Saturday, March 22, 2008

In the Business World, Who Is Your Personal Hero?

My personal hero would be Richard Branson. Here is a man that is both dyslexic and a high school drop out and he has successfully attached his companies name (Virgin) to more than 250 companies. This man founded an airline after a flight he was to be on was overbooked and he was bumped. Thats the true entrepreneur spirit, see the problem, see the solution, fix the problem and do so in such a way that produces profit. Branson was once quoted as saying “Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming,” He has been such a success in spotting the next business opportunity that his current estimated worth is around 3.2 billion dollars.

Many people would say that part of his success is due to how much money he has, those would be the people that fail to know that his first business was a magazine built on a shoestring budget. Re-investing profit into the next business is what has allowed him to achieve so much. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the Richard Branson Empire. The same strategy he used can be duplicated by anyone with drive, determination, and a little common sense and that is what makes Richard Branson my hero. I may never reach his level of success but I will have a lot of fun trying. Having spent the last year building my business, I am finally at the point of stepping back and releasing the reigns to whoever I decide to hire to run it for me so that I can pursue my next project. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

2 comments:

Paul Eilers said...

I did not realize that Richard Branson is dyslexic and a high school drop out.

Just goes to show you that book sense and business can be two entirely different things.

Sandra said...

My business hero is Jack Canfield. The Chicken Soup stories were ingenious. He basically collected stories from all over put them together as a collection and is now a multimillionaire. Brilliant