Sir Richard Branson

The purpose of this paper is to describe the personality of Sir Richard Branson as well as applying the roles of social perception and attribution. Sir Branson is the owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Virgin brand started in the 1970’s. Virgin is one of Great Britain’s most respected brands and consists of ventures in travel and tourism, leisure and pleasure, social and environmental, media and telecommunications, finance and money, health, and shopping. As a youth, Sir Branson was introduced to many factors which shaped his adult personality. According to Nelson & Quick (2008), “family, culture, education, and other environmental forces shape personality.” Sir Branson’s personality was strongly influenced by his family environment. His mother encouraged him and his sisters to work hard and overcome adversity by continually setting physical challenges between the siblings. These competitions surely enhanced Branson’s drive to compete and triumph in sporting activities. His entrepreneur success can be contributed to the early introduction of entrepreneurship by his mother and Aunt Clare. Sir Branson’s was influenced by a loving family which modeled traits such as teamwork, cohesion, and support. During my childhood, children were taught to stay in a child’s place and speak only when spoken to. Branson was encouraged to speak as a child and his opinions were valued. This helped to build self-esteem and confidence to communicate outside his social group. In my opinion, Branson’s psychological type derived from the Type Theory Preferences and Descriptions is Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Perceiving (ENFP). Nelson & Quick (2008) described a person who is categorized as ENFP to be:
Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and

References: Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2008). Organizational behavior: Science, the real world, and you (6th Ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.