Losing My Virginity: How Ive
Survived, Had Fun, and Made a
Fortune Doing Business My Way by
Richard Branson
Don't Be Afraid To Be Different
In this autobiography, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of
his prime business criteria is fun. Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few
business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Bransons, nor as niftily
written. Not only does it relate his side of near-death corporate
experiences, it tells how the chairman literally cheated death by gun,
shipwreck, and balloon crash. Bransons empire--now encompassing
interests in an airline, pop music, soda pop, e-commerce, and financial
services--began when the dyslexic 16-year-old dropped out of school in
1968 to found the British magazine Student. His headmaster said, I
predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire. Briefly
imprisoned for dodging customs selling records, Branson got his first
million by releasing Tubular Bells, a maverick recording all the stuffy

executives rejected. (1998s Tubular Bells III puts the series sales over
20 million.) Despite wild tales of Bransons wife-swapping and Keith
Richards fleeing naked from Bransons studio at gunpoint with another
mans woman, the most shocking parts of the memoir concern British
Airways James Bond-like dirty tricks campaign against Virgin Atlantic,
resulting in the biggest award for damages in English history. Though its
filled with famous names, witty quotes, and pulse-pounding accounts of
lunatic balloon adventures, it is as a business thriller that the book really
scores. His instinctive bet-the-ranch tactics could cost him all, or earn
another billion. Either way, Branson will likely remain the most entertaining
entrepreneur in Europe. --Tim Appelo
Personal Review: Losing My Virginity: How Ive Survived, Had
Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard
Branson
This book should be required reading for business majors and anyone who
has ever entertained thoughts of becoming a captain of industry. Branson's
off-the-cuff candid style spends as much time sharing what he gleaned
from his failures as it does explaining all the maneuvers that led to his
most profound successes. What one comes away from in this entertaining
read is that life can be a glorious, exhilarating, pulse-pounding adventure
that's not unlike the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland; specifically, you
scream, you squeal, your heart races, and you get caught up in the sights
and sounds and surprises and wonder whatever possibly possessed you
to put yourself in the path of spears and snakes and runaway boulders.
And then the ride ends and the first thing you want to do is go get back in
line and do it all over again.
If a movie were ever made of Branson's life, he'd have to play himself
because no actor could ever come close to emulating his charismatic
presence and wicked sense of humor.
Christina Hamlett
Author of "Could It Be a Movie"
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