Losing and Finding My Virginity by Richard Branson

This month’s edition is an epic.

I listened to Richard Branson's autobiography(ies) on audiobook. It's effectively two books rolled into one given Losing my Virginity was first published in 1998. In total it’s a cool 27 hours and 11 minutes. Which means I’ve spent over a day of my life in the last month listening to Richard Branson! One thing I love about this book is that he reads it. For whatever reason audiobooks are so much better when read by the author.

I’ve a certain nostalgia for Branson. He was my dad’s idol and the first celebrity entrepreneur I’d heard of. I remember at some point in the 90s seeing his waxwork in Madame Tussauds by a crashed hot air balloon! Losing my Virginity was also the first founder book I ever read (probably 20 years ago) and so it was awesome to be reading it again and now with the what happened next!

There’s a lot to love about this book; incredible business triumphs, impossible decisions, and near-death experiences. It would be hard for anyone to argue that he hasn’t led the most remarkable of lives. Some may see it as slightly self-indulgent with the constant name drops (phone calls in the bath with Nelson Mandela and beating Barack Obama at tennis). But I think, underneath this, is a kid who can’t quite believe he’s at the same table as these people he so clearly admires.

It’s also the business I feel most resembles the Octopus Group. There is a culture to it that is different from the rest and one where the customer not only wants the product but loves the brand. I often get people telling me they “love Octopus Energy”. No one ever said that about British Gas, much like people love Virgin Atlantic in a way they’d never love British Airways (not now anyway).

A lot of the second half of the book is dedicated to space travel, and I’ve tried my best to be inspired by it, but I just can’t help feeling that until we get climate change under control all this money would be better spent putting the world we live on back together.

Like with Bezos and Musk, I know these entrepreneurs have pumped billions into fighting climate change as well, but we’re not there yet so tough luck you should focus everything on that first please. And with that in mind I certainly have a leaning to the first book. Plus, the early days are always the most exciting!

So, what are the lessons you can learn from a day’s worth of listening to Richard Branson… these are my top ten (in a random sort of order rather than order of impact):

1) Parents / Supporters: throughout the book Branson focuses on the importance of his parents in his upbringing. How they support him through his risk taking and encourage him to follow his own path with unequivocal support. Now, not all entrepreneurs are fortunate to have this sort of encouragement, many are motivated by the exact opposite situation, and as someone with incredible parents I do love the way he paints his parents with such positivity rather than the stereotypical entrepreneur trying to prove everyone wrong. It’s a great lesson for anyone with a budding entrepreneur in their family to let them make mistakes and find their own path.

2) Never be afraid of the impossible: At his student magazine he manages to get interviews with everyone from John Lennon to Mick Jagger. In the midst of BA’s dominance, he starts a transatlantic airline. On a whim buys a Caribbean Island! Clearly it was a different world in the 1970s but ultimately throughout his career Branson takes on projects that seem impossible. There are as many failures (anyone for Virgin Coke) but the fact he even tries aligns to his moto “Screw It, Let’s Do-it”. Interestingly that was pretty much Simon Rogerson’s attitude when he told me Octopus had decided to back Greg Jackson to start an energy company (it's well known I thought it was a terrible idea).

3) Hard Work: It’s not a fashionable one, but Branson is clearly a machine when it comes to hard work. It’s not really in his nature to criticize others but there’s an undertone in the early days when he mentions that everyone is paid ￡20 per week, but he’s the only one constantly calling advertisers whilst everyone else was having fun. No entrepreneur should go into it believing that there isn’t great sacrifice to going down this crazy path. Despite how much fun Branson appears to be having he's no different.

4) Survival: Branson is the ultimate survivor (the appendix is a list of all the ways he’s almost killed himself). He quotes Churchill “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm” and this is perfect for Virgin. There are so many moments where Virgin almost dies, or he almost dies, but he finds a way through. He talks about the pain of making people redundant but the necessity of doing it. He does whatever it takes to keep Virgin alive and then makes big bets to make it a success. Often entrepreneurs want an overnight success but it’s staying in the game which is most important.

5) Hard decisions: The best bits in the books for me are the big decisions he must make. He describes in detail his mindset when he is wrestling with the choice to sell Virgin Records to keep Virgin Atlantic afloat. Or, not selling Virgin Blue when it looked like the only option. You really get a sense of his ability to listen to everyone around him but then still have the conviction to make his own decision when he knows it’s the right thing to do.

6) Bankers: There is clearly no love lost when it comes to bankers. I think the lesson here is that when things are good people are always your friend. But when things get hard you must be prepared for the tide to turn and for people want to protect themselves. Never is that truer than when it comes to a bank! I’ve seen lots of potentially good companies die due to scared bankers or having over leveraged themselves. It's a great lesson in making sure you understand who you're going into business with.

7) Integrity: There is a period where British Airways is trying to shut Virgin Atlantic down through “dirty tricks”. Everything from private investigators going through his rubbish to BA calling up Virgin passengers to tell them their flights have been cancelled. He has the option to join BA in the gutter and hire his own private investigator, but chooses not to, although Virgin will always be cheeky (see “BA can’t get it up” when referring to the Millenium wheel) they aren’t underhanded. In the long-run this integrity builds trust both with Virgin’s business partners and customers and gives the brand such endurance.

8) Responsibility: Through the many disasters the company has Branson doesn’t shy away from the responsibility. More so, he puts himself in the middle of it, as soon as he can, whether that be the rail disaster, or those disasters linked to Virgin Galactic. So often companies try to mitigate problems by trying absolving responsibility, but he shows that you get a lot more credit for meeting it head on.

9) Health: He cites the importance of maintaining your own health throughout the book. This is something I really struggle with and it’s inspiring someone like Branson can keep himself so fit into his 70s. I love his idea of his circles. Where you have to keep your own circle happy first (your own physical and mental health), and then you have your family circle next, then your friendship circles, then your business circles and that you make sure you don’t let these don’t get out of kilter, but also overtime peoples’ circles overlaps and networks form.

10) Dyslexic thinking: a huge personal one for me is Branson’s understanding of what his dyslexic brain is good at and what it’s not. He refers to his dyslexia throughout the book and faces it head on (something I've only been able to do in the past 5 years). He’s open and honest about it, not treating it like a superpower or a disability, but at times something that can give him an edge. Any entrepreneurs who have the opportunity to work with people that think differently should embrace it as often this is where the best ideas will flow from and where solutions to problems will emerge.

So, a longer review for a longer book. I hope you enjoyed it and please do send me any suggestions for new Founder stories to read and review!!