Richard Branson’s Secret to Success

Richard Branson is without a doubt one of the most successful men on the planet. But he was not always a household name. Believe it or not, there was a time when Mr. Branson was just another guy with a few ideas trying to build a team and business to bring those ideas to fruition.

And, believe it or not, all of his success began because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place – his very first client and his very first record deal.

Here’s the story:

Branson had set up the first successful Virgin record store in London. The business was paying for itself, but he was hardly Mr. Music Mogul yet. Branson wanted to branch out into music production, so he “scraped together some money” and purchased a rundown country house for the production office. He subsequently converted the neglected squash court into the recording studio, which he dubbed “The Manor.”
Shortly after that, an engineer in his employ called and said he knew of an “incredible instrumental demo tape” Branson just had to hear. The artist was a young musician called Mike Oldfield, who did not sing, but played all the instruments on every track himself. Branson thought he was a genius.

Offering to represent Oldfield, Branson took the tape to Mercury Records. The powers that be there were suitably impressed. They offered Mike and Richard distribution and promotion IF Mike would be willing to add vocals to the instrumental tracks.
Richard was ecstatic. This would be his first official record deal … then Mike said ‘no.’ He didn’t want vocals messing up his music. Mercury told Branson thanks but no thanks and sent them all back to square one. That was when Richard Branson made the decision about which folks could say “and the rest is history.”

Branson decided to create a record company, brought Mike in to live at the Manor for a week to properly record his album, which would become “Tubular Bells.” That was the very first release on the aptly named “Virgin Records.”

Of course, we know now that Virgin Records would go on to massive international fame and fortune, signing acts as luminous as Janet Jackson, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Phil Collins and Queen.

But it all began with a “no” and the willingness of Branson to take a huge risk on an entirely unknown artist who refused the very first thing a major label asked from him. It’s impossible to know what may have happened if either Branson or Oldfield had caved to the easy money … but their choice and the success that followed is a lesson for anyone with the guts to follow their own path.

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