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Please help me to thank Richard Branson.

People and behaviour2 min readSam Page

Between us, I'm hoping we can reach someone at Virgin, or Richard directly.

When I was at uni, I wrote to him asking for advice on setting up a business.

I'm dyslexic, I had lots of ideas, but no idea how to really make them happen.

He wrote back. Some of you will have seen me post the letter before.

I still have it and I'm holding it in the photo.

His advice was "The real secret of success is to find good people to work with, people that you can trust."

And: "You sometimes have to take risks in order to be successful."

I followed the advice. I found Ed. We were frustrated in our jobs, so we took the risk of leaving to start 7DOTS. 17 years later we're still building it together.

And it's kept being true: the team around me, the clients, the trustees, the founders and CEOs I work with now.

It became the thing I believe about business: good people, and good businesses, can help everyone to thrive.

I've never had a chance to say thank you properly.

I'd love to in person, over a coffee or a game of chess, with no other agenda.

I've tried his press office, no response. So now I'm trying you.

If I'm honest, I've gone back and forwards on whether to post this. It feels a bit silly. But I'd rather feel daft, than never say thank you.

If you know Richard, or anyone at Virgin, please tag them in a comment or send this to them. If you don't, a repost is just as good.

Richard, thank you for writing back to a student with lots of ideas.

First published on LinkedIn.

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GEThttps://sam-page.com/thinking/please-help-me-to-thank-richard-branson.mdtext/markdown; charset=utf-8

---
title: "Please help me to thank Richard Branson."
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/please-help-me-to-thank-richard-branson
date: 2026-11-03
author: Sam Page
type: Post or article
categories: [People and behaviour]
reading_time: 2 min
summary: "Between us, I'm hoping we can reach someone at Virgin, or Richard directly."
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A7523297952434606080
---

# Please help me to thank Richard Branson.

Between us, I'm hoping we can reach someone at Virgin, or Richard directly.

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/please-help-me-to-thank-richard-branson-li1.webp)

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/please-help-me-to-thank-richard-branson-li2.webp)

When I was at uni, I wrote to him asking for advice on setting up a business.

I'm dyslexic, I had lots of ideas, but no idea how to really make them happen.

He wrote back. Some of you will have seen me post the letter before.

I still have it and I'm holding it in the photo.

His advice was "The real secret of success is to find good people to work with, people that you can trust."

And: "You sometimes have to take risks in order to be successful."

I followed the advice. I found Ed. We were frustrated in our jobs, so we took the risk of leaving to start 7DOTS. 17 years later we're still building it together.

And it's kept being true: the team around me, the clients, the trustees, the founders and CEOs I work with now.

It became the thing I believe about business: good people, and good businesses, can help everyone to thrive.

I've never had a chance to say thank you properly.

I'd love to in person, over a coffee or a game of chess, with no other agenda.

I've tried his press office, no response. So now I'm trying you.

If I'm honest, I've gone back and forwards on whether to post this. It feels a bit silly. But I'd rather feel daft, than never say thank you.

If you know Richard, or anyone at Virgin, please tag them in a comment or send this to them. If you don't, a repost is just as good.

Richard, thank you for writing back to a student with lots of ideas.