By Richard Branson
In 1967, when I quit high school at age 17, I
knew what my next project would be: founding Student magazine.
But I did not know what I wanted to do in the long term. The headmaster’s
parting words to me were, ‘Congratulations, Branson, I predict that you will
either go to prison or be a millionaire.’ I am not sure whether that could be
classed as career advice or not, but it did give me the impetus to prove him
wrong on the first point.
When I set up Student magazine,
I wanted to work as a journalist; however we needed to keep the magazine afloat
financially and soon I had to stop reporting and focus on production and
financing instead. I stayed involved in the editorial side by landing some of
our most important interviews, but for the most part, during Student’s early
days I honed my skills at business, negotiating and management – all of which
would later prove useful as we built the Virgin group.