With extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility

Richard Branson — a recent visitor to Manila — is undoubtedly one of the flashiest business personalities in the world.  He is as colorful as he is successful. As the originator of a number of “Virgin” companies — Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Mobile, among many others — he persisted on pushing the limits of the brand, and founded Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial space line.

In his atypical, recurrently outrageous autobiography called Losing My Virginity, Branson, the quintessential wunderkind, shared interesting revelations that inspire, make you smile, and move you to replicate his winning ventures and adventures. It is a portrait of his prolific, commonsense and evenhanded life, packed with fertile and multihued stories.

At 16, Branson had a great idea and pursued it.  In high school, Branson was a deprived student and a wounded athlete, but this didn’t stop him from making his mark, by initiating an alternative campus publication called Student with one of his best pals, Jonny Gomes. While the latter took charge of the editorial side of the paper, Branson handled the business end. He literally had to weave through all sorts of hustles to sign local advertisers to buy ad space, which took care of the cost of printing the paper. In no time, the newspaper consumed all of Branson’s time and vigor, so he decided to drop out of school to concentrate mainly on the paper, and made its growing circulation a platform to launch a discount mail-order music company.

Branson and his friends opened their first enterprise as complete virgins at business. As such, they all agreed to call their business that — Virgin. That started the Virgin brand. Since then, Branson has put on paper his own “rules” for success, building a business empire with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.

Branson’s companies were established in the face of ingrained business rivalry. While experts discouraged him from going into his entrepreneurial   adventures under such a situation, he discovered golden prospects in markets where customers had been conned, overcharged or underserved, where disorder was in power, and the competition was complacent and smug.

Let people have their say; you will empower them. Branson’s parents always encouraged him to form his own opinions and rarely gave him advice unless he asked for it.

Business is about collaborating with others. Within Branson’s family, the sense of teamwork was overwhelming. Whenever he was within his mom’s sights he had to be constantly active. If he attempted to flee by saying he had something else to do, he was told he was self-centered. This experience allowed him to grow with a lucid priority of putting other people first above himself. As Jim Rohn said, “One person doesn’t make a symphony orchestra, one person doesn’t make an economy.”

Keen observation and asking the right questions can give you the answers. Branson spent a morning counting people walking up and down Oxford Street compared to people along Kensington High Street. Eventually he decided that the cheaper end of Oxford Street would be the best site for his business. He saw a shoe shop with a stairway leading up to what looked like an empty first floor, so he went upstairs to see what it was like. It was, after all, an empty space. Within five days he had built shelves, put piles of cushions on the floor, carried a couple of old sofas up the stairs and set up a till. The first Virgin Records shop was ready for business.

Reinvesting all the money you earn can bring in more money. Part of the secret of running a business like Virgin Records was to build up momentum, to keep signing new bands and breaking them into the big time. Branson believed that even if a high-profile band lost money for the operation, there would be other, intangible benefits that could accrue, such as attracting others to sign with the company, or opening doors to radio stations for newer brands. With these principles in mind, Virgin began to sign up new bands on the back of an artist’s success. The bulk of these would inevitably fail.  And as this happened, Branson and his partners still paid themselves tiny wages, survived, and reinvested all the money they earned from new artists into building up the company.

Riding the popularity of well-known brands will make you grow. Branson managed to persuade actress Vanessa Redgrave to not just send her best wishes for the success of Student, but to grant an interview, which was the turning point for Branson’s business since he was now able to use her name as a magnet to attract other contributors. As the list of contributors grew, it became correspondingly easier for him to convince other possible advertisers that the publication was a worthwhile place for them to be seen.

Differentiating your value proposition from your competitors can make the difference. Branson wanted Virgin Records to be an extension of Student  — a place where people could meet and listen to records together; a haven where aficionados weren’t simply encouraged to dash in, buy the record and leave. Branson consciously desired to give them cheaper offerings versus other shops; he interacted with customers, and not just patronized them.

Remembering the highlights of your brand narrative can make your brand live longer. Work in Virgin Records was distributed between Branson and his partners. One was running the Oxford Street record shop; another was running the Student Advisory Centre from Piccadilly, and Branson was generally looking to do anything he could to expand. All of them were in the process of changing from Student ideas to Virgin, and in the course they renamed the Student Advisory Centre as a new charity place called “HELP!” It has continued to operate to this day under the name Virgin Unite, which undertakes a very broad range of charitable activities.

Once you have reached a goal, a new challenge is ready to start. Branson’s parents constantly challenged him and his siblings to make them independent. When he was four years old, his mom stopped the car a few miles from their house and made him find his way back home across the fields. He got hopelessly lost. ?He remembered finally walking into their kitchen like a conquering hero, feeling tremendously proud of his walkathon and expecting a huge welcome of, ?“Well done, Ricky.” To his surprise, his mom greeted him in the kitchen, where she was chopping onions, and asked, “Was that fun?” and quickly gave another order.

The personal experiences you live can help you figure out new business ideas and opportunities. Branson realized that there must be a host of young people who constantly had to face the same problems he encountered growing up, and had nowhere to turn to for help. He drew up a long list of possible problems that students faced such as teen pregnancy and suicide prevention and decided to do something about it. “Give us your headaches” became the slogan for the Student Advisory Centre. This was the start of a lifetime of charitable endeavors that were as controversial and non-traditional as Branson’s business ventures.

Modesty and honesty should be your strengths. Branson spoke frankly about his first failed marriage, and the happiness he has enjoyed with his second wife and children. Often criticized by the media for being a showman, Branson reasons that he only used his personality to help gain exposure for Virgin.

Coming off as a lovable underdog battling the establishment is a strategy. No need to act like a spoiled tycoon. Branson explained that Losing My Virginity is volume one of his autobiography, which took him up to his early 40s. Branson has reinvented middle age and retirement should be a compelling sequel to watch out for.

In a strained, well-worn era, Branson is a benchmark for modern-day executive leadership. He is energetic, assiduous, self-motivated, and victorious. He lives life to the fullest.  Business, family, friends, fun, and adventure are uniformly critical in Branson’s life. His ability to deal with people and his boundless pushing to achieve his goals are impressive. He never started a business to make money; he always had a greater goal for helping others achieve something.

It is remarkable to see how Branson has gone up the ladder given the struggles he faced from early childhood, and the trials and difficulties he underwent to make his businesses thrive and grow. Today he is seen as a great motivator to those who desire to build a universal business empire and eventually develop a globally recognized foundation. Branson declared, “For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, creating jobs, employing people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference.”

* * *

Email bongosorio@gmail.com for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.