--- description: Richard Branson journey to a million started from an unlikely source: 'The Exorcist' title: How Virgin Founder Richard Branson Made His First Million image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac274a69c5abf18b/69869dea810bbbab50c92d3d/12806.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrities](/tag/celebrities/) ## celebrities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How I Made My First Million: Richard Branson by [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 30, 2014 9:03 PM CUT  by [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 30, 2014 9:03 PM CUT British business tycoon Richard Branson is living proof that with enough money, the sky’s the limit. And sometimes not even the sky: his Virgin Group launched a business called Virgin Galactic, which plans to carry wealthy “space tourists” all the way into orbit. Worth an estimated $5 billion, Branson has used his fortune not just to indulge in expensive hobbies but also to fund a host of humanitarian initiatives. So how did he make his first million way back when? Believe it or not, there’s a connection to the 1973 horror film _The Exorcist_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/"},"headline":"How I Made My First Million: Richard Branson","datePublished":"2014-07-30T21:03:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:25:53.272Z","description":"The tycoon's journey to a million started from an unlikely source: The Exorcist","url":"https://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/","keywords":["celebrities","Money","Business topic","Richard Branson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac274a69c5abf18b/69869dea810bbbab50c92d3d/12806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Salima Koroma","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac274a69c5abf18b/69869dea810bbbab50c92d3d/12806.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"1280","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/","name":"How I Made My First Million: Richard Branson"}}]}] ```