Branson wasn't the CEO of Virgin Atlantic, or the managing director of Virgin Records. He also never ran Virgin Mobile day-to-day. He founded them all. Then immediately hired someone smarter to run them.

It started because he literally couldn't do it himself. Branson's dyslexia is so severe, his headmaster told him he'd "end up in prison or become a millionaire." He couldn't read financial statements or barely write. So he had to delegate...

His first business nearly collapsed because of this. At 21, he was caught evading taxes on record sales. He spent a night in jail, and his mother had to re-mortgage their house to pay the fine. It proved he needed experts, or he'd destroy everything.

While other CEOs were learning to manage, Branson perfected a 4-step formula: 1. Find an industry where customers are miserable 2. Find someone who knows that industry better than him 3. Give them the keys (and equity) to build it 4. Leave to find the next industry

Virgin Records: Branson knew nothing about music. So he hired his cousin Simon Draper, a music obsessive, to run everything.

Simon found a 19-year-old kid named Mike Oldfield. The kid had composed a 50-minute instrumental piece. Every label rejected it as "commercially unviable." But Draper convinced Branson to make it their first release. That album was Tubular Bells.

The director of "The Exorcist" heard the album and used it in his horror film. Tubular Bells sold 20 million copies. It made so much money it single-handedly funded the launch of Virgin Atlantic. One delegated decision funded an entire airline.

Virgin Atlantic: In 1984, Branson decided to take on British Airways. They had 200 planes, and he only had one second-hand Boeing 747. The airline idea wasn't even his. Two aviation experts pitched it to him.

So, Branson hired experts to run everything operationally. Flight plans, safety, maintenance, regulations - all delegated. His only job was to be the brand. He dressed as a flight attendant and bungee jumped off casinos.

While BA focused on operations, Branson generated millions in free publicity. BA got so desperate they launched a "dirty tricks" campaign by hacking Virgin's data. They poached passengers and spread false rumors. Branson sued in 1992 and won $945,000.

He gave his entire settlement to his staff. Called it the "BA bonus." The message was clear: I don't run the company. WE do. By delegating everything, he'd beaten an airline with 800x more planes.

Today, Virgin Group has 400+ companies worth billions. A Gallup study of 143 CEOs found something shocking. CEOs with high delegation skills saw 1,751% growth rates. That's 112 percentage points higher than CEOs who couldn't delegate.

That's why Athena helps ambitious founders/CEOs gain back their time while scaling their company. Delegation is the scaling law of entrepreneurship. If you don't understand it early, you'll find it incredibly hard to scale your business. https://www.athena.com/?utm_so...

If you found this thread valuable: 1. Follow me @chr1stopherHo for more threads on entrepreneurship and delegation. 2. RT the linked tweet to spread the word.

@Chr1stopherHo One of the shittiest and least trusted brands in history

@Chr1stopherHo He's a fascinating character! Was he also a product of his times? Have we lost that?

@Chr1stopherHo Great thread!!

@Chr1stopherHo Great