To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.

The line frames Branson’s entrepreneurial ethos as values-led rather than status-led. “Wearing suits” stands in for corporate conformity and performative professionalism; “pleasing stockholders” represents a narrow, short-term view of business success measured only by investor satisfaction. Against that, the quote argues that durable business building comes from authenticity—staying aligned with one’s own convictions and creative ideas—and from disciplined prioritization (“focusing on the essentials”). It also implies a critique of bureaucracy: that culture, purpose, and customer value can matter more than appearances or financial optics. Read this way, the quote is less anti-profit than pro-principle: profit follows when the core mission is clear and consistently executed.