Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography
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An autobiography of iconic entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson that features his take on his business ventures, personal achievements and intrepid adventures. It presents insights into this very public figure’s personal life as well as his business successes and the lessons he’s learned along the way.Love him or loathe him, you’ve got to admit that Richard Branson has drive. And guts. And enough ambition to sink a battleship–or perhaps that should be a jumbo jet–or even a whole company of jumbo
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Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur
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Features an entrepreneur’s inside track on his life in business. This book lets you discover why Virgin tried to take on one of the world’s biggest superbrands, and how Virgin Mobile USA holds the record as one of the fastest company in history to generate revenues of over one billion dollars.
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Riveting, the 500 pages whistle by, it’s an inspiration,
The way Branson invented Virgin and then re-invented the products and the image is an inspiration to us all, entrepreneurs or not. If you’re not in business, you’ll want to be after reading these 500 pages which whistle by as fast as a Virgin Atlantic jumbo. He’s honest to a fault and that makes the book all the more readable – I never want to fly BA again! The tales of adventure on sea and by balloon are fascinating insights into how close Branson came to death – in fact you could say he’s had a charmed life which inspired me to make my next 40 years as worthwhile and fulfilling as his first 40. Sorry to gush, but it’s a top read whatever age.
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|An exceptional read,
I’m not a lover of books that are 500+ pages long so when I first received this book I was a little put off. After reading the first few pages though I was gripped and couldn’t put it down. At a very early age, Branson seemed to have that drive that has stayed with him and has made him what he is. His lifestyle in the early days is not what you imagine and he has had his fair share of bad luck. The book takes you step by step through his life up until he is 40. He is a very likeable, genuine and considerate man and he seems to be into everything, literally!. If you think being dislexic might set you back, think again. I admired Branson’s drive and enthusiasm before I read this book, now it’s got me hooked and I want to find out more about him. A totally gripping book start to finish and this is the first book that I can honestly say that I couldn’t put down. It has my recommendation and if I had the chance of working with him I’d jump at it ! Brilliant – well worth a buy.
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|“Screw it. Let’s do it”,
Who hasn’t at sometime thought about going into business for oneself, being a great success and having the satisfaction of manning the helm of your own future? Who hasn’t then come back to ‘reality’ and continued to get on with it? Read “Loosing my Virginity” by Richard Branson, and you will find yourself burning with enthusiasm once again and racking your brain to think of some venture into which you can fling your energy. That is the great attraction of this book, it is about business from the point of view that you spend most of your life working, so why not make it enjoyable. Richard Branson points out that he has “never gone into any business purely to make money” and although most people would probably cringe at such a comment out of context, read the book and you will surely believe him! Mr Branson explains how he hopped from editing a student magazine to each of his subsequent ventures because it appeared the most interesting thing to do at the time. Fortunately, he knew the right people at the right time and had quite a bit of luck along the way, but the underlying theme is that if you have the urge to go your own way, then do it (and you may even make a fortune!).
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|Virgin Optimism,
Regardless of who you are – one thing you have to admit is that Richard Branson oozes charisma, energy and vitality. Even looking at the front cover of the book he is given an exotic yet accessible quality. But enough of this hero worship on my part – what are my thoughts on the contents of the book?
Branson does not claim to be an academic businessman. What comes across in this book is his ethos and belief in the power of entrepreneurship. He covers such themes as Leadership, Brand and Social Responsiblity.
The book has of number of strengths. Throughout he uses stories to illustrate his points. My particular favourites were his tales regarding BA, Coco Cola and his initial set up of Virgin Money. So Branson avoids the situation that other business books fall into – using big words and leaving the reader none the wiser to what they are actually talking about.
A second strength of this book is that Branson portrays business not as an entity detached from his or our everyday lives. If used properly and ethically – it can be a source of great change. I reckon Branson and Adam Smith would have gotten on like a house on fire.
A third strength is Branson’s ideas about self empowerment. We may think of Virgin as a monster sized company – whereas in fact it is made up of lots of smaller companies (aside from Virgin Atlantic which Branson readily admits is big). Branson states that the smaller companies avoid the problem of stagnation and each employee can stay energised and involved. Staying with this small scale approach – Branson illustrates how it can be used to tackle such problems as climate change. Correctly he states that large scale solutions often become bogged down.
However the book does have one issue. Branson is much more engaging when talking about the individuals that makes up his company and his relationship with them. The sections where he talks about the high profile individuals such as Al Gore, Clinton and Mandela – tend to get bogged down and I found my attention drifting. I got it that he thinks these guys are great – I just didnt need to read about it for the next 10 pages. Bit rich coming from me since I have just read 328 pages about my hero Branson!
Overall – a great book and with great messages.
The best message being “the brave may not live forever – but the cautious do not live at all”.
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|A well written book but should have been better,
I have read all of Bransons books. This is pretty good but can be a little ‘oh look at me – i’m great’ at times. I very much enjoyed reading about how he sets up and runs his business but his ideas about how he wants to change the world can be a bit too much. If you have not read any of his books then I would read his ‘losing my viginity’ one first.
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|A little rambling and egotistical but a good read nevertheless,
To me, Business Stripped Bare reads somewhere between an act of ego-polishing for Mr Branson and another interesting insight into how a very successful businessman sees the world and in turn how this impacts how he sees business. Setting aside any discussion about his actual or relative level of successes and his admitted transgressions with the law, it cannot be denied that as a brand Virgin has certainly achieved a global status and for that reason alone I would recommend this book for anyone interested in business.
The book itself is very easy to read, I’d image similar in fact to having a conversation with the author. As a result of this, it does sometimes feel somewhat rambling, possibly a little like a “left-brain” stream of consciousness , which produced for me a few moments where I wondered if I accidentally slipped back a few pages and was re-reading something I’d already been through.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the following:
* Understanding and building global brands
* Seeing the world and business through an entrepreneur’s eyes
However, if you dislike the following, I’d leave it alone:
* Rambling self-promotion
* Richard Branson
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