The Profile – To be a Branson

“I felt strongly that, from an early age, children should be full of initiative, enterprise and self-reliance” revealed Eve in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail ahead of the release of her autobiography, Mum’s The Word: The High-Flying Adventures of Eve Branson, this month. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve had an appetite for risk and adventure. So when I became a young mother I was determined to do everything possible to prevent my children from being namby-pamby.”

Of course, she could only be the mother of one man. That man, estimated by Forbes Magazine to have a net worth of US$4.2bn, his life and his billions are, quite frankly, the stuff that dreams are made of. Buried deep down in his core are a set of values, aspirations and beliefs that make up the elixir of his success. The Gentleman’s Journal wanted a sip – a gulp in fact – so in the New Year we took the opportunity to do some unravelling and talk to Branson about his career; past, present and future. I’ll be upfront, we discovered nothing new. Nothing, that is to say, that hasn’t already been revealed in his copious autobiographies, interviews, blogs or tweets. In hindsight, this was expected. We did however uncover some conclusive insights into the man behind Virgin; what drives him day-to-day, what makes him buzz and, perhaps most importantly, the secret behind his always-on mega-watt smile.

Long has the ‘nature or nurture debate’ been discussed around the dinner table, puzzled over by academics and tossed and turned over by billionaire hopefuls to pin down exactly what it is that is at the root of a successful entrepreneur. Branson himself has written two books, Losing My Virginity and Screw It Let’s Do It, in his own attempt to reflect on his career for the benefit of budding entrepreneurs. Words aside, you only have to look at Branson to know that it is in his character. This is a man who abolishes ties from his wardrobe on the basis that they eliminate all hope of fun. Fun is what Branson plants at the centre of every business venture.

For the majority of the world’s population, to whom the prospect of a billion dollars is one faced with wishful thinking, taking even the initial leap in their career can be the challenge of a lifetime. For Branson however, his entrepreneurial spirit – the by-product of the traits that his parents, were so determined to instil in him from birth – bubbled inside from a very young age. Is being ‘full of initiative, enterprise and self-reliance’ the answer to Branson’s success? Well, one thing’s for sure, they certainly played their part.

Read the full interview in the Spring issue of The Gentleman’s Journal, subscribe at thegentlemansjournal.co.uk/subscribe/

Words by Emma Corbett