Richard Branson is the most prolific, if not the best entrepreneur in the world, . Having grown his company from nothing, he is now the man behind commercial space travel – quite literally proving that the sky is not the limit. Forbes paid homage to the man with an infographic on what the world would be like without him.

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The wide range of products under the Virgin umbrella is astounding – air travel, mobile networks, gyms, credit cards and even a record label are part of the portfolio. There are even some good failures: Virgin Cola and Virgin Cosmetics.

Forbes currently places him at #255 on its Rich List, but in my mind he’ll always be outside the list. Why? Because he’s the only billionaire I know of that doesn’t mind taking risks – not safe, calculated risks – but rather the crazy ones that really have an impact.

Reminds me a little of an ad campaign by a leading tech company:

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

[Source: Virgin]