Meet The Self Made Billionaire Who Dropped Out Of School At 16 To Follow His Dreams

On Facebook & Twitter he describes himself as Tie-loathing adventurer & thrill seeker, who believes in turning ideas into reality. Meet the self made billionaire Richard Branson who is the founder of Virgin Empire which consists of more than 400 companies around the world.

According to the Forbes 2012 list of billionaires, Branson is the sixth richest citizen of the United Kingdom, with an estimated net worth of US$4.6 billion but it wasn’t always so. Born in England in 1950, Richard Branson struggled in school and dropped out at the age 16 and created his first business (Virgin Records) which later expanded into other sectors making Branson the billionaire we know today.

Richard like many youths who quit school wanted to become an entrepreneur and so he started a youth-culture magazine called Student which was a publication run by students, for students.

To finance it Branson skipped the usual teenage jobs like store clerk and instead sold advertising space in the magazine; from there, he launched a mail-order record business and opened a music shop on London’s Oxford Street.

He later moved to a London commune, and was surrounded by the British music and drug scene. It was during this time that Branson had the idea to begin a mail-order record company called Virgin to help fund his magazine efforts.

The company did okay, and made Branson enough money that he was able to expand his business;. With the success of the record shop, the high school drop-out was able to build a recording studio.

In 1980, he expanded his businesses yet again, to include a travel company the Voyager Group, the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and a series of Virgin Megastores.

But Branson’s success was not always predictable. By 1992, Virgin was doing badly to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year. He was heartbroken by the loss but remained determined to stay in the music business. In 1993, he founded the station Virgin Radio, and several years later he started a second record company.

Virgin Group now holds more than 400 companies in more than 30 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe and South Africa. He has expanded his businesses to include a train company, a luxury game preserve, a mobile phone company and a space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic.

Asked by Oprah Winfrey in a past interview about what is his drive in life, the business magnate says, ” I love creating things, and as an entrepreneur, I’ve taken on quite a lot of major corporations and done well. Capitalism is the only system that works, but it has its flaws; for one, it brings great wealth to only a few people. That wealth obviously brings extreme responsibility.”

While explaining his unique personality, he confesses that, “I was a risk-taker as a young man, and I don’t regret it. I’m not adventurous in quite the same way now, but I still love the challenge of testing myself to the limits, flying around the world, or seeing if I can be the first to fly a balloon across the Atlantic, or trying to take people into space at an affordable price in an environmentally friendly way a few people.

He is also known for his sporting achievements, notably the record-breaking Atlantic crossing in Virgin Atlantic Challenger in 1986, and the first crossing by hot-air balloon of the Atlantic and Pacific.

Over the years he has sets himself aside from other CEOs in the way he does his businesses. He for example hires on a reality show the ‘Rebel Billionaire’ as compared to other CEOs who take candidates through excruciating interviews before joining such an empire and I am sure you have seen photos of him skiing with a nude model on his back or when he once dressed as an air hostess, all made up with high heels and everything.

He was a high school dropout who rose to become the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world but  hey, he did it!

Do you think such success is achievable in Kenya given the whole ‘drop out’ scenario?

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