Billionaire Richard Branson Once Tried Taking On Coca-Cola, Which Turned Out To Be His 'Most Notable Failure:' He Says It Taught Him That People 'Quite Like The Underdog'

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson disclosed his most significant business failure- Virgin Cola– and the crucial lesson it imparted in a recent podcast.

What Happened: Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, revealed on the ‘Work-Life With Adam Grant’ podcast that the failure of Virgin Cola, a soda launched by his company in 1994, taught him a valuable lesson. Despite initial success in the U.K., the product failed to maintain its position, particularly in the U.S. market, leading to its eventual closure.

Branson shared that the failure of Virgin Cola, which was intended to challenge industry giants Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Pepsi (NASDAQ:PEP), taught him the importance of seeing oneself as an underdog.

"People quite like the underdog," he said. "You don't always want to be the smarta** that is successful." The key point, he said, is trying again after a failure.

“It was a lot of fun, it didn’t do the brand any harm, it taught us some lessons. I think the main lesson was if you are going to take on a giant, make sure you are much better than them,” the billionaire added on the podcast published on Thursday.

Why It Matters: Branson’s Virgin Group controls over 400 companies in various fields including music, aircraft, and space travel. His popular companies include the Virgin Atlantic Airlines and space tourism company Virgin Galactic.

However, a few of his business ventures have also failed including Virgin Cola and Virgin Cars. Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit went bankrupt last year despite going public in 2021 with a $4 billion valuation.

According to Forbes, Branson has a net worth of $2.6 billion.

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