Biography of Richard Branson

Virginity lost and earn

July 18, 1950
Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, better known only as Richard Branson, was born in Shamley Green, Surrey, United Kingdom, on 18 July 1950. British entrepreneur, is known to have founded one of the most important record labels of the history of contemporary music, Virgin Records, brand of choice for some of the best bands ever, like Genesis, the Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones. It is in fact one of the richest men in the world. The young Richard comes from a family of British middle class and its school year, contrary to what you might think, given the success in business, it is certainly not brilliant. During adolescence, in fact, is known its failure in certain areas and, above all, to the intelligence test.
In these tests for him humiliating though, are counterbalanced by some out-of-school interests to which turns its attention and curiosity, mostly addressed to the world of music and publishing. Already at the age of sixteen, the young pupil of Stowe College he founded the magazine "Student", little more than a school newspaper, with an objective aimed at students and to the community in which the Institute. It is during this period that the school principal, according to Branson, in conversation with his parents would speak of their son in terms almost prophetic, with a sentence among the most cited in biographies concerning him: "this guy or end up in jail or becomes a millionaire".
The paper in a very short time, it begins to go out of scope solely localistico. Branson asks a small investment to his mother, who enters in the newspaper finance management with a quota of 4 pounds, which would prove more than decisive. Small but important Fort grant, the young Editor, along with his faithful Associates, interview rock stars and parliamentarians, attracting major sponsorship on your paper. Soon, the amateur level gives way to real success. The main interest of the enterprising Richard Branson but is always the music. So, shortly after the school years, together with its members decide to take in managing a warehouse located on the top floor of a shoe shop.
The idea is to make it into a record store, cheap and it works right away, also thanks to property owners, convinced him to renounce his interest on the rent. The shop takes its name that would become famous: "Virgin", named for the fact that all members are absolutely dry in the field of entrepreneurship itself. Already in 1970, when Richard Branson Virgin has just 20 years, the company expanded into the sale through mail service, focusing on the discs and cassette tapes. Two years later, the same members take a subscale of Oxfordshire and transform it into the first historical site of Virgin Records, which becomes a real musical studio, becoming fledged record label. One of the founders, in addition to Branson, there's also Nik Powell in 1972. As for the company logo, now historic, according to the most reliable accounts would have been derived from a sketch made by an artist on a piece of paper. A few months after the founding of the label, comes the first contract. Mike Oldfield made his debut album, dated 1973: "Tubular Bells". The disc sold about five million copies and marked the beginning of the great success of Virgin Records. From there a few years, the bands and artists that Virgin contract increases exponentially, with notable names of the contemporary music scene: from the Sex Pistols to Sid Vicious, English punk icon, to the Culture Club and the Simple Minds, passing by important artists like Phil Collins, Bryan Ferry and Janet Jackson, and concluding with the legendary Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. But to make known to the general public the label of Branson, it is precisely the unleashed Sex Pistols, put under contract by Virgin exactly nel 1977.
Ten years later, in 1987, the record company English lands to the States and Virgin Records America. Since the early ' 90 start coming mergers with other companies and investments in other areas of the economy. But, above all, comes the sale by Branson of his genial creature, sold to EMI in 1992 for an orbiting to 550 million pounds. The hippie capitalist, as it is also called, plans to engage in another one of his great loves, in addition to music, namely the flight. So, having created in 1996 the V2 Records, who carves out for a place in the world, almost the entire discography an interest in your airline, which was born in recent years: Virgin Atlantic Airways. Soon will be, in addition to the Atlantic, dedicated to intercontinental travel, cheap European sister, the Virgin Express, and both Virgin Blue and Virgin America, respectively in Australia and in the Usa. In 1993 Richard Branson receives an honorary doctorate in engineering from Loughborough University. In 1995 the Virgin Group invoice over one and a half million pounds. Among the achievements of Branson, at this time, in addition to the airline, there is also the Virgin Megastore and Virgin Net. At the same time, however, the British Tycoon turns its attention to several nonprofits, such as the Healthcare Foundation, which fights against the spread of smoking. In 1999 he became Sir Richard Branson, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. In the first decade of 2000, ties to Al Gore, investing in renewable energy and enjoying the battle for protection of the environment and against climate change. At 61 years old, at the beginning of July 2012, accomplishes the feat of crossing the English channel in kite surfing. The wealth of Branson (2012) would be around 4 and a half billion dollars.

Virgin Galactic

His latest idea is called "Virgin Galactic", which promises to bring in Earth orbit anyone planning to do so, taking reservations for about two hundred thousand pounds per passenger. Virgin Galactic's goal is to bring tourists into space flight transporting them at the beginning of the stratosphere and let him experience the flight in zero gravity. The first flight at the edge of the stratosphere, about 100 kilometers from the Earth, would have to leave before the end of 2014. In November 2014 an accident during a test flight, leading to the explosion of the shuttle and the death of its pilot. More than 700 customers in 2014 have already paid the $ 250,000 fee to reserve their space trip, among them also the pop star Lady Gaga that she would sing during the first flight of the Virgin. Aspiring astronauts (among the VIPs include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher) should have been trained to withstand the acceleration and the lack of seriousness on the private island of Branson, Necker Island, Caribbean.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.