Entertainment
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson explains how dyslexia helped build Virgin empire
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Sir Richard Branson believes his dyslexia diagnosis has helped him become the successful billionaire businessman behind the Virgin Group empire.
During Thursday’s instalment of This Morning, the British mogul, 71, spoke to presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby via video chat to discuss his latest venture with charity Made by Dyslexia – as he hopes to reposition the condition as a strength, not a weakness.
Just before he wrapped up the interview, Phillip asked: ‘Do you think you would have been as successful had you not been dyslexic?’ to which Richard disagreed.
‘It’s enabled me to be a really good delegator for instance’, he replied.
‘Which I think is a very important skill of a leader. It’s enabled me to look for the best in people and really appreciate their skills.
‘And to be honest, if I hadn’t decided to leave school at 15, the rest wouldn’t have happened,’ he added.
Sir Richard Branson has been open about his dyslexia diagnosis (Picture: PA)
Richard successfully flew abroad the VSS unity last year (Picture: Don Emmert/Getty)
The billionaire tycoon has previously stated that the disorder – a learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling – has helped him ‘think out of the box,’ and called for today’s curriculum to become ‘more relevant to everybody.’
‘My education happened in the real world, and I guess that does say something about education generally, it’s not just for dyslexic people,’ he said.
A week before his 71st birthday, the billionaire mogul successfully flew aboard the VSS unity, which touched down at Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico hub Spaceport America in July 2021.
Travelling aboard the space plane VSS Unity, Richard climbed to an altitude of 90km (295,000ft), offering a view of the curvature of the Earth and four minutes of weightlessness for those onboard.
More: Holly Willoughby
Amazon CEO, and the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos followed one week later with an 11-minute journey to space on Blue Origin rocket.
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV.
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