Richard Branson was never a barrow boy and grew up with great privilege. He was a public schoolboy at Stowe School, his father a barrister and grandfather a privy councillor, high court judge and knight of the realm. He wasn't academically gifted so turned his hand to publishing a student magazine and through that he sold mail order records. His signing of Mike Oldfield to his new record label when no one else would touch him proved a master stroke.