788 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
he and Jonny acquired retail space above a shoe store by convincing the
owner that their customer traffic would so greatly benefit his shoe business
that it justified free rent. This was the first Virgin Records store, so named by
these virgins at business.
Though Branson has retained that company name, the original reasoning
was not applicable for long. Virgin has become such a well-recognized brand
name that the majority of the companies in the Virgin empire are partner-
ships with other companies wanting to benefit from that brand association.
Singapore Airlines, for example, in 1999 purchased 49 percent of Virgin
Atlantic Airlines.
Despite his success and with more than three hundred business enterprises
by 2002, Richard Branson has never had a corporate office or a corporate staff.
His "office," usually in one of his residences, is his notebook and a telephone.
What is said to be Branson s most valuable asset is his ability to connect
with people-in the true sense of the Master Mind-and to empower their ideas,
to his own benefit as well as to theirs. He seems to create a new Master Mind
group with each new venture, bringing into it the people or companies best able
to provide the necessary links.
When Branson wanted to expand the Virgin brand into mobile phones, he
did it as a co-venture with Britains One20ne. When he decided to expand into
e-commerce, and being admittedly computer illiterate, who did he bring into this
venture? None other than Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.
There are aspects of this entrepreneurs story that are applicable to most all
of Hills principles, but we have chosen to mention Richard Branson in connection
with this lesson because concentration and the Master Mind principle seem
to best exemplify-or perhaps be the only feasible explanation for-his
determination and success in implementing his ideas to the degree that he has.These men, whether by accident or design, have blended their
minds in such a way that the mind of each has been supplemented
by the power of the Master Mind, and that mind has brought each
of them more worldly gain than any person could possibly use.