Finding My Virginity Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

Finding My Virginity is the second autobiography by Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. In this follow-up to his first memoir, Losing My Virginity, Branson reflects on his life over the 20 years since, detailing his business ventures, personal challenges, and philanthropic efforts. The book provides insight into Branson's leadership style, his risk-taking nature, and his pursuit of innovation while balancing his personal life and the mission of making a positive impact on the world.

About the Author

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a British business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Virgin Group in the 1970s, which controls 400 companies in various fields. He started his first business - a magazine called Student - when he was 16. He went on to create multiple companies including Virgin Records, a chain of record stores in 1972. In the 1980s, he started Virgin Atlantic airline and Virgin Records music label. He was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “services to entrepreneurship.” In 2007, he was named one of Time 100 Most Influential People in the World. Forbes estimates that his net worth is at least 5 billion dollars.

Topics

Biography & Memoir

Finding My Virginity Book Summary Preview

Finding my Virginity is the follow up to Richard Branson’s Losing my Virginity. If you haven’t heard of Richard Branson, you’ve probably heard of at least one of the companies he owns. Why is that likely? He owns 400. He is the mastermind behind Virgin Mobile, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Intergalactic Airways (to name a few of them). His success is legendary.

So how can you be more like this multi-millionaire?

Take notes.

No literally, take notes.

Branson finds it astounding that any person would enter a meeting, whatever their position in the company, and not bring a notepad. Branson says that he has found in his own research that CEO’s and executives who take notes are more likely to be successful. He says that those who take notes are less likely to forget about ideas that could later turn into important plans.

Got your notepad? Good.

So how do you go about becoming a millionaire? In the words of Branson himself: “Start as a billionaire and launch a new airline”.

Branson is kidding, we think.

In fact, he is kidding a lot. One thing he advocates is keeping a sense of humor about the things you are doing. Which leads us to:

Don’t take yourself so seriously

“The average customer is usually far smarter-and more appreciative of a joke than big business give them credit for.”

So make your customers laugh, and they will appreciate you for it. Branson is no stranger to extravagant public displays to amuse and educate his customers. For instance, at the launch of Virgin Mobile, he surprised everyone by dangling high above the crowd from a crane. But this wasn’t the only surprise he had in store. Eventually, he ripped off his clothes to reveal a large mobile phone covering his privates. His aim? To make sure customers knew that Virgin Mobile was committed to transparency and simplicity. Point made, in the most memorable (and hilarious) way.

In fact, the Virgin name came from the fact that they had no idea what they were doing, they were “virgins” at the business when they started their initial company. Funny how that joke is now the name of multiple extremely successful companies. That nothing to laugh about!

Another important part of not taking yourself so seriously? Don’t get tied up in failure. Branson states: “Try ideas, see if they stick, and if they don’t, quickly move on to the next one”. Of the companies he has launched, many of them have been unsuccessful, including Virgin Clothing, Virgin Vodka, Virgin Cars, Virgin V cosmetics, and many many more. He states because of these failures, he “learned a lot of important lessons.”

Don’t be afraid to fail. If you let it, failure can teach you how to be more successful next time.

But how do you know what sort of business to start? Branson has advice on this too.

"There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration."

Branson’s first project, entitled First Magazine, was created when he was a student as a form of...