Those childhood pursuits can come in handy

There are times when you might come up with an idea that really excites you — but everybody else thinks it’s implausible, unworkable or just plain rubbish. They might be right — but what if they’re not? What if, with a little moulding and finesse, your idea has the potential to turn into a wonderful venture?

With that mind, consider an idea of mine that was decades in the making. Ever since I was a child I’ve loved islands. As a young boy I remember being transported to strange and magical lands after reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Enid Blyton’s Five on a Treasure Island. I daydreamed about being a castaway, or living a pirate’s life of sun, sea and adventure. (I’m fairly certain that those early imaginings had a lot to do with my pursuing the idea of buying Necker Island.)

Years later, a book by Kit Williams, his fantastic Masquerade, reignited my childhood love of island adventures, and of treasure hunts in particular. It turned everyone in Britain into treasure hunters when it was published in 1979. The book featured elaborate pictures and riddles that held clues to the location of a treasure — a golden, bejewelled amulet in the shape of a hare — that was buried somewhere in the UK. I was among thousands of readers who feverishly tried to decipher the clues hidden in the book.

Someone else eventually found it, but the quest renewed my interest in treasure hunts. I decided that I would design one for Virgin, but unfortunately at that time it didn’t really make sense for the company because we had so much going on.

As an aside, I’d like to point out that the skills that make a treasure hunter successful are similar to those you need to launch a thriving business.

You need to make good use all of the information and tools you have, and you need to meticulously prepare before you start.

You need to come up with a map of sorts that charts the route you want your company to take.

You need to keep trying different approaches until you find the treasure. If you fail, you need to try again. If you fail again, you need to try again.

You need to be intrepid and adventurous, willing to go where your competitors are afraid to venture, and to risk failure as you do so.

Most of all, you need all the help and support you can get. Nobody builds a business (or wins a treasure hunt!) alone.

Back to the story: I must have brought up my treasure hunt idea dozens of times over the years, to no avail. Then we launched Virgin Red, a loyalty-rewards programme that united all of our companies in the UK. I’ve always considered Virgin and our customers to be one happy family — and Virgin Red gave me the perfect opportunity to revitalise my old idea.

Challenge

This is how “V Marks the Spot” was born. This summer I challenged users of our Virgin Red app to hunt down “gold coins” — there were more than a million of them — which contestants exchanged for prizes and more clues. More than 100,000 people participated. The finalists joined me in the British Virgin Islands in July for one last, epic treasure hunt.

I met the intrepid adventurers on Necker before they began their final quest.

The contestants swarmed around the island in pairs, went on amusing adventures and completed difficult tasks, from beach scavenging to taste tests to tennis tournaments. The final challenge was, of course, a race to discover where the treasure chest was buried.

Contestant Clare got there first and unearthed a bounty of Virgin goodies worth thousands of pounds, from free flights to train tickets to free drinks to balloon flights.

It was fun to see my idea finally spring to life after letting it sit for decades. It captured the imaginations of thousands of people, and we hope it will be the springboard for Virgin Red to expand by coming up with innovative ways to reward our best customers. Better still, everyone had a blast along the way.

So if you have an idea you have been ruminating on for weeks, months, years or even decades, why not dust it off? Discuss your idea with people you trust, and see if it just might be workable. You never know: Your idea might just set you off on your own amazing entrepreneurial treasure hunt.

Happy hunting! Be willing to go where your competitors are afraid to go. Be sure that you’re making good use of all the information and tools available to you. Remember that failure doesn’t have to be the end of your journey. Learn from it, and try again. Ask for help. Run your ideas past people you trust, no matter how improbably they might sound. And seek out a mentor. No one has to go it alone.