First Job of Richard Branson : Breeding Budgies

I have never had a truly professional job. I've never been on the other side of the interview process, and I've (thankfully!) never had a boss. From a very young age - long before I knew what the word meant - I was an entrepreneur.

My introduction to the working world came from my mother, who was always using her limitless imagination to come up with new business ideas. She managed the whole process herself, from developing the ideas, to crafting the products, to making deals with distributors and selling goods herself. One of her more successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins in national stores.

 She was resolute, and taught me if an item didn't sell, you try something else. I was always helping around the house and picked up a lot of useful tips without ever realising it at the time. I made plenty of mistakes and was able to learn from them rather than spend time fretting over every little error. There was never enough time for that, it was always on to the next adventure!

When I was 11, I decided it was time to start my own small business. With my best friend Nik Powell as my partner, we set about breeding budgerigars. We saw a gap in the market to sell budgies as they were very popular with kids in school at the time. However, they kept multiplying quicker than we could sell them, and the school holidays were coming to an end...

We went back off to boarding school and left my parents to look after all the birds. We lived in the countryside, and I think the rats got to some of them. As for the rest? My mum opened the cages and set them free! Next I tried selling Christmas trees, buying lots of small ones and hoping to make a fortune when they grew. Sadly, the rabbits ate those!

While we were discussing this we were also making a documentary about my passion for animal conservation. I guess the budgerigars weren't a good start! But perhaps they ignited my passion for animals, which has stayed w

ith me all of my life. Now we breed endangered lemurs on Necker Island, and Virgin Unite support animal conservation schemes from sharks to rhinos, rays to elephants.

Despite the setbacks with budgies and Christmas trees, my appetite for the life of an entrepreneur wasn't sated. Thankfully our next venture — Student Magazine — went a lot better, and from that sprang Virgin Records. Forty years on, the Virgin Group has more than 100 companies and approximately 60,000 employees in over 50 countries. But if it wasn't for those first few failures, the future successes would never have happened.

One thing to remember is to be flexible. I was whatever was necessary when I wrote to people. Editor to some. Circulation manager to others. Advertising manager to others!
What setbacks did you encounter in your first job? And, more importantly, what did you learn from them?

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The Business Man Story About Richard Branson

About Richard Branson

Early Life        

Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on July 18, 1950, in Surrey, England. His father, Edward James Branson, worked as a barrister. His mother, Eve Branson, was employed as a flight attendant. Richard, who struggled with dyslexia, had a hard time with educational institutions. He nearly failed out of the all-boys Scaitcliffe School, which he attended until the age of 13. He then transferred to Stowe School, a boarding school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England.
Still struggling, Branson dropped out at the age of 16 to start a youth-culture magazine called Student. The publication, run by students, for students, sold $8,000 worth of advertising in its first edition, which was launched in 1966. The first run of 50,000 copies was disseminated for free, after Branson covered the costs with advertising.
By 1969, Branson was living in a London commune, surrounded by the British music and drug scene. It was during this time that Branson had the idea to begin a mail-order record company called Virgin to help fund his magazine efforts. The company performed modestly, but made Branson enough that he was able to expand his business venture, adding a record shop in Oxford Street, London. With the success of the record shop, the high school drop-out was able to build a recording studio in 1972 in Oxfordshire, England.

Virgin Records

His first artist on the Virgin Records label, Mike Oldfield, recorded his single "Tubular Bells" in 1973 with the help of Branson's team. The song was an instant smash, staying on the UK charts for 247 weeks. Using the momentum of Oldfield's success, Branson then signed other aspiring musical groups to label, including the Sex Pistols. Artists such as the Culture Club, the Rolling Stones, and Genesis would follow, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world.

Business Expansion

Branson expanded his entrepreneurial efforts yet again, this time to include the travel company the Voyager Group in 1980, the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and a series of Virgin Megastores. But Branson's success was not always predictable. By 1992, Virgin was suddenly struggling to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year to THORN EMI for $1 billion.
Branson was crushed by the loss, reportedly crying after the contract was signed, but remained determined to stay in the music business. In 1993, he founded the station Virgin Radio, and several years later he started a second record company, V2. Founded in 1996, V2 now includes artists such as Powder Finger and Tom Jones.
Branson's Virgin Group now holds more than 200 companies in more than 30 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe and South Africa. He has expanded his businesses to include a train company, a luxury game preserve, a mobile phone company and a space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic.
Branson is also known for his sporting achievements, notably the record-breaking Atlantic crossing in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II in 1986,

Virgin Galactic

In recent years, the ever-adventurous Branson has focused much of his attention on his space tourism venture. He partnered with Scaled Composites to form The Spaceship Company, which is currently developing a suborbital spaceplane, and, in April 2013, the project made an impressive leap forward with the test launch of SpaceShipTwo.
Branson was delighted by the success of his spaceship's first test, telling NBC News that "We're absolutely delighted that it broke the sound barrier on its very first flight, and that everything went so smoothly." He expects to be finishing testing the craft by the end of 2013. By April 2013, more than 500 people had bought their tickets for Virgin Galactic's voyages.

Personal Life

Branson is married to his second wife, Joan Templeman, with whom he has two children: Holly and Sam. He currently lives in London, England.

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