British billionaire Richard Branson- this is a great example of how people, even turning into rich and respectable adult men, sometimes do not forget to turn into a child. For Branson, all his business and huge income is just a way to entertain himself while making the world a better place at the same time. And today we will tell not only about the most impressive projects this businessman, but also about him completely crazy antics.
With the life and incredible adventures of Richard Branson, writers Kjell Nordström and Jonas Ridderstrale illustrate their acclaimed book Funky Business, which explores 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, fits these principles better than anyone else.
Branson knows what it's like to go against the rules, what it's like to be yourself even with billions of dollars in a 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 gives only 40 percent of his time to the cause, and the remaining 60 goes to entertainment.
Richard Branson is a unique example of how even expensive hobbies based on crazy childhood dreams can be turned into a large, innovative business, which is regularly covered by the best publications in the world.
Virgin Group
The basis of Richard Branson's business is the Virgin Group corporation, which began in 1970 with the opening of a record store in the English city of Notting Hill. Over time, one outlet has grown into the world's largest chain of music stores. Success in this business gave Branson and his partners the means to develop other ventures.
The Virgin Group is now made up of dozens of companies involved in recording and selling music and video, air travel, book and video game publishing, telecommunications, media, rail, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, and many other businesses. But most of all, the selfless projects of Richard Branson, aimed at studying the terrestrial, underwater and outer space, are heard.
From what has been written above, it can be understood that Branson in business only took on those cases that were personally interesting to him, which brought him pleasure. Each direction of his activity is essentially an exciting 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 himself in a huge number of activities. Below we will try to list what the extraordinary English billionaire will remember for posterity.
Virgin Racing Team
What kid doesn't dream of racing? This desire did not bypass Richard Branson. He himself was engaged in auto racing, but he did not achieve much success in this. Another thing is working as a manager in motor sports. Virgin Corporation first turned its attention to Formula 1 competition in 2009, becoming a sponsor of the newly formed Brawn GP team.In the very first season, Brawn GP achieved serious success - won the constructors' championship, 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, Virgin Racing did not score a single point in its first season. At the end of 2010, one of the sponsors of the team was the Russian car brand Marussia, headed by showman and race car driver Nikolai Fomenko, but in the 2011 season, Marussia Virgin Racing also never finished in the end zone. After that, Richard Branson lost interest in racing 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 and above). ).Branson, who had previously followed the success of the SpaceShipOne team, decided to become 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.
The technology, first successfully tested on SpaceShipOne, involves launching a space shuttle into the sky on a booster plane. Having risen as a load to a height of several tens of kilometers, the spacecraft separates and flies further by itself. He overcomes a height of 100 kilometers, beyond which, as it is believed, the Cosmos begins. The ship stays there for several minutes, after which it descends to the ground. Everyone who was on board at that moment can be considered astronauts.
Thus, Branson, through the activities of the Virgin Galactic company, 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, Spaceport America, in the state of New Mejimo. It is also the launching pad for other private space exploration companies, including SpaceX.
Richard Branson personally takes part in the activities of Virgin Galactic. He, among other things, was one of the first passengers of SpaceShipTwo.
True, the start of commercial flights of the SpaceShipTwo shuttle, which was scheduled for 2010, is constantly being postponed. And, apparently, 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. Indeed, very close to us, on Earth, there are many places where a person has not yet been. And most of them are located in the depths of the World Ocean, which are not explored by people even by five percent.The new initiative of Richard Branson, the company, is aimed specifically at studying the underwater spaces of our planet. This is a joint project of the British billionaire with navy and explorer Chris Welsh.
And it all started with the death of another famous businessman and adventurer - Steve Fossett. By his order, an underwater vehicle called the DeepFlight Challenger, similar to an airplane, was built. Welsh and Branson decided to continue their friend's business, bought the vehicle and created Virgin Oceanic.
The DeepFlight Challenger can dive to super-great depths, including the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Paradoxically, people have only been to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, ignoring the other oceans of the Earth. And Virgin Oceanic plans to correct this unfortunate misunderstanding by exploring the deepest and most inaccessible areas of the underwater world of our planet.
After all, almost 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. About ninety percent of all living beings on the planet live in it. But at the same time, Mankind 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 distinguished himself from other major businessmen with his desire for innovation, the desire not to stop there, as well as the eternal search for new challenges to himself and ways to solve them.Branson's business is focused on meeting the needs of the client, even if the buyer himself does not know what he needs. An example is the standby mode when people try to get through to 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 customer hears the voice of Branson himself, who promises him a compensation of $100 if the operator does not respond 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 implement the best of them in his business. For example, the Virgin Atlantic airline has begun using Google Glass smart glasses in its operations. They can be seen on airport check-in desk workers, as well as flight attendants on some flights. This device with the help of a camera can recognize regular customers, as well as enter information about their preferences and interests into the database. And it takes customer service to a whole new level.
Sports and records
Like the aforementioned Steve Fossett, Richard Branson strives all his life to adventure and set new records. For example, a British businessman was trying to win the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - a prize for the fastest ocean crossing in a watercraft. In 1985, this attempt was a failure, but a year later, Branson did get his way.
Richard Branson owns many achievements in balloon flights (he crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean in this way). The founder of Virgin also set a speed record for crossing the English Channel (1 hour 40 minutes and 6 seconds) and many other records, you can’t remember everything.
Charity projects
Richard Branson is also known as one of the world's largest patrons and philanthropists. He takes an active part in the fight against global warming, the search and implementation of alternative sources of energy and fuel. In 2007, he initiated the opening of Virgin Health Bank, the first institution in the world where parents can freeze stem cells from a child's umbilical cord so that they can be used in the future in the treatment of serious diseases.
In 2007, Richard Branson, along with Nelson Mandela, founded the Elders, a group of rich and powerful people who are actively involved in charitable projects, striving 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 big businessman is not ashamed to openly fool around and get involved in scandals. So Branson appears in the tabloid chronicle as often, if not more often than on the pages of Forbes and Businessweek.
For example, during the opening of the Virgin Bride bridal salon, Richard Branson appeared in a bridesmaid dress, and advertising a Virgin Cola carbonated drink, he drove through Times Square in New York on a tank and shot a Coca-Cola billboard out of it.
Richard Branson went skiing naked in front of everyone, deliberately doused Princess Diana with champagne, showed the public the underwear of Yvonne Trump, the wife of billionaire Donald Trump, and dressed as a flight attendant served passengers on one of the flights of his own airline Air Asia, after he lost a dispute to a Malaysian to businessman Tony Fernandez regarding Virgin Racing's 2010 Formula 1 results.
But if for other companies and businessmen such behavior would be the beginning of serious problems with reputation and, consequently, with 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. Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English entrepreneur and investor, co-founder of the transnational corporation Virgin Group, which consists of more than 400 companies around the world. Forbes magazine estimated his financial fortune at $5 billion.
The businessman is famous for his participation in the space tourism project, his love to shock the public, his passion for extreme travel and his penchant for adventurism.
Among his extravagant acts are the appearance at the opening of his company's honeymoon salon in a women's wedding dress, a record hot air balloon flight across the Pacific Ocean, a high-speed crossing of the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle, shooting in a provocative photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine.
Said photograph took place in the Caribbean off the coast of Sir Richard's Necker Island while kitesurfing with a fully nude South African supermodel Danny Parkinson on the back of the business mogul.
Childhood and youth of Richard Branson
The outrageous billionaire was born on July 18, 1950 in southeast London in the Blackheath area with a lawyer-barrister and a former flight attendant on airplanes. In addition to him, the couple had two more younger daughters. Branson's father belonged to the noble class. He was the son of a Justice of the Supreme Court of England and a Privy Councillor. 
Mrs. Branson had a great influence on the formation and formation of the strong character of her son. Although the methods of her upbringing were not entirely unambiguous. So in childhood, she gave him serious tests. For example, one day a woman dropped her 4-year-old son out of a car a few kilometers from home and told him to look for his dad, while she left.
Branson received education in private educational institutions, as was the case for a child from a family of hereditary aristocrats. He first attended Scaitcliffe, a boarding school for boys aged 6 to 13, in the small village of Egham, Surrey. Then, until the age of 16, he attended the Stowe boarding school, located a hundred kilometers from London in Buckinghamshire.
Having problems with the ability to learn due to dyslexia, he studied poorly, but even then he showed a penchant for extraordinary initiatives, which were strongly supported by his mother. For example, he made proposals for the reform of existing school traditions and organizations to the director of his privileged educational institution, Robert Drayson.
In particular, the young man defended the idea of organizing a bar for high school students, converting the canteen into a buffet, saving on the number of employees, abolishing the rule that all students attend football matches, citing the fact that it is unethical to make weaker students look at the success of strong players . As a result, when the young man graduated from school in 1967, the director, saying goodbye, noted that in the future he would either go to prison or become a millionaire. As it turned out, the teacher was not mistaken.
Early career of Richard Branson
The first successful project of the current oligarch was the release of a free magazine for the youth audience Student in 1968. Richard, along with a friend, managed to organize his payback at the expense of advertisers, attract attention and interview famous personalities, including Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger, Scottish psychiatrist Ronald Laing, Beatles co-founder John Lennon. Although the publication had to close after about a year due to low profits, Branson gained invaluable business experience. 
In addition, in parallel with the publishing business, the young entrepreneur opened a charitable Student Counseling Center, which still exists, providing assistance in various fields (legal, psychological, medical).
Richard Branson and the Virgin Group
Branson's next business project was the mail-order sale of popular sound recordings. The name of the company Virgin ("Virgin") was coined in the circle of his colleagues from Student.The year 1970 was a successful year for the company. But the next one is unprofitable due to the strike of postal workers that swept the country. As a result, Richard had the idea of opening his own music store, which he implemented in 1971, together with his school friend Nick Powell, having bought an estate north of Oxford as a studio.
19-year-old multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield's debut album, Tubular Bells, was released on Virgin Records' first release in 1973. It became a bestseller, the leader of the British charts and received a Grammy music award, laying the financial foundation for the further successful development of the company.
Virgin signed contracts with such dubious acts as the controversial Sex Pistols, but at the same time opened up to the public the non-commercial experimental rock that is present in the bands Faust and Can, the melodic pop of the new wave collective Culture Club. The company also collaborated with Sting, Janet Jackson, Phil Collins, Rolling Stones, Belinda Carlisle and other performers. In 1982, the company acquired the gay nightclub Heaven ("Heaven").
Richard Branson business
In order to develop new areas of activity of the consortium, since 1983, the tireless entrepreneur has created many other companies of various profiles under his own brand. He opened businesses in real estate, insurance, trade, film production, loans, mobile phone services, tourism, book retail, alcoholic beverages, investment in environmental and health projects, and others. 
In 1984, the businessman decided to establish his own airline, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, then organized Virgin Express, Nigeria, America. Due to financial difficulties and for the development of Atlantic, in 1992 he had to sell the Virgin label to EMI for 500 million pounds (about $ 800 million). Wanting to stay in the music business that started the entire corporation, he later formed the record company V2.
In 2004, Branson announced the participation of Virgin Galactic in a project to organize space travel. The company received applications for participation in suborbital flights from 500 potential tourists at a cost of a tour for one passenger of 250 thousand dollars. For the needs of "space tourism", they opened the world's first private "spaceport" in the desert of Sierra, New Mexico, and developed the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.
Richard Branson and the Virgin Group: love of flying
Despite the fact that at the end of 2014, during the tests, this device crashed, during which one of the pilots died, the richest man in the United Kingdom announced his intention to develop his research. In an interview, he noted that he dreams of admiring the Earth from space, having experienced acceleration from zero to three and a half thousand miles per hour in just 8 seconds and experiencing five times overload.
In 2006, Branson announced his intention to invest about $3 billion in profits from the Atlantic airline and Trains, a railroad company, to create cleaner fuels. In 2007, he opened a company providing cord blood stem cell storage services that can serve as lifelong health insurance for customers' children and themselves.
Private Necker Island by Richard Branson
In 2008, Sir Richard, on his Necker Island in the Caribbean, hosted a meeting of world leaders to discuss concepts to combat global warming. The event was attended by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, American businessman and founder of the Wikipedia portal Jimmy Wales, developer of the Google search engine Lawrence Page. Branson also created a $25 million prize for technology that effectively counteracts the greenhouse effect.
Records of Richard Branson
The billionaire, who has been called both a hippie and an adrenaline junkie, has also become famous for his attempts to break some world records, despite the riskiness of such enterprises. So in 1985, he made an attempt to win the Atlantic Blue Ribbon prize, which is awarded to ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean in record time. As a result, his ship sank, and he himself was rescued by a British Air Force helicopter. A year later, he still broke the record, covering the distance 2 hours faster than the previous record holder. 
Two years later, for the first time in history, he crossed the Atlantic in the largest balloon, with a volume of 65 thousand cubic meters, flying at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour.
In 1991, he flew from Japan to Canada over the Pacific Ocean on a balloon with a volume of 74,000 corresponding units. During the flight, Branson overcame 11 thousand kilometers. At the same time, he set a new speed record (about 400 kilometers per hour).
Richard Branson dressed up as a flight attendant
In 2004, the oligarch also broke the speed record for crossing the English Channel. Moreover, he made it on an amphibious vehicle (in one hour 40 minutes 6 seconds), increasing almost 4 times the previous achievement (6 hours).
Personal life of Richard Branson
An adventurous and active lifestyle did not prevent Richard from arranging his personal life. His first marriage took place during the birth of Virgin. He married Kristen Tomassi, the marriage was short-lived. A friend could not bear the constant phone calls that accompanied the life of a novice businessman. They parted as friends. 
The current second wife of the billionaire is named Joan. He met her in an antique shop, then, despite her marriage, courted her for a year. As a result, she left her husband and moved to a persistent admirer. In 1979, their daughter Claire Sarah was born, who, unfortunately, lived only 4 days. But the couple did not part and did not leave attempts to have offspring. A year later, their daughter Holly was born, and after another 4, she had a brother, Sam.
The daughter of a business tycoon is a pediatrician, the son is engaged in a film production company.
Despite the nickname "Lionheart", Sir Richard is very kind to his children. On Christmas Day 2015, Holy gave him twin grandchildren, and two months later, Sam had a son.
They have known Prince William and Harry since childhood, as Sir Richard was on friendly terms with Princess Diana. She, along with the children, loved to relax on his island.
The autobiographical book of the billionaire "Losing Virginity", published in 1998, became an international bestseller. He received a personal knighthood in 1999 for his contribution to entrepreneurship.
Richard Branson today
Richard considers his life credo to be the rule to do only what brings pleasure and arouses interest, regardless of the lack of knowledge or experience in some area. He believes that life is too short to waste it on uninteresting things.At the moment, he sponsors developments in the field of ecology, projects for the protection of the jungle, which play a decisive role in shaping the planet's climate, as well as the Elders organization, designed to find ways to resolve world conflicts.
Virgin Galactic, in partnership with communications startup OneWeb, also intends to implement the space Internet. Branson has signed a contract to launch 39 commercial satellites that will be used to provide global access to the Web. The cost of the contract was not disclosed, but according to experts, it is in the range of $390 million. In addition, the companies reached an agreement on further cooperation and the launch of another hundred microsatellites. Virgin plans to use LauncherOne to put them into orbit. The first launches are planned for 2017. The project involves the French company Arianespace, which has pledged to make 21 launches using Soyuz launch vehicles.
Richard Branson TED interview
In 2015, the business mogul, after selling his Oxfordshire home to children, moved permanently to a luxurious mansion on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, where he owns the Necker Belle yacht, Necker Nymph submarine and does not have to pay taxes.
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Books
- 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 Majesty, Bower Vol. Richard Branson. One of the most famous, richest and most successful people in the UK. Entrepreneur without fear and reproach. Creator of a business empire under the Virgin Group brand. This image…
