H e is one of the world's most successful and outrageous businessmen.
By age 16, he was ready to strike out on his own, dropping out of high school to move to London where he founded a popular youth magazine. He next segued into the record business, running a label under the Virgin name. Virgin Records had such hit artists as Boy George and Phil Collins. In the mid-1980s, he started Virgin Atlantic Airways, but his fledgling airline had no ad budget so he went after publicity. A cting true to his daredevil ways, Branson decided to set the speed record for crossing the Atlantic by speed boat and draw attention to the Virgin brand.