Richard Branson: Breaking all Barriers
As young entrepreneurs, many of us have our own special entrepreneur that we look up to. Sure, you have Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison, but one very intriguing entrepreneur that I have recently become interested in is the one and only Richard Branson – yeah, the owner of Virgin Group.
Like many other super successful entrepreneurs, Branson didn’t have it easy growing up. He didn’t grow up in a rich family and at an early age he learned how to become independent.
What I like most about Branson is his adventurous attitude and positive outlook on life. He simply never stopped having fun from the start of his first business — Student magazine — to building his multi-billion dollar Virgin Group.
Throughout Branson’s life as an entrepreneur, he took many risks that could have easily taken down his entire empire. Investing money from his record company to fund an airline and taking out huge lines or credit to bring an unknown artist to the market are just a few of the big risks that Branson took without hesitation. He followed his gut and that is the number one thing that any entrepreneur should do if they want to see success.
Sure, Branson isn’t perfect and he’s seen failure (what successful entrepreneur hasn’t), but he’s always gone with his instincts even when so many people tried to tell him no, no, no. I remember reading a section of his book Losing My Virginity when he was sitting down with his two partners trying to convince them to allow him to start the airline.
His partners were outraged at such a radical proposal and emphatically refused Branson’s plea. To which Branson stated to himself “I’ve already made up my mind.” Indeed, it may not have been the logical thing to do at the time, but he couldn’t deny the challenge to do the unthinkable.
If there’s one thing that any entrepreneur should take from Branson, it should be the quality of setting seemingly unconquerable tasks for yourself and working hard to shred through all the barriers, naysayers, and obstacles in your path – turning your goal into a reality!
Set large goals. Have fun. Never stop.
2 Comments
Mind Petals: Young Entrepreneur Network » Blog Archive » A Healthy Entrepreneur Is A Wealthy Entrepreneur
January 6th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
[...] Take after Richard Branson — founder of Virgin Group — and never stop having fun throughout your journey to success. Having fun is healthy. [...]
NB
March 29th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Can u tell what not having money is as I am at a loss to understand how you can say that Branson ‘didn’t grow up in a rich family’. He came from a family of lawyers, lived in one of the most expensive areas in Britain and went to one of the top private schools in Britain. So that is not growing up rich or connected? Well that must make 95% of peoples backgrounds in the UK positively developing world.
Branson is a brilliant businessmas but is certainly not from a poor financial background. The British system allows very few people who genuinely grew up with zero opportunities or finance to actually get on in life. In reality Branson is from the Establishment and had all the advantages that goes with that. Look at the richest 1000 people in Britain and there are very few who actually started with nothing and Branson is not one of them. Can you print the reality of privilege in Britain at some point pls….
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