Richard Branson: How A Dyslexic Drop-out Build A Billion Dollar Empire!

Steven Bartlett interviews Sir Richard Branson after reading his autobiographies and watching the new HBO docu-series 'Eve' about Branson's mother. Branson traces his entrepreneurial instinct to his mother Eve and to growing up dyslexic, which he reframes as a 'superpower' that pushed him toward people skills and delegation rather than spreadsheets. He explains how diversification, not focus, kept Virgin alive across record stores, airlines, cruises and space, and recounts the British Airways 'dirty tricks' battle. The conversation turns deeply emotional around his space flight, the death of a Virgin Galactic test pilot, losing his mother Eve to COVID, and writing farewell letters to his family before dangerous adventures.

• Branson admits that at around 50, running Europe's largest private company, he still didn't know the difference between gross and net profit until a director drew him a fishing-net diagram.
  00:19:51
• He argues diversification, not focus, saved Virgin; selling Virgin Galactic shares helped rescue Virgin Atlantic during COVID.
  00:25:36
• To protect the downside, his first 747 lease from Boeing included the right to hand the plane back after 12 months if it failed.
  00:34:25
• Virgin Atlantic was attacked by British Airways' 'dirty tricks campaign'; Virgin won the biggest libel damages in history in court.
  00:34:56
• He sold Virgin Records to build a 'war chest' to fight British Airways, describing selling a company as 'like selling a group of children'.
  00:48:31
• After a Virgin Galactic test pilot died, Branson and George Whiteside seriously discussed discontinuing the space program before deciding to continue.
  00:57:52
• His mother Eve, after whom the Virgin Galactic mothership is named, died of COVID before she could see his space flight.
  00:59:56
• Branson reveals he experienced depression for the first time about six weeks into COVID when it looked like everything he'd built was collapsing.
  01:11:23

• Branson's mother ran her early entrepreneurial ventures from a London phone box, just as he later worked from a phone box at school.
  00:03:08
• He left school at 15 to start a magazine, rebelling against learning subjects whose relevance he couldn't see.
  00:09:24
• At boarding school he had a romance with the headmaster's daughter, got expelled, staged a fake suicide, and got un-expelled.
  00:11:29
• Branson spent one night in prison over a records export-tax scheme and swore never to spend a second night in prison.
  00:28:12
• Virgin Atlantic was the first airline in the world to introduce seatback videos and sleeper seats for business class.
  00:37:02
• His Atlantic crossing speedboat sank before completing the journey, inspiring a BA-style ad joking 'Next time, Richard, take the plane.'
  00:43:18
• Gorbachev once invited Branson to be the first person in a Russian spaceship for about 60 million dollars, sparking his idea to build his own.
  00:53:10
• A Virgin train came off the track while Branson was in a cinema; he drove through the night to reach the scene and meet the relatives.
  00:55:47
• Branson met his wife Joan 45 years ago at a recording studio called the Manor, describing it as instantaneous love.
  01:06:12
• His daughter Holly became a doctor and now helps with the Virgin foundation, while his son Sam is a musician and filmmaker.
  01:08:17

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