and do it."

One of the company's main strengths was the use of the latest British Class Z90 Pendolino lineups. However, Virgin Trains fell into serious trouble in 2007 when a train crashed near Greigrigg. 88 passengers were injured, and one was lost. This incident caused a serious resonance in society.

In order to mitigate the blow to the company, Richard Branson hastened to pay compensation to the victims, and he made a statement in which he promised to improve the infrastructure and staff. These promises were kept, which increased public confidence.

Gradually, the number of Virgin Trains flights increased, largely due to an increase in the number of trains to 86. The company continued its growth as part of the Virgin Rail Group. In 2014, the income of a group of companies in this area reached $ 465 million per month.

At the moment, Virgin Trains is one of the best railway companies in the UK and seeks to further extend the contract with the state Department of Transportation, which ends in 2017.

In 1999, another conglomerate company, Virgin Mobile, began operations. The reason for its founding, Branson called the need to ensure quality cellular communications Worldwide. The company is the world's first virtual mobile operator, which, without having its own towers, uses the networks of existing ones.

Live joyfully, work hard, and money will come /Richard Branson

Have you ever met people who have mmm .. sewed in one place? Energetic, assertive, active, it seems that they have a couple of clones, because they can be engaged in several things with the same enthusiasm at the same time. You can envy their ebullient energy, and learn how to direct it in the right direction.

Today you will meet one of these people - I present to you Sir Richard Branson, one of richest people Great Britain, founder of the international corporation Virgin, a record-breaker in aeronautics, ambassador of the world and owner of his own island

This is one of the most brilliant and talented businessmen in the world, whom I truly admire and who is an example for me to follow.

His name is inscribed in the Guinness Book of Records, and the fortune, according to Forbes magazine for March 2012, rolls over for 4 billion dollars, placing him in the 4th place of the richest people in the UK. How does he manage to combine business successes with sporting achievements and achieve heights in many areas of activity? Let's figure it out.

He began his life's journey like everyone else - he was born to mom and dad. This significant event took place on July 18, 1950 in Surrey, one of the counties of Great Britain.

It should be noted that mother's specific upbringing was remembered by our hero for a long time. For example, Ms. Branson could instruct 4-year-old Richard to find his way home by stopping the car a couple of miles from the cottage. The mother of the 11-year-old son thought up tasks more complicated: after waking up at dawn, she supplied Richard with a dry ration (“you will get water on the way”) and sent him on a bicycle trip to relatives living 80 km from the house.

Branson admits that it was her mother who brought him determination and courage. Note to all parents!

In his book “To hell with everything, take it and do it,” Richard proudly recalls some of her actions. It is significant that the meeting future Mrs Branson and Richard's father took place precisely because of her character. In the post-war years, she wanted to become a stewardess, but here the insidious “impossible” awaited her: it was impossible to get this job without knowledge of the Spanish language and nurse education.

Richard's mother spoke with the receptionist at the airline, which slowly wrote her name on the lists of future flight attendants. And soon she was already offering drinks to the passengers of the plane, where she met her future spouse. Richard himself calls the word "impossible" wretched, and I am sure that it should be excluded from the vocabulary. In this I completely agree with him.

Richard's dad was from a highly respected family, Richard's grandfather received a knighthood for his excellent service in the Supreme Court. However, Richard himself with his achievements earned this honorary title, in 1999 kneeling before the Queen of Great Britain.

In the family, according to Richard's recollections, they looked at idleness and laziness negatively: “Parents wanted us to grow strong and learn to rely on ourselves.”Bransons taught their children from an early age — there were only four of them — to think on such “adult” topics as projects for profit.

“We often talked about business over family dinners.”“Says Richard. Personally, it seems to me that such an approach in raising children is correct. After all, the family should ideally be a friendly team in which everyone, as far as possible, contributes to the common cause.

Richard had a craving for entrepreneurship early on; as a child, he was either raising or selling budgies or growing Christmas trees by Christmas. These projects did not bring the expected, however, the lack of venture was not his main problem.

If with family education, which gave Richard the skills to overcome obstacles, he was doing fine, then there were difficulties with learning at school. Branson Jr. suffered from dyslexia, which manifested itself in the fact that the guy could neither read nor write normally.

Because of this ailment, classmates mercilessly teased Richard, and the teachers were not enthusiastic about the weak student. However, Richard played football well and was kept in school as a “sporting pride."

After Richard's injury, his football career ended. Branson could not afford to be an outsider, and began to memorize those texts that he could not read. Thus, he well developed the memory, which became for him a real lifesaver in difficult cases.

Richard did not agree to go with the flow as a teenager

He was full of ideas on how to improve the life of students. The school principal suggested that Richard organize the publication of a peer-to-peer newspaper, and thus marked the beginning of Branson's first commercially successful project. Richard took the idea and transformed it in his own way - he decided to publish a newspaper for students, which could interest both schoolchildren and students in higher education.

Here, at the stage of creating his Student magazine, his adventurism manifested itself. With no printed issues, Branson phoned potential advertisers.

Richard did not have money for these endless calls, but he came up with the call from the machine to the telephone station, and complaining that the connection was disconnected - in those days it was not uncommon - he demanded the restoration of the conversation.

The telephone operator connected him to the subscriber and uttered a standard phrase: "Mr. Branson will speak with you." In this simple way he killed two birds with one stone at once - he called for free and created the image of a “cool boss” holding his own secretary.

One wants to exclaim - handsome!

Just think about it, but could you do something similar? Would you have a similar fortitude, adventurism and ingenuity? It would seem such a trifle, en-no! Of such trifles that ordinary people are not capable of, are successful and successful people.

The methods of persuading advertisers were different, for example, he informed Coca-Cola managers that Pepsi had already placed ads with him. As for filling the magazine columns, Richard solved this problem simply: he sent letters to celebrities with a polite request to reflect on topics of youth problems. Answers from a couple of "stars" were enough for the first issues of the magazine.

He can be safely called the Great Combinator, Monsieur Bender could be proud of his British colleague, who with such audacity and excitement embodies his ideas.

The first issue of Student came out when Richard was 16 years old! The magazine was gaining popularity, it was interviewed by Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Jean-Paul Sartre and others. Well, Branson began to receive his first income from advertising in this publication. This was followed by a project to distribute phonograph records by mail.

At this time, the name Virgin was born (from the English virgin), which gave life to the whole brand. The brand positioned Branson as a "newcomer to the business," which he, however, was.

Now, the Virgin Group conglomerate unites dozens of companies under its wing in the fields of sound recording, air transportation, mobile communications, television, beverage production and ... this is only part of the list. Those who require “to announce the entire list” should look at the company's website http://www.virgin.com.

Here are just a few of the companies that Sir Richard owns:

airline,
rail transportation,
mobile operator,
a network of fitness centers
book publisher
flights to balloons,
online Games,
radio station
medical services,
internet provider (by the way, it works in Russia)
cable TV,
finance company,
and much more…

By the way, I first heard about Branson when I listened to Bodo Schaefer's audio book, “The Art of Managing Your Time.” There he cited him as an example, as a person who manages to manage more than 220 companies at the same time. True, the translators caught those still, calling our hero Rihon Bransos.

Even then, I was extremely surprised by this and, I confess, this did not fit into the framework of my worldview. I was then employed and it was difficult for me to imagine not just 220 companies at the same time, but how to have and manage one company.

This was one of the starting points for my further personal growth and a change in thinking, understanding and outlook on my future life.

In 1972, together with his friend Nick Powell, Branson founded the recording studio Virgin Records. The 1973 release of musician Mike Oldfield’s album, Tubular Bells, was Richard’s breakthrough in big business.

Oldfield's debut album immediately occupied the top of the world charts and became the best-selling in England in 1973, with a 2-million circulation.

The next contract of the studio Virgin Records with the punk band Sex Pistols, Richard recognizes the most profitable in his life. How does he manage to make money where others do not see the benefits?

For the "promotion" of Oldfield and Sex Pistols did not want to take large recording studios. Richard Branson differs from many in his innovative outlook, and he is not stopped by the wording “this is not accepted” or “no one does this”.

In 1998, in New York, advertising Virgin Cola soda, Branson managed to get on the front pages of the press without paying a cent. Richard arrived in a tank (!) In Times Square, the most visited and popular area of \u200b\u200bthe city, and fired pyrotechnic rockets at the advertising board of his rival Cola-Cola. Puff-puff - and the PR company is ready!

Well, about the way that “Mr. Epatage” climbed onto a construction crane in London and waved his mobile phone for half an hour in “what-mother-gave birth” advertising Virgin Mobile (by the way, the fastest growing mobile operator in the UK), I’m generally silent.

“It’s like an adult,” you can say, “but it does this.” But I assure you that Branson does not do these things for the sake of money, but for his pleasure.

The thirst for life, the ability to rejoice and be naughty, as in childhood, distinguishes the eccentric billionaire from other owners of business empires: « I like to learn new things, I'm very curious. I like to take something settled and turn it upside down“. This inquiring pushes Branson to all new exploits.

I really like this feature in Richard. After all, in fact, he has everything he needs. He can attract dozens of experienced advertisers to advertise his businesses, but he takes to the streets to promote his projects.

Having become successful, many businessmen put on a mask of importance and hide behind the doors of their offices. Richard Branson is completely different. Being a man of retirement age, he lives like a reckless boy, but at the same time a very smart boy.

I would very much like at his age to have the same attitude to life. The absence of complexes, the denial of habitual stereotypes and life by its own rules are what distinguishes our hero from other people. Remember this!

In 1986, he set a world record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a high-speed catamaran Virgin Atlantic Challenger II. In 1987, for the first time in human history, he made a transatlantic flight in a Virgin Atlantic Flyer balloon. In 1991, broke the record for flight duration, breaking the Pacific Ocean. In 1999 - as part of a team from Switzerland made a round-the-world flight on a hot air balloon. In 2004, Branson set the record for the English Channel crossing in an amphibious car in 1 hour 40 minutes. But this time can easily be spent just to get to work ...

Sometimes only a miracle saved Richard Branson from imminent death, but our hero seeks to surpass himself always and everywhere, on vacation and work: “The essence of entrepreneurship is to achieve excellence, but not that which is measured in the awards and ratings of other people, but in the pursuit man to surpass himself. "

I liked how Branson described Oleg Tinkov in the preface of Richard Branson's autobiographical book, “Losing Innocence”:

They were crazy. The rebels of the spirit and troublemakers, they did not fit into the framework of the familiar. They did not recognize the rules, felt an aversion to stability. If you look closely, flying on a balloon is an illustration of Branson’s fate - a daring trick that can turn into a dizzying success or complete collapse.

Branson is unique! Possessing a tenacious business acumen and free flight of dreams, not constrained by the rules, he easily and naturally proves to us that there is no limit. People like him can change the world. Read the “rebel bible”, admire and take an example! While such people are born, it is not boring to live.

This bright showman, a man who “made himself”, never seeks reasons, but seeks opportunities, and does not stop in front of imaginary barriers. Perhaps your mind sometimes whispered to you that dreams are "impossible", and for "there is not enough money / talent / courage / health (underline what is necessary)?

Branson will answer all doubts simply: “To hell with everything, take it and do it!”

Virgin Group employees nicknamed their boss "Mr. Yes":

– Is it possible to fly over the ocean in a balloon?

- Yes! - answers Branson, and sets all new records.

– Can I compete with British Airways?

- Yes! - meets Branson and establishes the competitive airline Virgin Atlantic Airways.

– Can I launch commercial flights into space?

- Yes! - Branson answers and prepares to fly into space aboard his first passenger space ship SpaceShipTwo, created by Virgin Galactic.

British billionaire Richard Branson - This is a great example of how people, even having turned into rich and respectable adult men, sometimes do not forget to turn into a child. For Branson, his entire business and huge profits are just a way to entertain himself, making the world better in parallel. And today we will tell not only about the most impressive projects this businessman, but also about him completely crazy antics.

The life and incredible adventures of Richard Branson, the writers Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale illustrate their famous book “Funky Business”, which discusses the role of talent and spontaneity in the business world in the implementation of the most innovative and successful projects. The British billionaire, in this case, like no one better fits these principles.

Branson knows what it is to go against the rules, what it is like to remain yourself even having billions of dollars in your bank account, and how to enjoy life to the maximum while being the head of a large international corporation with tens of thousands of employees. The businessman himself claims that he devotes only 40 percent of his time to the case, and the remaining 60 go to entertainment.

Richard Branson is unique example the fact that even expensive hobbies based on crazy childhood dreams can be turned into a large, innovative business, which the world's best publications regularly write about.

Virgin group

Richard Branson's core business is Virgin Group, which began with the opening of a record store in Notting Hill, England, in 1970. Over time alone outlet has grown to the largest network in the world music stores. Success in this business gave Branson and his partners funds to develop other endeavors.

Now the Virgin Group Corporation consists of dozens of companies that record and sell music and video, air travel, publishing books and video games, telecommunications, the media, by rail, the production of soft drinks and alcoholic drinks, as well as many other types of business. But most of all, Richard Branson’s ascetic projects aimed at studying the terrestrial, underwater and outer space are most widely heard.

From the above it can be understood that Branson in the business took up only those things that were personally interesting to him, which brought him pleasure. Each direction of his activity is essentially a fascinating hobby, which is pleasant and exciting to do.

But for the general public, Richard Branson is not only a businessman, but also a well-known media person who has tried herself in a huge number of activities. Below we will try to list how the extraordinary English billionaire descendants will be remembered.

Virgin Racing Racing Team

What kind of boy doesn’t dream of racing? This desire did not bypass Richard Branson. He himself was engaged in car racing, but did not achieve much success in this. Another thing is the work as a manager in automobile sports. For the first time, Virgin Corporation drew attention to Formula 1 competitions in 2009, becoming the sponsor of the only educated Brawn GP team.

In the very first season, Brawn GP achieved serious success - it won the designers cup, and therefore the next year the cost of the sponsorship contract seriously increased, and Branson decided to create his own team in Formula 1, so Virgin Racing appeared.

True, in his first season, Virgin Racing did not score a single point. At the end of 2010, one of the team’s sponsors was the Russian car brand Maroussia with showman and race car driver Nikolai Fomenko at the head, but in the 2011 season, Marussia Virgin Racing also never finished in the test zone. After that, Richard Branson cooled to the race and completely handed over the reins of the team to his Russian partners.

Virgin galactic

Virgin Galactic appeared in 2004 after the news that the SpaceShipOne spacecraft team was the first in the world to win the X-Prize - an award that relies on two successful flights within two weeks of one ship into suborbital space (100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface )

Branson, who had already followed the success of the SpaceShipOne team, decided to become a part of it, taking the pioneers of private space exploration under the wing of his own company Virgin Galactic. He sponsored the construction of the new SpaceShipTwo subrobital shuttle, as well as the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.

Technology, first successfully tested at SpaceShipOne, involves launching a space shuttle into the sky on an accelerator aircraft. Having risen as a cargo to a height of several tens of kilometers, the spacecraft is separated and further flies itself. It overcomes a height of 100 kilometers, beyond which, as it is believed, the Cosmos begins. There the ship is located for several minutes, after which it descends to the ground. All who were on board at that moment can be considered astronauts.

Thus, Branson through the activities of Virgin Galactic is going to turn space tourism into a fairly common activity. After all, the price of such a flight is 250 thousand dollars, while a trip to orbit with Russian cosmonauts costs 10 million.

In search of autonomy, Virgin Galactic built its own spaceport in Space State New Mexico State - Spaceport America. It is also a launching pad for the work of other companies engaged in the private exploration of the Cosmos, including SpaceX.

Richard Branson is personally involved in Virgin Galactic. He, among other things, was one of the first passengers of SpaceShipTwo.

True, the start of commercial space shuttle SpaceShipTwo, which was scheduled for 2010, is constantly being postponed. And, apparently, she postponed this date for several years.

Virgin oceanic

In order to be a pioneer in our time, it is not necessary to fly into space. After all, very close to us, on Earth, there are many places where people have not yet been. And most of them are located in the depths of the oceans, which are not studied by people even by five percent.

Richard Branson's new venture, the company, is aimed specifically at exploring the underwater spaces of our planet. This is a joint project of the British billionaire with a naval officer and explorer Chris Welch.

And it all started with the death of another famous businessman and adventurer - Steve Fosset. By his order, an underwater vehicle with the name DeepFlight Challenger, similar to an airplane, was built. Welsh and Branson decided to continue their friend’s business, bought it vehicle and created Virgin Oceanic.

The DeepFlight Challenger can be immersed in super-deep depths, including the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Paradoxically, people were only at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, ignoring the other oceans of the Earth. And Virgin Oceanic plans to correct this annoying misunderstanding, exploring the deepest and most inaccessible areas of the underwater world of our planet.

Indeed, almost 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water. About ninety percent of all living creatures existing on the planet live in it. But at the same time, Humanity knows so little about what is happening under water.

In order not to be a financial burden for the founders, Virgin Oceanic also organizes commercial dives to shallow depths and conducts comfortable sightseeing tours of the seas and oceans.

Business style

Richard Branson has always been distinguished from other major businessmen by his desire for innovation, the desire not to stop there, and the eternal search for new challenges to himself and how to solve them.

Branson's business is aimed at satisfying the needs of the client, even if the buyer himself does not know what he needs. As an example, at least standby mode when people try to reach the customer service of companies from Virgin Corporation. Usually the person who called there gets on the answering machine and is forced to nervously wait for his turn to talk to the operator. In the case of Virgin, the client hears the voice of Branson himself, who promises him compensation in the amount of $ 100 if the operator does not get in touch within ten minutes. As a result, the person, the place to swear, happily hangs on the line, hoping that he will not be connected to customer service for as long as possible.

Richard Branson himself loves all kinds of innovations and technical innovations, while trying to introduce the best of them in his business. For example, Virgin Atlantic Airlines began using Google Glass smart glasses in its operations. They can be seen at the airport front desk staff, as well as flight attendants on some flights. This device can recognize with a camera regular customers, as well as enter information about their preferences and interests into the database. And this will bring customer service to a whole new level.

Sports and records

Like the aforementioned Steve Fossett, Richard Branson has been striving all his life for adventure and setting new records. For example, a British businessman tried to win the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - a prize for a record-breaking ocean crossing in a swimming craft. In 1985, this attempt was a failure, but a year later Branson did his job.

Richard Branson has many achievements in ballooning (he thus crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean). The founder of Virgin also set a speed record for overcoming the English Channel (1 hour 40 minutes and 6 seconds) and many other records, you will not remember everything.

Charity Projects

Richard Branson is also known as one of the world's largest philanthropists and philanthropists. He is actively involved in the fight against global warming, the search and implementation of alternative sources of energy and fuel. In 2007, Virgin Health Bank was opened with his initiative, the first institution in the world in which parents can leave stem cells from the baby’s umbilical cord to freeze so that they can be used in the treatment of serious diseases in the future.

In 2007, Richard Branson, together with Nelson Mandela, founded the Elders organization, a group of wealthy and influential people who are actively involved in charity projects and strive to make the world a better, happier, and safer place. It includes well-known politicians and social activists, businessmen and philosophers.

Extravagant antics

But most of all, Richard Branson is known to the world for his extravagant behavior. A large businessman is not ashamed to openly fool around and get into scandals. So Branson appears in the tabloid chronicle no less, or even more often, than on the pages of Forbes and Businessweek.

For example, during the opening of Virgin Bride's bridal salon, Richard Branson appeared in a bride’s dress, and while advertising a Virgin Cola carbonated drink, he drove through a tank in Time Square in New York and shot a Coca-Cola billboard from it.

Richard Branson was skiing naked in public, intentionally dousing Princess Diana with champagne, showing the public underwear of Yvonne Trump - the wife of billionaire Donald Trump, and also dressed as a flight attendant serving passengers of one of the flights of his own airline Air Asia, after losing the dispute to the Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandez regarding the results of the Virgin Racing racing team in the 2010 Formula 1 season.

But if for other companies and businessmen such behavior would be the beginning of serious problems with the reputation and, consequently, of the business itself, then the scandalous antics of Richard Branson only draw attention to him and the Virgin Corporation. The world has learned to forgive the extravagant British billionaire for his antics, admiring this boyish immediacy.

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