Executive Bookshelf : Finding My Virginity — Sir Richard Branson
Synopsis
Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity shared the outrageous tale of how he built Virgin from a student magazine into one of the greatest brands in history. No challenge was too daunting, no opportunity too outlandish to pursue. And each new adventure started with five simple words: “Screw it, let’s do it.”
Now, fifty years after starting his first business, Branson shares the candid details of a lifetime of triumphs and failures and what he really thinks about his unique life and career. Finding My Virginity is an intimate look at his never-ending quest to push boundaries, break rules, and seek new frontiers—even after launching a dozen billion-dollar businesses and hundreds of other companies.
Tom’s Take
I can recall where I was when I read the first book by Sir Richard Branson. I was in my late 20s, spending the weekend in a summer cottage in Michigan, near the lake. I had brought the book Losing My Virginity along for the weekend. I was completely entranced. An incredible man that I had only heard about in passing for crazy stunts of publicity, was so much more than that.
I was also on the verge of starting what would be a 10 year run of my own, creating and acquiring 3 companies, so I was keenly interested to learn more about the Virgin brand and the innovations of Branson.
Fast forward 15 years and while I found the first book to be interesting and inspiring, his second book, Finding My Virginity, was more profound, heartfelt, and detailed. It was less about a man being brash and loud and more of a very keen look back at a successful career; one that brought numerous successes and difficult failures.
I have found that my journey, in a way, shadows that (although let's be honest here, at a much smaller scale) of Sir Branson. Starting out overly confident and pushing to build something and now later in my career settling into more reflection and selectivity of my opportunities.
When I grow up, I want to be Richard Branson.
His amazing sense of market needs and opportunities is unrivaled. He also has an incredible common-sense approach to large geopolitical issues, one that all our politicians would be served well to learn from. More than all these incredible journeys, one of the most incredible things is that in spite of each of these conquests, his priority seems to remain on his family. It is remarkable.
Being stateside, I don't understand the full scale of the Virgin brand - a large majority of the companies are UK-based or worldwide, what I do believe in is his outlook on risk, leadership, and common sense. Find good people, give them a mission, and set them free. It's not quite as contrarian as the organizations in Reinventing Organizations, but it works for Virgin.
The incredible aspect of this story (from a business viewpoint) is how many brands have launched under the Virgin banner head, and how different each company is.
From space exploration to soda, brides to banking, mobile phones to trains. The string that ties them all together is the desire to disrupt and challenge inefficient industries that have not put their customers first. I also enjoyed his contrasting of Virgin with the other tech companies - and realizes that he has to be incredibly smart in their growth strategies as their brand is so known and beloved, but their bank account isn't as flush as the tech giants.
Someday, maybe I will own an island in the BVI, casually have best friends like former presidents and rock stars, but in the meantime, many lessons can be found for entrepreneurs in training, politicians, and most human beings. I hope Sir Branson has a long life of disruption ahead and the Virgin ethos continues on.
Until then, I eagerly await his next book, Virginity Found.