Finding My Virginity

by Richard Branson

It is always fun to read and see things about Richard Branson. This is the third book I read on him over the past years. The first two stories about twenty or so years ago when they came out: Losing my Virginity, which mostly covers from his childhood all the way to Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic. The second one Dirty Tricks was about his battle against British Airways. Here, Branson takes a deeper dive from the late 1990s all the way to 2018. Many of his endeavors have been well covered by the media as well as some of the causes he has embraced..

Now stepping into his seventies, he is a different man. From being an entrepreneur always on the brink of going out of business to being more of a well-connected investor that cares for some causes such as the environment and climate change, ocean preservation, healthcare, and equality among others. He comes across as a more narcissistic and a bit self-righteous thus somewhat less authentic as he was in his earlier days. A fun aspect has not changed: always going overboard with his publicity stunts even putting him at life risk or others around him. He and Virgin are two sides of the same coin.

Here we find a businessman who by now struck big and is now more about having fun, supporting causes close to his heart while making plenty of money. As the saying goes, the first billion is the toughest, the rest come easy, with plenty of staying power. The book starts with a recount of his entry to several businesses like mobile phones, railroads, hotels and resorts and consumer finance all the way to financing development of space travel that we successfully saw during July 2021.

The book gets more entertaining as you progress. Beyond the story of how he came to invest in the different businesses, you can see his style and philosophy. Not a hi-tech person, but someone in search of a story, an entrepreneur to believe in and a team to support, and never failing to show up when things do not go as planned. In each case, as these themes emerge, he shares more of his personal life and care for his family, proudly embracing the fact that this is still the founder of one of Britain’s most successful family businesses.