Outliers: Sir Richard Branson

Name Professor Subject Date Outliers: Sir Richard Branson Introduction In debunking the popular notion about the world’s most successful people, Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the “Outliers” attributes their accomplishments to a cocktail of hard work, time and luck. Quoting the 10,000-hour rule, he opines that continuous and focused practice yields results. Outliers are people who are exceptionally different from others that they may not be used to draw comparisons. His stories constitute deep concepts like for example explaining why professional hockey players are born between January and March, and software entrepreneurs born around 1955 like Steve Jobs and Paul Allen. His idea of success is characterized by time, effort and a stroke of luck. One such person is Sir. Richard Branson (Coppin, 206). Outliers are entrepreneurs by nature as they embrace unpredicted situations with passion and build solutions where possibilities are unknown. Background Richard Branson was born in 1950 and attended Stowe School, and like many entrepreneurs, he did not pursue formal education as he dropped out of school aged 16 due to dyslexia. To achieve grades that would enable him to pass, he had to memorize everything, and he sought for ways that would enable him to accomplish tasks which were easier than others (Cross et al., 223). Interestingly, the dyslexia condition, which has nothing to do with intelligence, gives one the aptitude for observing usual things from diverse perspectives. People like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Disney, and Winston Churchill had this condition. Dyslexia helped him become a creative thinker which made it easy for him to simplify complicated issues, becoming a huge asset in building the Virgin business empire (Cross et al., 224). As a result of the condition, he got encouraged to depend on people who knew certain things better than he did, an essential entrepreneurial skill, which spurs growth. Entrepreneurship Out of frustration and owing to the activism of the 1960s, he started a student newspaper called “The Student” which involved several schools and advertised popular records. In those days when there were no computers, it was a daunting task to run this kind of venture (Cross et al., 226). The very first issue of the newspaper had Peter Blake as the cover and got off to an inspiring start. When he moved to London in 1970, he began a mail-order record company and named Virgin Mail (McCarthy 45). His target clientele was the student population of whom his newspaper had a sizeable readership and was the right age for the mail orders. The outcome was an overwhelming success as very many orders which enabled him to enter the discount music business from where he established a music recording studio business and named it Virgin (Shavinina, 227). So from here, Virgin Group began to grow into what is today over 450 companies operating across over 30 countries. Virgin Businesses The first business venture under the Virgin label was called Virgin Records, which was established a short while after beginning a music store along Oxford Street, London. The business became a major success because as an entrepreneur he began the label with a hit record, "Tubular Bells" that was released in 1973. The record label won many popular sign-ups such as ‘The Sex Pistol", "Genesis," "Simple Minds," and "The Rolling Stones" among many popular artists. The label went on to become a trend and pacesetter in the music industry until 1992 when Branson sold it for 1 billion dollars to Thorn EMI (Shavinina 233). After selling his pioneer music business, he went ahead to start another label called V2 Records in 1996, a stable of popular music artists such as Mercury Rev, Tom Jones, and Powder Finger. Branson has managed to create a brand with the name Virgin in many economic sectors especially in Britain where his main attention lies. He invests in a broad variety of businesses across the geographical landscape of the world from the USA, UK, Australia, Asia, Europe, Canada, and Africa. Among his businesses under the “Virgin brand” include; Virgin Atlantic which is an airline that flies to many destinations across the world, Virgin Megastores which is a music supermarket located in many destinations, Virgin Books which publishes books and distributes them, Virgin Credit Card provides credit card services, Virgin Holidays which takes advantage of the Virgin airlines to fly to holidays anywhere in the world, Virgin Trains that ply routes in the UK, V2 Music has become the biggest UK based recording label, Virgin Active which is a chain of fitness and wellness clubs spread across the UK, Virgin Galactic, a space flight venture, Ulusaba, which is a luxury game reserve in South Africa, and Necker Island, his own private Island situated in the British Virgin Islands among a host of many more...