Entrepreneurs Post

Good morning Young Entrepreneurs! It’s the final week of Enterprising Minds, and we hope that it all goes well for you.

As our final entrepreneurs post, we’re featuring another entrepreneur that many of you mentioned as your inspiration in your applications. So we hope this small insight into their lives continues to bring you inspiration!

Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson is one of the most successful business men in the UK, best known for Virgin group, which has over 400 companies. Richard began his career at just sixteen years old, when he published a magazine called Student. After leaving school, he entered the music industry and began selling records at a cheaper price than the average high street stores. This was a very successful method, and after starting just a mail order business, he opened his first store in 1972.

He then moved onto opening a record label, which many famous bands signed onto, including the Sex Pistols, who no other record label would sign. He signed over his record label to EMI in 1992. His most famous enterprise, Virgin Airlines, began in 1984 and is the second largest British long-haul international airline.

Since then, Richard Branson has become involved in many different projects. These include Virgin Healthcare, Virgin Mobile, Virgin cola and Virgin Galactic, which began in 2004 and will be space tourism company.

He is also known as being a risk-taker, having stated in his autobiography that owning an airline was a huge risk that he couldn’t help but take.  He has made many attempts to beat world records in various forms. These include beating the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1986, and he created the largest hot air balloon, and used it to cross the Atlantic in 1987, being the first person to ever do this.

Richard received his knighthood in 1999 and has published many books including his autobiography, which is an international best-seller.

We hope that his story inspires you to do something unexpected that may seem impossible to you. You never know until you try, and although you may not be successful the first time, you continue to keep trying.