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Branson tells that story in his autobiography, Losing My Virginity. It's probably not fanciful to think that it happened given the crazy things he has done in h

• vidarh 11y ago
  It's quite possible he did something like that, but I think the connection to Virgin Atlantic at most would be that it may have been what made him willing to fund it. It's a matter of court records that he did not start Virgin Atlantic alone - it took a court case before he paid Fields, who had already started and operated an airline, the dividend payments he was due. I agree you with you regarding his earlier ventures. There's the famous quote of his (not sure whether it's real or not) as an answer to a question of how to become a millionaire: Become a billionaire and start an airline. With respect to his earlier ventures, I particularly like the story of how he at one point needed additional finance for Virgin Records and contrary to what most would do dressed down more than usual for his visit with one of the most stiff-upper-lip banks in London - his reasoning apparently that if he'd shown up in a suit, they'd know he was in trouble, so he went out of his way to appear like couldn't care less if they gave him the loan.