Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Tycoon who owns an airline, publishing firm, nightclubs, and a private island; twice crossed the Atlantic in a power boat and a hot air balloon.
On the island
Eight records
I always feel good humming summer holiday when I'm going on holidays 'cause it has two meanings.
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:55How will you pass your time on our desert island? What will you do with yourself?
I love things like fishing. I love all all sorts of sports, swimming. I'm not very practical. My father it's extremely practical and I'm hopeless actually when it comes to screwing in screws or banging in nails.
Presenter asks
2:14Despite making your first million out of pop, your interest in music is really quite slight, isn't it?
Yes, it's strange for me. I left school at fifteen and therefore I didn't have the grounding in music that all my friends had. … So now running one of the world's top five record companies … has definitely been bizarre. And for many years I never owned up to the fact that I was tone deaf and didn't listen to records and had to go through these agonizing meetings with our artists for about two hours, where I've tried to talk about anything but music.
Presenter asks
4:25Why did your headmaster say you'd either go to prison or make a million?
I suppose I was a bit of a rebel at school. I disliked school fairly intensely. I disliked the way we were being taught things. I felt that a lot of our time was just being wasted instead of being constructively taught. I knew that I wasn't going to learn a language at school, which annoyed me.
some sort of Japanese English dictionary or some way of teaching myself Japanese
the thing I've regretted most, or one of the things I regret most, is is not knowing any languages. ... I think some sort of Japanese English dictionary or some way of teaching myself Japanese would be um something which I would find perhaps most satisfying.
The luxury
The thing I can't really do without in life is is uh notebooks and and and a pen. I I like to scribble everything down, all my thoughts down on paper. And then I can clear the mind so I can get on with the next thing.
Presenter asks
6:28Would you go as far as to say you are anti-education?
If you end up as I ended up becoming an entrepreneur, I don't think education necessarily helps me. I think the actual training of life itself is perhaps a better one for you than formal education. And in fact, there hasn't been any entrepreneurs that have yet come out of Oxford and Cambridge, for instance. Pretty well all of them left school at fifteen or sixteen.
Presenter asks
22:12But there must be a ruthless streak in you, because you've been so successful.
I like to think that that doesn't necessarily have to apply, that you can be a successful entrepreneur by trying to do deals with people which are fair, therefore they'll come back for more rather than trying to trample on people. We're proud of the fact that since we started our record company, our artists have always re-signed with us. We've never lost a major artist to another record company.
Presenter asks
24:31Why do you want to do the daredevil stunts, crossing the Atlantic in a power boat and then in a hot air balloon?
For a variety of reasons. … There are tremendous personal challenges, both with the balloon project, for instance, overcoming a technological problem where people said it was impossible for a hot air balloon to go that far. And then the actual personal challenge of having never flown a hot air balloon, to learn to fly it, to learn to skydive, to see whether one was capable of setting oneself that kind of task. … I'm in that fantastic position of being able to ride in the jet stream at 150 miles an hour in a balloon, which no one's ever done before. A magnificent sensation.
“And for many years, you know, I never owned up to the fact that I was tone deaf and didn't listen to records and had to go through these agonizing meetings with our artists for about two hours, um, where I I've tried to talk about anything but music.”
“I mean it it's taught me that sleeping well at night is really all that matters in life.”
“I think failure is not important in life, and that's something that my parents always brought me up to understand well. Trying is what matters. You fail if you don't try.”
“I think luck's important. I mean, uh there are plenty of other people who've worked as hard as I have and haven't been so successful. At the same time, if you're not absolutely determined and if you don't throw yourself wholeheartedly into trying to avoid failure, you will fail.”