Richard Branson: from A 16-year-old dropout to a Tycoon Billionaire

Richard Branson: From A 16-year-old dropout to a Tycoon Billionaire

Who would've thought that a 16-year old dropout would become a Tycoon Billionaire? Unbelievable, right?

Meet Richard Charles Nicholas Branson. He is an English business magnate, philanthropist, and inventor. He was the person who founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies.

Did you know that Richard struggled with dyslexia and dropped out of school?

At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student

Richard attended the all-boys Scaitcliffe School until he was 13 and almost failed. He then went to a boarding school at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, England. He was still struggling and dropped out at the age of 16.

He then started the youth-culture magazine called Student publication. It launched in 1966 and operated by students aimed at helping their fellow co-students.

The first 50,000 copies of the magazine were disseminated free of charge, then Richard sold $8,000 worth in its first edition after he covered the initial advertising costs.

Richard started a mail-order record company called Virgin Records

While Richard was struggling to make ends meet with the magazine, he began the idea to start a mail-order record company called Virgin Records to help fund his magazine efforts.

Virgin performed modestly, but he was still able to expand his business venture, to which he added a record shop in Oxford Street, London. With the record store's success, Richard, the high school drop-out, was able to build a recording studio in 1972!

Mike Oldfield, was Virgin Record's first artist. He recorded single "Tubular Bells" in 1973 with the help of Richard's team. The song became an instant hit, staying on the UK charts for 247 weeks.

Richard arrives on a Boeing 787-9

Richard then expanded his entrepreneurial efforts. And this time, a travel company, Voyager Group in 1980. And then added the Virgin Atlantic airline in 1984, and then a series of Virgin Megastores.  A problem came when Richard's Virgin struggled financially. He later decided to sell the company to THORN EMI for $1 billion.

Richard's Virgin Group now holds more than 200 companies, in more than 30 countries which include the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe and South Africa.

Richard Branson Says Space Hotels 'Could Eventually Happen'

He has also expanded his businesses ventures -- including a train company, a mobile phone company, a luxury game preserve, and a space-tourism company called Virgin Galactic.

Richard partnered with Scaled Composites,  to form "The Spaceship Company," who developed a suborbital spaceplane.  It made an impressive leap with the test launch of SpaceShipTwo in April 2013.

The Branson Family

Richard Branson was delighted by the success of his spaceship's first test. After the successful launch, more than 500 people had bought their tickets for Virgin Galactic's voyages.

Richard lives happily married to his second wife, Joan Templeman, whom he married on December 20th, 1989 and had two children: Holly and Sam.

Thanks for the inspiration, Richard!

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

 - Richard Branson