Zero to One_ Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future ( PDFDrive )

As an example, take Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin
Group. He could be described as a natural entrepreneur: Branson started his first
business at age 16, and at just 22 he founded Virgin Records. But other aspects
of his renown—the trademark lion’s mane hairstyle, for example—are less
natural: one suspects he wasn’t born with that exact look. As Branson has
cultivated his other extreme traits (Is kiteboarding with naked supermodels a PR
stunt? Just a guy having fun? Both?), the media has eagerly enthroned him:
Branson is “The Virgin King,” “The Undisputed King of PR,” “The King of
Branding,” and “The King of the Desert and Space.” When Virgin Atlantic
Airways began serving passengers drinks with ice cubes shaped like Branson’s
face, he became “The Ice King.”
Is Branson just a normal businessman who happens to be lionized by the
media with the help of a good PR team? Or is he himself a born branding genius
rightly singled out by the journalists he is so good at manipulating? It’s hard to
tell—maybe he’s both.