Dyslexia To Magnate: Richard Branson’s Incredible Story
Never blame a child because he couldn’t write or pronounce simple letters of the alphabet because he may be suffering from Dyslexia. This is a medical condition that makes a child appears dumb but in actual fact, he isn’t. This is because he has things that interest him which makes him unique and succeeds at that if pursued tenaciously.
Such is the case of Richard Branson. If you’ve heard of the Virgin Group or Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Richard Branson owns them all even though he suffered from Dyslexia as a child in school. Dyslexia has to do with a learning disorder where a child has difficulty learning to read, talk, write and spell words. It is a reading disorder that affects an aspect of the brain responsible for processing language.
Richard Branson is today synonymous with the brand name, Virgin and many people hardly know about his struggles with studying while growing up as a child. The enormous amount of success he has in business today leaves everyone who knows his story to truly see strong abilities in disabilities no matter what the general belief may be.
His Background
Richard Branson, an English business magnate was born in 1950 in Blackheath, London. He is an investor who founded the Virgin Group that controls more than 400 companies.
Richard Branson suffered from Dyslexia which resulted in a poor academic performance in school. His headmaster at school, Robert Drayson would have seen something unique or different about him that made him tell him of how his future may look like. He told him he would either become a millionaire or end up in prison. Needless to say that Branson chose the good part and now a successful billionaire! His parents were very supportive of his entrepreneurial drive from his early age.
The success story of the philanthropist and author is nothing but a strong motivation that there is so much ability in people many will ordinarily write-off as never do well.
The Business Name
You might be wondering how the name “Virgin” came about and now a household name of a Group of companies. Well, at the time Branson started his business he had to look for a name for the business. A good suggestion by one of the employee gave the word “Virgin” because everybody in the employment including Branson was new in business! This was the time when there were some restrictions on marketing.
His Business Achievements
Richard Branson started his business career right from his early childhood days at age 16 when he founded a magazine called the Student. He moved from here to many others afterward to now count in hundreds. The challenged can be the best in their chosen field.
Record Business
The record and music business have a strong part in Branson’s life. His body and soul were strongly connected to it and he never hid how he loved the business.
He opened a collection of record stores afterward. The record company began at the church location from which he run the magazine company from. He interviewed many notable personalities like Mick Jagger. The magazine was also a platform where he promoted his record business and it became a huge success.
Branson started a record store in Oxford Street, London and later launched a record label called the Virgin Records along with Nik Powell in 1972. Virgin records made success, signing many notable artists including Peter Gabriel, Rolling Stone, Steve Winwood, and UB40, among others.
The Virgin Records business and music for Branson comes with a lot of passion and emotional attachment because he wept after its sales to a new owner, EMI, for £500 million in 1992. It has been the very beginning of his Virgin Group and the empire. He took a lot of time and commitment to building it to where it was before it was sold to help him fund his new dream of Virgin Airlines.
His Strides In Other Businesses
Another big step to the success of the business magnate was the launch of the Virgin Atlantic Airline in 1984. He got the inspiration to the airline business when on a trip to Puerto Rico. When his flight was canceled he decided to go for a charter for the journey. He gave a ride to the stranded passengers for a little fee to offset the cost. Soon afterward, Virgin Atlantic airline was started.
Another of his business collections in 1999 was the Virgin Mobile and also Virgin Blue in Australia (now Virgin Australia).
As a man driven by big dreams and pushing himself to make attempts at some almost unachievable tasks, Branson took a big risk in business and went this time into the railway business and Virgin Trains was born sometime later.
Branson ventured into a host other business including space tourism with the Virgin Galactic in collaboration with Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. This business was aimed at commercial flight to outer space. Virgin Fuels, Virgin Comics, Virgin Hotels among others were also added to the Virgin Empire created by Branson. The Virgin Group acquired many international companies, purchased stakes in some and become a shareholder in the companies and the success story continues ever since with the Virgin Group of companies founded by Richard Branson.
His Interests
Richard Branson is a very lively person that loves exploring as seen in his business life. More like a promotional thing, he’ll also personally get involved in social and fun activities promoting the Virgin brand.
Richard Branson made several attempts at world records and was successful in breaking some. He broke the current record on crossing the Pacific. He crossed the Pacific, a distance of 10, 800 km from Japan to Arctic Canada to break the record with an amazing speed of 394km/hour in a balloon of 74, 000 cubic meters.
He kept on breaking records and winning in business to remain a successful entrepreneur who never allowed his childhood learning disability to affect his drive to make an impact in the society.
Branson is one of the greatest men who transcends beyond disability limitations. He shows lots of humility by sharing his experiences and inspiring people especially people with disabilities to aim for success through his blog at virgin.com.
