What Richard Branson Wants You To Learn From A Virgin Galactic Intern

Virgin Group billionaire Richard Branson wants people to stop telling kids that something is out of their reach.

In a new LinkedIn Influencer post, he tells the story of a Virgin Galactic intern named Barbara Schloss whose parents took her to California's Mojave Desert to watch SpaceShipOne try to make the first privately funded human space-flight when she was 11-years-old.

SpaceShipOne succeeded and won the $10 million Ansari XPrize. Meanwhile, watching the craft launch into space as she huddled in the desert at dawn, Schloss decided she wanted to become an aerospace engineer.

By taking her to witness such a historic event, her parents sparked a life-long passion. Schloss now interns at Virgin Galactic and attends MIT.

Branson's lesson: Children should be exposed to ambitious, inspiring people and events, and encouraged to be big dreamers.

"Youth is an incredible thing; it spurs confidence, vitality, drive and a fresh outlook," he writes. "When allowed to, children can be unstoppable; so let's expose them to the opportunities and support they need to achieve the seemingly unachievable."

(Read the whole post on LinkedIn.)