Sir Richard Branson and Mike Southon at Business 2012. Photo © Eugenie Absalom.
“The best business ideas come from people feeling passionate about something.” Richard Branson
From Virgin Records to Virgin Galactic Sir Richard Branson career spans almost half a century, marked with outstanding projects and Virgin label global business success.
This year, for the first time in my life, I had a rare opportunity to see Richard Branson live on stage at Business 2012 show at The O2 London (former Millennium Dome). The iconic English entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin empire of nearly 400 companies, including Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Unite and Virgin Media, shared his insights with the next generation of business owners at The IndigO2 in informal, witty and inspiring manner. Sir Richard came across very much like a people’s billionaire.
I found it rather touching when Sir Richard invited on stage and warmly greeted the young Indian entrepreneur Vishal Misal, who’s company Blak Pearl organised the event. At the age of 24 Vishal Misal achieved something that is almost unthinkable – he booked Richard Branson himself to speak at his free show. What an inspiration to all the new and not so new businesses!
I organise events myself and I couldn’t have known better how difficult it is to get celebrities to your events. He made dreams come true for lots of people in the audience on that day.
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Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Records at Business 2012, The O2 London.
The words of wisdom, coming from one of the 100 Greatest Britons and “one of the top 100 most influential people in the world” (Time Magazine, 2007) were: “Just get out there, get a great team of people around you, go and shake whatever industry you are planning to get yourselves into! Have enormous fun doing it. Don’t take yourself too seriously too. Make sure you always offer great value for money and a great quality to public.”
I would like to share with you one of Richard Branson’s most amazing projects – Virgin Galactic, the project that means a new victory of human spirit. “We are not that far away from making space travel a reality,” said Sir Richard at Business 2012.
The extraordinary idea behind the project was that anyone could become an astronaut, buy space tickets and have a journey of a lifetime. Virgin Galactic was launched in the 1990s and marked the beginning of a new era in space travel. At the moment Virgin Galactic is on track to become the world’s first commercial space line and a major milestone in the history of humanity.
“I started it because I was waiting for NASA to say “we are now going to allow ordinary people to be able to go to space,” said Branson. “And by 1990 I just thought that if I carried on waiting I would never have the chance. So I registered the name Virgin Galactic Airways and I headed off round the world to look for scientists or technicians who were able to build the spaceship, preferably a spaceship that went up and came back again,” he joked.
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Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic at Business 2012, The O2 London.
Following successful tests of SpaceShipOne, the building of SpaceShipTwo is nearly completed at Space Port in New Mexico. According to Virgin Galactic website, “the most radical feature employed by SpaceshipOne and now SpaceShipTwo is the unique way it returns into the dense atmosphere from the vacuum of space. Burt Rutan designed the unique feathering system which does away with the need for sophisticated computer driven flight control systems or the need to rely on the pilots.”
The two and a half hour flights will offer about five minutes of weightlessness.
“In the history of space travel since it began there have been less than 500 people, who have been to space,” stated the founder of Virgin Galactic. “In our first year we will send more people into space, than have been sent in the history of manned space travel. It is going to be tremendously exciting,” he added.
Virgin Galactic has managed to reduce significantly the price of getting into space. “We have 500 people signed up, $200 000 each. And I think over time we will get this price down,” said Branson.
Sir Richard was answering questions with a great deal of humour and demonstrated a serious talent for entertainment. When asked about the origin of Virgin (the true story behind the company name), he answered: “The story was that we were sitting in a basement, a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds, mainly women, sitting around. We were trying to come up with a name for a record company… Somebody jokingly said: “We are all virgins, let’s call it Virgin.” There was a lot of laughter. And we ended up calling it Virgin. And it works because, you know, we were virgin at almost every business that we started. It took us 3 years to get the Registry Office to accept the registration of it. They claimed it was rude. We said to them that it was opposite of rude and at the end we managed to get a little bit from the English dictionary which said “Virgin equals pure.” And they finally accepted the registration. The Catholic church were the only people who carried on objecting.”
Business 2012 show at The O2 London, 18 – 20 March. Photo © Eugenie Absalom.
Sir Richard recalled their first concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall and the release of Tubular Bells album with musician multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, who was the actual reason for setting up the Virgin Records company.
“The best business ideas come from people feeling passionate about something,” said Richard Branson. His entire business career, from Student magazine to Virgin Galactic, proves the point.
Richard Branson’s releases include: “Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way”; “Reach for the Skies: Ballooning, Birdmen, and Blasting into Space” and “Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life and Business.”
Richard Branson was knighted by HRH The Prince of Wales in March 2000 for his contribution to entrepreneurship. He topped a list of 2,000 people that included Julie Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor, Norman Wisdom and the first ever James Bond Sean Connery.
Sir Richard Branson Live at Business 2012 in the Diamond Jubilee Time Capsule.
View my photos of Sir Richard Branson at Business 2012 on Demotix.
Business 2012 show took place at The O2 London on 18 – 20 March 2012.
Text and Camera by Eugenie Absalom
Copyright © Eugenie Absalom